My first review ever. Having access to only the Core set, i attach this card to certain Heroes that don't quest almost never. I am thinking of Denethor and Eleanor especifically. Both usually dont quest, because of the use of their hability or because they are to be used as defenders. This card is very good to know if you are able to take the hit, and who is the better for it. I found it to be usefull, especially for defender heroes and also Gimli or Gloin, that you want to be hit, but not to be dead.

Dark Knowledge was an okay card until the Burning Brand was released. This one comes at -1, is only one use, and only looks at the card (instead of cancelling). Still though, It's playable if you don't have access to the Brand.

I have used this card several times and just recently noticed that I’ve been using it incorrectly. It was my understanding that the card allowed a player to look at a shadow card that had been dealt to an enemy engaged with him, but I’m now sure that it is not its correct effect.

The triggering condition needed for the response to be triggered is the dealing of a shadow card to an enemy that is attacking the player and this condition cannot be reached by regular enemy attacks because shadow cards for regular enemy attacks are dealt before any enemy is considered to be attacking a player. As per explained in the Rules Reference, the shadow cards for regular attacks are dealt in step 6.2 of the Combat Phase and an enemy attack is only initiated in step 6.4b.

Thus, Dark Knowledge can only be triggered when a shadow card is dealt anytime from steps 6.4b (start of an enemy attack) to 6.4.4 (end of an enemy attack). This situation mostly happens when an attack is started by a card effect, since the dealing of the shadow card in this case is simultaneous to the beginning of the attack, but may be prompted by special abilities like Dol Guldur Beastmaster’s forced effect. In the Beastmaster’s case, for instance, the player can look at the shadow card dealt to it at the beginning of its attack, but not at the one dealt to it in step 6.2 of the Combat Phase.

From my understanding of the rules, the designers could have described the effect as “Response: after a shadow card is dealt to an enemy attacking you, exhaust Dark Knowledge to look at the card”, or “Response: when a shadow card is dealt to an enemy attacking you, exhaust Dark Knowledge to look at the card”, which would have the same effect, since dealing a shadow card is not a multi-step occurrence and the effect is not meant to be simultaneous to the dealing. Instead, they decided to use the undefined word “just”, similarly to what has been done in A Test of Will (card just revealed) and Hasty Stroke (shadow effect just triggered), which I believe made it a little harder for players to properly understand Dark Knowledge’s effect.

Furthermore, I don't appreciate this card as much as before, but still believe that it may find use against quests that tend to throw untimely attacks at the players.

As others have pointed out this card is usually outclassed by other cards, but I actually used it to good effect recently on Shelob's Lair, in which you need to sustain multiple attacks per round. I had Staff of Lebethron equipped on Sam, and peeking with Dark Knowledge let me use it more efficiently.