Spectral Razor is great and provides exciting flexibility for Mystics who want to handle combat but don't want to stack up charge-based assets. My favorite experience so far has been running a single copy in Father Mateo as a tidy little insurance policy for when the Serpents of Yig eventually show up. And I built a Patrice Hathaway deck for a friend that included two copies of the whole cycle (this + Read the Signs & Ethereal Form).

There two major rules points that are important to playing this card correctly, and which sent me frantically googling the first time my group tried to resolve one.

First: the consequences of "add your value." As other reviewers highlight, Spectral Razor is different from many previous cards because it adds rather than replaces the base skill being tested. The most obvious effect is that you're able to get big fight values very easily -- adding and can get you to totals of 6, 7, or 8 very often. But it also changes how you can further boost that skill value. Specifically, you can't boost this attack with pips on committed cards (like Guts), because according to the) rules for skill checks, players can only commit "cards with an appropriate skill icon" which are "[ones] one that matches the skill being tested, or a wild icon," and doesn't match Fights. However, you can boost your with many actions like those on Arcane Studies. The timing) rules of skill checks give windows before and after committing cards in step ST.2, and the final value isn't calculated until ST.5, when you "apply all active modifiers" to the base skill...that's when you add your . And, as the FAQ to Lockpicks makes clear, there's nothing stopping you from boosting a skill other than the one technically being tested.

Second: interaction with Aloof. There seems to be significant disagreement about this in previous reviews, but as I read it, Spectral Razor can be used to attack and engage an unengaged Aloof enemy. The difference comes down to the difference between Fight, which is an Action Designator, and "attack" which describes a mechanical operation that is a part of the Fight Action, but can also be triggered in other ways (for instance, Enemies "attack" investigators without taking Fight Actions). In the rules) for Fight, it states: "An investigator may fight any enemy at his or her location..." and it is the specific) rules for Aloof that intercede: "An investigator cannot attack an aloof enemy while that enemy is not engaged with an investigator." The difference in wording between "fight" and "attack" in these two lines implies that one can trigger a Fight Action against an unengaged Aloof, but simply couldn't resolve the attack portion of the Fight Action. This is where Spectral Razor's wording comes into play, allowing the Fight Action to start and then engaging the enemy in question "immediately before" the rules would prevent the actual attack.

Rules questions aside, this card has over-performed for me, and is a great option for asset-averse builds!

A combat version of Read the Signs, and I must say, I am quite stoked about this card. It's a problem solver. In mystics and other investigators that use their to do their fighting, Shrivelling charges are an important resource and you want to conserve them if at all possible. In those decks, this card is very powerful. It does 3 damage to non-elite enemies, and, as of this writing, this one shots more enemies than it doesn't. Also, the fact that Spectral Razor adds to rather than simply replacing leads to some very high number. Akachi Onyele attacks with a skill value of 8 using this card, and Jim Culver and Agnes Baker both swing in at a 7, and this is before any buffs from things like Holy Rosary or St. Hubert's Key.

The other benefit, that Spectral Razor automatically engages the enemy, is kinda niche, but it can be used to pull a boss monster off of one of your fellow investigators without using an action. At the very least, it makes sure you won't accidentally hit your friend in the face for 3 damage if you happen to pull the .

It is also missing the clause on a lot of mystic cards that makes something bad happen if you pull a special token.

As for its downsides, Spectral Razor is only single use and it costs resources to use. Mystic's economies often have a lot of demands placed on them, so trading one card for one kill might not be a wise investment.

The other investigator I was really hyped about using this card is was Zoey Samaras, because this is everything she wants. With her 4 and 4, Zoey would be attacking at 8 with this card. It does a bunch of damage, which is always good, and the free engage combined with Zoey's passive would give me back one of the resources I used to play this card. The only downside (and it's a big one) is that Zoey only has 5 out-of-class slots, and in faction cards do most of this quite well.

This card is amazing, and it's worth taking in just about every and quite a few characters that have access to it at Level 0. Let's discuss the nature of events and compare this one to the others across the card pool at present to explain why this card is so useful.

First, the card type of choice for doing damage is an asset, whether it is a Spell or a Weapon (Nathaniel Cho excepted, of course). Your monster fighters have to spend an action to put it down and pay for its (high) resource cost, but it pays off in the end since you are paying just the single card for usually 4 or more shots. In order for events that deal damage to compete, there has to be some benefit over weapons to justify their high card cost for a single attack. Of course, for clue-focused investigators, damage-dealing events are key because they don't need to be played until the investigator is in trouble, but then they'd better solve the problem quickly. So, let's look at how the Level 0 and Level 1 damage-dealing events justify their cost.

