Sefina Rousseau, This, and Ornate Bow = potential 15 damage for 5 resources and 2 extra actions. Back her up with Backstab, and Sefina can now deliver that 3 damage burst pretty consistently (and cheaper than ever). I can't think of another investigator this would be better on.

The flavor is pretty cool, but I think the mechanics are quite weak here. Intrepid is in close contention with Expose Weakness for worst card in the Heart of the Elders pack. The benefit is pretty weak and you have very little control over it. At best, Intrepid is going to work out to around +4 scattered over a bunch of skill tests. Even in this optimal situation, that's still a fairly weak card. I would actually rather take Take the Initiative or even Unexpected Courage just to get a more substantial boost to a single test, which is going to be much more consistently useful and much easier to plan around.

Why do people think Streetwise is better than Keen Eye? Part of the reason is just that Rogues have more resources to spare than Guardians, but another part of the reason is that +3 to one test is superior to +1 scattered over 3 tests. It's just much easier to benefit from the former.

Of course, then there's the problem that you only get that full bonus in a small minority of situations. A lot of the time, you'll actually get way less than that. After all, more often that not, you're not spending every action of a turn taking skill tests. And even if you do plan to spend every action taking skill tests, you're not always going to get the Will test you need. And even if you get a Will test, passing Will treacheries is really hard, and Intrepid's +1 is certainly not going to make you likely to succeed on its own. On Expert you would have to add an enormous amount of additional boosting or face a very strong chance of a wasted card.

I think this card is significantly better if there's a Mystic in the party. Mystics proactively test Will all the time and usually build their decks so they have a pretty easy time passing those tests. So you can have the Mystic go first, chuck this onto one of their spells, and then take your turn knowing you'll have the Intrepid bonus. This is much better. Even then, though, I wouldn't take this card. The payoff simply isn't big enough.

Yes, you could combine this with Leo De Luca or Police Badge or whatever, or "Let me handle this!" to try to hunt for a Will test when you want one, but honestly the payoff of this card is just way too low to make these combos interesting for me. I just don't see much here.

Fortunately, the other Guardian card in the pack, Custom Ammunition, is a huge hit, so Guardian players needn't feel too much regret about this one.

This card has generated a lot of hype. And why not? It unlocks an entirely new playing style by allowing investigators to fight with Agility, and the +2 damage is quite impressive. Plus, anyone can take it!

I'm going to argue, though, that Ornate Bow is not actually that good and probably not worth the 3 XP, 4 resources, and 2 hand slots.

First, the action efficiency on Ornate Bow is really poor for an XP card. If you play the Bow and use it once, it's clearly way inferior to just using something like Backstab or "I've got a plan!" or Waylay. If you use it twice, you're dealing 6 damage over 4 actions. That's the same as a level 0 weapon can do! And the more you use it, the worse the action efficiency gets. Use it four times for (optimally) 12 damage over 8 actions. A standard +damage level 0 weapon can deal 14 damage over 8 actions. The more you use the Bow, the less efficient it is compared to the game's level 0 weapons. That's not great for a 3 XP card.

The Bow does have the advantage that you need to pass fewer skill checks. In the above example, 12 damage from the Bow would take 4 successful skill checks, where it would take 6 from the weapons. That's a considerable advantage. But then there's the big disadvantage that a lot of enemies have more than 3 health, and reloading the bow during combat is a huge pain. You either have to swallow attacks of opportunity or you have to evade, and either is wasteful. Even if you're facing 3-health enemies, obviously the optimal situation for the Bow, if/when you miss with the Bow, you suddenly find yourself in an awful spot. If you miss with other weapons, it's not nearly as bad. (Finn can get around this, but I don't think the Bow is that great for him--see below.)

So the Bow is not looking so great for a 3 XP weapon. And indeed, I think anyone with half-decent Combat (and this would include Finn, Jenny, Silas, and Skids) should just use weapons that use Combat instead, because these are way better. Even if your to-hit bonus is a little lower, even the level 0 weapons are more efficient in terms of actions, and the XP weapons available to these investigators are way more efficient. (Not to mention Rogues have a nice set of cards that synergize well with a big gun, like Sleight of Hand and Contraband, but are really terrible with the Bow.)

But what about those high-Agility investigators who have really low Combat but high Agility, like Ursula, Wendy, and Sefina? Doesn't the Bow find a home here?

The answer is: sort of. Yes, these would be the most viable candidates to use the Bow. But I have real doubts here. For one, like I said, you're still not reaching very good efficiency. You're still doing worse, action-wise, than other investigators do using level 0 weapons. Since you have to invest a lot into the Bow in terms of XP, resources, and hand slots, I'm really skeptical when the final result ends up being not very efficient compared to how other investigators can fight.

