Guard dog is most effective at taking out weak enemies with 1-2 health that deal 1 damage. This allows it to maximize its (guaranteed damage) triggered ability and save a few actions.

Take this example in a Roland deck:

1. Weak enemy (1HP) engages Roland in a location with clues.
2. Roland has guard dog in play, and decides to draw a card (or just walk around like a boss).
3. This triggers an attack of opportunity (AoO), and damage is assigned to guard dog.
4. Guard dog triggers and the enemy is defeated.
5. Roland's ability triggers, and you discover a clue.

Effectively, you've killed an enemy and discovered a clue while using an action doing something else entirely.

Clarifications

-Timing structure (for the above example): trigger action is declared (i.e. move) -> AoO triggers -> damage is assigned (not dealt) to guard dog, triggering its ability -> enemy is defeated -> Roland ability triggers > damage is dealt to guard dog -> trigger action is resolved (move).

-If guard dog has 1HP remaining, it can be assigned both lethal damage and horror (1 damage + 1 horror) from an attack.

One of the single best upgrades you can buy for your deck. The ally slot is arguably the strongest slot available to investigators and being able to have two or even three allies out at the same time will dramatically change how you build decks.

There are allies so good that building decks that don't play them is unthinkable if those allies are available, such as Leo De Luca for Rogues or Dr. Milan Christopher for Seekers. Playing Charisma allows you to look at the other allies available to these investigators and consider including them as well.

Even better though is the health and sanity buffer that your allies provide you with. Having three allies out at the same time makes you virtually unkillable to any non-direct damage/horror. I would always consider getting Charisma and playing an extra ally before picking up something like Bulletproof Vest or Elder Sign Amulet if you are worried about trauma.

Very strong card...in very specific decks. You are only going to want to include this in your deck if you have either A.) A really strong ally that you want to get as early as possible AKA Leo De Luca or B.) You have disposable allies that you play for a one time effect such as Research Librarian. The strongest disposable ally is The Red-Gloved Man , which you could play to either grab two clues, or fight an enemy twice, and then play Calling in Favors to pick him back up to play again later while replacing him with another ally from your deck.

The problem with this card is that you are really going to want to play at least 5-6 allies in your deck, as you need to have one out first to play it, and then enough left in your deck to have good odds of finding one in the top 9 cards. Some investigators just aren't going to want to play 6 allies in their deck due to which ones are available to them, and the resource costs of those allies. Plus, you'll have to get at least one copy of Charisma to avoid being stuck with allies you can't play in your hand.

On top of that, you are going to run into situations where Calling in Favors is a dead draw, such as when you haven't got an ally out yet, or when you already have your best allies out and don't want to replace them. I'd probably only play a single copy of Calling in Favors most of the time, unless you are trying to abuse The Red-Gloved Man.

It's a bit hard to write a review on a card that's not printed yet. Bittersweet exercice : it does not settle my desire to test it, and what's more, I can be victim of my own hype of the card.

This card has two effects, which consumes charges (or not). Let's start with the 1st one. You add your agility to your willpower for an escape. If you don't succeed by at least 2, you remove one charge from that spell. It's a sort of boost for escaping. The second effect triggers when you are attacked : you remove 1 charge from the spell and cancel the attack. If you only consume charges that way, it means it can cancel up to 3 attacks.

I am a only playing Mystics and Rogues so far, and I can see a truly amazing potential for Akachi Onyele (see my quick review/thinking on Akachi) and Sefina Rousseau (full review of Sefina). For both of them, Suggestion gives a basic 8 in escape. It works the same as lockpicks and thus I expect to not use too many charges on suggestion, so I can use its 2nd effect to the fullest. Both of them have troubles when it comes to staying power. Akachi can only rely on a few spells like Shrivelling and will have to fight (while being bad at escaping) and Sefina will mostly use event like Backstab to burst or run from mobs. Sooner or later, all spells or events will be fully used, but Suggestion, which is more or less everlasting, offers an alternative that can be useful to prevent wasting precious charges / events, at a low cost.

This review won't really be a state-of-the-art of current Akachi Onyele, but more some speculation of Akachi Decks by the end of Carcosa. I have to admit I play Agnes Baker as Mystic and not the Shaman... but that may change by the end of Carcosa as the card pool grow, and I'll try to explain why.

Where should I start ? Building efficient and polyvalent Mystics decks was really troublesome for me. They lacked staying power. Okay, you can use a Blinding Light or other one-shot spells to deal with monsters... but they are often very resource-intensive (around 3) and not reusable. My mystics decks ended relying a heck lot on Rite of Seeking (lvl4) to gather clues and Shrivelling (lvl3 ; lvl5) to kill ennmies. That wasn't enough so I get in Flashlight, Drawn to the Flame for consistency. In the case of Agnes, I tried to be less reliant on spells and more on her own power (just take those f*cking pills to ease your headache).

I didn't even give a shot on Akachi. 1 more use on spells ? Good, that delay their obsolescence. But that doesn't tackle the issue you need to get the spell. Having only 2 copies aren't enough. And you cannot even rely on your innate ability to do something without it. (Contrary to Agnes who will take drugs in that case.)

When it came to card pool, Akachi Onyele seemed waaaaaaay behind. No access to lvl0-2, no access to 5 splash cards. So, Akachi was definitely a no go for me. Until I saw the recent spoilers... Some new cards that Akachi can use since they are Spells ("use : charges") or Occult.

1/ Suggestion is a new way to make her untouchable. (8 escape unboosted, 6 if you won't use any charge). Plus, you can cancel up to 4 attacks that are dealt to her. Wow. Untouchable. What's more, it works well with Shrivelling : sometimes, you don't want to use charges to deal with a non-hunter monster. Getting out, quite for sure, without consuming any charge ? More please ! And if it is a Hunter ? The way suggestion works, it will give you plenty of time before you really need to take care of it.

2/ Arcane Insight is an upgraded version of Flashlight. For 1 more resource, you have 4 uses. And the -2 stays the whole turn, without costing any action ! You can even use it for teammates ! Too great to be true. It's not really a card for Seekers, that have insane ways for gathering clues... but it's a perfect fit for Akachi ! Use it once on a 2 or lower shroud, and you can gather up to 3 clues in that place this turn !

3/ If archaic Glyphs works the same as Strange Solution, we can expect something as powerful as Strange Solution later in the game. It might be a bit tricky to translate them, but once it's done... Let's gamble we will have some really good staying power... with charges !

So, okay, 3 new cards for Akachi that will make consistency. More cards to deal with monsters effectively, and more cards to gather clues. Good ! All spells with charges, that synergy with Akachi, even better. But... 4 different spells ? For 4 arcane slots ? Should we use that old and dusty Book of Shadows ? It seems a bit too expensive. So, we now have a different trouble : we are too rich when it comes to good staying-power spells ! I guess Akachi will see more plays in a near futur....