One of thing to note in particular is that this action can be performed on an Elite enemy. The majority of the time you're going to get +2 or +3 to Fist, so it's probably best to have this card in the deck of an investigator w/3+ Fist. I'd consider 1 resource for 1 Damage & Auto-Evade a boss to be a pretty decent bang for your buck. Or inversely, 1 Damage & an action from the book of your choosing. Pretty solid for a Level 0 card in my opinion.

This card is designed for Alessandra Zorzi and her Parley tricks, but also works well in other high-intellect Rogues/investigators who can take it as a crowd control card a la Storm of Spirits or Dynamite Blast in multiplayer. Most enemies will end up making this a 1-2 intellect test which even without Fine Clothes trivializing the test, shouldn't be too hard to pass with a great return on damage output. Bonus points for being able to take out pesky Aloof enemies and the optional Move effect on +2 succeed is just icing on the cake. (Plus who doesn't love the idea of making Nightgaunts fight amongst themselves?)

I think the cards design isn't good.

When you have so many chaos tokens in the chaos bag that you can afford playing The Stygian Eye, you are very likely to draw more than one of them.

So what do you get: The first curse you draw on each test is a +1 instead and you draw another token to resolve. There are way more efficient ways to do that.

If Lola (or anyone in her party) draws Stubborn Detective as a weakness, she needs to get upgraded Rod ASAP and cast this on him. Of all the cards that can disable Detective's attacks so she can safely blank her restriction, this is the best:

• Handcuffs requires passing a test, plus an extra action for the base version.
• Existential Riddle needs a big hand or lots of money, plus Aloof isn't good as you will lose the Detective when you move. If you engage him, he will still attack you.
• Fend Off isn't a bad option though he attacks you first. Also if another gator drew the Detective as a weakness, either that gator needs to be able to take this card or Lola needs to be with that gator at all times until the Detective is drawn.

With Abyssal Rot and upgraded Rod of Carnamagos:

• As long as you can draw a , you can disable the Detective without needing to pass a test. Even if you don't, you can try again next turn. Or just use Favor of the Moon.
• so no Attack of Opportunity.
• If another gator drew the Detective as a weakness, you don't need to be at their location for this to work.
• "Cannot attack" is better than "Cannot ready" because game effects may mean the Detective can still attack you with the latter.
• The Rod's other Rot effects can still be used on other enemies so you're not getting it just for the Detective.

Who knew that a Rotten Detective would be the key to unlocking Lola's final form?

Something I missed on my first impression that makes this much more palatable upgrade is that the blade doesn't need to be ready to fight, which was a major pain point with the lvl 0 version. You no longer need to assess whether or not to add the blesses in case you miss or the target will die, just exhaust it at first opportunity and generate value.