Ursula has the abilities of a dedicated clue gatherer like [Rex Murphy], so let's compare her to Rex and not Daisy and Minh.

Stats:

Ursula loses 1 fight and gains 1 escape.

Rex couldn't really use his strength without a [Fire axe] and tons of money anyway.

Now Ursula has high chances of being able to escape monsters. That's especially useful when you know that seekers have low combat abilities and that Ursula cannot splash for combat cards like [Fire Axe] or [Elusive].

Ability:

Rex's ability isn't capped, Ursula's ability is. That changes a lot of things.

In solo play, most locations will contain only one clue and Ursula's ability is better.

With 3-4 players, most locations will contain tons of clues and Ursula's ability will fall behind Rex's.

In duo, the two abilities are quite similar. Rex needs to move, investigate and succeed by 2 or more to get both clues.

Ursula needs to move, investigate successfully during her free action and then investigate successfully once more.

Rex only needs to succeed one test, Ursula has more flexibility in her actions.

Rex doesn't really need [Archaic glyphs: guiding stones] but Ursula could definitely put it to good use to investigate as fast as Rex!

Cards pool:

Rex can splash for awesome cards like [Fire Axe], [Ward of Protection], [Elusive], [Scavenging], [Lone wolf] and so on. He seems more versatile, stronger in the early campaigns & safer. With money, [fire axe] and [Higher education] he can basically succeed in every task easily. But later in the game, his card pool only improves with Seeker cards.

Ursula has access to [Armor of ardennes], [Charon's Obol: the ferryman's pay], [Grotesque statue], [Lucky dice], [The chtonian stone], [Jewel of Aureolus: gift of the homunculi] and [The gold pocket watch: stealing time]. Those are all strong late campaign cards. Those can be combined with [Dr. Elli Horowitz: assistant curator] or [Relic Hunter] to great effect. Basically she can gain xp faster and use that xp better.

She still has access to [Mind over matter], [I've got a plan], [Knife] and [Manual dexterity] to survive alone early on. Later in the game she will have access to [Strange solution: acidic ichor] and [Disc of Itzama: protective amulet]. The later also prevents Yig's revenge from stacking in the victory pile!

This may still be a bit weak for solo play, especially against bosses, but in a duo it would work wonder!

Bonus cards:

Both are useful but not broken. It's a bit sad that Ursula's card takes up an ally slot. [Dr. Milan Christopher] & [Dr. Elli Horowitz: assistant curator] are both really interesting ally choices. This may make [Charisma] a high quality option for Ursula at some point.

Malus cards: Both are back-breaking but generally won't cost you the game. Be sure to pack some horror soak for Ursula anyway.

Conclusion: In my opinion, Ursula is a really good dedicated clue gatherer. She may be even better than Rex in a multiplayer campaign or in a duo as she has a better late game potential and her ability is basically equivalent to Rex's in a duo. She is also favored in scenarios with tons of locations to explore & investigate and little to no time to do so.

"Hey kid... wanna buy a human sacrifice? Only two resources!" - Matt Newman, How to make a terrible deal in AH: LCG

This card is a fantastic example of excruciating decisions that AH LCG is capable of producing using only two cards. It should never be looked at by itself, but rather in conjunction with its "upgrade" as well - The Price of Failure. Let's examine what this duo does in practice.

Basic weakness itself seems rather straight-forward: pay two resources to deal two damage to an investigator at your location (reminder: it can be assigned to assets). It can be you or one of your teammates - your choice (or is it? we'll get back to that later). This effect might seem similar to Dark Memory of Agnes, but the cost in here seems to be less steep. With Agnes's weakness however, it is possible to just hold it - as long as you are capable of staying sane, nothing happens. With Dark Pact situation is somewhat different: if you hold it till the end of the scenario, you have to exchange it for The Price of Failure going forward - and this is where fun begins.

This card is never in the vacuum of its own effect - it always poses the question: "are we in good enough situation to do it?". The question is also never static, the answer to it will shift with every play. After all, The Price of Failure is quite nasty in its effect, which is partially group-wide (the doom aspect of it). You might find yourself in the situation when you KNOW FOR A FACT that your next scenario is the one you can't afford to risk having The Price of Failure as a potential draw, but at the moment, both you and your partners sit on 2 health points left... Are you going to willingly diminish your own chances of success now by offing yourself or your partner, to not face the cost of insubordination in the future...?

