"Eat lead!"

Big hitter card. An autofail token can ruin the most assured of hits and this is that tech card you include so that your once-in-a-scenario Double Vicious Blow + Lightning Gun combo assuredly hits.

More realistically though its gonna be a single Vicious Blow with a .45 Automatic to deal that imperative 3 damage hit to a Ravenous Ghoul or a Vicious Blow + .45 Automatic to kill one of oh-so many 4hp foes that terrorize our mythos decks.

This latter scenario is probably the most common and useful use of "Eat lead!" in this game, to ensure that those moderately tough "minibosses" die in as few actions and as little risk as possible.

Tsuruki23 · 2591
Always hoping for that extra elder sign... — Grimbold · 2
On the Hunt

Howdy Roland Banks, just a quick question. Wouldya rather draw Rotting Remains or Swarm of Rats?

Superb card for the dedicated fighter. It ensures that you trigger the benefits that dedicated fighters generally hope to gain, such as William Yorick or Roland Banks gaining items and clues.

It also doubles as protection, many fighters have the ability to kill off basic foes in just an action or two, but those same fighters might fear and passionately hate drawing mythos cards that force sanity damage or some penalty. Case in point: The first line of this review.

.

-The gathering Spoiler below-

Final note: Also useful to ensure that you've got something to do. For a fighter type character those "dead" rounds with no enemies are bad, they leave you with nothing to do and may cause enemy spawns to be more condensed later, which makes it harder for you to respond to them all. This card lets you guarantee that you've got something to nibble on while your friends do the heavy lifting, a good example for the usefulness of this effect is the very first Arkham LCG scenario The Gathering. Once you're out of the study you can head for the basement or attic and dig out the appropriate ghoul to quickly dispatch for XP.

Tsuruki23 · 2591
Added note that kindof intrigued me (I play LOTR LCG as well, and it has similar mechanics). — NarkasisBroon · 13
Sorry, that was a mistake... first time I have commented on a card before on this site. There currently aren't any enemies with Revelation: effects in Arkham. But from the rules reference Revelation: effects can be on any encounter card, and On The Hunt spawn the chosen enemy, it doesn't draw it. Which means if they ever do produce enemies with Revelation: effects, On the Hunt will allow you to bypass those if timed correctly. The reason I mention Lord of the Rings LCG is that it does have enemies with "When Revealed:" effects, which are a close analogue of Arkham's Revelation: effects — NarkasisBroon · 13
One of the few cards that shuffle the encounter deck. When you reveal 3 ancient evils with scrying, it grants a chance to shuffle unwanted cards deeper into the enocunter dekc. — Django · 5171
"Once you're out of the study you can head for the basement or attic and dig out the appropriate ghoul to quickly dispatch for XP." Actually the enemy spawns at your location instead of its normal location so you don't need to go to the cellar/attic and suffer 1 damage/horror but rather have it spawn in the hallway. That's really good too. — Éole · 14
No good with a Scrying partner — crymoricus · 252
How does this interact with the new concealed enemies? Does this counter that mechanic entirely or miss entirely? — Taevus · 784
Mano a Mano

This is not the best card. But. There is a place for it.

Mano a Mano is primarily let down by its restriction of "First action only", this means that it cant be used by a dedicated fighter to tackle down enemies engaged with their dedicated cluehounds.

This card is good in decks that go out of their way to very literally "hunt" for enemies on their own. You use "Let me handle this!" and On the Hunt to ensure that enemies that might've spawned on your friends get spawned on you instead. The circumstance where Mano a Mano is good is when enemies spawn on you and you can start off a fight right in their faces and these combat support cards can make that happen manually.

The most efficient way to put this card to use is in decks for characters who benefit from the monsters they battle, William Yorick and Roland Banks come to mind. Zoey Samaras can also put this card to good use.

Other cards that synergize include: Guard Dog and Beat Cop for more auto-damage. Evidence! to then turn hunted enemies into clues. "I've had worse…" to fuel the warmachine through sustained battle. Every single weapon, obviously!

Tsuruki23 · 2591
Yeah, it's very playable on Expert for the characters you mentioned. — CaiusDrewart · 3202
This can also be combined with free moves (pathfinder, shortcut, elusive) and engage effects (taunt). — Django · 5171
Combat Training

I find that use is a bit too conditional, but then again so are the new "composure" cards.

The 1 horror shield perk is not terrible but guardians have better ways to shield/prevent/heal horror. The 1 exp cost makes it inferior for this use.

A rich Zoey might benefit from it under certain cicumstances but it's a bit of a head scratcher for Mark and Roland who are not usually resource-plenty. But even with Zoey, and it likely won't survive too long in your play area for you to benefit from it consistently. Mark can use Sophie to buff himself far more reliably and without resource cost.

The fast trait and cheap cost are the evident advantages compared to Physical Training if you're hoping to buff your combat skill. No willpower option however, for which a buff is always handy.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, assets can only be played during your turn, so you cannot surprise-buff your agility for an encounter card agility test (because when are you buffing your combat during Mythos anyhow?) That means you need to have it played beforehand, adding more to its chances of a premature break.

The slot in your deck is probably better spent on other cards. Likely you'll just commit it than spend two resources to play and trigger.

Xulez · 151
Guardian doesn't have many horror soaks, so this card will likely be destroyed by it. But as a pure soak it's very expensive. — Django · 5171
Could be useful for carolyn fern, to compensate her low fight. She could include peter sylvestre as horror soak. — Django · 5171
Oops!

Use Oops! to deal damage against enemies with: High value; Retaliate; Aloof; or who are engaged with another player. Engage with and attack another enemy with a lower Fight value (the ideal would be a Fight of 2, since it would be impossible to fail the attack by more than 2), without Retaliate, or who are not Aloof.

Do so without bonuses of s / icons, preferably using an attack with a natural Damage bonus (i.e. not one that depends on the attack being successful), and better still not using your investigator's better skill-values. Thus favourable choices (when available for the investigator's deck) are: Backstab; .32 Colt and Shrivelling [also Knuckleduster though this will result in the initial 'phoney' target doing its own Retaliate damage to you].

Since damage dealt by Oops! is not the result of an attack on the "target", failure now results in damaging the higher Fight-value enemy/bypassing its' Retaliate/avoiding risks of injuring another player already engaged with it.

This can be a directed tactic or merely to hedge bets facing multiple enemies. It is more practical cooperating with fellow players; and when your deck and/or that of a team-mate includes cards apt for bringing weaker and stronger enemies together and/or engaged with the attacker (e.g. Shortcut; "Let me handle this!"; On the Hunt; Taunt; Heroic Rescue).

Crispin · 4
For what it is worth, there also seems to be an interesting interaction between Fire Axe (which has a natural, resource-base damage bonus) and Oops. Still very situational since you could have used the 2 resources get +4 on your test vs main target. — Binoux · 27
The attack still counts as a failure, resolving effects approptitally. So you'd trigger retaliate and damage another investigatior, if the original attack targeted their enemy. — Django · 5171
Just retaliate; cannot be used except against an enemy engaged with you. But yeah. — CecilAlucardX · 10
Thanks, i didn't fully read the card before commenting. — Django · 5171
Thanks for pointing that out, I missed that too. — tylorlilley · 4