Besides, these investigators all have really important things to be doing with their hands. Ursula is simply a far better investigator when she's got a Magnifying Glass or two in hand than when she doesn't. Ditto for Sefina with Lockpicks or Spirit Athame or Wendy with Lockpicks. By playing the Bow you are seriously compromising your ability to investigate. I think someone like Sefina or Wendy is better off not fighting very much, and using events like Backstab, Sneak Attack, or Waylay on the rare occasions that they really want to kill something, rather than investing a ton into the Bow for a pretty unspectacular payoff. (Plus, focusing more on events synergizes really well with these characters anyway.)

And yes, Ursula has a possible combo with Dr. Elli Horowitz to get around the Bow's hand slots. But not only is that unreliable (the Bow needs to be in the top 9 cards of your deck), you're just using up a different super-valuable slot instead. More to the point, Ursula can just take Acidic Ichor, which is not only far more efficient than the Bow and attacks at the same base value, it's also far cheaper and doesn't take up any slots at all. She should just do that.

I'm not trying to say the Bow is unplayable. If you really want to make it work, I'm sure it's possible. But I do think the efficiency is not very good and the Bow is not nearly as profitable as it seems at first glance, even for those investigators who seem like the best fits.

I'm a huge fan of Dario.

Any card that gives you a permanent stat boost is worth looking at. Dario gives you two. Incredible! Also, his ability is sort of a Cache-on-a-stick, improving any free action you might have. Undoubtedly very powerful. But he comes with some downsides.

First, as an Ally, his slot is incredibly competitive. He costs is relatively high, his soak isn't amazing, and his stat-boosting ability is tricky to turn on. But, all of these can be mitigated. If you build around him, he's great:

• Money. He costs 4 to play, which is high, and then expects you to have enough money to turn on his ability. However, any card that gives you cash to turn on his ability also gives you cash to play him. He himself gives you cash with his ability. So once you throw in a Lone Wolf or a Hot Streak(4) (or a Hot Streak(2)), he is pretty viable.
• Slots. He competes directly with Leo, of course, but I'm not convinced Leo is always the strongest option. Leo gives you actions but sucks your tempo to the tune of 6 resources. What if you'd like to bounce back pretty quickly? Dario can take 2 actions to play at a net cost of 2 resources, then can give you another 2 next turn to get set up. Regardless, if you'd like to mitigate the slot cost of Dario, Charisma is the obvious answer.

I've played him in a pay-to-win solo Jenny before to great effect. She could afford to win through Streetwise and still keep her Dario bonus up. I've also enjoyed him in solo Jim (with Lone Wolf for money), stacking with St. Hubert's Key to have a very imposing 6 5 3 2 statline. He is much easier to play around than David Renfield as far as econ options go, and he gives you as well.

So give him a try, particularly in solo decks (where 2 stats is massive)!

The price of 3 is heavy, but I think Trench Coat is a fine card for certain investigators in certain campaigns. I'm a big believer in passive stat boosts. If you build your investigator to evade frequently, you really need effects like this. On Expert, simply relying on the 4 base Agility of the evade-friendly investigators is not going to get results. You need to crank that Agility up somehow. Peter Sylvestre is a great start, but not everyone can take him, and in any case, the more Agility you can stack, the better. Trench Coat will become less a bit less necessary once you get really strong boosts from XP cards like Suggestion or Streetwise.

At the same time, this card is also offering 2 health soak, which is really nice for someone like Sefina. You could compare this card to Holy Rosary. You get a similar amount of value, with a passive stat boost and a soak of 2. Now, Trench Coat is probably worse than the Rosary, since it costs an extra resource and doesn't apply its stat boost all the time. (It does take up a less-contested slot, but this is probably not enough to even things out.) It's a shame that this card doesn't work in the Mythos phase, nor does it synergize with the likes of Backstab. But I think the Rosary is exceptionally strong for a level 0 card, so something a bit worse is not at all unplayable--as long as you're planning on evading a lot.

I especially like Trench Coat in Forgotten Age. First, an evade-focused build is actually good in that campaign. Second, the extra health is very helpful since the campaign is more damage-oriented than any of the others. This card becomes downright essential for Sefina, and even the 7-8 health investigators are going to appreciate it.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend this card for investigators with 3 or fewer Agility (notwithstanding the flavor text). If you're not planning on evading all the time, this card is not very good. There is the health soak, though, and in the Forgotten Age campaign, someone like Akachi or Mateo (who have access to very little health soak otherwise) could consider it for that reason.

To speculate about the future, I'm guessing we'll soon get a level 0 amulet that soaks horror and helps against treacheries, corresponding to Trench Coat in the same way that Elder Sign Amulet corresponds to Bulletproof Vest.