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

Five cool things about Mr. Rook:

His downside is secretly an upside. You draw your weaknesses for free alongside other cards rather than having to draw them later in place of another card. He grants you a significant amount of control over when you draw your weaknesses.

He is expendable. Unlike a certain professor of entomology, Mr. Rook works quickly. He is two health and sanity worth of soak, and if you spend a secret every turn you are happy to use up that soak two turns after you play him. He doesn't stop you putting other allies in your deck or force you to run Charisma. Which lead on to...

He is great with Calling in Favors. I had a game where I put Mr Rook into play four times and still had Mr Rook in my hand.

When you have nine or fewer cards left in your deck he lets you search the whole thing. It's like he hands you a No Stone Unturned (5) that costs zero at the start of the round.

When you draw a treachery with a skill test he can instantly search your deck for relevant icons. There is a player window in every skill test just before cards are committed.

Here's a bonus sixth thing: If your random weakness is Doomed you will live fast, die young, and start earning experience with your replacement investigator much sooner than you would otherwise.

This location card is somewhat misleading. The resign ability causes the player to conclude the game as if they are eliminated. When that happens they would drop remaining clues from their investigator and not get the printed Victory point.