Django‘s review explains many many ways to play Amanda, but doesn’t answer why.

Amanda is the seeker equivalent of Calvin or Preston, with low stats that are accounted for with a special ability. And while Prestons makes a lot of sense (he’s a lazy guy who makes up for it with money), and Calvin’s is a bit more tenuous (looking at rotting remains gives him additional willpower?), Amanda’s is amazing.

For young people, college is a time of unparalleled opportunity. Especially for a woman going to an integrated college in the 1920s, there’s really no archetype to fall back on, how to act, or who to be.

So Amanda gets to choose. If Roland Banks gives her a machine gun, she can lay down brutal attacks. But if she decides to spend her semester in the Orne library, she can equal the card draw of professor Harvey.

Unlike other adaptable characters, like Jenny Barnes, Amanda can be super good at what she needs to be when she needs to be it. No need to be broke to trigger dark horse, no need to flush cash into physical training or hard knocks. So what’s the downside?

Again, it’s like a college. You might run out of options and have to be someone else for a while. That someone else might be an ancient frog person. It could also be hard to prioritize playing assets, compared to using your high skills to just pass checks.

But as a seeker, Amanda is extremely well-positioned to cycle her deck and get her best cards back. She also has better self-preservation through most, able to raise her brawling talents or simply run away.

In solo, Amanda can hoover up clues, then deal with bosses. In multiplayer, she can carry fightier investigators without needing rescuing. And that’s a Major advantage.

Rules clarifications

• Both of Amanda's abilities are mandatory (see errata), including putting a card below Amanda.
• Hidden cards: Treat it as if it were in your threat area, so you cannot but it below Amanda.
• It's possible to put non-hidden weaknesses and encounter cards below her. Examples for valid weaknesses: Doomed, Dark Pact, The Tower • XVI; I don't know if valid encounter cards exist, most are hidden.
• If you have no other cards than non-hidden weakness or encounter cards in hand, you must choose them.
• Weaknesses and encounter cards below Amanda can be discarded. Weakness rules only prohibit optionally discarding weaknesses in your hand, but it's not in your hand and discarding is mandatory.
• If you have no cards in hand, you cannot put one below Amanda. For example you discarded your hand during mythos and Amanda's ability drew a weakness that was put into play.

This character has a very strong ability and combo potential, though her low stats seem to be the balancing factor. Cards with constant bonuses will work well on her, like Milan, Magnifying glass and Death. Or temporary replacement, like the Red gloved man or Strange Solutions (Acidic).

I think the most powerful combo on her will be Quick thinking (gained through Versatile) + Red gloved man, potentially gaining close to infinite actions. Both stay during next mythos phase, so the combo may go off again if you succeed on an encounter card.

Combos

• Grisly Totem 3 (seeker): +1 first skill test and draw another card each turn
• Neutral skill cards like perception: draw lots of cards
• Vicious Blow and Upgrade + Acidic Strange Solution: Deal 12 or 15 damage in 1 turn
• Daredevil 2: I don't think this is worth to put below her. If you have 2 of 3 aces in your hand, this potentially guarantees the third if you have no other rogue skill cards in the deck.
• Enraptured: Add 3 charges/ secrets to other cards, see below.
• Eureka: Only +1 to tests, but better than draw 3 cards
• Essence of the dream (dream diary): Skill card with 2/ 4 symbols that you can put below her. The timing is a bit off, so you can only use it every other turn.
• Leadership 2: Only +1 to tests but gain up to 6 ressources
• Stunning blow: Auto evade 3 times, if your attack succeeds (not very likely without fight boosts)
• Three Aces: Put one below Amanda and try to find 2 with Practiced makes perfect to get 2 auto successes (also gain6 cards and 6 ressources)

Versatile combos

• Quick Thinking + Red gloved man: Gain close to infinite actions
• Take heart: draw 6 cards and 6 ressources if you fail 3 tests
• Arcane Insight + Archaic Glyphs (Markings of Isis) + Double or Nothing: Investigate shroud 0 and put 2 assets into play each time, ignoring their ressource costs
• Fearless: Heal 3 sanity
• Inspiring Presence: Use exhausting allies more often, see below
• Nimble: Reveal all locations

Enraptured targets for secrets and charges

• Pendant of the queen: Auto evade, clue, teleport. Easy to assemble with all your card draw
• Mr. Rook: Search for more important combo pieces
• Arcane Insight: Reduce shroud to 0
• Archaic Glyphs (Markings of Isis): Put assets into play without spending actions and ignore their ressource cost
  • Add Scavenging (Versatile) to put assets from your discard into play
• Feed the mind: Draw more cards, but potential horror
• Ancient Stone: Deal more damage/ heal horror
• In the Know: Barricade yourself and takes clues from afar
• Old Book of Lore 3: Play assets cheaper
• Pnakotic Manuscript: Avoid chaos tokens (auto success)
• Scroll of Prophecies: Draw more cards; Add Abigail for double the fun and Ancient stone
• Scroll of Secrets 3: Not very good but may have some combos in the future
• More with Versatile but I dont think they're worth it, like Shriveling or Rite of Seeking

Inspiring Presence Targets

• Charles Ross: Make the next item cheaper by additional 3, i don't think this is worth it
• Mr. Rook: Use his secrets more quickly, but i don't think this is worth it
• Alice Luxley (Versatile): Deal 3 damage when investigating
• David Renfield (Versatile): Get lots of ressources, best used when you're about to remove him with a free action (Smoking pipe)
• Olive McBride (Versatile): Draw more tokens, avoid Autofail. I don't think this is worth it due to Amanda's low stats.
• Venturer (Versatile): Reload guns, Ornate bow and strange solution more quickly. I don't think this is worth it, moving 1 supply each turn suffices in most cases (E.cache 3 adds more supplies to venturer)

Having played Amanda, I can safely say that she is one of the most powerful characters in the game, and one of the strongest Seekers as well.

