Hall of Fame - Miskatonic
In this article Johnny explored the best cards that the MU faction had to offer in Arkham block, why they were good, and why they might not be anymore. So without further ado, here we go...
Part I Arkham EditionArkham Edition Characters.
AE R35 Expedition Leader
Character Cost 2 Skill 1 Icons I, Subtype: Sorcerer.
Game Text: Action: pay 1 to choose a character. Until the end of the phase, that character loses a C icon.
Expedition Leader is a stalwart, the beginning of the 2 cost MU Characters, cheap and Investigator-friendly. He is a classic part of the super speedy MU/Agency rush deck, one of the better 2-cost "fighters." He is built to win with Investigate icons, and once led team speed-drop, a two or three character swarm on round one, hence his name, leader. He can target any character anywhere to remove a C icon, including C icons given by attachments or events. He can trigger multiple times, on a single or multiple targets. To trigger his ability, he need not be committed to any story nor must he be ready. Many later swapped out Expedition Leader for Egyptology Consultant, arguably one of the best 2 cost MU Characters, and Agency Shadow Team. But Expedition Leader still belongs next to Egyptology Consultant, as do other like earlies, Field Researcher and Laboratory Assistant.
Expedition Leader, over-inserted into starters, has made the most useless rare list. Named differently in development - the online demo deck - Gentleman Duelist has the Expedition Leader ability at cost 2 with the image of Mysterious Benefactor, and was tough (see demo support).
AE U36 Field Researcher
Character Cost 2 Skill 1 Icons I, Subtype: Investigator.
Game Text: Response: after Field Researcher is placed in your discard pile from play, ready all characters and support cards you control.
Combo. Infinity. Field Researcher is most important for her readying triggered ability. She has Investigate and can refresh all your cards. She is a classic non-fighting crooked MU character who punishes opponents for winning struggles, a bonus for discard; like Mad Genius does with insanity. Field Researcher's ability has spawned an array of combinations and the search for ways to remove Field Researcher from play.
Field Researcher is a perpetrator. She suffers from the abuse of the infinite combo. She has weathered some controversy and calls for rules clarifications. There are cries of fixing of loopholes, vagaries, and contradictions, not unlike A Time to Reap.
Cannon writes: she was initially not very worthwhile of a character because her ability was situational and therefore generally not worth playing. However she really came into her own as a critical member of several infinite combo decks. This is where she really shines because of her ability to ready any number of cards. The big ones are obviously the Wilbur infinite discard and the Bloody Tongue infinite success deck.
Field Researcher is often part of a four-part combo, a huge detraction. Unlike Serpent from Yoth, Field Researcher must first be in play. She does not restore your insane characters. She activates after Story resolution, weaker than wounding by Living Mummy as response from the combat struggle. For her ability, MU often gets dropped in favor of Protoshoggoths and Shocking Transformation. Eldritch versions of Yog and Shub too provide replacement possibilities. Still, look for Field Researcher to challenge Mentor to Vaughn. Nowadays, Field Researcher usually doesn't make the cut in the end.
Field Researcher Combinations:
-Seduction of the Tombs. Ready all characters and support cards, similar to Rampaging Dark Young and Living Mummy triggering character bonus and massive wounding.
-Infinite loop with Watkins Family Plot, Temple of Dagon, and The Bloody Tongue.
-Watkins and Commorium for infinite success tokens.
-Wilbur, Ithaqua, and the Mosque of Ibn Tulun for infinite discard.
-Syndicate Support and Day/Night.
-The Keenness of Two Alike and Ithaqua to empty opponent's field.
AE C37 Laboratory Assistant
Character Cost 1 Skill 1 Icons I, Subtype: Scientist.
Cheap. Speed. Rush. Laboratory Assistant is a first turn rush archetype, the definitive 1 cost character with I icon. Laboratory Assistant (LA) is a common and a staple. You would never see a Miskatonic Deck without them, true even still, regardless of strategy. It is a must have for the MU rush player. Overwhelming agreement gives LA 3 to 4 deck slots. It is indeed in the best common ever debate. From the boards, "Having a base of cheap, reliable characters is essential; most investigator decks need to grab stories quickly to capitalize on their strengths." The at-first similar Reclusive Researcher (1 cost character with I icon), with its forced exhaustion, even on himself, doesn't get a sniff.
AE C41 Strange Librarian
Character Cost 2 Skill 1 Icons A, Subtype: Investigator.
Game Text: Action: exhaust to look at the top 3 cards of any player's deck. Put one of those cards on the bottom of his deck, and the other two back on top in any order.
Deck milling and deck filtering. Strange Librarian (SL) is a favorite Miskatonic 2 coster. You control what your opponent draws. Equally important, SL lets you set your own deck, which helps with card draw and helps get what you need when you need it. It is one of very few weapons against the Draught of Phan and the dreaded Fetch Stick. SL is more for stalling than rushing; but he keeps you in games.
There are many other good card-draw cards in the M.U. faction: Expedition Warehouse, Dr. Ali Kafour, Natural Philosopher, Adoration of Thoth, Feast of Famine, City in the Sands and Antarctic Ruins. Librarian is more efficient. He can be used both offensively and for combo setup, and has Arcane.
Arkham Edition Events
Binding and Crafting the Elder Sign, these two events alone made MU shine, immediately and to this day. They define how the learned and adventuresome in this game persevere - with eight get out of jail free cards.
AE C44 Binding
Event Cost 1 Subtype: Spell.
Game Text: Action: choose a character. Until the end of the phase, that character loses all of its printed icons.
Against terror. Against combat. Binding is another best common ever, a classic Event, among the best Events ever. It is a card with tremendous synergy. Binding is a good answer to Terror for MU, like Small Price to Pay, Shotgun Blast, and Forced Entry are for Agency. Binding is a good reason why Shining Trapezohedron is so good. It is a reason to buddy with MU, indeed to bother with MU in the first place. It is another good four-slot card, though is now challenged by the likes of the Neutral - Crackdown. Binding compares strongly to MU FR Mist of Releh and Legacy of Akhnaton. The importance of Binding is emphasized by the multiple copies reprinted for the Arkham Premium Starter.
Binding has synergy with MU card draw and works great in a deck with Investigate boosters. It matches with Syndicate's evasion, like On the Lam. Binding is a useful Insanity-enabling card in combo Hastur. It fits with Hastur cancellation. For example, Shraaaag "uses Binding to win struggles while Power Drain stops scary events."
Binding and Shub. Shraaaag's MU / Shub deck won seconds in the Norwegian nationals two years ago. He kept from losing guys to insanity with early game one cost events: Binding, Horrid Mutation, and Caught In the Dreamlands. Cannon notes that Ghoul Khanum (and anybody really) could benefit a lot from a Binding. Against Shub faction, Binding (like Fighting Blind and Mist of Releh) drops the number of success tokens Ghoul Khanum grabs. It blanks AE Shub's Arcane refresh, which is crucial.
But it is with Yog that this card is made. Couple Yog's recursion with Miskatonic Events for the true CoC CCG experience. Match Shining Trapezohedron, Gathering at the Stones, Chant of Thoth, and February's March with Binding, Crafting the Elder Sign, and Mist of Releh. Binding combos well with Sacrificial Gate for character destruction. It appears four times in Wilbur's Infinite Discard combo deck.
Binding and the printed icon debate.
From FAQ: Printed Icons refer only to the icons printed on the left-hand side of characters. From the Deep One FAQ: Binding removes printed icons on characters only. Icon boosters by attachments like Witch Mark stay. Big icons in the card text (i.e.: on the Elder Shoggoth) that allow an extra icon struggle are also not removed by Binding. If you bind a character with a printed Terror icon, they lose that icon and can be driven insane. Binding has also appeared in debate over "Until the end of the phase."
Binding will not remove icons gained from Tommygun, Haunter of the Dark, or Fetch Stick. By comparison, Caught in the Dreamlands and UT Cthulhu do remove the virtual icons gained by Characters. Forgotten Isle erases Shriek of Cities Characters' Toughness +1 from that character's textbox. As it is, Binding is still quite potent.
AE U46 Crafting the Elder Sign
Event Cost 1 Subtype: Spell.
Game Text: Action: choose a character. Until the end of the phase, that character gains Willpower and Invulnerability.
What Event could be better? With Crafting the Elder Sign, the weakest of characters hangs in, pulls an I token, possibly wins skill, and survives. It is also a strong defensive MU tool. Crafting the Elder Sign will not help you when Forgotten Isle blanks your text box. You cannot, then, be Invulnerable or have Willpower, no matter where the text originates. Despite however many effects give the character the keyword, the keyword is continually lost. If an opponent's character has its Willpower removed by Temple of Haon-Dor, then the opponent plays Crafting the Elder Sign, the willpower boost is automatically removed again by the Temple. Yig scoffs at an MU professor frantically Crafting the Elder Sign.
