Cool and fun card. Whip out a ranged weapon and snipe something, its a cool card in idea and practice. it's just not very good.

This is what the card does:

• A +1 damage effect, these are hard to come by in a manner that stacks, layer on the Vicious blow and the gun and you're dealing 4+ points of damage in one hit. Sometimes the 3-damage attack is good enough too!

• Sniper effect. You counter a couple keywords that might increase the risk or cost you an extra action. Ever so often you save an action moving into the enemy, since the enemy might be located to one side or at a finished spot, this then might double up by not making you haul yourself right back again.

You get quite a bit of cool stuff, so that would make it seem like a good card right? 2 saved moves is EASILY worth 2 spent resources. The extra damage. Sounds good? Not quite.

This is a -card-, you gotta draw it, play it, costs money to play and most importantly, it's 1/15th of your deck! characters do not have much luxury in card draw unless their name is Joe Diamond. also struggle with resources.

What I'm getting at is this: Marksmanship is this real cool effect, a timesaver and circumstantial problem solution, doesn't actually do much that you cannot already, no extra accuracy nor grabbing clues or evading or whatever. If Marksmanship isnt immediately helpful, it's a full blown dud! You might draw the enemy yourself, it's engaged with you, a dud! Dealing +1 damage wont let a 2 damage weapon kill a 4 HP enemy, a dud! Maybe you just don't afford it, even if you got the cash you need to save it to pay for the next weapon or ally and the 2 resources will set you back too much, a dud!

........

So you see how many shades of "dud" the card is? I've toted copies of this cards in my hand in PERFECT scenarios, drawn it even. Rougarou? Miskatonic Museum? Pretty much all of Carcosa? It just isn't helpful enough. In a card game the best decks have as few potential duds as possible.

The literal best-case scenario is to combo Marksmanship with Lightning Gun or M1918 BAR and Stick to the Plan. This way all the combo pieces will be uniquely easy to assemble and play on demand.

I 've been waiting for this moment for quite a long of time. Finally, a Survivor weapon worthy of Fire Axe gets released. Of course, in order to make this weapon worthwhile you have to take horror almost every time you attack, but you can easily negate this disadvantage by running Peter Sylvestre and particularly his upgraded version and maybe some other soak along with him, like Cherished Keepsake. Now this makes it more of a build-around card, just like Fire Axe, but honestly, since (in my opinion) Peter Sylvestre is one of the best allies in the game, I think this is totally fine. The other fact is that this weapon becomes more powerful when you are at low sanity, so you actually want to be taking the horror anyway and by having Peter by your side, this should not be very concerning. You can even heal horror when using this card if you want, by assigning the horror you take on Peter when you attack and healing a horror from your investigator card when you kill the enemy.

This card also opens up interesting deckbuilding options and upgrade paths. Since you want to be at low sanity anyway, it seems like you can benefit from Desperate cards more, Fight or Flight becomes more powerful, and with the ally Yaotl you can focus more on the "Desperate" side of things. Also, some investigators work better with this card than others. It seems like it is a good fit to investigators with low sanity and there are some investigators that will still prefer Fire Axe over this. I will now go through a list of investigators who can use this and outline possible interactions:

• Calvin Wright: This weapon is just awsome on Calvin. He can use it to take horror on demand in order to increase his stats and he can easily get to 3-or-lower sanity in order to get the empowered bonus. Desperate cards were already good for him and now they are even better.

• Silas Marsh: With his low sanity and high combat stat, it seems that Silas can make good use of this card. He is still good with Fire Axe, but now he has a decent alternative, that allows him to kill enemies without having to go into Dark Horse/Fire Axe mode.

• Rita Young: This weapon seems like a natural fit for Rita. Honestly, I can't think of any reason why Rita wouldn't want to include Peter Sylvestre in her deck, other than being On Her Own. It's better both than Fire Axe and Baseball Bat for her.

• Wendy Adams: Her low combat stat and high sanity makes it very difficult for her to use this weapon efficiently. Fire Axe is way better for her and even Baseball Bat can be more effective than it. I guess, you can use it if you really want a one-handed weapon other than Fire Axe to go alongside Lockpicks and, interestingly enough, her weakness, Abandoned and Alone, can help her get to 3-or-lower sanity faster if she really wants it.

• "Ashcan" Pete: His low sanity makes him a good candidate, but I think Fire Axe is still better. The Dark Horse/Fire Axe combo is very valuable for him and I think it won't be easy to drop it in favor of this weapon.

