Sometimes having Fanatic show up isn't terrible as there may be one final clue in his location with a victory point, upon which he spawns, takes that clue onto himself, and then that location is now clear of clues for the victory point.
TCU's Seeker version of "I'll see you in hell!" Ghastly Revelation offers the promise of an extremely powerful and efficient action that could completely swing a scenario, but with the substantial cost of defeating your investigator and taking a trauma. Just like "I'll see you in hell!" Ghastly Revelation has the Spirit trait, and thus is available to Calvin Wright who is actually incentivised to take trauma.
When is Ghastly Revelation good? Being defeated is bad because it means your investigator can no longer contribute to completing the scenario or gathering xp from Victory enemies and locations, so its massive cost can be mitigated when it is played right at the end of a scenario - just like you might be able to ignore enemies and some treacheries drawn with Delve Too Deep when you're about to advance the final act. For this reason, Ghastly Revelation is only going to be good when discovering three clues at once is going to close out a scenario, and you didn't have some other easy way of gettining those clues (or if you were otherwise sure to be defeated before you could win).
But Ghastly Revelation is a Seeker card - the class already filled with high intellect investigators and many other ways to gain clues quickly - the same problem "I'll see you in hell!" has by being a Guardian card. Heck, Ghastly Revelation's two intellect icons would help you get at least one of the three clues playing it would. At least it's still good for committing to a skill test! On top of that, even if you do mitigate your investigator's defeat, you are burdened with a trauma for the remainder of your campaign. This is a tough sell, but it might be worth it to take a trauma to finish a crucial scenario - and unlike it's Guardian counterpart that can't defeat Elites, Ghastly Revelation will actually end some scenarios by discovering the last clues your team needs to advance.
All this means Ghastly Revelation is likely to only be played by everyone's favourite gay Survivor and I'll certainly try it in Calvin for those moments where I can help my team close out a scenario. Would've loved this for my Doomed Calvin run of Forgotten Age to keep me from advancing that weakness - alas, his final hour came during the very last scenario.
TONY MORGAN:
A JOB'S A JOB: BOUNTIES
Tony's permanent, Bounty Contracts, starts with 6 bounties up to 3 of which you can place on a spawned enemy of 3 HP or higher with its trigger. Enemy HP will limit how many bounties you can place on an enemy HP 1 = 1 bounty limit, HP 2 = 2 bounty limit, etc.
What do bounties do?: , $$$,
How do you get more bounties after using them?
Combat: Getting Tony to Base 7
Without Teamwork or "You Owe Me One", Tony cannot reach a base of 7 like a typical Guardian can with Charisma, 2x Beat Cop, and Ace of Swords. Note that if you plan on playing "You Owe Me One" to pluck a Beat Cop or Tarot from a , you can return it with Teamwork, but if you did that then what kind of Rogue would you be really?
Getting Tony to 6/7 seems to be most consistent using Tony's .38 Long Colts for 6 fight actions by fighting an enemy with 1 bounty on them with Long Colts. Gaining that bounty back when that enemy is defeated with his Long Colts is also beneficial if you can add to your ammo with Contrabands, or Extra Ammunition.
Tony’s other increasing options are hired goons, and a handful of talents. The best option, however, is that Rogue staple: resources.
Two Hired Muscle out and Charisma. Costs him 2 resources each round. Install Cost: , 2 resources and 2 resources each round. Perhaps more useful as a set-up before a boss fight.
Well Connected certainly makes Tony's stats bloom. "Watch this!" + Double or Nothing, Dario El-Amin, and Lone Wolf. Tony really has excellent resource generation using typical rogue tricks along with his Bounties. His stats can go from normal to 7/8/9/6 for two tests with 20+ resources in your pool. This makes weapons like Switchblade and Knuckledusters useable in Tony's offhand to allow kills with his Long Colts without wasting ammo/Bounties.
Another Day, Another Dollar is probably the go-to permanent for a fighter build for Tony. As it makes getting to 7 quicker with Well Connected. Even faster with two of them. Going this route you may want to use your Colts to strategically earn yourself money for your pool to boost your and spend a portion of it on a weapons like the .45 Thompson, and/or Chicago Typewriter.
GUARDIAN EVENTS/SKILLS
Enchanted Blade(3) is truly one-of-a-kind. Its charges are never wasted, since you would only use a charge if you succeed the test. Card drawing and horror healing off defeated enemies are amazing. Having the flexibility to deal 1 damage on demand is nice. However 3 charges are simply not enough as a primary damage source, and it is better to save the charges for finishing blows anyway. I think the blade is ok-ish on its own, but amazing if you have an alternative damage source.
Pairing the blade with other melee weapons, i.e. Machete or Timeworn Brand, serves two purposes: 1. Temporary damage source and card draw before you draw the main hand weapon, and 2. efficient horror healing afterwards. This pairing is particularly good for Mark Harrigan (and to some extent Roland Banks), who can utilize the horror healing and relatively low boost well.
Pairing the blade with a big gun serves a third purpose, which is to kill 1-2 health enemies which would otherwise waste precious ammos of the big gun. This however requires Bandolier (or its upgraded version), which together with the big gun itself, requires quite a setup. This pairing works best in a deck with good economy.
There is a pairing I found particularly interesting: With Agency Backup. Agency Backup is really good for providing stream of constant damage (and testless clues), but when it comes to monster killing it is the burst that matters. The blade compliments it really well. Tab Agency Backup once (or more with Charisma and/or Mitch Brown), then finish with the blade would be a splendid way to kill a 3-4 health enemy. The blade is also not too expensive to play alongside Agency Backup. If you ever want to try to build a deck centered around Agency Backup, Beat Cop(2) and ally-buffing cards, I believe Enchanted Blade(3) is the weapon of choice.
Side note: Don't pair the blade with Double or Nothing. The "spend 1 charge to..." phrase is part of the "if you succeed..." effect, so you still need to spend 2 charges to deal 4 damage. Also only either the first time or the second time of resolving defeats the enemy but not both, so you still only get to heal horror and draw card once.
This is the level 1 Will to Survive. It serves a very similar function.
Rewrite any character's stat as a 5. This is obviously great for anybody starting at 1 or 2, note that all modifiers (boosts on weapons for example) stack on top. Calvin Wright and Preston Fairmont take note.
A 5 for a round is most useful if you can leverage it, upping to 5 for example is useful all the time, but upping isn't great unless you've got a weapon to swing.
Terrific in maps that require you to beat a specific test type on scenario cards, for example if you gotta beat x amount of tests or beat parlays.
Benefit lasts until end of turn, thereby it will never help you in the Mythos phase.
All in all this is a great card, mandatory in Calvin Wright and damn-near everybody else can use it for something, at the very least 5 is never useless.
While there are no XP versions of Trial by Fire there is still The Red-Gloved Man who operates VERY similarly but has loads of other advantages. There's also obviosuly Will to Survive.