Arkham Edition Support
AE R53 ·Book of Eibon, Hyperborean Grimoire
Support Cost 2 Subtype: Tome.
Game Text: Action: exhaust to attach Book of Eibon to a character. While Book of Eibon is attached, attached character gains an I icon. Action: unattach Book of Eibon.
Splashy early building block, the attachment Tome. Leave your opponent guessing who will get the I icon; but MU tends to have plenty of investigation. In just about any other faction it would have been amazing. The Grimoire is not part of a serious deck, unless it's a serious tome deck.
AE C54 ·Thaumaturgical Prodigies, Rev. Phillip's Expos�
Support Cost 2 Subtype: Tome.
Game Text: Action: exhaust and pay 2 to put 1 success token on a story card that you have 2 or fewer success tokens on.
Is characterless dead? Phillip exposes the token generator in a characterless deck to be the Characterless Token Generator. Take stories without ever contesting them. Lay down tokens along with The Bloody Tongue and Historic Discovery. In the hands of Professor Armitage draw four free success tokens. Signaling a tough trend for MU tomes, Thaumaturgical Prodigies is a bit costly.
AE R55 ·The Necronomicon, The Book of the Mad Arab
Support Cost 4 Subtype: Tome.
Game Text: Action: exhaust and pay 3 to choose a character. Take control of that character until the end of the phase.
Cool, Control, but too Costly. Though most like Necronomicon, most also agree it is a bit expensive to play. Necronomicon is, regardless, essential to this list. Only Cthulhu himself is identified with the Mythos more than this dark text. Cannon writes, "In the Arkham Block era it was amazing. It was the only good character stealing to be found. The game was much slower without the cost-reduction characters and rituals from Eldritch. The game took longer; and Necronomicon had a much bigger impact on a game."
Necronomicon appears in the control deck, the character stealing deck. It is MU's Draught of Phan, thus far inferior. Like Calaeno Fragments, it can kick characters out of stories. It could be a good late game card, but MU is not around or toast by then. Note if you already control a Heroic character, you cannot take control of a Villainous character, and vice versa. Necronomicon exhausts to use, another limitation.
Ghoul on a Stick: Necronomicon counters Ghoul Khanum with a Fetch Stick. Binding and Dr. Wilmarth are also good for MU in this capacity, Purify for the Fetch Stick. Countering Necronomicon: like any control deck, counter with character destruction and support destruction cards.
The Last Conformist writes, "I was ultimately defeated by the Necronomicon in a long and grueling duel today. I don't think any single card has annoyed me so much ever." From lordofmasks, " I love the Necronomicon. It is one of the best. Maybe it will become more playable with time."
The Necronomicon has finally resurfaced in a later expansion. Notably absent from Eldritch Edition, since the setting is Egypt, the Kitab Al Azif returns in the third Asylum Pack. Dee, Latin, and Greek remain at large.
AE U56 Celaeno Fragments, The Life's Work of Dr. Shrewsbury
Support Cost 3 Subtype: Tome.
Game Text: Action: exhaust and pay X to choose a committed character with cost X or lower. Remove that character from the story.
Celaeno Fragments (CF) a great card that didn't get enough press. It knocks one of your characters, or one of your opponents' characters, out of a story, which can be very handy. Note you cannot commit to a story after that point. CF has characterless synergy with the Prodigies, best exemplified in Tinweasel's Characterless Token Generator Deck: "Nobody left to read." CF is not unique.
Gentlemaniac notes: Celaeno Fragments is now a poor man's Koth in an MU / Syndicate deck, which is pretty cool (but rocked long before the days of Koth). Removing characters from stories can be very powerful. While at first glance the resource cost makes it look inferior to its Syndicate counterpart, it has a few advantages:
- It doesn't ready the character. This is great if you primarily use it to remove opponents' characters instead of your own.
- It has a cost that can be overpaid to trigger overpay effects.
- It can affect Bureau Chief if you pay 4 or more
- It doesn't bounce to your hand when someone else plays a rare Lost City card.
- Tomes have more cards with synergy effects, such as Miskatonic Library, Professor Armitage and Dusty Manuscripts.
- The only anti-tome card is Police Raid; there are seven anti-location cards in the game.
As Support for an MU Yog deck, you might put in a fragment. It works with Necronomicon to kick characters off stories, helping say, Master of the Key. In any event, it is essential to a tome themed deck.
