I'm getting the growing sense that the Louisiana Lion is held in far higher esteem than he deserves. Even in my Jenny Barnes deck, he never quite managed to carry his own tremendous weight. In my "Skids" O'Toole and Finn Edwards decks, he might as well have been a blank card for all the good he did.

First of all, a fourth action will not make an investigator 33% more effective - not even close. Investigators run on cards and resources, and any kind of "once per round" economy the investigator has (including the usual card and resource during upkeep) will be spread much more thinly over four actions rather than three - fewer resources to pump into Hard Knocks, fewer skill cards to commit to tests, and fewer charges of Flashlight, compared to the number of actions you have in which to use them. You could always use the extra action to draw a card or gain a resource, but if all you want is some drip economy, why not just run Lone Wolf or Pickpocketing, which pay for themselves much more readily?

Second, unlike most of the other pricey allies, Leo doesn't give any skill bonuses - you'll be taking more actions, but you'll waste a lot more actions on failed skill tests. For example, Dr. Milan Christopher's +1 makes the actions you have that much more efficient, and he's cheaper to put into play and serves as an (admittedly slow-to-wind-up) economic engine. See also Peter Sylvestre, Cat Burglar, and of course Beat Cop.

Third, by occupying the ally slot, he prevents you from playing those other aforementioned allies.

Fourth, he's crazy-expensive, which makes him awkward to play in most situations:

• Getting him out early costs one more than your entire starting resource pool. Unless you're lucky enough to draw him alongside Hot Streak, this is a crippling opportunity-cost; he's going to be your only significant asset for the first few rounds.

• Getting him out midgame has a similar (but more manageable) opportunity cost, but he takes so many rounds to pay for himself that he may just barely break even by the end of the scenario, and in the meantime you've deprived yourself of the tools that might have rescued you from a dire situation if you had run a different card and not sunk a small fortune.

• Getting him out in the late-game is usually a waste. If you only have a few rounds left, you should be able to spend six resources on something more worthwhile than two or three more actions spread over the remainder of the scenario.

And all of that assumes that you aren't forced to discard Leo early because of an Encounter card, which could be a serious possibility depending on the scenario, especially if he's your only asset in play at the time.

If anything, his relative economy actually gets worse for high-XP investigators. In the Rogue class, Streetwise is a fantastic way to pump skill tests, and it plays better with high-efficiency limited-use cards like Lupara, Deduction, and of course Double or Nothing, not to mention the highly efficient pumped "Watch this!". I'd much rather move once and take two amazing actions than move once and take three mediocre ones.

Therefore, Leo is at his best when paired with cards that can turn actions back into resources (or at least cards), so he can recoup his costs faster. Alchemical Transmutation is a strong combination (provided you have the for it), and Decorated Skull and Burglary are at least situationally useful.

I think the basic principle in play here is that extra actions are generally weaker than optimized actions, and those are more easily achieved with other cards.

I think it's time we take another careful look at Leo de Luca. The general opinion on this card shifts heavily as new cards and new investigators are released, but I'm going to attempt to distinguish exactly what makes this card good, why so many people run him, and when it is smart not to run him.

Here's what makes Leo good. Leo is an Ally, with 2 damage soak and 2 horror soak. He gives you one extra action every turn as long as he's out, and he costs 6 resources. On a baseline level, one would say he pays for himself if you were to take 5 or so "gain a resource" actions in 6 turns (if we value his soak for 1 resource and 1 card, which to me is fair). Now if you only get 5 actions out of this guy a game, arguably those actions were on average more valuable to you than "gain a resource" actions, so as long as you are willing to trade resources for tempo, Leo is a great card to run. Assuming you get him out early enough and keep him alive long enough that he nets you more than 5 actions, then he becomes amazing tempo, and really this is what you shoot for. Most people who run Leo will choose to always run two just to increase the chance of seeing him in the opening hand.

