Calvin is my favorite gator in the game. That is not to say that he is easy to use. He is not. In fact, his restrictions make games tense, and difficult, and oftentimes disheartening. But this is Arkham. We live for that.

However, when Calvin works, when you put forth the effort, when you grit your teeth, take it on the chin, and get just a little bit Lucky!, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Plus, Calvin's restrictions force you to build a good deck. Since you need to be toeing the line at all times, you need, need, need to put cards in that help you survive. Peter Sylvestre, Cherished Keepsake, and Leather Coat are all important to staying alive long enough to get you to a point where your stats outweigh your damage.

With the recent release of Nathaniel Cho's preconstructed Investigator deck, Calvin got a ton of new, fun toys. "Get over here!", Glory, One-Two Punch, all slot into a Calvin deck nicely. Plus, you can Versatile in those Boxing Gloves if you're feeling feisty (I do not think this is good, but I do think it's fun.)

Calvin can do almost anything, so long as that anything is his best imitation of a tanky Guardian. You're not likely to be the primary clue-getter, but you are likely to protect your other players with Ward of Protection, "Let me handle this!", Heroic Rescue, and A Test of Will. Run headlong into danger, get beaten up a little bit, and enact your revenge.

Calvin also is the single best investigator at using Rise to the Occasion, as his base stats are zeroes, no matter how much damage you have on your person. This only changes if you become a Werewolf, but by then you're probably going to win as is, so nothing to worry about.

Get a good weapon, get your boyfriend Peter Sylvestre, your girlfriend Jessica Hyde, and your neat playing card Five of Pentacles, and you will be a force of nature. Happy hunting!

Having played Amanda, I can safely say that she is one of the most powerful characters in the game, and one of the strongest Seekers as well.

Let's say there was a gator who's ability was simply "draw an additional card each turn." That would, rightfully, be seen as quite powerful. Let's say there was a gator who's ability was "on each turn, choose a Skill card in your hand. You may play it up to three times this round, at no additional cost." That would also, rightfully be seen as powerful. Silas is great, and this is simply a stronger version of that.

Amanda does both of these, and does them while stationed in the fundamentally strongest class, having access to all of the benefits Seekers have, as well as various powerful Practiced skills such as the new Promise of Power or Three Aces (with experience).

One thing I have noticed when seeing others evaluate Amanda is the belief that she has low stats. She sure doesn't feel like that when she is played. Due to drawing an additional card (or more, if you've got Dream-Enhancing Serum, you will regularly have a card with good, or great, icons to slot underneath you. If your deck is built right, you will often have between four and six to the stats you care about on a given turn, or all of them (Promise of Power is really, really good.)

You can regularly have The Red-Gloved Man, without spending neither resources nor experience, just by playing your gator. You can fight, as Vicious Blow and Overpower are both Practiced skills. You can be pre-Taboo Rex, or better, by putting Deduction or Deduction underneath you.

You can take Amanda Sharpe in a myriad directions, and no matter which direction you take her, you will likely be successful. I'm personally partial to taking the regular Seeker route, abusing such cards as Practice Makes Perfect, Astounding Revelation, and Eureka! in order to draw through a deck incredibly quickly. Putting Eureka! or Perception underneath your investigator means you can fairly easily, comfortably, draw five cards in a single turn, Once you've spent experience, this lets you assemble Pendant of the Queen and Three Aces quite rapidly; without the newest Taboo list, you can quite comfortably play three copies of Three Aces every other turn.

In short, Amanda good. However good you think she is, she's better, and if you are not careful, she can quickly take over an entire game and overshadow other players. Be careful when you play her.

Shouting out this card necessarily because it's super exciting (though it kind of is, even besides the curse synergy the fact you can kick a monster out of a location is something Mists of R'lyeh can't) but because at time of writing the page for this card has a broken Bold tag and I'm giggling at it because I'm incredibly immature.

I think I'd take this over Mists even if I wasn't going in on curses.

I like this card. Well, maybe not like; I kind of hate it, but I like that I hate it so much. It's a well designed enemy. With 4 Combat, 3 Health, and 2 Damage, this is a beefy fellow that makes even combat-focused investigators wonder if he's worth the ammo, charges, actions, and/or cards to put him down. He's easy to evade, but the Hunter keyword means he's just going to keep dogging you around the map, making your life miserable. Then the card text offers a way out and forces you to do some calculations about whether dropping the clue and picking it up will speed you up overall, leaving aside the times when you actually want a clue on the ground for Inquiring Mind, Roland's weakness, or other shenanigans. And it's got a great flavor -- you're casing a gloomy, decaying town and some local tough keeps following you around, keeping an eye on you, and making you nervous. Can you afford to make a ruckus? Can you afford to not?

Having finished a 2-player run of RttFA with a Chainsaw Yorick deck in the combat specialist role, I have some opinions about this card. I had visions of getting to regain chainsaw supplies while still doing damage and reveling in Survivor BS. The level-0 version was a disappointment for all the reasons listed in that card's page -- it's a bit pricey for most survivor decks and you have to have a copy in hand, 2+ opponents at your location, and 2 resources available, and have failed by 2 or less for the thing to land. Now, RttFA hands out enemies like candy in most scenarios, so this was a likely setting, but it never really seemed like the right time. The card does have icons, and it mostly got used for them.

The upgraded version, which only requires one enemy, has a 3 or less failure threshold, and, importantly, protects fellow investigators from your clumsiness, looks like a better bet, but, at the end of the day, I only used it twice in the campaign (although the use in the final scenario was very clutch), so it wasn't really worth the 4XP to replace both. Maybe a one-of?