Like Vaughn and Velma, like Dr. Carson and the Watkins, the Mad Arab, Reverend Phillip, and St. Jerome, Dr. Shrewsbury is not (yet) in the FFG pantheon; but like their diaries, swords, and restaurants, his Life's Work is. But this is Laban. He is missed.
AE U58 M.U. Science Building
Support Cost 2 Subtype: Location.
Game Text: Action: pay 2 to choose a character or support card. Until the end of the phase, that card gains a Subtype of your choice.
Science of Destruction. M.U. Science Building is at the genesis of the Science of Destruction Deck. It is a notorious crucible of both the Day and Night cards. It is a basic machine, employing what chicklewis calls the slick character-destruction trick. Assign a Day or Night Subtype - Play the Day or Night card. M.U. Science Building (MUSB) does not exhaust to use, so can affect three characters in a turn.
Charles Dexter Ward notes that another possibility is a Nyarlathotep deck with the MU Science Building. Mix Shubby and MU. Bring out Big N with a Hungry Dark Young and use the MUSB to give opponent characters the Avatar of Nyarlathotep subtype.
Strange Ian adds the best defense against M.U. Science Building is to just destroy it, not unlike approaching Cthulhu's Forgotten Isles. That's some respect for MUSB.
andrewsi credits Badger's Science of Destruction deck for adding Encounter cards and a trick to play in story phases. Use Science Building to give your opponent's cards the Encouter type before you play (say the Syndicate 0 cost) Encounter, destroying any Encounter cards already in play.
The Miskatonic University Hall of Fame - Part I Arkham Edition:
AE R35 Expedition Leader
AE U36 Field Researcher
AE C37 Laboratory Assistant
AE C41 Strange Librarian
AE C44 Binding
AE U46 Crafting the Elder Sign
AE R53 ·Book of Eibon, Hyperborean Grimoire
AE C54 ·Thaumaturgical Prodigies, Rev. Phillip's Expos�
AE R55 ·The Necronomicon, The Book of the Mad Arab
AE U56 Celaeno Fragments, The Life's Work of Dr. Shrewsbury
AE U58 M.U. Science Building
UT R19 ·Steve Clarney, Soldier of Fortune
Character Cost 3 Skill 2 Icons CCI, Subtype: Investigator. Heroic. Willpower. While Steve Clarney is committed to a story, all characters lose all Toughness.
An MU that kills stuff. Steve Clarney is a good choice since he's got 2 Combat, Investigation, and Willpower, and negates Toughness when committed. Along with Sir William Brinton, Steve Clarney can make a decent surprise blocker. Steve-O is good in a heavy shub meta, handy against shub rush and medium shub, says Urban, but is replaceable in any multi faction deck. He bests the more storied AE block MU Unique Characters.
The problem with Clarney is your characters lose toughness as well, which could be annoying for your tough Wild Beasts, a critical Neutral MU helper. Clarney is an easy Shotgun Blast target. The card has since "got pretty nerved."
A Hero, Steve Clarney fought valiantly alongside the Agency, aligning Glass of Mortlan with Shotgun Blast, Forced Entry, and especially Dockside Speakeasy. Fetch also a Neutral Stick.
No Keyword equivocation here: "all toughness" means plus nothing, thank you.
"The ambassadors to America had proven successful, and Vaughn's people had agreed to share their knowledge. But Herbert was beginning to grow worried. Not only were there problems with that odd man Trilipush, but now Mr. Vaughn and his strange coterie had set up camp less than a mile away on Winlock's Dig. 'They desire us! Can't you see that from their actions! They have no minds, so they need ours!' Clarney didn't care what they wanted, as long as they kept their attention on Vaughn's men."
UT U23 Local Historian
Character Cost 3 Skill 1 Icons AI, Subtype: Investigator. Story icons: I
Hmmm, MU Character with an extra Investigate Story Icon / Struggle. Now that's MU power. Local Historian is a dangerous, unassuming, and effective success token threat. But she is vulnerable and thirsting for skill.
Raining tokens, the early years. Given your struggle of choice to boost, TCA or I, the Investigate struggle is most tantalizing. Agency, Syndicate and Shub, respectable in their Investigations, are here outpaced and out of their league. Antiquities and Allure be damned. For MU alone, the Investigate struggle boost is the crucible. New MU without it had better have another very good plan. (Miskatonic Antiquities Collection and Mystical Allure are Neutral I struggle boosters.)
