Knife is an easily overlooked card that is outshone by other weapons. Some people quickly jump on the conclusion that it's simply trash, however it definitely has its uses, at least for now with the current card pool early in the Dunwich cycle. The card's two main positive aspects besides that it's neutral and useable by every investigator in the game are that it's incredibly cheap and can be used for a single +2 combat +1 damage attack which is an even better fight action than a Machete swing.

I think there's mainly two situations where Knife becomes useful. Knife is useable as a filler weapon in a deck where you want to draw a weapon as fast as possible, like a set of 2 .45, 2 Machete, 2 Knife. Once you draw one of the actual weapons, you just throw the knife at someone for some nice damage. Of course for that case it will become less important once the classes have more weapons to choose from, but until then it's a nice backup. Alternatively you use it with an investigator who HOPEFULLY never has to actually fight, but might still need to defend herself one or two times like Daisy Walker.

Instead of comparing Knife just to other weapons, I think it's better to also compare it to more supportive cards like Overpower and the recently previewed Prepare for the Worst. They all have positive and negative sides, so it comes down to personal preference or the composition of the deck to determine which might be better. For Guardians, Prepare can act almost like your 2nd/3rd/4th copy of an actually strong weapon, but it could also just fail and waste an action. Kukri is way more action hungry and doesn't give bonus damage (it's useful to know that, unlike Kukri, Knife can potentially kill a 4hp monster in one turn), but is more reliable. Overpower is the cheapest on actions and can draw a card, but doesn't give any bonus damage. Knife is a nice middle ground, gives a good combat and damage boost, but requires an action to play and a hand slot. And even if you don't have time to actually play it down, you can chuck it on a test as a mediocre Overpower. Oh and of course you can use Scavenging to recur the knife, for what it's worth.

Buddy, this way. No, this way...

Shortcut is a beautiful, simple card that flies somewhat under many people's radars. It's fast, which means it doesn't cost an action to play, and allows an investigator to move. What's special about that? At first glance, very little. Therein lies the beauty of the card.

The fact it's fast means it doesn't trigger Attacks of Opportunity if you're engaged with an enemy. Want to move and drag an enemy with you, to where your better-armed buddies are ready to support you? This is the card for you. Or want to push another investigator ahead of you into a location in which enemies wait, so that they engage him and not you? Again, shortcut offers that option, and it's at a zero-cost, actions and resources both.

Strikingly, its two traits, insight and tactic, reveal something of the utility of the card. If you have an understanding of Arkham Horror and want to think tactically, you'll soon see that flexible options to respond to a host of situations become vital in any well-built investigator's deck. Being able to save an action to move at a crucial moment can make the difference between success and failure. There are other great movement cards, such as Bait and Switch, Think on Your Feet and Elusive, but none allow 'pushing' other investigators. Pathfinder is also a premier movement card, a shortcut-on-tap, if you will, but comes with an xp-cost and a stipulation (no enemies engaged with you).

I will always consider Shortcut for any investigator that can take it, including the five Dunwich investigators, as it provides such options. Oh, and the icons aren't bad either!

Wendy's Amulet is a great Signature card that allows Wendy Adams to focus on an event-heavy deck. The Survivor faction has great event cards in the form of Lucky! and "Look what I found!", and Wendy's access to Rogue cards lets her play with very powerful events such as Elusive, Sneak Attack, and Backstab.

Wendy's Amulet takes up an Accessory slot, which is not a huge deal since there are not that many Accessories in the first place. Though it competes with Rabbit's Foot and the Elder Sign Amulet, it's genuinely not a big deal to overwrite those other assets with this powerful Relic.

With Wendy's Amulet in play, you can play the topmost Event in your Discard Pile as if it were in your hand (note that Play means paying the cost to play the card, you can't commit the card to a skill check!). The Forced effect of the Amulet states that playing an event requires you to place it on the bottom of your deck as opposed to your discard pile. The way these two interactions work, you generally want to play Wendy's Amulet only after you have played a couple of very powerful event cards, and then play them off the top of your discard pile.

This makes the order in which you play your events remarkably important! If you play a "Look what I found!" to Investigate and then play Wendy's Amulet, you better be sure that you want to Investigate again in the near future, or else you won't be able to dig through your discard pile for the other powerful events you just played! The importance of order makes it so playing generic events that are almost always useful, such as Emergency Cache or Will to Survive allows for greater flexibility moving forward. Of course, if you really need to focus down getting clues or evading or killing a monster or so, then you can time the Amulet well enough with those appropriate event cards.

Of course, as with all Signature cards that don't start the game in play, you can't guarantee Wendy drawing it. As such, unless it's in your hand or you have some way of ensuring you get it very soon, it's not worth fretting too much over the order in which you play your events (though, in the same breath, if you're going to play two or more events in a turn, it is worth thinking about which one you'd play last...). And, if you draw it at an inopportune time, you can always pitch it in to a skill check for the +2 Wild icons. Also, the fact that it is an Item makes it a great target for Scavenging.

An interesting part of the Forced ability is that the rules of "Instead" cause it to only place the Event card at the bottom of your deck at the point in time where it would resolve and then go into your discard pile. There are some event cards that have been revealed that do not place them in the Discard Pile but rather attach them to some location: #Lure is the example we have for now, but spoilers have revealed other cards... In the case of #Lure, after you finish playing it, it does not go straight to the Discard Pile but rather attached to your Location. As such, Wendy's Amulet Forced ability does not trigger as the "Instead" part of the text does not happen. At the end of the round, when Lure is discarded, it will go on the top of the Discard Pile (the Forced part does not trigger for this either, as it was not 'just' played). Consequently, next round, Wendy can play the Lure again from her Discard Pile! This allows Wendy to infinitely recur the Lure, and help keep monsters away from the other investigators!

EDIT: With Path to Carcosa out, Hiding Spot is now a much better card for Wendy to do some crazy shenanigans against the enemies out of the Encounter deck. With the ability to keep recurring Hiding Spot out with the Amulet, she could play it multiple times to help keep critical locations safe for their fellow teammates. This works because, like Lure, Hiding Spot does not go into the discard pile.

I've been using this in a few decks, and I've found it to be pretty handy. It's like a cheaper Flashlight, with some different restrictions.

I guess solo shouldn't mean you're empty of clues any more than in multiplayer games, but it does somehow feel that way, and the fact that Newspaper is cheaper, and not limited in the number of uses like Flashlight is great. It's not reducing the Shroud, though - so you can't get zero-shroud investigations (success, unless you get an auto-fail), but equally, you still get the benefit on Shroud 1 spaces.

It also seems to combo nicely with Burglary. That's an investigate action, but instead you don't get any clues - so it remains in effect for next time.

It definitely feels like an alternative, possibly improved, flashlight, and I quite like it. It seems to work well with Rex Murphy too; if he's without clues it makes the chance of him grabbing 2 with an investigation much greater.

I think it is best to think of this card as an extra hand slot for most characters instead of 'just' for weapon. That way it doesn't make you feel like it is meant to hold extra weapons in your analysis. For instance, Zoe with a Machete can now hold a Flashlight and Ritual Candles in her hand.

Will you sac this for health? Maybe, but only if your low and the guardians typically dont need this stat boosted. This card seems somewhat mediocre to me.