I think this card is hilarious. The fact that when other investigators are defeated you can be like, "Hey, silver lining; I got a charge on my Skull!" is priceless. Beyond that, I'm pretty sure this card is actually good; installs for an action, gains charges for doing something you'd do anyway, whether that's going through Ally assets or killing enemies, and pays back the action you took to install it after a single use. In a Leo Anderson deck, where you're losing allies and killing enemies in equal measure, the action compression this can give you over the course of a scenario, let alone a campaign, is pretty crazy. It may seem a bit slow, since it does take an action to use every time, but there are a lot of turns in a scenario where you might have an odd action that you "waste" just gaining a resource, and this makes those spare actions twice as efficient.

Does take up the Relic slot though, which is pretty valuable. Still, between The Watch and Lucky Dice, it's the only accessory Rogues have at 0xp. It'll be interesting to see it in action.

Also how weird is it that it's cursed, but doesn't actively harm you?

I think I really like this knife, surprisingly. It's certainly no Machete, but it does allow one more attack in a round than the Machete, and that attack has unconditional +2 and +1 damage, which is slightly better. I suppose your best case is to dual-wield, chopper in one hand and knife in the other, only using the Knife for its ability when available. Might actually make the Bandolier more attractive, since you can activate two Knives and hold a machete, or even get an extra free attack even with a Lightning Gun equipped. Knife + Bandolier + Zapper gets you 11 damage in a single round with 3 actions and no other cards; kinda crazy (and assuming everything hits).

As for the obvious drawback, soaking an attack, it turns out that an enemy attack always deals you damage, even if you assign that damage to your assets. Put another way, an effect that deals your investigator damage is always considered to have dealt you damage, even if you assign that damage to something other than your investigator. At least, if I'm understanding "Dealing Damage/Horror" on p. 7 of the Rules Reference correctly. What this means is, if you have your trusty Pooch out and, during the enemy phase, a Swift Byakhee attacks you, you can assign the damage to your excellent dog, triggering his effect, and trigger your Knife, taking no damage yourself and killing a 3-Health baddie without using an action. Furthermore, damage mitigation for Guardians is already pretty massive, so even without damage-soaking assets out the ability is pretty worthwhile. Weirdly, it doesn't work against enemies that only apply Horror, which isn't great, but those enemies are pretty rare anyway.

The more I look at it, the more I like it; I'll have to try it next time I make a Guardian. Probably best with Mark, as it synergizes with his love of taking damage, or with any asset-heavy fighter, like Leo Anderson.

How is this practically applied?? If, for example, I choose to upgrade Strange Solution, which has 3 available upgrades, do I put each copy of those available upgrades (ie 6 cards) facedown on the table and choose 2 of them at random??

Leo Anderson

A great character in my option. His `Survival stats’ are excellent (four combat and four willpower). His intellect skill of three can be increased to four using (Treasure Hunter and to lesser extent Dario El-Amin) or by spending resources (keen eye). However, his evade skill is only 1. Meaning, Leo is here to fight and with good potential to investigate.

His special abilities revolve around allies and his basic weakness is losing an ally. Meaning, is you play and non-allies deck with Leo, you don’t have basic weakness beyond the random basic weakness. This is a huge advantage over other investigators. However, playing an ally deck will benefit Leo enormously albeit his own basic weakness. In ally deck, Leo can shine and use all the guardian and neutral allies along with rouge allies (level 0-2) as Leo can take rouge cards level 0-2 (think of non-ally cards such as daring maneuver, decorated skull, eavesdrop, liquid courage, lone wolf [Solo], lucky dice [a must], narrow escape, quick thinking).

Play style: First choose whether you go with allies deck or non-allies deck (you can try something in between. In that case, I'll recommend Leo de Luca, Treasure Hunter, Brother Xavier, Beat Cop, The Red Gloved-Man).

After that, it’s a matter of building Leo deck upon the roll of expedition leader (healing card, weapons, skills, buff cards, depends on your style of play).

As you probably heard, the main fuss about the forgotten age cards such as Doomed, Accursed Fate, and in case you reveal The Bell Tolls - you are dead!

This leaves you with the following: (taken from: boardgamegeek.com.) “1. scenario: you draw Doomed card, grab 1 horror, jot down "Doom approaches"

2. scenario: you draw Doomed card again, grab 1 horror, put Accursed Fate on bottom
3. scenario: you draw Accursed Fate, grab 2 horror, jot down "hour is nigh"
4. scenario: you draw Accursed Fate, grab 2 horror, put Bell tolls on bottom
5. scenario: you die”

The way to deal with that is by drawing the minimum cards possible and advancing fast in the campaign (a paradox!). I believe that future expansions might present a card that will enable to counter-curse cards.

In sum, with Leo in play, lead the way!

Here's a handy link to a search of all the plans that can be stuck with: arkhamdb.com

Enjoy your plans. Plans are good. Plans are nice. I like plans. Am I over 200 characters yet?