I'm surprised that there's no review for this guy! He's.....cute and a total PITA.

I think this is up there for one of the more annoying enemies in TDL campaign. If you are using a melee weapon, you're probably not willing to use it, meaning this is a 6 action sink! Even If you can beat the rough evade, it's still got hunter, meaning you're probably going to have to pay the action tax at some point.

On the bright side, the low fight means that you're not likely to miss, and even your non-fighter friends can likely pile on, so maybe you can share the misery of wailing on this guy?

Props to the guardians running Monster Slayer (5) that get to deal with this in 1hit.

After playing with and upgrading this card, I've really grown to hate it. Not because it's a bad card (it's great, honestly) but because it's so flexible that it will stifle competitive design for other Guardian weapons, especially the low level ones.

Think of it this way: for level 1, its "competition" is The Hungering Blade, which is already...not great. But let's think about future designs, and review what they have to compete with.

With 1 XP invested, Runic Axe is a 4cost 2-handed weapon with 4 charges, recharging one charge per round (and can still attack for +1 Fight with zero charges, giving it a flexibility edge over anything that needs charges or ammo). In addition, Runic Axe will have either

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Is a Relic and only costs 3 instead of 4 (nice for Guardians who often struggle to scrounge cash)

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: If this attack defeats an enemy, either heal 1 horror, heal 1 damage, or draw 1 card

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: If this attack succeeds by the location's shroud or greater, discover 1 clue at location

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: Get a free move (that doesn't trigger AoO) or a free engage

OR

Spend 1 Charge: Get +2 Fight on attack Spend 1 Charge: Deal +1 damage on attack Spend 1 Charge: If this attack is successful, deal 1 damage to each other enemy engaged with you

Any future 1 XP Guardian weapon has to compete with that, and compete with the fact that you get 2 copies of it for 1 XP, and compete with the growth over time, and compete with the not-so-unlikely chance that you'll Refine it to make it stronger without even getting charged XP. That basically boils down to forcing "good" future 1 XP Guardian weapons to be one-handed, and even then, they'll feel extremely lackluster unless they come with either guaranteed bonus damage and some kind of reactive ability (for things with ammo), or conditional bonus damage that you can reliably build your deck around, unlike Hungering Blade and some kind of reactive ability (for things you don't have to reload). Whatever the bonus or condition is probably needs to be good in multiples, too, to make spending 2 XP on a pair of copies not feel worse than spending 1 XP on 2 copies of Axe.

Tl;dr: Runic Axe is great, impactful, and incredibly flexible. Everything that makes it a worthwhile inclusion as a card also forces power creep into future 1 or 2 XP Guardian weapons to be worth including in any deck. It's also hard to nerf, and the weakest thing about it is that it takes 2 hands.

I wonder why fighters do not get weapons as good like Seekers get their toys. Why is there no lvl 0,1 hand weapon that says you get +2 fight, deal +1 dmg and if you succeed by 2 or more you draw a card? Probably would be a bit too much. You could argue that this does not give +1 clue but the basis of fight is dealing 2 dmg per hit to make it even good, not getting into the thing that getting clues is still more important than dealing dmg, as clues win you the game. Also, why do we not have a card like Crack the Case that is Guardian and says play when you defeat an enemy, gain x resources where x is that enemy's printed fight or health value?

Bestow Resolve also brings out the best in the Desperate skills: It makes any Desperate skill a Promise of Power but without the Curse tokens. Consider this in a low-sanity character who is likely to spend time at or below three Sanity. Before they drop into that range, Bestow Resolve plus any Desperate skill gives them +4 on any test, and after they drop to that Sanity level you can save charges by using a Desperate skill as written.

It also adds late game flexibility to Soothing Melody--if you don't need the healing, each of them becomes a three-wild skill boost.

I just built a super fun (but admittedly janky) Diana deck that uses Astronomical Atlas with Bestow Resolve. I think skill cards in general needed a little more love.

I see Skids getting so much flak from AH content creators and it makes me sad. They underestimate the man, and I've always had a soft spot for the underdogs. And I think this is because they're playing Skids sub-optimally.

I'm of the opinion that you should try to maximize an investigator's special ability. Along with their statline and deckbuilding options, an investigator's special is what defines them. Virtually all special abilities are action compression/advantage and Skids' is online from the start without any extra stipulations. You start with 5 resources, so you have 2.5 actions banked. And thinking along these lines, I want to be taking my 4th action as often as I can. This means I don't want to be spending actions and resources playing assets. What I want to be doing with Skids is committing to tests and over-succeeding. Skids loves his Lucky Cigarette Case and the new Thieves' Kit is functionally Dr. Milan Christopher for him.

Between the and cardpool, Skids has some of the best access in the game with Take the Initiative, Quick Thinking, Daring, Calculated Risk, "Watch this!" (basically a icon, honorable mention), Daredevil which you can reasonably guess what you'll hit when you play it and it'll give you info as to when you're more likely to draw your weaknesses, and even Cunning and Steadfast have served me well. Interestingly, despite his 2 , I've found that he's pretty resilient to tests as long as you're willing to commit, and I think you should. Skids should absolutely run Guts and not be afraid of throwing cards at the test, because as Skids you're going to use the tests the game throws at you on it's turn to gain tempo and prepare for your turn.

I actually play Skids a lot like you'd play Winifred Habbamock, overcommit to tests and get rewarded. I'm not opposed to paying 2 resources to draw a card if nothing else presents itself. If I said there was a Permanent card that cost 0 XP, 0 resources, and only read: " Spend 2 resources: Draw 1 card." would you play it? This is often functionally what Skids ability is for me, with the flexibility and possibility of being anything else I need it to be. (Of course, I'm aware of provoking AoO.)

He also has some of the best encounter deck control in the game with First Watch, "Let me handle this!", "You handle this one!", and On the Hunt. I also think Skids is the closest thing in the game we have to a "dodge tank" -- he doesn't really want to fight enemies (guns are expensive, and his is 3) but with 4 he can evade most things, and with 's many, many icons he should have no problem locking enemies down. His signature On the Lam is said to be weak, but on the contrary I think it's very strong. Consider that the designers thought Infighting was worth 3 XP. Whether that's a mis-evaluation on their part or not, Skids' signature is way more powerful than that. And the ability to Taunt enemies off your teammates and then ignore them completely is not to be underestimated. Get enemies off your friends, and laugh as you play "I'll see you in hell!" or "I'm outta here!" after dragging them away.

Which is not to say that Skids can't be a killer. He absolutely can with access to both Vicious Blow and Hatchet Man and the skills his cardpool offers. When I go that route Overpower and Vicious Blow are some of my 1st upgrades. I've had a fun time lately with Sledgehammer one-shotting 4 and 5 health enemies. The new Toe to Toe is also great for him.

My main point here is that Skids likes skills and he likes 0 cost events, and as reviewer AndyB pointed out on his original card page, Skids likes speed. So maximize his special ability. Run low to the ground, setup quickly, and get to investigating. Stay flush with cards (the neutral skills like Guts, Perception, Manual Dexterity help, as does fun stuff like Three Aces and Easy Mark) and use the game's treachery tests as a spring board to powering your turn. That's just my 2 cents.