In particular, his ability makes him shine in true solo. A single action a turn for one investigator in 4 players is a pretty minuscule boost unless you're someone who's actively handling enemies for everyone, but in true solo it's almost akin to buying 33% more turns. In fact, it's better, because 4 actions a turn means 1 less Mythos Phase per every 3 turns (12 actions would have been 4 tests, now it's 3), which means at optimum you're looking at 25% less Mythos Phases. That's an important thing in true solo, where being bogged down by enemies is a common way for a scenario to just end, and Rogues in particular have the lowest average in the game, so tests hurt them quite a lot as well.

The trap with Leo is his cost: Six resources. Even if you're playing true solo, you shouldn't automatically take Leo thinking he's going to make your game easier every time. Like anything else in a card game, you're looking at opportunity cost- what in Leo's place could you have run that may have also saved you actions? For example, if I'm Zoey Samaras, that Beat Cop is both going to increase my such that I pass tests I might not normally pass, saving me an action each time it does, and it can swing for 1 damage in a pinch so I don't have to waste time, say, engaging a Whippoorwill. Plus since he's 2 resources cheaper, I can spend that on a weapon much sooner than I otherwise would have been able to, like Enchanted Blade. Or say I'm Sefina Rousseau, where I'm running lots of spells and events. It might be stronger for me instead to invest in David Renfield who can both generate resources I need to play lots of events and boost my in such a way to make my spells hit more often. The thing is, until you get Charisma, it isn't really valid for most investigators to run Leo in a deck with other Ally assets, as once Leo hits the table, you have to do whatever you can to keep him there. One of the investigators I mention at the end of this review is a major exception to this.

So when considering whether or not to take Leo, the single most important thing to ask yourself is whether or not you have a way to pay for him. If you can afford him without delaying everything else you want to play too much, he's a great choice. Fortunately, Rogue has a myriad of ways to help you afford Leo. Hot Streak, Another Day, Another Dollar, even the upgraded Leo De Luca which merely costs 1 resource less (so you can play him first turn every time without taking a resource). Cards like Lone Wolf and Investments can help you recoup the cost after you've played Leo as well. And finally, you should more strongly consider him in true solo, where actions give you more bang for your buck (caveat: in multiplayer it hurts less to have one investigator down on resources for a while, so the cost is lower in multi while the benefit is higher in solo). So who should take Leo most often?

• Preston Fairmont - Leo is practically made for him. He start with 9 resources, and he gets 5 to spend every turn. Both poor and rich builds can easily afford Leo. It is worth noting that extra actions in Preston will often be less valuable, as he can't just spend an action expecting to pass any old test. Instead extra actions in Preston have to be used for economy- either to pull resources off of FI, generate more resources to spend on things like Intel Report or Lola Santiago (with Charisma), or to refill your hand to have more things to spend on later turns. Here Leo is just an insane economy generator for Preston whose fleeting resources can be turned into permanent economy. I still say you should run Leo pretty much every time in Preston.

• Wendy Adams - Wendy, like Preston, has access to the best two pools in the game for generating resources. Take Heart and Drawing Thin go a long way on their own to reducing the opp cost of using Leo, while Lone Wolf can pull its own weight just fine, especially in solo. Additionally, Wendy's token mitigation means that a stray test here or there is less likely to be a waste, so actions in general are more valuable for her than most. The only Ally competing for her attention in my opinion is Peter Sylvestre, whose +1 is handy for Wendy's defensive events like Waylay, Backstab, and Sneak Attack. This will depend on how you build Wendy, but my advice is to take Peter Sylvestre 2 and Charisma as early upgrades, but start with Leo.

• Leo Anderson - Ah yes, Leo + Leo, a match made in heaven. Leo Anderson can play an Ally at the beginning of his turn at a 1 resource discount, and he has access to other Rogue level 0 cards. Outside of all of that though, a Leo Anderson deck is already running Calling in Favors and later Charisma, so if you don't get Leo in your opening hand, you might be able to Favors him into play from some Beat Cop or Guard Dog on the brink of death. This is the only time I'd run Leo with any other Ally in the same deck at level 0.

