Michael Leigh
Experienced Hunter

Asset. Ally

Ally. Detective.

Cost: 4. XP: 5.

Guardian Seeker
Health: 3. Sanity: 3.

You get +1 and +1 .

After you successfully investigate: Place 1 resource (from the token pool) on Michael Leigh, as evidence (to a maximum of 3 evidence).

When you initiate an attack, exhaust Michael Leigh and spend 1 evidence: You deal +1 damage for this attack.

Derek D. Edgell
Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion #86.
Michael Leigh

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Several cards have abilities that spend "Evidence", but do not posses the usual "Uses" keyword, for example Michael Leigh or Research Notes. Does this mean that for the abilities of these cards you are allowed to spend evidence from any card you control? Or does the evidence spent must come from the card itself, as it would happen with cards with the "Uses" keyword? A: When a card has “evidence” placed onto it and has an ability that spends “evidence”, that evidence must be spent from the same card. Only evidence on Michael Leigh can be spent on his second triggered ability. Only evidence on Research Notes can be spent on its activate ability.
Last updated

Reviews

This guy is the enabler of true solo decks. is a very good class pair as it bridges hard-fighting and hard-clueing, many hard-to-solo investigators (which the class maybe neither nor , but deckbuilding requirement dabbles into these classes) can use his help. I can enjoy the gameplay without playing 2 handed for more characters now!

The problem in building such a deck is that a character can't fight accurately, can hit accurately but for tiny amount of damage or limited time, or can't clue 3+ shroud location. This guy fixes them all as long as you manage to get 5 XP from the 1st scenario. Not only that, 3 health 3 sanity also "fixes" the character by enabling face-tanking treachery on the side that the character is weak for 1-2 more times, because solo play deck is not able to receive external icon commits coverage like in multiplayer and is likely to surrender to some treacheries.

For example :

  • Monterey Jack Solo : Trusty Bullwhip can +1 damage only once, takes forever to dispatch piling up enemies alone. Now you get more +1 damage to combo with his accurate whip to get out of trouble fast, after hard work of gathering clues to refill evidences. (3 damages in one action is huge for one-shotting monster just drawn! Especially that both whip and Michael will exhaust.)
  • Lily Chen Solo : With Discipline and putting this guy down pushes her to where she can continue the story on her own with a bit of glass cannon clue tools like Evidence! or Drawn to the Flame.

Also, a lot of true solo failures comes from 3 HP enemies not quite dying fast enough when a new one comes in, and there is no other investigators to finish the job with lower firepower weapon, sometimes resulting in massive waste of ammo/charges. +1 damage is great for many +1 damage weapons available out there.

5argon · 9524
He's good in solo, but I don't know if your first 5xp will really fix a solo deck. You're going to need a lot of tutoring to get him consistently, and even then, decks needs to have the pieces already in place to utilize him, meaning until you get two copies and some consistency (spending more xp for that), it will be tough to reap the benefits. I agree with everything else you mentioned though, and I think you're definitely on to something. This guy might be more of a midgame upgrade, once you have a few core upgrades. Imo — FlarkeFiasco · 1

This dude looks to me much better for a seeker than a guardian, for several reasons.

  • The +1 will likely be wasted on many guardians, while a seeker with Acidic Ichor will appreciate to fight with 7, rather than 6.
  • He offers unpaired soak for the class, that is generally on the squishier side. He should particularly well synergize with Miskatonic Archaeology Funding, because he is not Miskatonic, which makes him a good pick for the single natural Ally slot, every investigator comes with. (In particular, if you don't plan on taking Mr. "Rook" or Charles Ross, Esq.)
  • He is easy to fill up with evidence for a seeker. Much harder for most guardians, even with his buff. They will likely have to pay through the nose on Keen Eye to get anywhere, which does not appeal to me, given how resource hungry guardians are. The one Guardian who would particularly appreciate the can't take Michael, while Sister Mary could get away with some Mystic Investigate-spells, but is not that interested in either stat-boost.
  • He costs a lot of XP. You will probably not get your second copy until late in the campaign. Seekers are the class to easier get away with that, consistency wise.

Of course, you need to build a flex seeker like Joe Diamond to get full value. I'm imaging him very strong with Amanda Sharpe. The downside of him is that he exhausts, if you use his evidence. This makes power turns to vitriolise bosses with Vicious Blow (2) below her less efficient. Still, I'm very eager to try out this combo.

Susumu · 361
I got to play him on TTS with Roland. He works really well with him. The synergy of both clue finding and damage is phenomenal. I image he could work with Leo as well. — gmmster2345 · 2
it can work with leo with double G (Geas+ Grete) — Pawiu14 · 184
Joe might be off better with Scientific Theory (3) as it is cheaper in xp, resources, actions and slots - unless you really care for the damage boost. — jcdenton · 10
Re: Assuming he has the evidence to spare, can a player exhaust Michael for +1 dmg, play a Fast event that unexhausts him, and exhaust him a second time for another +1 dmg, on the same attack? (net +2 dmg on one attack) Looking specifically at the Guardian event "Galvanize". — HanoverFist · 711
I would say, this does not work, at least with "Galvanize", which is a Fast event, that specifies a duration or period of time, which according to the Fast rules require a player window. During an attack you only have two player windows, before and after commiting cards to the test, which is later than when you initiate the attack. — Susumu · 361
It actually should never work, even with whatever future card. It's a reaction ability, so contrary to a free trigger ability, you can always only trigger it once per timing point. — Susumu · 361

While Michael was printed in Edge of the Earth, he actually seems like he was (at least partially) designed to work with one of the Scarlet Key investigators: Charlie Kane.

He's not bad in other investigators, see the other reviews for that, but he's well worth consideration in the politician. He gives two static boosts and soaks a ton, plus his first doesn't exhaust, so on turns where you're not fighting he just gives you a nice big bonus.

Additionally, because Charlie is limited to only level 0-2 non-Ally cards, it can be hard to find big pockets of damage for him. Events can be one way, but Michael Leigh offers another solution by turning your 2-damage .45 Thompson into 3-damage Lightning Gun. And using Bonnie Walsh, you can potentially get this bonus damage multiple times in a turn when fighting bosses.

While the 5 XP is certainly an investment, I think that players looking for a "fighter" archetype Charlie could seriously consider Michael.

Veronica212 · 294
Darrell wants him, but can't have him. — MrGoldbee · 1443
Combos great with Summoned Hound too. He bumps your Hounds up to 6 Investigate/Fight and turns them into a free trigger 2 damage attack. — greenmantis55 · 93

Darrell Simmons would love Michael Leigh if he had access to him. He generates evidence for every successful investigation while pushing Darrell to 6 . 2-3 evidence per turn from a single card is better than anything Darrell can achieve on his own.

Yes, five experience is a lot to ask from a fellow investigator. But if you and your teammate think the reward is worth it, there are a few straightforward ways to borrow an ally in even without getting into Teamwork or similar effects:

This can even be combined with On Your Own to make either of the above events cheaper as long as Darrell isn't bringing his own allies.

blackjet3 · 11
Maybe in a team with Carson? He is already into support, so that's a way to even spent his XP for support. — Susumu · 361