Disclaimer: Pre-Scarlet Keys release review.
Skills that only bring icons are generally less interesting to me. I would much rather have a side benefit like "Watch this!" or Quick Thinking.
This being said, Promise of Power is considered excellent and sees a lot of play, so what about Calculated Risk?
Pros:
- It is par with Unexpected Courage on action 2 and brings 3 on action 3. It is especially interesting against notorious enemies like Frozen in Fear.
- This becomes increasingly better as you add Actions with cards like Leo De Luca, Haste, Grappling Hook, Ace of Rods, Eon Chart, .41 Derringer, Quick Thinking, Quickdraw Holster, Ace in the Hole, Borrowed Time, The Red Clock, Tony Morgan/Finn Edwards/"Skids" O'Toole abilities... you get the idea...
- It helps with Succeed by X effects that you would trigger at the end of your turn.
- _In fact this is probably the one skill that could give you the most in the game with a peek performance of 27 in a Tony Deck like this one. Edit: Olivia Juliet found a way to give 138 with Savant. Calculated Risk is probably #2 then.
Cons:
- It does not synergises well with .41 Derringer's extra action or ready in case of oversuccess cards like Beretta M1918 or the Mauser C96.
- It does not help with one of the main weakness of : the encounter deck. While Savant brings a lot of to the table for many Rogues, Calculated Risk simply cannot be played at all during the Mythos Phase.
- Daredevil (0) and (2) will now randomly end your turn if you commit it during your turn.
Conclusion:
This is a well-balanced card that can be good if you plan on having an investigator that cares for Oversuccess, especially with cards like Lucky Cigarette Case (3) and will want to increase the number of Actions available each turn. It also comes at the right time since we now have enough Encounter mitigation cards to be interested in other types of tech.