EDIT: I misunderstood the card negatively, which is funny because I was very much pleased with it to start with! This should reflect how good the card is better:

I'm a fan of Wither, a cheap asset that can be used infinitely kill off problems that aren't worth charges from other assets, it's a great backup weapon, 1-off, or to dual wield with Shrivelling or Enchanted Blade or Ornate Bow or Timeworn Brand (I.E, a fight heavy whose role is to kill things, like many forms of Agnes Baker, Diana Stanley and Jim Culver). "Super archmage" builds with Sign Magick will also be interested. The -1 fight and evade trigger is surprisingly useful in making hits land or getting out of trouble.

So, the upgrade is worth it's XP cost because:

• The -1 health effect reduces the written HP total of the target by 1 and triggers whether or not you actually hit, this can create some funky circumstances such as:
  • You shoot a 2-hp foe a and get a token, killing it in one attack.
  • You miss a damaged enemy, but draw a special token, reducing their health total enough to make their existing damage kill them anyway!

• The +2 and special trigger combine to make Wither very, accurate. The largest penalties are often keyed on tokens and Wither innately resists those.

Layer all of this with Wither's initial ability to infinitely channel into damage and you've got yourself a very good attack spell, whether it's for the 5- juggernaughts who do everything via or the 4- midrangers who like to use their other stats for things and miss the occational spell charge.

This card stands out as being FAR more impressive than it seems at first glance, especially in the latter half of a campaign where special tokens tend to be much more numerous. Wither a very impressive attack spell that manages to stand alongside without replacing Shrivelling.

Edit 2: After now playing in 3 campaigns with Wither, I'll stand by it except in 1 circumstance. In a skillful and informed playthrough of Dunwich you might manage to not actually add any special tokens to the bag, in this case Wither looses much of its luster.

The Timeworn Brand to Shrivelling (5)'s Lightning Gun, except not really. Unlike Sixth Sense which is a viable replacement for Rite of Seeking and Clairvoyance, Wither should almost never be taken over Shriveling 3/5.

Without token manipulation support, the chancs of drawing a special token is usually in the range of 30-40%. Even at the 0xp range, weapons that don't give bonus damage are usually not taken (even as backup weapons) for good reason — it's usually too action inefficient to fight without bonus damage. Weighing in at 4xp; Wither needs to do better than +0.4 damage to stand on its own.

With token manipulation support (read: Grotesque Statue, Olive McBride, Dark Prophecy), the chances improve, but the payoff is still poor for the investment since you only bring Wither up to par by adding 0.3-0.5 damage per attack. Token manipulation isn't free, costing charges, slots, allies, cards, and plays, compare what other classes get with the likes of Beat Cop/Vicious Blows/Deliah that very reliably add +1 damage for roughly equivalent investment.

The fact that you can draw a special token, fail, and still do damage & reduce stats is counterbalanced by the fact that the extra damage doesn't stick around if you fail to kill within a turn (aka most elites), Retaliate, enemies with on-Fight effects, enemies without max HP, etc. Or that in Hard/Expert, failing with a special token can be a really bad thing.

What about running this along with Shrivelling for increased consistency? That might have been good before Azure Flame (3) existed. Although you can run a pure beatstick mystic that takes all 3.

If you're fighting a lot, Wither is too action inefficient to fight with on its own (and you'll run out of token manipulation too fast). If you're not fighting that much, Shrivelling's 4 charges should last you quite a while until you find Recharge, Twila, or its second copy. If you really want to conserve charges on that Swarm of Rats, Sword Cane is now a much better option.

Things have changed a bit here, and so I'll throw my two cents in for wither. There are always better options.

Yes sure, in theory with Arcane Research, its effectively a 2xp spell, but in practice it's not. To use arcane knowledge you have to have Wither which is just awful, and for most mystics in most situations is a blank draw, or worse a 2 resource 1 actions sink. So until you can upgrade both you lose 2 decks slots. Now let's say you know this and decide to use your first 6xp to get two Wither, then and only then is it somewhat viable. Not to mention using your Arcane Research on Wither instead of Shrivelling or Azure Flame is lunacy.

The cons to Wither:

1) Costs 4-8xp. 4xp means you have to waste the first two scenarios on Wither taking up valuable slots.

2) Takes up an arcane slot. If for some god forsaken reason you have been chosen to be the fighter as mystic, then you want both hands for Shrivelling and Azure Flame, which you can upgrade for 8xp by scenario 3. If you want something without charges then choose Sword Cane, though you lose two will.

3) Spectral Razor exists for the same cost, and action though its 0xp and can hit for 3, instead of maybe 2 likely 1.

4) Requires you to pull a specific token or does 1 damage, and doesn't help your next hits, essentially not doing its job.

Now I know this seems grim, but there are some pros that make it sort of viable? The pros: Wither

1) Infinite use, your the fighter and need an infinite use back up weapon but also need +2 will to consistently land hits.

2) Want to only use wither (to save deck slots) to assist your fighter by going first getting off wither hits (or misses) but dropping the enemies fight and health value.

3) You have built an entire deck around it, though it is not at all powerful enough for this to work well.

At the end of the day you have to look at your options, instead of upgraded wither what can you do for; 8xp, two spell slots, and two decks slots, that could help you win the scenario. The answer is a lot. Drop wither for more test-less clues, for upgraded allies, Charisma and summoned hound, Twila Katherine Price and Charisma (1xp more and gives infinite Shrivelling, Charisma and Dayana Esperence + Spectral Razor, the list goes on. Wither is never worth the price of admission, nor the cost of building a deck around it, though I would be willing to admit that Jacqueline Fine already builds decks around revealing tokens, so there is natural synergy. For every other mystic there is always a better option.

I think it is a fun card in 3~4 players with fighters who can't quite finish the enemy fast enough (or having to use some actions to setup and engage). You can be the the team's enemy finisher with this Spell. The key to full potential is you go later and finish off enemies on others without engaging, so you have more action to spam Wither to the enemy from the side line.

• If you go first and you can't finish it, the enemy will rehydrate and get its reduced heath back. The goal is to make it withers to death due to reduced health inside your turn.
• If you made a friendly-fire hit, it only cause 1 damage to friend, while the enemy may still get reduced health due to symbol anyway. So it is a good deal to help out 8~9 health fighters without them scared as much as Shrivelling and its upgrades.
• There is no question about reserving spell charges, big or small fries you can help getting it off your friends.
• The reduced fight then further decrease the chance of friendly-fire in the next try.
• All the symbols equals semi-success instead of completely doing nothing, you may guess you can probably can peel off an enemy from a friend with HP equal to amount of your remaining actions, regardless of harsh symbols. (But take care of their special effects on failure or Retaliate.)

Also probably better as a one-of because it uses no charges and commit icon is weird. Rely on repeated Arcane Initiate instead of purchasing two copies.

While it has been mention in the 0 XP version that Eldritch Inspiration can be used in conjunction with Diana Stanley for cancelling the symbol effect, the upgrade offers an immense boost if used with Eldritch Inspiration, essentially making the card deal 1 more "damage".

Another synergy to emphasize (which has been mentioned briefly in another review) is token control: With Jacqueline Fine, Olive McBride, Premonition, Unrelenting, Third Time's a Charm, and surely other cards I missed, the additional "damage" output of this card becomes much more probable, which is great for an asset without uses.

One thing that might get missed rather easily though: If the enemy does not have at least 1 damage assigned to it you cannot kill it via the symbol effect (health reduction) alone.