• Tony Morgan - The new Rogue on the block needs a little time to get started, but his action economy is wild. Free actions for fighting, then you take shenanigans like .41 Derringer, Quick Thinking and Ace in the Hole. Make up the cost using Pay Day, and use Ever Vigilant and Another Day, Another Dollar to get started. You'll find that it wont be hard at all playing Chicago Typewriter alongside Leo, and the actions you earn can be used for fighting, positioning, or banking for later a la Borrowed Time on a really important Typewriter test, for example.

• Jenny Barnes - This one shouldn't be too surprising. Jenny decks are a common home for The Louisiana Lion, and with Jenny's double income it's not hard to see why. She can recoup the lost resources very quickly, and her even stat-line means that there's less of a chance that an extra action couldn't be put to some sort of use. She can do it all, and Leo just helps her do it all 33% more. The only thing is Jenny has access to all level 0 cards, so an Ally like Leo is competing against Dr. Milan Christopher, Beat Cop, and most notably Mr. "Rook".

I also want to outline a few investigators where Leo might look really appealing but is often (not always) a terrible choice:

• "Skids" O'Toole - Skids' native ability is already about turning resources into actions. Sure Leo gives him the opportunity to take 5 action turns, but you really need to be generating tons of resources for it to be worth running both, alongside all the other things you need to be doing. Skids' usefulness a la Chicago Typewriter has also greatly diminished thanks to Tony Morgan, so I recommend taking Alice Luxley alongside Scene of the Crime and Intel Report, or consider Venturer with Ornate Bow as your main weapon.

• "Ashcan" Pete - A lot of what applies to Wendy in regards to economy still applies to Pete, but the problem is Pete already has solid action compression from Duke. It's usually cheaper and more action efficient to utilize Pete's Ally slot and off class slots to make Duke's actions better. This means using your off class slots for things like Magnifying Glass to make Duke's investigate & move better, and using your Ally slot for someone like Madame Labranche who can keep your hand full to toss more cards to ready Duke. I would say the off slot is also too precious for all the other Dunwich investigators: Zoey needs things to help her investigate like Sixth Sense and Drawn to the Flame; Rex needs some means of defense like Fire Axe; and Jim is too asset heavy to begin with to run another Ally, especially if he's using Dr. Elli Horowitz or Mr. "Rook".

• Finn Edwards - My personal opinion is that Finn Edwards benefits more from Peter Sylvestre. It both gives him a boost to , his favorite stat by far, and lets him soak horror from failed Rotting Remains tests. An argument could be made for Leo with Charsima, especially as a means to mitigate impossible to pass Terror cards like Frozen in Fear, but if you're really worried about that you might as well just take Logical Reasoning. In fact, if you want cheaper action compression, you can reliably activate Track Shoes on most turns, and even if you don't you'll love the extra .

I want to add a special note here that none of these are a hard rule. Deckbuilding requires innovation, planning, and the consideration of a ton of variables including: player count, investigator choice (yours and your compatriots), specialization vs generalization, campaign, upgrade path, opportunity cost, and even theme and desired play style. The above investigators I mention as being apt to take Leo are the ones who, on a baseline level, can either deal with the cost the easiest or take advantage of his ability the most, or both. The ones who I mention as not necessarily being a good place for Leo are ones where I see him commonly run to little effect. I do not think however that a Finn or Skids deck, for example, cannot work with Leo de Luca. It's up to you, the player, to determine how best to utilize each investigator's ability, and whether or not Leo de Luca gets you there.

There is a common misconception regarding Leo De Luca: that you must get him in play early for him to be effective (preferably in your opening hand) and that a Leo De Luca drawn mid or late into the game is useless.