The Binge. Sporting a Glass of Mortlan (covered below) and taking it On the Lam, Local Historian gobbles 7 tokens on one turn--one for skill, one for unopposed, and two for I icons. Add three for the number of struggles won: two I and an A with a Startling Discovery. Success token abuse. Sneak a first turn Transient, drop an historian, and then give her a Mystical Allure, pounce!
Local Historian is a very easy target for Agency-wounding and such. She could use the help of skill boosters such as Yian and UT U32 Atwood Science Hall (Cost 1 Location. Characters you control get +1 skill for each I icon they have). Her big sister cometh, and that right soon.
UT C26 Arcane Insight
Event Cost 1
Action: choose a character. Until the end of the phase, that character gains AII.
"He might be able to help you, if you can get him to speak. But he hasn't managed that in fifteen years."
AII. Arcane Insight, abbreviation AI (and ia! backwards), still sees some play. Arcane Insight is an excellent, extremely potent card, not flashy but works well individually, another classic display of the Unpeakable Tales modus operandi. (See Forced Entry, Clover Club Torch Singer, Ravager from the Deep, Sacrificial Offerings, Calling Down the Ancients, Shocking Transformation, and Sniper Rifle, all still powerful.) For best results, Investigate boost a buddy faction.
Gentlemaniac suggests Arcane Insight (or something like it) just so you can snatch the Bloody Tongue if it ever pops up. AI thus survives into Eldritch Edition, presupposing Historic Discovery, and the MU craft of success tokens without running stories.
AI in the time of AP. Arcane Insight appears thrice in cannon's 607 Brother Street Deck where characters are low on Investigation.
UT C29 Purification
Event Cost 1 Subtype: Spell.
Action: choose a character. Destroy all Attachment cards on that character.
"When we doused the idol in the water it cracked in half. At once the clutch of dread released my heart and I could breathe again."
Answer Fetch Stick. The rare case of MU destruction ability, albeit against a (mostly) tertiary type. But it does one thing few other cards do, answer Fetch Stick. Notable mention versus Mi-Go Brain Case.
Purification is almost a one-slot card, one in Deebs' 2006 Swedish Nationals 2nd Place MU/Agency rush deck, but not present in Don Whatley's MU/Agency deck, which placed 2nd in the 2005 Virginia Regionals and 3rd in that year's Chaos Cup Championship.
From the Silver Twilight Indoctrination, "I assist in the purification and consecration by water, all the Hall, of the members, and of the candidate. Lethe om Pax!"
UT C34 Government Grant
Support Cost 0, Subtype: Attachment.
Attach to one of your characters.
Action: pay 1 to give attached character I until the end of the phase.
0-cost non-steadfast Investigation boosting card, free to play any way you see fit.
Government Grant (GG), sealed with a bow, yours truly, MU. Herbert West votes it among the best commons ever. Yveske reminds that if a 0-cost non-steadfast card cost gets raised for whatever reason, you then do have to drain a domain, and make a resource match. To which dj responds: True, there is that risk, but if you put, say, 4 Government Grants in a deck with no Investigation, chances are you will be able to use those cards and perhaps speed up your success at stories. Even if the cost to play them rises to 1 or more you could resource one. So the only real disadvantage to packing them in mythos decks is in the slots they take up. That's true, Yveske responds, making Government Grant a useful card.
Nodens also has found that Government Grant works nicely to speed things up and lets anyone take a shot at winning Investigation. Cannon recognizes GG for its infinite pay 1 effect. You can't use Neil's Curiosity Shop to use the ability of Government Grant (and similar such attachments) because there is no attached character, and thus no legal target.
Marius wants to give a Government Grant to Ghoul Khanum. Run, drain 2 domains, and win a story. Also, he'd give one to a Ravager from the Deep. Unscrupulous! Hiredmistake agrees Government Grant "can be a lot of fun" in a Cthulhu or Shub deck. YogSoth, employing Find Gate, wants to see GOOs with Government Grants, especially AE Shub. No surprise then, no GG remain for the National Endowment of the Arts.
FR C21 Fringe Researcher
Character Cost 3 Skill 3 Icons AI, Subtype: Scientist.
Response: after Fringe Researcher enters play from your hand, if you overpaid for Fringe Researcher, search your deck for an Artifact card, reveal it to all players, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.
Welcome Forbidden Relics. Mill any Artifact. Fetch Mortlan. Fetch Trap. Fetch Stick. Fetch Phan. Grab the Artifact you just can't draw. Fringe Researcher warrants a full four deck slots in a typical Artifact deck. Bonus credit for Investigation and Skill.
