(Non-mechanical review) Evidence-based cards offers connection from one thing to the next different thing. Because of this 'gluing' effect, they are great to make emergent stories come alive. Each evidence has a source : You can sort of remember where / how you got each evidence from, then that drives the story why you are better at stuff now. (In other words, evidences are fungible in mechanics just like ammo, but not necessarily in the player's head.)

Hawk-Eye Folding Camera / Dissection Tools connects location / enemy with anything your investigators do. Michael Leigh connects location to enemies. Research Notes connects player card effects with locations.

This Microscope connects enemies with locations, like inverse of Michael Leigh. You collect the samples then to sit down and making connection of enemy pieces to understand more about your current location. What I like about this card is that it works effortlessly consistent in theme, because both enemies and locations came from scenario design. The story often make sense and doesn't miss.

Michael Leigh which is the other way around is not only XP expensive that you'll get to play with him less (or never see him because you get 1 copy), but it's sometimes weird that everything I found out from any location benefits destroying the enemies. (e.g. I just investigated drawers in secretary office and now I'm good at killing all sort of abominations.)

The top review of this card is 100% incorrect. The card works exactly as intended.

When you draw a basic weakness, it is considered to be an encounter card. arkhamdb.com

• Weaknesses with an encounter cardtype (such as enemies or treacheries) are considered to be player cards while they are in their bearer’s deck, and are considered to be encounter cards while they are being resolved, and once they have entered play.

Encounter cards go to your threat area. arkhamdb.com

• An investigator's threat area is a play area in which encounter cards currently engaged with and/or affecting an investigator are placed. The cards in an investigator's threat area are at the same location as the investigator.

So now it is in the same location as the investigator. Can we do anything with that? Yes, we can.

arkhamdb.com

• An investigator is permitted to activate abilities from the following sources: A scenario card that is in play and at the same location as the investigator. This includes the location itself, encounter cards placed at that location, and all encounter cards in the threat area of any investigator at that location.

Look above the word Narcolepsy and you'll see the word treachery.

So to recap: Weaknesses with an encounter cardtype, such as treacheries, are considered encounter cards once they have entered play. Encounter cards go into an investigator's threat area. The threat area is considered to be at the same location as the investigator. Any investigator may use activate actions on encounter cards in the threat area of an investigator at their location.

This is another nifty combo with Luke Robinson. One of the big drawbacks of Call is that it triggers Attack of Opportunity. Well, Luke can use Gate Box to make sure that's not a problem, and Call also happens to refill your Box if you run out of charges.

I ran this in a Cursed Luke deck and it rapidly became a linchpin of the deck. The combo with Eye of Chaos is nothing to sneeze at. In addition to using the tokens and the charges, you can also use Luke's investigator ability to play Call the Beyond as though you were at an adjacent location, which includes the part where you resolve an ability on the card, meaning you can recharge your Eye and investigate for 2+ clues in an adjacent location for the low price of 1 and 0 resources. Beats the hell out of Recharge in my book.

Another nice interaction is with Close the Circle. Call the Beyond checks for its Uses number rather than the flat 3 of Recharge, and if you're already working with Synergy cards, Uses will often be 4 or 5, meaning you've traded 1 and $0 for 4-5 actions and 3. Sounds pretty good to me. Same logic applies for any other high-Uses card, like Brand of Cthugha or Earthly Serenity.

Some small Innsmouth spoilers below. For the context, it was three players going all-in on curse token plays.

I played this "can't move" Rot on turn one during Horror in High Gear, suddenly making the scenario a cakewalk. High chases aren't usually that thrilling when the chasers are several miles behind:) That felt pretty cheesy, especially as it was the fan-made Return to, which fixed some previously known cheesy plays like, for example, Luke+barricade, but could not handle the Rod. Previously in same campaign I've used the "can't attack" Rot on Deep One Bull in the Pit of Despair, which not only eliminated the threat, but also changed usually quite annoying Deep one assaults into very mild "choose and discard one card from your hand" - the Bull was never disengaged, so when the Assault was drawn, the Bull just disengaged and reengaged me. Still needed to clear the other enemies, of course, but all the other non-elites are much more reasonable for scenario 1. Now imagine the same "can't attack" Rot on any non-elite enemy in any campaign when playing alongside Trish. Even easier than the Handcuffs trick. Also, still in the same campaign, I felt like my Olive McBride underperformed, since her intended use was for Eye of Chaos/Armageddon tests, but tapping the Rod is much less risky, even when Olive was upgraded.

Now, my point is, in that campaign I tried the Rod for the first time and had no intentions of breaking or cheesing the game. After that experience I am afraid that there could be much more really broken stuff to be found with the Rod and its Rots.

Two interesting facts about this cards:

• you're picking up a clue from location but test is not against location shroud value, but it's just (1) (+ number of suspicions)
• you do not perform investigate action, but parley, so if locations can't be investigated (due to some Mythos cards, like Locked Door) you can still pick a clue from it, ignoring obstacle

That being said I think it shines when used in those scenarios: high shroud locations + Mythos obstacles (Locked Door or Obscuring Fog or something else).