PRO

• An and boosting ally. There are several rogues and (and a few seekers) whose bread and butters are those two stats. Seekers in general are starved for Intellect boosting allies as well, so Gené is a great alternative to someone who would otherwise stay with Dr. Milan for an entire campaign. Even if they wont get much use out of the boost.
• You can move a clue or an non-Elite enemy either to or from your location. This is an amazing ability that opens up all kind of useful interactions (listed below).
• 2 health and sanity will help Gené here soak at least some damage, or survive effects that hurt your allies such as Centuries of Secrets.

CON

• Costs 5 resources (by time of writing Arkhamdb says 2, but I believe that's wrong). 5 is a lot, even for the two richest classes in the game. Losing poor Genè to a Crypt Chill on round 2 will be painful, so beware.
• Genés ability to move enemies don't work on Elites. And that's fair, but it means that she'll be less useful in some scenarios than others.
• 3 Xp will restrict this card to dedicated rogue and seekers (and Lola).

I think Genè is one of the greatest allies this game has seen so far and justly priced at 3 Xp. The one thing holding her back, really, is how expensive she is.

Gene is an upgrade over Milan in a great many decks, especially those that has some sort of synery with Genès abilities to move clues and enemies, such as Ursula Downs, Trish Scarborough and Monterey Jack. The only one left sad here is dethroned Lola Santiago, really. And don't feel too bad for her; Lola will still see actions in decks that prefer her clues-for-cash ability.

Things you can do with Genés ability

Feel free to add more in the comments

Clues

• Drag a clue after you as you move to the next location. This is useful if you need to move away from something, for example an exhausted enemy. Or if you have a free move effect such as Pathfinder.
• Move a clue away from a Victory Point location.
• Move clues onto locations with lower shroud values.
• Move a clue to your location so you can use abilities or cards that need to have a clue present. Trish' investigator ability is one example, Inquiring Mind is another.
• Clump clues together, so you can pick them all up with cards such as Deduction or Archaic Glyphs.

Enemies

(remember, non-Elite only)

• Moving enemies away is a great way to make them irrelevant. Even hunter enemies wont like being left several locations behind. Or you can move them to someone who will benefit from killing them off, such as Yorick.
• If you're already engaged with an enemy and you can afford an attack of opportunity, just move to a new location. Then use Genè to move that enemy away from your location. It's kinda strange that this works, but I can't see why it shouldn't. You can even move enemies that are engaged with your team mates.

Finally the upgraded version of the healy book. Do I get it right that you can use it also when it is exhausted, but the next fail has to deal the damage? It would be more punishing if you could not use it while exhausted though. But two possible heals with no limited uses? That’s just broken! Love it

This card might see more play with the upcoming neutral permanent added in the edge of the earth expansion. In the thick of it (not yet added on the site), 3 Exp and two trauma's of your choice might turn this in a very efficient heal even at the first scenario.

There is a lot of writing on how good flashlight is at what it does, but I think it is critical to understand why flashlight is so good in a 'meta' sense to really start to understand Arkham as a game.

As one of my friends put it, "Someone who isn't normally expected to get clues successfully getting 2-3 clues is the difference between winning and losing a scenario in multiplayer"

Arkham, at its core, all about efficiently getting through the act deck, and while there are combat or movement focused acts, the overwhelming majority of scenarios are advanced primarily through investigation: you are, after all, an investigator.

So while a strong, two handed gun, or a deck with every card focused for tackling enemies and threats, is going to be very good at clearing those threats you face out fast, you need to ask yourself why you are removing threats. In general, killing enemies is done specifically to allow you to safely go get more clues. So if your just... not assisting with clues at all, it doesn't matter that you kill enemies twice as fast. Who cares that you killed a 3 health enemy in 1 action instead of 2 because you got rid of your .45 really early in a campaign, if you are going to spend every turn sharpening your sword and polishing your gun rather than using that action to actually help win the scenario?

This doesn't mean every deck needs flashlight: Mystic, Seekers, and arguably Rogues don't really need it usually. Survivors have other tools but often want Flashlight as well. But I see so many guardians falling for the trap option of being 'pure combat' and trying to take that entire dimension of the game on alone, and abandoning all else, and that is a huge mistake.

So Flashlight teaches us this: Your deck needs plans for things to do that actually help your team win the scenario, rather than just endlessly handling threats. Yes, even in 4 player multiplayer. Yes, even if you are Mark.

Killing enemies super efficiently isn't the same as cluvering really efficiently. A seeker, mystic, or rogue just nomming up clues faster than normal is helping the entire team get through the scenario faster, reducing the amoung of encounters everyone faces, and freeing up others to explore other easier locations, regain resources, or explore because they are 'overkilling' a location and gathering faster than normal.

But a fighter like Guardians or Survivors killing the maybe the small handful of 3 health enemies they face early on in a campaign doesn't help anyone else. It just helps that fighter, because no one else really cares how fast the enemy dies, just that it isn't attacking them while they seek out clues. Outside of bosses (who, again, you spend a minority of your time fighting so being a bit less efficient at that early is totally ok), doing lots of damage very fast only helps the team if you can, after efficiently killing something, go on to do other helpful things! So have tools to do other helpful things!

Those tools don't have to be Flashlight, and eventually you may need to leave it behind to get tools to deal with escalating threats, but you need to do more than slap two Evidence! or Look what I found into your deck and calling it a day even once you leave Flashlight behind. Almost every investigator has good options for replacing it, even if it as simple as getting a 'resources for stat boost' card that can boost your investigates.

Of the six deck creation talents, this one feels the swingiest and therefore the weakest.

Having a first turn of Ever Vigilant, in theory, sounds amazing. And ANY number of assets? Holy cow!

...but two things give me pause.

One: if, even after your mulligan, you have very few assets in your hand, then this really is just a worse Ever Vigilant that you're FORCED to use. At least with Ever Vigilant, you can keep it in hand until you're able to slam down some assets.

Two: you lose your first turn. If that was going to be a turn of just putting down stuff, then I guess you've broken even, or even won out depending on if you have three or more items in hand (and, of course, the cash to pay for them). But if you're putting down only one or two assets, then that's a whole turn gone that you could have also used moving forward and potentially picking up clues. And that just feels... really, REALLY bad.

So I think personally I'm gonna reach for any of the other talents before this one. Maybe go for the Neutral one instead? That way you can spend the immediate XP on Ever Vigilant and just have that in your deck in Scenario 1.