Leo Anderson wants you to say hello to his lil friend... OK, he's reloading!

This upgrade (featuring more bullets in the artwork than the original) seems like it might be the real reason why Sleight of Hand made it onto the mutated list of taboos.

By itself, we now have a quality +2 weapon that will almost pay for itself over its 5 shots. This lets us use it early in a scenario to wipe up mooks without losing tempo in the long run, and those click savings mean it can get seamlessly replaced later on for a boss-killer gun.

An obvious combo with Venturer means that the ally essentially ends up costing 1 resource (0 in Leo). Likewise it turns Extra Ammunition (from under Stick to the Plan) into even more resources. It also turns on Bandolier in case you're Roland Banks with a couple Hawk-Eye Folding Camera or something.

This is the Dr. Milan Christopher of weapons. That should speak volumes...

I don't know how good this will turn out to be, but I wanted to point out that the art changes from the original on these upgraded cards; apparently 3 XP buys you a little shot glass ( survivors just get more whiskey).

The main changes here are the addition of the fast trait, an extra +1 on the defensive buff, making your molotov cocktail attack deal +1 damage, and the card has a icon in case you're in to pitching your XP cards for checks.

I can see an argument for Jenny Barnes taking this at some point because miss moneybags plays it easily, hits 6s on her stats, and it represents a nice slot-free attack that leaves her hands free for her guns or Lockpicks or wotnot.

I tried Tennessee Sour Mash in Finn Edwards and have been mostly unimpressed, although it is another illicit card to search out or recur with Smuggled Goods. The small changes here just don't feel worthy of 3 XP that could be better spent on a Lola Santiago or something.

Enchanted Blade has been hailed as a decent backup weapon to Machete because its damage buff goes off under different circumstances, its relic trait splats pesky Poltergeists, and it uses an arcane slot that wasn't ever getting filled anyway. So how much better is the straight guardian version?

Rather than extra copies of Machete, it might be more apt to think of this 3 XP beatstick as a miniature Timeworn Brand. The constant +2 makes fighting easier in general, and the timing on the charge trigger is simply perfect. Ensuring that charges will not be wasted is fantastic. Then there is that horror heal & card draw rider that might actually tempt you into overkilling something just for some tempo or to help mitigate the traditional blue investigator sanity defecit.

This card also marks the first time that guardians legitimately have multiple paths to weapon upgrades, because previously the big two-handed guns outstripped melee weapons in performance at high XP totals, whereas now it would be perfectly reasonable to dual-wield this and the Brand (especially with Ever Vigilant helping setup). Big guns will still do better in bursts but melee weapons now have multiple +2 options and no ammo constraints so at last the power gap is lessened.

A card most often seen as encounter filler in an early campaign scenario. On all but the weakest fight value investigators most likely to just consume an action to dispatch, or two if unlucky. At least it has hunter.

Amazing for Daisy, awful for everyone else

You know how Dr. Milan Christopher is an amazing card, one that you essentially want to get out IMMEDIATELY in any seeker deck? Well, if you're Daisy Walker, this is basically another copy of Dr. Milan Christopher in your deck, except it counts as a tome and thereby improves your eldritch sign ability instead of taking up an ally slot. The Necronomicon shouldn't be thought of as a replacement for the good doctor so much as as an additional copy. If you hard-mulligan for Dr. Christopher, you have a 55% chance of drawing him in your opening hand in a 31 card deck. Adding in The Necronomicon vaults the chances of drawing one of those three cards in your now 32-card deck up to 69%! {nice} The card pays for itself first turn, costing you 1 action and a hand slot for a permanent assurance of never running out of resources.

Given the utility of Higher Education, having some sort of resource-drawing engine in play is critical for Daisy. While it's no replacement for Dr. Milan Christopher, it dramatically increases your chance of survival. And if you have both out, you can pull a whopping 6 resources/turn for the cost of...a free action. Encourage your partners to run Teamwork so you can share the bounty, and watch as resource intensive cards like Streetwise and Keen Eye suddenly become a lot more valuable.

If you're not Daisy, then this card becomes terrible. Obviously, this is a story asset, so taking it for plot reasons is always an option, but if you're asking if you want it in your deck, the answer is a pretty clear no. It takes an action to put in play, and an action to use. The first use just covers its cost to play, so you're down 2 actions for no gain. The second use gets you two resources, but you could have just gained two resources instead of playing & using it, so you're still down a net one resource. You have to use five actions to have more resources than someone who just used the last four actions to gather resources! Alternatively, it's an action and 2 resources for a +1 into boost, which is pretty crap compared to just playing a Magnifying Glass.

Compare: Player using the Necronomicon

• Character starts with 2 resources
• Action 1: Plays Necronomicon, down to 0
• Action 2: uses Necronomicon, back to 2 resources
• Action 3: uses Necronomicon, up to 4 resources
• Action 4: uses Necronomicon, up to 6
• Action 5: uses Necronomicon, up to 8

Player without the Necronomicon

• Character starts with 2 resources
• Action 1: gains 1 resource, up to 3
• Action 2: gains 1 resource, up to 4
• Action 3: gains 1 resource, up to 5
• Action 4: gains 1 resource, up to 6
• Action 5: gains 1 resource, up to 7