Gentlemaniac, certainly Fringe Researcher's biggest fan, notes that Artifact decks tend to be rare-heavy, but that with Fringe Researcher you can get a lot of mileage out of a small number of rares. Fringe Researcher compensates a bit for the potential loss of card advantage to too many Artifacts.
Overpaying means a cost of 4. Though there are the accelerator guys, Fringe Researcher can screw up your cost curve completely. For his Artifact deck, Kaos found out he never built up enough resources to use Fringe Researcher (or was dead by then) so only resourced them. "But maybe my meta is just insanely fast."
Fringe Researcher is a powerhouse among the Miskatonic / Yog Artifact synergy cards: Back to the Vaults (also fishes Artifacts), Cloud Memory, Sword of St. Jerome (N), and the Common Attachments, Sanctify the Stone and/or Temple of Nephren-Ka to hard-cast.
From the then and now department. mcv wrote once that, "Fringe Researcher can get a Fetch Stick for you, but you have to pay 4 for it - all in all, just a bit too slow. The deck is not quite really fast anymore. It was my first really competitive deck, but now it's my worst."
FR C25 Back to the Vaults
Event Cost 2
Action: choose an Artifact card in your discard pile. Put that card into play.
" 'William found this on his last expedition. Careful! Put these on first.' Armitage handed him a pair of leather gloves."
Graveyard Artifact recursion. Back to the Vaults bypasses the resource match, but tech to discard pile takes some doing, easier for Attachments. Synergy with Shub's Everlasting Chalice and Draught of Phan. Klusek's infinite loop discard deck used four Back to the Vaults.
FR C27 Dr. Carson's Treatment
Event Cost 1
Action: choose up to 2 insane characters. Restore and ready those characters. If you overpaid for Dr. Carson's Treatment, those characters gain CC until the end of the phase.
"Mr. West taught me quite a bit."
A great Miskatonic University Event. Pick your spots. Change game tempo. Win struggles. Dr. C. compliments Agency wounding.
Dr. Carson's Treatment, Restless and Wary, and Radical Therapy, the cheap choice of this trick-tragedy trio is Dr. Carson's Treatment. It's half the cost and very effective. Restless and Wary's readying effect is very nice, but a good night's sleep should not be pricier than a trip to the shrink. Radical Therapy, great against mass insanity, may be less situational for its two cost. No other like treatment has come out since to rival Carson's studies under the master.
FR C33 Glass of Mortlan
Support Cost 2, Subtype: Attachment. Artifact.
Attach to a character. Attached character gains AI and Story icons: I
A crazy powerful card that just hands you stories in nicely wrapped packages, writes cannon. Compare to Glass from Leng (boosts Yog's Arcane struggle twice), which is much more defensive.
Pair with Syndicate. Dutch Courage helps MU survive until the Investigate phases(s). Give MU the glass and Alhazred Lamp. Give the glass to Rum Runner. Fit also with Intimidate and Dry Gulch.
Pair with Shub. lsd's Shub/MU Can't Catch Me Deck beats some Mono Cthulu because he is "always able to get Glass of Mortlan on a Forest Sister." Great with Albino Goat Spawn and Ghoul Khanum too.
Assistant to Dr. West recalls Casey's Origins Control Deck: "The key Artifacts are Shining Trap, Everlasting Chalice, and Phan. Then you need to splash with Brazier of Nodens, Sacrificial Altar, maybe Fetch Stick and definitely Glass of Mortlan."
Most seem still to prefer Glass of Mortlan to Open for Inspection, which also costs two but adds Two Investigate struggles, to a story not a character.
Mortlan is likely a variant, of which there are many, of Merlin.
Chaosium RPG: "Fuda then produced a strange disk made of smoky glass. He said that he recovered the glass from cult members in Kingsport, and found it to be the famed "Glass of Mortlan", which when properly used could be coaxed to reveal scenes from the future, past, or present. Such scenes, Fuda whispered, were usually pertinent or prescient to those gathered about the glass."
Miskatonic University Hall of Fame - Arkham Block Part II of II
UT R19 ·Steve Clarney, Soldier of Fortune
UT U23 Local Historian
UT C26 Arcane Insight
UT C29 Purification
UT C34 Government Grant
FR C21 Fringe Researcher
FR C25 Back to the Vaults
FR C27 Dr. Carson's Treatment
FR C33 Glass of Mortlan