I don't understand this scheme. Why does it do something when completed, when it could be each turn and force you to deal with norman osborn instead of ignoring him ? Doesn't that fix this scenario ?

This is a fantastic card, and it scales even better the more difficult the scenario. