The level 0 Enchanted Blade is a staple that sees play as a two-of in the vast majority of Guardian decks at my table. You can tell the designers worked hard to make sure this upgrade would have special appeal to Guardian players. Everyone knows that Guardians are a bit soft to horror and (Soldiers excepted) a bit short on card draw. This card addresses both issues. And everyone knows how bad it feels to spend ammo only to draw the autofail and miss. That will never happen with this upgrade. Plus, this card is just cool.

All that said, this card basically never sees play in my group. Why is that? Well, the main problem with Enchanted Blade is that it's a mid-tier weapon, and that's a really awkward spot to be in this game. Think of it this way. If you're a Guardian playing the classic Guardian role of protecting your teammates and hunting down monsters, your weapon is very likely the most important card in your deck. It's going to have the biggest impact of any card in your deck on the effectiveness of your Fight actions--and those actions are what makes or breaks your success as a character.

So, when you're shopping for weapons, why would you settle for anything but the best? It makes so much more sense to save up a bit and get the truly amazing weapons, like the Flamethrower or the Lightning Gun. The extra damage and to-hit granted by those weapons just does so much to make your character stronger. Enchanted Blade dealing a measly 2 damage per action (and that at most 3 times) just can't hold a candle to the power of the 5 XP weapons. And, once you have your superweapons, it just doesn't make much sense to spend 3-6 XP on what would basically be a sidearm or a backup weapon. If you have Enchanted Blade and Flamethrower in your deck, and draw them both, Enchanted Blade will probably do literally nothing for you that scenario. That's not a good return on an XP card. It would be much better to spend XP on cards that would complement your superweapon, like Stick to the Plan or Stand Together or Custom Ammunition or what have you.

And yes, I'm aware that Bandolier exists. But if you already have one super-great weapon in play, do you really need to spend a lot of resources and XP to get a worse weapon in play to go alongside that? Probably not.

Enchanted Blade is not the only card to fall victim to this complex. The upgraded Blackjack and the Taboo'd Machete face similar issues. It's not that these are weak cards--Machete was famously dominant back when it cost 0 XP. But they're not as strong as other options for your primary weapon, and people usually aren't willing to spend XP on backups.

That leaves Enchanted Blade with only a very small niche. It is one-handed, so if for some reason you really, really need that extra hand slot (perhaps you're a solo Guardian who wants a Flashlight but is allergic to the Timeworn Brand), you can justify it. But in multiplayer, for the focused Guardian, this card just isn't really up to the task.

Surprised to find there's no review for such a staple card! No Stone Unturned offers some support tutoring ability to help yourself and teammates find setup pieces. However, at only 6 cards searched for 2 resources and an action, no stoned unturned is rarely worth the price of admission unless it comboes with your investigator particularly well (Mandy and Joe Diamond's Hunch deck come to mind).

Automatic, test-free damage is premium, especially on a level 0 card. This is especially great early in the campaign, where there tend to be a fair number of 1 or 2-health enemies this will completely wipe out for you. And remember that testless damage doesn't require engagement, which makes this highly efficient against things like Whippoorwills. Why the Seekers of all classes should get this effect I'm not sure, but hey, I guess it's consistent with stuff like Ancient Stone and The Necronomicon.

Now, strong as Blood-Rite is, Occult Lexicon won't find a home in every Seeker deck. It takes up a hand slot and therefore competes with investigation assets like Magnifying Glass. Multiplayer Seekers who can rely on teammates to deal with enemies may well skip it. But this is a great boon to solo Seekers. And even in multiplayer, testless damage is just so so good on higher difficulties. And of course, beyond the testless damage, Blood-Rite will also help you by drawing cards or gaining resources if you need that. It's a really nice effect for a level 0 card.

That said, I hate Blood-Rite, and do my best to avoid playing it. Why? Well, my answer can be summed up in one word: "thusly."

Seriously, "thusly discarded"? Who wrote the rules text on this card? What was wrong with "in this way"? Enchanted Blade does not say "thusly spent." Taunt does not say "thusly engaged." Twilight Blade does not say "to thusly play or commit a card." All for good reason. "Thusly" is absurd.

I cannot recommend playing this card. That will conclude this review.

This can offer good card draw when combined with Taboo Scroll of Secrets. Once you have Scroll of Secrets in play for a single resource and action, you will get 3 cards from Scroll (or a discarded weakness). And then, since Scroll of Secrets is a Mystic card (multi-class cards count as cards of both classes), you can get three more cards/resources with Sacrifice at a cost of one more action.

It nets out as two actions for a gain of three cards, but it is better than it sounds since there is flexibility in getting resources instead, it filters out weaknesses and it overall helps you move through your deck quickly.

One obvious downside is that it takes 3 rounds to payoff since Scroll of Secrets exhausts after each use.

I thought I'd write up a review of this old card, since I've seen widely varying opinions as to how useful Dodge actually is. My own evaluation of it has changed quite a bit over the years.

Dodge was well-received when it first came out. It's really nice that this card is cheap and reliable, that it works even against Elite enemies, and that it can help other investigators at your location. It compared well to the clunky and awful healing options that existed back then. It still compares well to the more expensive versions of this effect we've seen printed since.

Even so, my opinion of this card has really come down over the years. Nowadays, I almost never include this card unless I'm playing Diana Stanley.

The problem with Dodge is that it's situational, relatively low-impact, and grants an effect which can be covered by less-situational cards.

For starters, this is not good enemy management. You might see a newer player include this in, say, solo Rex to "handle enemies," but this is not a good idea. If you have an enemy on you that you can't deal with, Dodge is not the card you want to have in your hand--it will only Delay the Inevitable and offers no permanent solution. After you Dodge, you will be in the same bad situation as before, now down a card and resource.

Of course, if there's a strong enemy you can only kill over multiple turns, Dodge can help you (or an ally) avoid some damage in the meantime. But I've found this to be surprisingly uncommon. Unless you're running a build in which you're trying to get attacked with stuff like Guard Dog (and such a build certainly does not need Dodge), you're just not going to take a ton of attacks from enemies in this game. Most of the time, a properly-built Guardian should be able to clear enemies from the board or comfortably tank their attacks. Either way, you don't really need Dodge. It does serve as a failsafe in case things go wrong, like drawing the autofail against a Retaliate enemy--but that's not something you have to dedicate a card slot to. You can usually just tank the occasional hit from such things every once in a while. Most enemy attacks deal 2 or fewer combined damage and horror, anyway.

Furthermore, Dodge faces a lot of competition nowadays from healing cards that are actually good, like Hallowed Mirror. Healing effects address a lot of the same concerns as Dodge, but are quite a bit more flexible because they can help not only with damage and horror from enemy attacks, but with damage and horror from treacheries and locations (a much more significant threat in most scenarios.)

Yes, Dodge will on occasion have some very good moments (often involving Ancient One enemies). But is it worth lugging this card in your deck just for that? I don't think so.

So, all these considerations mean I've moved away from running Dodge in my Guardians, and I haven't missed it. The minor synergies that have been printed over the years, like Counterpunch, don't really move the needle for me.

But a final note on Diana Stanley, with whom I do tend to run this card. If you're trying to quickly increase her Willpower to cast spells (which is my preferred way to play Diana), then you need a high density of cancels in your deck. Dodge is more situational than I'd like, but at least it's cheap, and sometimes you or a teammate can deliberately provoke an attack of opportunity to enable it. I prefer it to really expensive cancels like Hypnotic Gaze or Hand of Fate, or unreliable cancels like Eldritch Inspiration, Defiance, and Read the Signs. But I see Dodge as a necessary evil in her deck, not something I actively want for its own sake.