• William Yorick: Weapons from the Guardian class usually do a better job at killing enemies than Survivor ones and this fact doesn't change here either. Additionally, Peter Sylvestre isn't really the best ally for Yorick, so I think the Meat Cleaver + Peter Sylvestre combo is not very valuable for him.

• Agnes Baker: This weapon is interesting for her. If she starts with double Arcane Research, she can easily drop at 3 sanity or below in order to get the empowered bonus and with the self-horror mechanic she can even deal 1 extra damage if she wants to and all of a sudden she can deal with some enemies without using a Shrivelling charge.

• Preston Fairmont: Preston is another interesting candidate. The only other, truly viable option for him has been Fire Axe so far, which denies him from playing the way he was naturally meant to be played and that is no other than stacking resources. It is however more difficult to use than Fire Axe. With Fire Axe, all he wanted was to find the weapon and he was fine. Now, if he wants to use Meat Cleaver, it has to go with Hard Knocks, replacing a previous 1-card combo into a 2-card combo, not to mention that it is less efficient resource-wise. Additionally, he really wants the empowered bonus in order to make it worthwhile and starting at 7 sanity is not helping a lot. That issue can be addressed however by tanking treacheries and enemies, or even ignore Lodge "Debts" in order to take trauma. I'm not sure how good that weapon will be on him, but at least it will allow him to play naturally and offer him more upgrade options.

• Minh Thi Phan: Her primary role is not to fight and the benefit she gets from Peter Sylvestre is insignificant for her, so I think this weapon is just terrible for her. If she wants to fight, I believe Fire Axe does a way better job.

• Finn Edwards: I have no experience playing Finn, but I think this weapon is not a good fit for him for various reasons, one of them being that he doesn't have access to the upgraded Peter Sylvestre. Additionally, Finn is better at investigating and evading rather than fighting so I think that he is better off with situational weapons like .41 Derringer and Lupara.

• Marie Lambeau: Obviously useless for her; She has a Combat of only 1 and she's a Mystic.

[Edit:

• Carolyn Fern: This card heals horror, so interestingly enough, Carolyn can take it (I missed that when I was initially writing this review). I'm not sure it's that good for Carolyn, though. She 's not the ideal investigator to be using weapons. If she wants to fight, she has better options, like Shrivelling, Dynamite Blast or Mind over Matter. This weapon however has some very good interactions with her. To begin with, if she wants to use it she definitely wants the empowered bonus so dropping to 3 or less sanity is a must. This can be easily achievable for her by running double Arcane Research and St. Hubert's Key. With these 2 cards, she starts at 5 sanity, so she can easily drop to 3 or less sanity in order to make Meat Cleaver viable (enter Forbidden Knowledge here). Arcane Research is not the best for her, but she can at least use it in order to upgrade Clarity of Mind into Clarity of Mind (3) with a 4 XP discount. She can also use cards like Ace of Swords or Reliable in order to make Meat Cleaver more worthwhile. When Carolyn uses this weapon and has a Peter Sylvestre in play, she can basically earn 2 resources simply by attacking and killing the enemy; 1 by assigning the horror on Peter when she attacks (Peter heals at end of turn so she gets a resource) and 1 by healing a horror from herself after she kills the enemy. So, considering all these, this is probably the best weapon for Carolyn. She's not the best investigator to be using weapons, but she can pull it off if she wants to.

• Zoey Samaras/Rex Murphy/Jenny Barnes: They don't need this, or have better options.

• Jim Culver: Jim is another interesting candidate. He has a combat stat of 3 and he's a Mystic, which makes it worth consideration. If he starts with double Arcane Research and/or uses St. Hubert's Key (similarly with Carolyn) it will be easier to drop at 3 or less sanity and he can use allies like Alyssa Graham or his Trumpet in order to soak or heal horror so that he avoids the danger zone. I'm not sure it's quite that good for him though, but it's an option. My guess is that Enchanted Blade will probably be better than Meat Cleaver for him.]

A significant disadvantage this weapon has is that it can be painful to attack 3 times in a row when you 're facing a tough enemy, so it's good to have alternatives for when you get swarmed or when you 're up against a boss. So, considering this, this card does not make a good pair with Will to Survive, which annoys me quite a bit, because a Survivor running Fire Axe was facing the same problem, so this weapon doesn't change that a lot. It doesn't make Will to Survive unusable, but taking 3 horror for 6 damage in one turn isn't really the best thing you can do, unless your Peter is fully healed.

In the end, I think this weapon is best for Calvin, Silas and Rita. Calvin gets the most benefit out of it and the other two are good fighters and have alternatives when they are facing a tough situation. Other investigators can also benefit from it, but I think these 3 are the best candidates.