Let's say there was a gator who's ability was simply "draw an additional card each turn." That would, rightfully, be seen as quite powerful. Let's say there was a gator who's ability was "on each turn, choose a Skill card in your hand. You may play it up to three times this round, at no additional cost." That would also, rightfully be seen as powerful. Silas is great, and this is simply a stronger version of that.

Amanda does both of these, and does them while stationed in the fundamentally strongest class, having access to all of the benefits Seekers have, as well as various powerful Practiced skills such as the new Promise of Power or Three Aces (with experience).

One thing I have noticed when seeing others evaluate Amanda is the belief that she has low stats. She sure doesn't feel like that when she is played. Due to drawing an additional card (or more, if you've got Dream-Enhancing Serum, you will regularly have a card with good, or great, icons to slot underneath you. If your deck is built right, you will often have between four and six to the stats you care about on a given turn, or all of them (Promise of Power is really, really good.)

You can regularly have The Red-Gloved Man, without spending neither resources nor experience, just by playing your gator. You can fight, as Vicious Blow and Overpower are both Practiced skills. You can be pre-Taboo Rex, or better, by putting Deduction or Deduction underneath you.

You can take Amanda Sharpe in a myriad directions, and no matter which direction you take her, you will likely be successful. I'm personally partial to taking the regular Seeker route, abusing such cards as Practice Makes Perfect, Astounding Revelation, and Eureka! in order to draw through a deck incredibly quickly. Putting Eureka! or Perception underneath your investigator means you can fairly easily, comfortably, draw five cards in a single turn, Once you've spent experience, this lets you assemble Pendant of the Queen and Three Aces quite rapidly; without the newest Taboo list, you can quite comfortably play three copies of Three Aces every other turn.

In short, Amanda good. However good you think she is, she's better, and if you are not careful, she can quickly take over an entire game and overshadow other players. Be careful when you play her.

When I started playing Amanda, I was so intimidated by her Stat line. Also the concept of placing cards underneath her were confusing. I always found myself wonder what cards to put under her, when was the best time to commit said cards, etc etc.

Djangos review teaches you about how to put out some serious combos. But I wanted a clear cut way to determine what kind of cards needed to be put underneath her. After playing 3 campaign, where she was not only the main cluever, but also a decent fighter. I have divided the cards she has into 3 different groups. And doing this help me prioritize what kind of cards you need to put underneath.

1. Focused cards.- these cards are extremely good at 1 thing, and not good at anything else. An example is perception and perception(2). They provide a decent Intellect boost and good card draw, but nothing else. Deduction enables you to vacuum clues, but nothing else. Overpower and vicious blow allow you to do some serious damage, or have a better fight chance, but nothing else... you get the idea. You put these underneath when you have a particular job that needs done. Maybe you got a encounter card you are trying to rid yourself or friends from(guts), or you need to clue this location down. These cards will help you a lot. The one problem is that if you boost your Intellect with perception. Your other stats are at the whim of the encounter deck, enemies, etc...

2. Flex Cards- these cards are really well rounded. But don't provide much else for there flexibility. For example, unexpected courage doesn't provide card draw when you succeed. But it allows all of your stats to be at a 4. Inquiring mind brings your stats to a 5, but only if there is clues, and that's also all they do. Promise of power, definitely my favorite, brings your stats to a whooping 6! At the price of adding a curse token everytime it's used. Cards like curiosity, and eureka! give you multiple Stat to use from, and are a bit limited by how many icons you put on it. These cards enable you to not fear most test. But you don't get much out of them beside a passed test. Which is still imo good.

3. Fodder cards- these cards are placed underneath Amanda not to use their icons, but to save certain cards for different situations. They can be cards that are not very useful atm. Or copies of cards you have in your play area/hand. While these cards don't help you pass test, they allow you action to move or play cards that you need on the field. You don't want to play a perception, or and unexpected courage to waste on just playing cards, or moving.

Now, the next question I wonder was, when do I place underneath the above mentioned cards? This is a very obtuse question.the scary thing about this game is that it is ever changing, it is always evolving. You can make plans to do 1 thing, and the game might make you do another, you can't always predict the future. But that's kind of how you play her. You use your current game knowledge and try to be as flexible as you can be. The interesting thing is she is like a river. She is fluid, always changing, always moving. When I play her. I always build for a big hand, and it never fails. Big hands means she is always prepared.

You might have discard assets, or lose resources or health and santy. But she has got one of the best draws, drawing 2 cards for free each round, and that's not ontop of the other draws she can preform. She will cycle her assets, event and skill cards again, ready to be committed, and played again, and once you figure that recipe, she will shoot to the stars.... as long as she doesn't hear an whisper from the deep... :/