Just a reminder: On the Hunt and "Let me handle this!" exist and are good cards (especially together as a powerful "enemy funnel" build). The fact that these cards exist means that you can ensure that enemies get delivered to your doorstep to trigger this trap. On the Hunt especially is a powerful card for this purpose since it overrides normal spawn rules to put the victim not on its normal spot but right on top of you and also shortens the time you need to wait and stick around for a foe to appear.

Ideally you'll wait for both cards (Ambush and On the Hunt) to make it to your hand, then you play them in a combo.

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Spoiler alert for some relatively common (first scenario per story) enemy cards

2 hp foes like Ghoul Minion and Fanatic just blow up.

3 hp foes like Ravenous Ghoul are now firmly in boxing reach (With or without Mano a Mano.

Most importantly, 4hp foes like Yithian Observer, Agent of the King and Icy Ghoul are now one-shottable with a gun and firmly within striking distance.

Big hitter card. An autofail token can ruin the most assured of hits and this is that tech card you include so that your once-in-a-scenario Double Vicious Blow + Lightning Gun combo assuredly hits.

More realistically though its gonna be a single Vicious Blow with a .45 Automatic to deal that imperative 3 damage hit to a Ravenous Ghoul or a Vicious Blow + .45 Automatic to kill one of oh-so many 4hp foes that terrorize our mythos decks.

This latter scenario is probably the most common and useful use of "Eat lead!" in this game, to ensure that those moderately tough "minibosses" die in as few actions and as little risk as possible.

Howdy Roland Banks, just a quick question. Wouldya rather draw Rotting Remains or Swarm of Rats?

Superb card for the dedicated fighter. It ensures that you trigger the benefits that dedicated fighters generally hope to gain, such as William Yorick or Roland Banks gaining items and clues.

It also doubles as protection, many fighters have the ability to kill off basic foes in just an action or two, but those same fighters might fear and passionately hate drawing mythos cards that force sanity damage or some penalty. Case in point: The first line of this review.

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-The gathering Spoiler below-

Final note: Also useful to ensure that you've got something to do. For a fighter type character those "dead" rounds with no enemies are bad, they leave you with nothing to do and may cause enemy spawns to be more condensed later, which makes it harder for you to respond to them all. This card lets you guarantee that you've got something to nibble on while your friends do the heavy lifting, a good example for the usefulness of this effect is the very first Arkham LCG scenario The Gathering. Once you're out of the study you can head for the basement or attic and dig out the appropriate ghoul to quickly dispatch for XP.

This is not the best card. But. There is a place for it.

Mano a Mano is primarily let down by its restriction of "First action only", this means that it cant be used by a dedicated fighter to tackle down enemies engaged with their dedicated cluehounds.

This card is good in decks that go out of their way to very literally "hunt" for enemies on their own. You use "Let me handle this!" and On the Hunt to ensure that enemies that might've spawned on your friends get spawned on you instead. The circumstance where Mano a Mano is good is when enemies spawn on you and you can start off a fight right in their faces and these combat support cards can make that happen manually.

The most efficient way to put this card to use is in decks for characters who benefit from the monsters they battle, William Yorick and Roland Banks come to mind. Zoey Samaras can also put this card to good use.

Other cards that synergize include: Guard Dog and Beat Cop for more auto-damage. Evidence! to then turn hunted enemies into clues. "I've had worse…" to fuel the warmachine through sustained battle. Every single weapon, obviously!

I find that use is a bit too conditional, but then again so are the new "composure" cards.

The 1 horror shield perk is not terrible but guardians have better ways to shield/prevent/heal horror. The 1 exp cost makes it inferior for this use.

A rich Zoey might benefit from it under certain cicumstances but it's a bit of a head scratcher for Mark and Roland who are not usually resource-plenty. But even with Zoey, and it likely won't survive too long in your play area for you to benefit from it consistently. Mark can use Sophie to buff himself far more reliably and without resource cost.

The fast trait and cheap cost are the evident advantages compared to Physical Training if you're hoping to buff your combat skill. No willpower option however, for which a buff is always handy.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, assets can only be played during your turn, so you cannot surprise-buff your agility for an encounter card agility test (because when are you buffing your combat during Mythos anyhow?) That means you need to have it played beforehand, adding more to its chances of a premature break.

The slot in your deck is probably better spent on other cards. Likely you'll just commit it than spend two resources to play and trigger.