This is theorycrafting. A review from somebody with experience running this card will provide better insight.

The first names that popped into my head while reading this card were Minh Thi Phan and Silas Marsh. It enhances what they want to do normally. I don't know what else is competing for relic slots for them (Cherished Keepsake? possibility to add Key of Ys later?), but this seems really strong for them. An auto-include unless I'm missing something. The typical Dark House "Ashcan" Pete deck would benefit greatly from it.

Otherwise, it just depends on a) how many skill cards are you running (I know it works on any card, but a skill card is the ideal option), and b) what relic cards you are running. Like most assets, it gains value the earlier you play it. Maybe that's good enough to test it with Dr. Elli Horowitz and run a lot of skill cards. Seekers in general have access to good skill cards. It also works nicely with wild skill icons. On the Survivor side, Dark Horse decks can utilize it.

The biggest weakness of this card is the one-time use limitation. You're only getting one extra icon per turn (I'd imagine this makes it worse on harder difficulties, I only play standard). You also have to have a card to commit that has the correct icons on it. You can limit that weakness through deckbuilding. One extra icon seems weak, but you are already adding icons with the card you are committing.

It's hard to say if this is a deck-defining card like Dark Horse (outside of Minh and Silas), but it should be a decent amount of help if you're going to run lots of skill cards anyway (and/or cards with good skill icons).

I think this card is an exciting addition for a sealing Mystic, as it gives them the ability to have a Seal of the Seventh Sign, 2 Protective Incantations, and a Chtonian Stone on the board all at once. It can also be used to turn the new Enchanted Blade into basically a two handed weapon if you really need those Arcane slots.

I am looking forward to trying this card out. While it's still no Machete, I think that this could be a good second weapon for a lot of Guardian investigators.

Let's get one thing out of the way - this card does take up 2 slots, which is not really great. However, most investigators that aren't Mystic investigators don't end up using both of their arcane slots anyway, so the arcane slot requirement for Enchanted Blade isn't super prohibitive for them. That may change going forward as arcane slot assets become more common for other classes.

I think the best way to measure this card's effectiveness is to look at it compared to some other level 0 Guardian combat options:

• .45 Automatic: The .45 Automatic costs one more resource and has one more ammo on it than Enchanted Blade has for charges. However, Enchanted Blade can be used without spending a charge to do a slightly weaker attack, where the .45 Automatic always has to spend an ammo, which can lead to using ammunition to inefficiently do 2 damage to an enemy with only 1 health left. Enchanted Blade offers more versatility, which in some cases can get you further in a scenario, and its charges offer a greater bonus than the .45 Automatic can provide.

• Survival Knife: Both offer a regular +1 fight action with a secondary option to do a +2 fight action that deals +1 damage. The special fightt ability on Survival Knife doesn't cost an action since it's a ability (so you can theoretically attack 4 times in a turn for 5 damage total) but the downside is you need to be attacked by an enemy during the enemy phase to use it. Enchanted Blade may cost 1 more resource, but the ability to use a 2 damage attack without having to wait for an enemy to attack you makes it much more practical to use.

• .32 Colt: it is card to compare these cards since they do very different things - Enchanted Blade gives you additional for fighting with the occasional extra damage while the .32 Colt gives you 6 attacks that do +1 damage with no bonus. In my experience, I find .32 Colt hard to use with anyone who isn't Mark Harrigan, because high-health enemies often have high fight checks required to hit them, and so the .32 Colt sometimes has trouble actually hitting the enemies you'd want to use it on the most. Enchanted Blade does not have this issue, since its charges make your attacks do a total of +2 and +1 damage, meaning you're more likely to hit when you really need it.

• Knife: Enchanted Blade is basically a Knife that can have its second ability used 3 times instead of 1 time. Now, I don't use Knife a whole lot, but part of that is you have to throw the Knife away to make it more powerful. I think that the 3 charges actually makes Enchanted Blade much, much more useful and I think it's worth paying the 2 extra resources to get the 2 extra uses.

Ultimately, I think that Enchanted Blade is most at home with Guardian investigators who will want to use it as a pseudo-Machete until they get their real Machete out. I think that Enchanted Blade can also be used as an off-hand weapon to cover some of the blind spots of the Machete - specifically, when you're engaged with more than one enemy or you need to deal more than one damage to a monster not engaged to you.

I think that most Mystic investigators are going to not get quite as much use out of this card, as their arcane slots are more valuable and they generally tend to avoid tests. It may be situationally useful for them, though.

My conclusion for now is that, as of the time of its release, Enchanted Blade is a pretty good card and I think it will see some use as the non-Machete extra weapon for Guardian investigators.