Nighmist - Amulet and Investigate

I feel I should know this one, but . . . A quick question on the timing of redirecting Investigate damage with Amulet of the Elder Gods in play.  Namely, when does the 2 card cost for the Amulet have to be paid?  Is it (Investigate) damage (Investigate) draw, (Amulet) discard, (Amulet) redirect?  Or is it (Investigate) damage, (Amulet) discard, (Amulet) redirect, (Investigate) draw?  I think it's the first since I think I recall that we are to finish one card before applying the next.  Am I right?

Investigate has two steps: deal damage and then draw cards. They happen one after the other, so since the Amulet discard is in response to the damage, it has to happen before the draw.

The discard for redirection via the amulet happens right at the moment when Nightmist would be about to take damage, so you'd go "Right, I'm gonna hit myself", then choose to discard two to redirect it to something else, then continue once that was resolved and, in this case, finish off the "Investigate" power by drawing two cards :). Note also that as the two parts of Investigate are listed separately (there isn't an "If you do…" phrase at the start of the second part), you don't have to have dealt or taken damage in order to draw cards - if you're immune to damage or have been whacked by something like Ensnaring Brambles or Ethereal Bonds and can't deal any, that's fine - you basically get to draw two cards for free :).

Argh, I was afraid the timing was not going to work in my favor.  The whole reason I asked was because the "pay at the end" scenario seemed wrong even though I really wanted it to be correct.  It would give me a lot more flexibility in managing my hand.  Ah well, thanks for the input.

I wouldn't worry about it too much - Nightmist has plenty of ways to get more cards so you're likely to find that you end up with a reasonably-sized hand anyway, with plenty of options. And if not, you can always just make sure you play Nightmist when the other players are using heroes who can let you draw/play more cards or use more powers ;).

In my experience, Nightmist can have half her deck in her hand and still be badly hurting for new cards.

A proper Nightmist has all her cards in her hand and trash, and no deck, that's when her value is highest.

Wouldn't that negate all of her "Reveal the top X cards of your deck" cards, though? I seem to recall that most of her spells require it...

No, that's when you play Mist Fueled Recovery!

Discard one card with [4], then play Mists of Time (won't be in your trash until after it resolves), then play Heedless Lash.  Or two 4s and Oblivion.