Most players are not going to think too much about their investigator's Elder Sign (), which comes up so rarely and doesn't really do anything. Seriously, how many effects are just +X or only trigger on particular types of tests? Anyways, if your name is Father Mateo, your whole shtick is about the Elder Sign and getting it as often as possible... but Silas Marsh players should also take note, because this is the strongest one in the game.

First off, the effect -- you get to commit YOUR CHOICE of skill cards from the discard pile, (1) getting its icons, (2) getting its skill card benefits, and (3) keeping it around for another test. Any of the three parts would be good-to-great effects, but all three? Amazing. Let's talk about each: (1) the doesn't give you any skill boost by itself, so in the event you aren't going to pass the test (a test in Mythos, probably), this is almost like a Lucky!. Keeping some icons, like an Unexpected Courage, in the discard pile is key. (2) Oh boy -- we don't just play skill cards for their icons, we mostly play them for their action-less effects. Here, there's NO RISK in committing the card, since you know if you'll pass and trigger the effect. And the big prize here is Resourceful, as long as you're taking a , , or test, and you get to grab ANOTHER from the discard pile. It could be another skill, or a powerful event. But maybe if you're going to pass by 1 (and now 2) anyways, why not give yourself another action with Quick Thinking? Your discard pile is your oyster. (3) If that wasn't enough, you'll get a chance to do the effect AGAIN on a future test. Silas can run low on cards on hand because he commits so many skills, so this solves that problem very quickly.

Putting all three effects together and you get a huge tempo swing. The not so unusual case with Resourceful and Lucky! (3) goes like this: compared to just drawing a 0 or +1 token, you'll pick up two more cards in hand from your discard pile (the aforementioned Resourceful and Lucky!). On a future test that you might fail, you'll commit Resourceful, play Lucky! and get it back, and then draw another card from Lucky!'s effect. You'll never fail a skill test again, and you'll keep replenishing your hand. That's the way to stay ahead of the game.

OK, so how do you make sure this keeps happening? In , it's Eucatastrophe, and Silas / Resourceful is probably why the Taboo list makes you remove the card from the game after you play it. Still, doing it twice per game is plenty powerful. Against All Odds, the only card that potentially reveals multiple tokens, is worth a passing thought, but nothing more than that. For maximum multiplayer fun, though, pair with an investigator who will give you some help. One option is someone who can take Blessing of Isis and will follow you around. Silas Marsh is excellent with tokens as well, so you can really put that Favor of the Sun to good use here. The other option is to get help from a Mystic who will toss you a Seal of the Elder Sign or seal other tokens like with The Chthonian Stone, to make drawing the more likely. Or just play with Jacqueline Fine, who can use her ability on you!

Lastly, the only time that the effect fizzles is when there is nothing in the discard pile you can commit. This is because your discard pile is empty because the game just started -- a strong endorsement for Short Supply -- or you don't have skill cards with matching icons in the discard, like a few icons or Guts in the Mythos phase. That's why it's a good idea to have a variety of skills in Silas and commit when you can. Or maybe you've already pulled everything back from your discard pile with True Survivor or something, in which case you're probably already trouncing the scenario.

Important notes for understanding the value of this card:

The action on the card can be used outside of your turn during any window shown in pg.23 of the rules reference, including after a hunter moves but before it attacks.

The action combined with Daniela's ability can allow you to automatically evade an enemy engaged with a squishy teammate without spending the action to engage it. This can be useful on hunters with preferred prey.

When the enemy attacks you due to the action on this card, that enemy does NOT exhaust.

The Fight action can still be used when the wrench is exhausted.

Overall, it's not an incredibly good item, but it does let Daniela make significantly more out of her ability. The more soak you have and more you like being attacked, the more appealing this item gets, but it's not nearly on the level of many unique items like Monterey Jack's absolutely insane whip. In some situations, it's safer to get that enemy off someone with 100% certainty at the cost of taking one hit from it. However, for the majority of enemies (especially those that deal horror), your ideal course of action is still to kill them before they hurt anyone.

