Rita's signature will usually just be committed to a skill test, but it does have some niche uses that synergize with cards she's already likely to be playing. It also sometimes just saves an action by fulfilling the same role as Taunt.

Cards that incidentally evade like Cheap Shot, Breaking and Entering, Sweeping Kick, or Stunning Blow make this a way to turn what would usually be wasted evades into extra damage, by effectively giving her the same effect as her Elder Sign for the turn.

This is especially worth it if you play this after you've already drawn the Elder Sign that turn or during the Mythos phase. In that case it turns each evade into a free 2 damage. Rita does also have Ace in the Hole which could add up to a lot of damage in one turn.

Finally, this can turn Fire Extinguisher into a mini-dynamite.

Haven't had the chance to play Parallel Pete yet but... This is a pretty toothless weakness for the most part, right? Unless you're at a point where you have no cards in hand this doesn't seem that bad, on top of that there are so many survivor cards that WANT to be discarded you could almost turn this into a positive.

I'm thinking Moonstone, the Improvised set of cards, Glimmer of Hope, all manner of cards that actively want out of your hand that aren't always easy to get there. Even if all you ever draw is your 1 card from upkeep this doesn't seem that bad at all. That's not even mentioning the numerous ways survivors can get things out of their discard that you might want to be running anyways! If it was at random it might be scarier.

Overall I'd rate this as a slight annoyance at worst, among the tamest weaknesses in the game. Probably not as meaningless as Amandas or Sister Marys, but still pretty mild. The most destructive part of the weakness is that in order to get it in your deck you have to forgo Duke, and while the Guitar is an extremely powerful (and very unique!) card that's a hard sell.

This card is hard to use for most guardians, but it seems custom-built for Parallel Ashcan Pete. It's a nice solution to 3+ health enemies for him.

You attack a 3 health enemy, attach Grievous Wound, and then move the enemy away for free with his Guitar. The guitar gives you a resource, which refunds the cost of Grievous Wound.

At the end of the round, the enemy takes 1 damage and dies, and Grievous Wound returns to your hand. You can do this infinitely to kill 3 health enemies in a single melee attack, as a kind of reusable Vicious Blow.

It could even kill bigger targets like a Deep One Bull, although you probably want a nice trap to keep it from moving while it bleeds out (like Snare or Net from Makeshift Trap).

It simply doesn't make any sense to me that Dexter as a former magician has only 2 points in dexterity (look at his name!). I mean, come on! I got that he is a real arcane nowadays, but he started as a simples (and successful) illusionist.

I think set of 5/2/2/3 or 4/2/3/3 would be better fitted to the lore (although theese statuses are probably worse compared to the original ones).

Other possibilities: 5/1/2/4 or 5/1/3/3 also make sense and would be a great upgrade for this investigator.

With the release of Parallel Jim and the introduction of his SPIRIT DECK! I think it's worth considering Tristan in a new way. Para Jim provides curse payoff by recharging your assets and when you're going all in on Curse you may get a free play of Tristan.

However, I want to talk about the spirit deck. Every turn, Jim flips the top card and puts it into play WITHOUT PAYING ITS COST. Granted, if you're ever at 4 allies in play attached to The Beyond you're likely to discard him. Even so, you get to put him into play for nothing and get a +1 to two skills of your choice.

We can actually game this with allies like Beat Cop, Stray Cat, Mysterious Raven, and Priest of Two Faiths whom we can discard on command we can stretch the amount of time Tristan is in play for.

So for parallel Jim I'd say this: If you're going all in on curse, main deck this man and his dog, if you're NOT going all in on curse, turn him and his dog into helpful ghosts!