One part of this card that might not be obvious at first glance is that if your counterattack defeats the enemy, it effectively prevents the enemy attack from resolving, unlike the level 0 Survival Knife. Besides this, the timing change also allows you to counterattack, then respond with other effects like Dodge if your attack does not destroy the enemy. This seems especially tempting with Diana Stanley who likes using cancel effects. With the +2 combat bonus, this card is a definite consideration for many investigators. In comparison, the nerfed Machete costs the same XP, gives only +1 combat bonus, and has the potentially dangerous limitation of doing less damage when you are engaged with more enemies. If all of the attacks hit, survival knife does 5 damage versus 6 for machete. Timeworn Brand is usually superior, but the 5 XP and 5 resource cost are limiting. Importantly, a Survival Knife complements other weapons and other copies of itself by increasing the total damage done in a turn. 2 survival knives can do 7 damage in one turn. Overall, with the good combat bonus, low cost, synergy with itself and other weapons, and lack of drawback, I think this is probably the most broadly useful weapon for guardians at below level 3. I’m excited to use this card, especially with Diana.

Whitton Greene suffers from the same problem as Jake Williams, in that (depending on the scenario) it can be hard to trigger her reaction consistently. And if you want to benefit from her boost, you need to be confident of finding a Tome or Relic on one of those (infrequent) searches, or drawing one by other means.

But! All is not lost! There's one investigator who can put a new location into play whenever he pleases, and who starts the game with a Relic in play: Luke Robinson!

Granted, an -focused Luke deck is probably never going to be as strong as a proper deck (or a -focused Luke deck), but I think this will be a fun pairing nevertheless. :-D

what is the consequence of drawing this mid-turn? do I just lose all remaining actions even if another player wakes me up on their turn? This got drawn in the middle of using Blood Rite so do i get to finish that action? what is the order of operations in that event?

Just played my first campaign with Rita, and I love playing her.

At first I got to admit I was a little confused about how to actually use her. She's not great at investigating or combat, and her deckbuilding is extremely limited.

What I realized was that her deckbuilding was a tip for how to use her. Rita is built to utilize the underappreciated Survivor trick cards better than anyone else. I loaded her up with lures, snare traps, hiding spots, etc. From there she kind of operates like a Guardian, bopping back and forth, using her evasion and tricks to keep enemies distracted and locked down.

True, there are other investigators who like to run from their problems like Rita, but they usually have better synergy with cards other than the tricks. Rita is probably the only character I'd see myself going all in on Tricks with and it gives her a really unique and fun flavor. Then just round out the rest of her deck with a few weapons or clue-aids depending on what the team needs.

Don’t forget, he’s really useful if you have a deck with a different highly desirable Ally to find (such as if you use lots of spell events, that is heavily dependent on a draw of Arcane Initiate. David becomes quite an efficient option for finding the Arcane Initiate along with Calling in Favors without spending too many resources.

If you have David and calling in favours, net cost is just 2 resources and 2 actions (and those 2 cards) to search 9 cards for an ally and play it with a discount of 2 resources.

I’m playing him in a Diana Stanley deck, my deck really needs an Arcane Initiate, where he’s also useful if I need a extra resource (fast) to play something like a Ward of Protection to stop the encounter deck, conveniently adding doom straight after the doom threshold has passed (“I see your Ancient Evils, and raise you a Ward of Protection”) or if necessary, killing him off with the horror from the Ward of Protection if I got Drawn to the Flame or Delved Too Deep late in my turn.

(As well as the other benefits already mentioned!)