Here's a hypothetical scenario. Play:

1. Voice of Ra (Reveal 3 tokens).
2. Jacqueline Fine's ability (Reveal 2 additional tokens, cancel 2 of them).
3. Olive McBride (Reveal 3 instead of 1, choose 2 to resolve, ignore the other).
4. 2x Dark Prophecy (Reveal 5 tokens instead of 1, choose 1 to resolve, ignore the rest).
5. 2x Grotesque Statue (Reveal 2 instead of 1, choose 1 to resolve, ignore the other).

The number of tokens revealed would be: 3+2+5+5+2+2+3 = 22 which is basically the entire bag and then some.

Since you cannot ignore or cancel any of the symbol tokens you revealed, you guarantee 1+(x*2) resources, where x is the number of symbol tokens in the bag (sans Elder Sign, Bless, Curse, Frost tokens).

The phrase you have to say is also a mouthful: "I play Voice of Ra to reveal 3 tokens, then I will activate Jacqueline Fine's ability to reveal 2 additional tokens and cancel 2 of them. I will use Olive McBride on Jacqueline's 2nd additional token, to reveal 3 tokens instead of 1 and choose 2 to resolve, ignoring the other. Of the 2 tokens resolved via Olive McBride, I will use Dark Prophecy on each of them, revealing 5 tokens and resolving 1, ignoring the rest, for both tokens. Of the 1 token chosen via Dark Prophecy for each copy played, I will activate Grotesque Statues, to reveal 2 tokens instead of 1 and resolving one of them."

Is it worth it? Definitely not.

The other 2 remaining cards that you shuffle away maybe aren't bad, just that they are not needed right now. I found that repeated use of this card on the same deck not only find you what you need now, but also concentrates the deck with what you need later. It's not just about finding "a" card you like, it also delay the other pieces of the combo to properly come later. Using it on the same investigator several times can be an enabler for cards that need to come in the right order. e.g. Non-buffing allies with one time effect that you are planned to replace with one with permanent buff, or asset slot expander cards.

edit This card is ridiculously good in the scarlet keys campaign, because of the Concealed mechanic.

Soooo everytime I play lily chen, I take this weapon. And I think these swords our pretty good, and I always enjoy using them. That being said. They are bad to the alternatives that she could take.cough hammercough but I always take these knifes. And I like to talk about why.

I have used the cyclopean hammer many times, and I enjoy, just like many, the effectiveness it brings to the table. I wrote a little review talking about how it should be tabooed, it a pretty hard card from all fronts. Why build for weapons that requires ammo, and special attachments, and resources to pay and the actions to spend trying to get set up, to do half of what the hammer can do. And that's without all of the attachments. Sure it's 5 resources, but that's on par the lighting gun, bar, and flamethrower. All prevalent weapons for guardians........ but Lily can't take any of them.

That leaves the hammer, the best of them all,the holy spear, which you could muster up a bless-ish build with lily, and these butterfly swords, objectively the worst of the bunch, but I still would rather take the swords over the hammer, when I play Lily.

The main reason is that it has an interesting take on using Agility, as apposed to using more strength. Which typically guardians have around 2-3 Agility. So it makes for a pretty 'okay' boost,But compare to the hammer, there isn't a single guardian that has lower then 3 will.(except Carson:/) So it usually boosted to the same, or more, for less test taking. To do the same damage once, requires 2 test, while the hammer can do the same 3 damage a majority of the time. For less test. This is why people want the swords buffed.

The problem is, that I think this card is in a good place, and we really shouldn't push for this card to be like the hammer. Because if this card was like the hammer, we would need to taboo it, but if the hammer was like this card, we would also want it buffed as well. That is the awkward state of the hammer. It's just so good.

The swords, while not as good as the hammer, I think are fun to use. The whole point of this game is taking test, and while less is more with the hammer, It's just too good, and leaves other weapons wanting. Lily can, especially with her strength and Agility disciplines, work wonders with this weapon.

But I think that really says more about lily, then theses swords. But I will always play these swords on her, rather the hammer.