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Everyone seems to love the Amulet of Mighty Fists for unarmed fighters, Longsword for melee fighters, Light Crossbow for ranged fighters, Force Missile and Lightning Touch for arcane casters, and Cure for divine casters, but what are some basic cards that you really like that don't get as much attention? Here are some of my favorites:
Crow - Sure, Lini doesn't leave home without an animal companion, but a recharge that adds 1d6 to acquire most boons is pretty good for any character. And like blessings and many other allies, it can be discarded for an extra exploration, which is always a nice option to have.
Thieves Tools - Again, it's obvious for the rogue, because it's her schtick, but I like this item for any character. Discard to auto-beat almost any barrier in the game so far? Yes, please! It's especially good for characters with Cure that don't have to worry as much about discarding too many cards, even if it does seem like a weird choice for some of those holy types.
Detect Magic - Don't underestimate the ability to scout before exploring. The easy recharge thanks to the errata in the FAQ makes it an obvious choice for Ezren and Lem. It's in their suggested starting decks for a reason, but I've seen some people recommending leaving it out for more blasting, evades, or Arcane Armor. That's why I consider it "overlooked" and mention it here.
Cure - Didn't I say in my first paragraph that this one was already popular, so it doesn't count as "overlooked"? For a divine caster, yes. But why should they be the only ones to use it? Ezren starts with 8 spells, so why not let him use and banish this once per game? Seoni only starts with 3 spells in her deck, so it's a tight fit. But she piles on the discards like crazy, so again, why not use and banish this to get 1d4+1 of those discarded cards back?
What are some of your favorite overlooked basic card choices?
I don't find any of those cards to be overlooked at all, and are pretty much the go to 'flesh the deck out' cards.
The one problem I find with giving Ezren Cure is that if it's banished, it's no longer in the pool of cards to give him next scenario. You only get to replace Basic new cards if there aren't enough to fill the rest of the deck. You banish your Cure spell and end up picking up a Mending, and suddenly you're stuck without a Cure again. Better, I feel, to add another card I know I'm taking with me to the next Scenario if I don't pick up an upgrade. I do, however, love picking them up in adventures, as it's a free cure shot (or whatever extra spell I run into).
As far as what's overlooked at my tables; usually it's the cards that give bonuses to secondary skills (perceptions, etc), that never get chosen, yet, when you have them in your hand anyway (due to looting, etc) and you need them, they're amazing.
Otherwise, my personal favorite 'overlooked' is the Blast Stone, especially for the first encounter. It's a great emergency item for when you're not sure if you can make the combat check or not, and is an easy choice for replacement if you find better. Unfortunately, there's not always good choices for Items to go around, especially with more players, so having something worth using at all is the tricky part.
Allies - read these carefully. Between Allies and Items you can boost many of your Skill Checks.
And don't forget that you can hand a card to a player. You might want to give the Ally that helps with Diplomacy to the player at the location that needs Diplomacy to close.
The basic ally, Guard, can actually be really nice. In my experience, its often overlooked, but allows you to reduce 3 points of damage (note that it doesn't have to be COMBAT damage like most other damage reducing cards). It's just unfortunate that you have to banish him to do so... but being basic it's relatively easy to pick up another one between scenarios.
I also like the crow for the reasons the OP mentioned, and even the burglar for barrier heavy places.
For items, Caltrops and Amulet of Life are popular in my group... not sure if you'd say they are "overlooked" though. I've also seen Sage's Journal used to great effect, but of course it's pretty situational.
A friend of mine has come to really like using a dagger on Ezren, just because it can be recharged to add another die rather than being discarded for this ability like most other weapons.
As Seoni I have found Mending to be very useful. Play it, auto recharge, and pick up one of your items into your deck - just like healing (well, when you roll a 1 on the 1d4).
My Seoni uses the sage's journal like it's a habit-forming drug. Somehow every other monster she encounters is a henchman. I picked up the journal in order to replace a worse card (I forget which, now) seven adventures ago, and I kept meaning to replace it with something else. A thieves tools, perhaps. But then every game she gets to use it two or more times, and every time she does, I curse it and tell it it's supposed to be a bad card, and that the instant it screws up it's getting cut for something more helpful.
So yeah. Seven adventures later, it's still there. Her items are now the journal, the sihedron, and the candle. Go figure.
@Deekow - wow. I didn't notice this little restriction in the rules. I thought you could just throw away cards you didn't like and replace them with basics from the box.
You're right though:
If you can’t construct a valid deck from the cards your group has available because you don’t have enough of certain card types, choose the extra cards you need from the box, choosing only cards with the Basic trait.
Wow. Just wow.
There was me thinking you could, for example, just use caltrops for fun then 'buy some new ones at the town' between adventures. But suddenly those basic cards you started with become a little more precious.
Thanks for the great spot!
Oh, and in reply to the OP - any Ally that lets you explore again should not be overlooked, especially in big parties.
I actually think this flexibility is probably more useful than many of the non-basic allies which have better powers but do not let you explore.
In our party (usually 5 players) an ally is almost always picked - and used - because of the extra explore. We've passed over a number of "better" allies who won't help with explores, as we're more likely to lose a scenario due to time than we are to fail a vital check.