It is true that the earlier you get him, the more extra actions he will give. But the opportunity cost for resources is much higher earlier in the game; spending 6 resources will prevent you from getting other assets out into play, and without other assets or events the effectiveness of each of action isn't very high. It's hard for a rogue to investigate without a Lockpick or Flashlight or to fight without a weapon, so much of the time you'll be using his free action in inefficient ways such as drawing cards or gaining resources.

In contrast, if you put him into play later in the game, the actions he gives can be used much more efficiently. Each Investigate can with a Lockpick is nearly guaranteed to succeed, and can trigger a draw from Lucky Cigarette Case. An evade gives you extra stuff from Pickpocketing. Use the action he gives to play Hot Streaks and Intel Reports. Or it could be as simple as your skill tests being more likely to succeed due to having static bonuses out. The opportunity cost for 6 resources is also much lower in the mid to late game, since tend to over-invest in resources anyway to increase deck consistency (and to run Well Connected/High Roller), and there are few better ways to spend those resources than to get 3-4 extra actions and a 2/2 soak.

So mulligan him away for your Lockpicks, your Ornate Bows, your Berettas, and play him when money's no object. Starting with only Leo tends to be an expensive trap (unless you lucked into Leo along with Hot Streak AND your key assets, but what are the chances of that?).

The real cost is still the opportunity cost of an ally slot. At 0xp the extra action will be difficult to efficiently use, consider other allies to increase action efficiency or give static boosts. Once you've gotten the core of your deck and all the money you can't spend, buying a Leo (1) with Charisma is always worth considering if you've got the deck slots to spare.

At first glance, Leo looks like an automatic-include in every Rogue deck. His power, granting an extra action every turn, is a huge benefit. Unlike things like "Skids" O'Toole's ability, it costs nothing per turn, and unlike Daisy Walker, the action isn't restricted. That extra action is fantastic.

The thing is, so is his cost. Make no mistake, a card draw, an action to play, and 6 resources is big. He is the most expensive card in the Core Set. He only has one - so he's not that useful for skill checks. Even the upgraded Leo De Luca, with it's reduction in cost, he's still the (equal) most expensive card in the game.

So... is he worth using?

If you can get him out early and keep him through the game, Leo De Luca is a huge boon. He will, over time, repay that huge initial cost. I've had games where this card has been the entire margin of victory. When you're racing against the clock, he can be brilliant.

If you don't get him out early, though, he's a wasted card. Late in the game he's too expensive to be worth the investment. For example, 6 resources would pay for 3 additional turns with additional actions for "Skids" O'Toole, and you'd still be better off.

And so I find that I end up either taking 2 copies of him (and no other allies) - to try to draw him in setup or as a Mulligan, so I can get him played on the first turn - or I take none, and instead use other allies. It's very much a "Leo" or "Not Leo" strategy.

Rogues can also have access to Cat Burglar, which is excellent, and "Skids" O'Toole also has access to allies like Beat Cop. Both these cards are very good, and make Leo De Luca look like less of an automatic choice - and more of a considered one.

In my opinion, most companion cards have the strongest permanent effects in game, so it's often hard decide which ones to include. However Leo is easily the best of the companions.

If you compare leo to Beat Cop or Cat Burglar, they basically save you actions. Beat cop allows you deal 1 damage as free action (which is like killing enemeis with 1 HP for free), while cat burglar allows you to disengage from all enemies (with no check) AND move to a connecting location (which is 2-x in 1 action). However they both have strong limitations. This is where leo shines, as you can use the extra action for anything, including the above mentioned things.

• Regarding hist cost. As he's a rogue card, the owner can use Burglary to gather ressources, if you draw him later in the game.
• Leo is unique (asterisk in front of his name), like Dr. Milan Christopher, so only 1 player can have him on the board at the same time. So if wendy and skids are part of the same game, only one of them can have leo in play. Here i'd recommend to replace him in skids deck with beat cop. Skid's character ability can compensate for the lack of leo.