So, it felt wrong that the only review regarding Calvin was a negative one. As I'm writing this Dark Side of the Moon is the most recent pack and boy has Calvin gained a lot since his release back in the Forgotten Age.

Let me start off by saying: no, he is not the most powerful investigator in the game, probably not the strongest survivor either. But he is by no means weak or underpowered. His playstyle and strategy are very different, but he's a totally serviceable investigator.

In general, you should try to push the risk/reward with him: while you can use "Look what I found!" and Flashlight to get clues and Fire Axe to kill enemies without stats, Calvin is really at his best once he's got a 4-4-4-4 statline. With Cherished Keepsake and Leather Coat you can avoid getting killed, with Peter Sylvestre and the new Jessica Hyde acting as more powerful versions that take up an ally slot. If you want an ally that helps with your economy, Madame Labranche is perfectly fine with her 2/2 soak.

I think a lot of the tools I associate with Calvin appeared in The Circle Undone or later, leading to a lukewarm reception upon his first arrival. Cards like Meat Cleaver and "I've had worse…" are great, not to mention Five of Pentacles or Trial by Fire, two cards I think really push Calvin to the next level.

I find Calvin performs best in a flexible role that focuses more on enemy management but can get clues in a pinch. Survivor doesn't have a ton of clue acceleration and he's got access to some great weapons. Cough, Meat Cleaver, cough.

For his Spirit cards, please don't underestimate the value of these. Ward of Protection and Ward of Protection, Stand Together, "I've had worse…", Heroic Rescue, with Dream-Eaters also giving us Self-Sacrifice and Solemn Vow.

So, yeah. If you aren't sold on Calvin Wright, give him a shot. He might surprise you.

So time may tell but for now Calvin just seems horrifically underpowered. The idea is cool - you can happily fail early scenarios to gain trauma which increases his skills which means you can spend those scenarios trying to grind XP instead of making progress - but the payoff really isn’t there to make up for him having such awful base stats.

Let’s compare him to Mark Harrigan, another investigator who uses something bad happening to him (taking damage) to boost his skills. Using Sophie he can boost any skill by 2 for a relatively low cost of taking one damage. Sure, this doesn’t apply throughout the whole game like Calvin’s ability, but Mark easily makes up for this by a) having good stats to begin with, b) being able to boost a stat more than once for a critical test and c) being able to heal the damage to get further uses of his ability. Calvin has awful stats unless he is close to death, cannot naturally boost his base skills above 5, and gets weaker if you heal damage or trauma from him. Mark even benefits from taking damage whilst Calvin gets nothing other than approaching having a decent stat value.

Calvin’s weaknesses are pretty glaring. He is awful at the beginning of a campaign (or any time he has less than 3 damage/horror on him) as he can’t do anything effectively. With 0 in everything he has almost no hope at fighting or evading enemies and he can really only discover clues by using Flashlight to make locations 0 shroud or via events. He can use enemies that deal damage to boost his physical skills, but when stuck with an enemy that only deals horror he is going to be in trouble. Even 2 is a bad number to have in a skill and 3 is still poor, so he really needs at least one other investigator to kill enemies that he cannot handle early and another one to discover clues. However, this goes against his desire to fail scenarios in order to gain additional trauma as the other investigators are not likely to want this to happen, leaving him in an awkward position early in the campaign. Once he gets some trauma he starts to become okay, but then a lot of his deck needs to be devoted to keeping him alive and becoming merely ‘okay’ is not worth the annoyance of being useless for a long time.

So all in all he is definitely interesting, but I can’t really see him being anything other than awful unless some amazing combo comes out that only he can use.

Calvin is my favorite gator in the game. That is not to say that he is easy to use. He is not. In fact, his restrictions make games tense, and difficult, and oftentimes disheartening. But this is Arkham. We live for that.

However, when Calvin works, when you put forth the effort, when you grit your teeth, take it on the chin, and get just a little bit Lucky!, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Plus, Calvin's restrictions force you to build a good deck. Since you need to be toeing the line at all times, you need, need, need to put cards in that help you survive. Peter Sylvestre, Cherished Keepsake, and Leather Coat are all important to staying alive long enough to get you to a point where your stats outweigh your damage.

With the recent release of Nathaniel Cho's preconstructed Investigator deck, Calvin got a ton of new, fun toys. "Get over here!", Glory, One-Two Punch, all slot into a Calvin deck nicely. Plus, you can Versatile in those Boxing Gloves if you're feeling feisty (I do not think this is good, but I do think it's fun.)

Calvin can do almost anything, so long as that anything is his best imitation of a tanky Guardian. You're not likely to be the primary clue-getter, but you are likely to protect your other players with Ward of Protection, "Let me handle this!", Heroic Rescue, and A Test of Will. Run headlong into danger, get beaten up a little bit, and enact your revenge.

Calvin also is the single best investigator at using Rise to the Occasion, as his base stats are zeroes, no matter how much damage you have on your person. This only changes if you become a Werewolf, but by then you're probably going to win as is, so nothing to worry about.

Get a good weapon, get your boyfriend Peter Sylvestre, your girlfriend Jessica Hyde, and your neat playing card Five of Pentacles, and you will be a force of nature. Happy hunting!