In the forgotten age, this could allow player to ignore vengeance from killing the little snakes by putting the enemy below the jar instead of the victory display, then using it as a free dodge and getting it into the discard pile. Obviously there are other ways to deal with vengeance in the forgotten age, but this was a fun interaction that came up during my draft challenge where we didn't have other alternatives for that relic slot or easily addressing vengeance. It worked surprisingly well!

This card would be a lot better if the first sentence instead read like this: "Parley. Choose any amount of enemies at your location and test (Book) (X), where X is the chosen enemies' combined damage/horror values."

The way it is right now, it's only usable in specific boss encounter scenarios on enemies that deal 4+ combined damage/horror value, and even then you also have to succeed on a 4 difficulty test. Of course, it feels like a 5 XP card when it's in that specific case, but that makes it a niche purchase.

If the text was written just slightly different, you would be able to more consistently get the 5 XP payoff from this card, not just on boss enemies. If you were able to select any amount of enemies, you would have the option to make your test harder, but deal that much more damage in return. Sometimes you want to deal with thicker enemies that have 3-4 health, but they're not bosses or deal little damage (hello, Coterie Enforcer).

Plus, there is a downside to the upgrade where in some situations you would be able to deal more damage with the level 0 version, by using it on an enemy with 1 damage/horror value.

Haven't tried it yet, but might be perfect for Father Mateo.

With Ancient Covenant you'll be passing any skill check with Summoned Servitors relatevely low stats without any boosts. And you'll have The Codex of Ages to make it's stat line 5/5/5

If I could take this weakness as a player card I would, it’s incredibly useful, on many an occasion have I found myself stuck with other investigators, needing prep and keep thinking “wouldn’t detached from reality be amazing right about now, 2 horror for an elusive and ethereal form blended together and I don’t have to pay for it?! Not to mention my precious deck size isn’t impacted. Overall I’m claiming that this isn’t a weakness, it’s a siesta and Luke doesn’t want to admit it

Wilson has two powerful abilities. Firstly, he becomes a completely normal 3/4/4/3 investigator when activating a Tool asset. Secondly, as befitting the investigator who came in the same box as Wolf Mask, he has the ability to make Wolf Mask look underpowered when he plays it.

Oh, and he very occasionally gets a resource discount.

Play Wilson as a pure fighter, and you'll soon wish you were playing any other investigator. Wilson doesn't get the additional clues from Roland Banks, doesn't get the stat boost & draw on demand of Mark Harrigan, doesn't get additional resource like Zoey Samaras, or additional actions like Tony Morgan/Leo Anderson, or recursion like William Yorick. Heck, he doesn't even get Guardian 5 access. Even Sister Mary with a Hammer or Spear fights better.

As a flex, Wilson's tool access means he plays like a 4 mystic who needs to play out more assets to be effective, has worse draw, less skill value, and more expensive assets*. The one upside Wilson has over a mystic is that he can use Geared Up quite decently, but that only slightly offsets the sheer number of assets he needs to play, and you'll find him less useful than even poor old Jim Culver who at least could ward off an Ancient Evil or two. To add insult to injury, he can't even take Michael Leigh.

Ad Hoc would have had decent combo potential if Wilson had any way of stringing a combo together reliably. As it is, you might be able to get off a free hammer swing or a free investigate in the game if you're lucky, but it's no way something you can depend on.

Future tools and upgrade/improvised cards might breathe new life into Wilson, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

* Investigative tool assets are all hand slots items, which means you'll need to play out tool belt/bandolier/tinker if you want to use a 2 handed weapon. Unlike a mystic who gets away with simply boosting , Wilson has to boost both and to handle high fight and high shroud locations. You also don't have access to draw options like scroll and Arcane Initiate, econ options like Uncage and Prophetic (Wilson can't take Crafty), your recharge options are more expensive. I struggle to see any upside.