At times, the answer might be easy, with everyone healthy and the board state relatively safe (or in the last scenario, when the future doesn't matter). But this is Arkham: how often will that be the case? Especially since the Dark Pact robs you of two resources as well, potentially impairing your other actions. But hey... decision is yours. (is it really...?)

Because here's my only pet peeve with this card: why doesn't it say Peril anywhere on the card? That one keyword would change so much about it, making it a very personal decision by design. Because as it stands, it is perfectly possible to make it a group decision, something that happens just because everyone at the table agreed upon such turn of events. But if only one person had to make a call (who should take damage, and when, if at all), that would change so much about their actions. They would be faced with the duty of postponing potential future disaster, but the only judgement they'd have would be their own. How exciting and crushing at the same time it would be...? (my internal "lovecraftian fun" calculator says it would be 2.3 times much more fun) It also wouldn't be out of ordinary, since Carcosa cycle already introduced cards that hamper player communication with the Peril keyword, forcing players to make their own mind and searching for their own solutions in cooperative environment. Making Dark Pact such a card would be the natural progress of this already known mechanism.

As it stands though, the card in and of itself is still good, and by by "good" I mean "bad"; it does what it was supposed to do very well. Cards that create interesting choices are always welcomed in my book, and by "book" I mean "binder".

Still, two resources for self-inflicted harm? That's a bad deal, Matt! Not economically sustainable at all! And by "not economically sustainable" I mean "fun". Quite fun.

• This card seems really useful in forgotten age, as it removes "Vengeance X" from non-elite Monsters plus some other terrifying effects they have (retaliate, alert,...)

• However with more players, there's a chance such a card is drawn again after shuffling the encounter deck

• As a spell, it can also be searched with Arcane Initiate

Compare to its base version, Arcane Initiate(0), this upgraded card is too expensive for what extra benefit it gives. The option to add 2 horrors instead of 1 doom, and 1 extra sanity on it, along with being 1 resource cheaper.

The doom aspect can be easily mitigated by playing this card when the agenda would advance on the next round anyway, as the advancing agenda will take all dooms in play along with it (something I didnt realised ontil the 3rd playthrough...). If you choose to place 2 horrors on it instead, the extra horror soak is meaningless.

True, its more flexible when you choose to play it during mid agenda progress, but your hard earn exp is better spent else where.

Sure, the other reviews are mostly focused on how this card works as an economy card, and I agree that using it to summon Dr. Milan Christopher makes it the equivalent of a fast Emergency Cache which I think is quite good, but I would like to focus my attention on a very important word in this card's ability: Investigate

This card is an investigate action - and one that lets you control the difficulty. Declare a Magnifying Glass and you are making a difficulty 0 Investigate check. "Okay, but why is that useful?" I hear you ask. "You've just paid a resource, a card, and an action to play a free, fast card!"

Yeah, that would be pretty dumb. But here's the thing. Let's say you're Rex Murphy and commit a Deduction. Now you just need a 2 (-4 or better) to pick up 3 clues from that action.

If you want to be even greedier, have your rogue buddy Double or Nothing. It's still difficulty 0, but now the Deduction offers 4 clues in an action. All sorts of silly shenanigans open up when you can Double or Nothing a difficulty 0 test such as Quick Thinking, but sadly not "Watch this!".

But this isn't just about the action compression, the best part is that you control the difficulty, even on a high shroud location, which could reach 5, or even 6 with an encounter card.

Still don't feel like you need this in a pure seeker? You'd rather just pay for Higher Education and Archaic Glyphs Understandable. This is a low enough level combo that it can still be used by secondary - or even tertiary seekers. Roland Banks can struggle to pick up a bunch of clues off a high shroud location without enemies to take advantage of. Even if you're still using Deduction, you succeed with a -2 to Unearth an Art Student and grab two clues.

Is it still a pretty finicky card? Definitely. Do I think you should auto-include it? Probably not. But open your mind to the possibilities, and keep an eye on this card in the future as more synergies become available. I expect this card to eventually be the center of some pretty silly combos.