One of the best cards in the game right now in my opinion. Its closest analogy are the neutral skill cards that give 2 icons, but

• they only cover one check type, this covers any check
• they have to be played before the draw, which makes a huge difference

Pass the check? No need to play it Fail by more than 2? No need to waste it

Its almost as if you are playing it on every check, but can choose to take it back if it wasn't needed or wasn't enough.

It lets you go for much more marginal checks with more confidence. If you get lucky in real life, you keep it and can keep it until your real life luck runs out and you need to actually play it.

FAQ. When Hunting Horror leaves play, it loses doom tokens on it. But attached Shadow-spawned doesn't lose resource tokens. Forced ability on Agenda 1a/2a does not trigger when Hunting Horror enters play by Agenda 1b.

Somehow I do not see any scenario with use for this core card unfortunately :( There are always MUCH more better cards for mystic. Do you use this card in your decks? When and for which monsters is it helpful?

Knife is an easily overlooked card that is outshone by other weapons. Some people quickly jump on the conclusion that it's simply trash, however it definitely has its uses, at least for now with the current card pool early in the Dunwich cycle. The card's two main positive aspects besides that it's neutral and useable by every investigator in the game are that it's incredibly cheap and can be used for a single +2 combat +1 damage attack which is an even better fight action than a Machete swing.

I think there's mainly two situations where Knife becomes useful. Knife is useable as a filler weapon in a deck where you want to draw a weapon as fast as possible, like a set of 2 .45, 2 Machete, 2 Knife. Once you draw one of the actual weapons, you just throw the knife at someone for some nice damage. Of course for that case it will become less important once the classes have more weapons to choose from, but until then it's a nice backup. Alternatively you use it with an investigator who HOPEFULLY never has to actually fight, but might still need to defend herself one or two times like Daisy Walker.

Instead of comparing Knife just to other weapons, I think it's better to also compare it to more supportive cards like Overpower and the recently previewed Prepare for the Worst. They all have positive and negative sides, so it comes down to personal preference or the composition of the deck to determine which might be better. For Guardians, Prepare can act almost like your 2nd/3rd/4th copy of an actually strong weapon, but it could also just fail and waste an action. Kukri is way more action hungry and doesn't give bonus damage (it's useful to know that, unlike Kukri, Knife can potentially kill a 4hp monster in one turn), but is more reliable. Overpower is the cheapest on actions and can draw a card, but doesn't give any bonus damage. Knife is a nice middle ground, gives a good combat and damage boost, but requires an action to play and a hand slot. And even if you don't have time to actually play it down, you can chuck it on a test as a mediocre Overpower. Oh and of course you can use Scavenging to recur the knife, for what it's worth.

Buddy, this way. No, this way...

Shortcut is a beautiful, simple card that flies somewhat under many people's radars. It's fast, which means it doesn't cost an action to play, and allows an investigator to move. What's special about that? At first glance, very little. Therein lies the beauty of the card.

The fact it's fast means it doesn't trigger Attacks of Opportunity if you're engaged with an enemy. Want to move and drag an enemy with you, to where your better-armed buddies are ready to support you? This is the card for you. Or want to push another investigator ahead of you into a location in which enemies wait, so that they engage him and not you? Again, shortcut offers that option, and it's at a zero-cost, actions and resources both.

Strikingly, its two traits, insight and tactic, reveal something of the utility of the card. If you have an understanding of Arkham Horror and want to think tactically, you'll soon see that flexible options to respond to a host of situations become vital in any well-built investigator's deck. Being able to save an action to move at a crucial moment can make the difference between success and failure. There are other great movement cards, such as Bait and Switch, Think on Your Feet and Elusive, but none allow 'pushing' other investigators. Pathfinder is also a premier movement card, a shortcut-on-tap, if you will, but comes with an xp-cost and a stipulation (no enemies engaged with you).

I will always consider Shortcut for any investigator that can take it, including the five Dunwich investigators, as it provides such options. Oh, and the icons aren't bad either!