• Dynamite Blast: Costs 5, 3 testless damage to every enemy at a connecting location.
• One-Two Punch: Costs 2, max 3 damage, but two tests at +1 and +2 .
• Toe to Toe: Costs 0, testless 2 damage, but enemy attacks you first.
• Monster Slayer: Costs 0, 2 damage, no skill boost.
• Clean Them Out: Costs 0, 1 damage, no skill boost, gain 2 resources.
• "Get over here!": Costs 2, 1 damage, free engage of an enemy at current or connecting location.
• Mano a Mano (1: Costs 0, testless 1 damage, only as your first action to an enemy engaged with you.
• Sweeping Kick (1): Costs 1, 2 damage, add , auto-evade on success
• Gang Up (1): Costs 3, up to 6 damage, up to +5 , contingent upon classes controlled.
• Blood Eclipse (1): Costs 1, 3 damage, uses with +2 skill value. Must take 2 damage first.
• Radiant Smite (1): Costs 1, up to 4 damage, may use , up to +3 skill value, contingent upon sealing tokens.

• "I've got a plan!": Costs 3, up to 4 damage (contingent upon having clues), uses , no skill value boost.
• Occult Invocation: Costs 2, up to 3 damage, uses , up to +2 skill value, contingent upon discarding cards.
• Blood-Rite: Costs 0, up to 2 testless damage, but requires you to spend up to 2 resources and discard 2 cards, is bonded to Occult Lexicon.

• Blinding Light: Costs 2, deals 1 damage as a result of a successful evasion ( used).
• Storm of Spirits: Costs 3, 2 damage to every enemy in your location, uses , no skill boost, can damage all investigators in your location for 1 damage.
• Spectral Razor: Costs 2, 3 damage (2 to Elites), adds your , free engage.

• Backstab: Costs 3, 3 damage, uses , no skill boost.
• Sneak Attack: Costs 2, 2 testless damage only to exhausted enemies, can provoke AoO.
• Small Favor: Costs 2 (4), 1 (2) testless damage, only to non-Elites, can provoke AoO, cost can be increased to target enemies at other locations.
• Cheap Shot: Costs 2, 1 damage, adds your , auto-evade on succeed by 2.
• Coup de Grâce: Costs 2, 1 testless damage, draws a card upon enemy defeat, ends your turn.
• Ríastrad (1): Costs 0, up to 4 damage, up to +3 , damage and skill boost contingent upon adding tokens.

• Act of Desperation: Costs 0, 2 damage, skill boost is equal to the cost of the hand slot item discarded, potential resource generation.
• Improvised Weapon: Costs 1, up to 2 damage if played from discard pile, +1 skill boost.
• Flare (1), Costs 2, 3 damage, +2 , must be Exiled.
• Brute Force (1), Costs 0, 1 damage, +3 , 3 damage total on succeed by 2 (not actually an event but acts like one).

At this moment in Arkham Horror, dealing 3 damage with one action will get you out of almost every problematic enemy (including weaknesses) that spawned on you, freeing you up to dealing with another larger enemy or something else you want to do that turn. Since most of the lower level weapons only do 2 damage, barring Vicious Blow, you're looking for a different one-card solution to these sorts of enemies: an event! As you can see, dealing 3 damage in an event is very rare across the classes at this level. It's usually more expensive, or doesn't give a skill boost at all, or is contingent upon some other effect. Spectral Razor gives all of that AND a free engage, saving your teammate or grabbing an Aloof enemy. It's true that Mystics need the stat boost here because their stats are fairly low, but they're also likely to have static boosts in play, and even fighting an enemy at 6 to 3 is not a bad idea. But since most Guardians have 3 or 4 , those that can take this are getting a ton of value. Yes, you'll miss the third damage when you fight an Elite, but this is a single event card, and you (or the team) should have other ways of dealing with other enemies.

At higher levels, the Spell and weapon assets start to catch up since they have multiple or infinite uses at the cost of an action to play them down first. But it's worth stating that Shrivelling (5), which does 3 damage to any enemy, doesn't have the free engage and can hurt you for 2 horror on a bad token pull. Cyclopean Hammer, in contention for the best weapon in the game, has the same "add your " effect as Spectral Razor, but the third damage is contingent upon succeeding by 3. Since this strong effect is a level 0 card, you and your XP is freed up to think of ways to recur it, or even play it many times...

Workhorse event. Pretty good in a large variety of decks.

First off, a singular 3 damage attack with high hit chance is perfectly presentable by itself. People play Backstab fairly regularly and Spectral Razor sure as hell blows that old thing out of the water in terms of price and hit chance. Most characters can mount a +7 or +8 bonus without any support from other cards, which is enough to net hits on medium and hard with relative ease, Backstab in comparison requires some skill card committal or other forms of boosting to land a secure hit.

The ability to blow away a 3-health foe completely free of any support from other cards is perfectly worth a card. It's frankly super impressive at 2 cost and 0 xp.

You can build a deck with 2 Shrivellings and 2 Spectral Razors and use the Razor to cover yourself while you wait to find or play a Shrivelling, alternatively you can play it with Wither and finish off a foe you've started working on. If you have all 3 cards in a deck you've got yourself a very powerful, and dependable, combat focused battle-mystic!

The free engagement is the cherry on top, pull an enemy off of a friend before striking (removing the friendly fire risk) or engage an aloof enemy who'dd otherwise cost you an extra action! Luke Robinson has confusing rules but this probably lets him teleport enemies around!

Obviously the card is uniquely useful in campaigns where 3-health foes are more common, Forgotten age and Circle Undone have these in abundance.

It's good to see more events that are good without heavy support or combo mechanics.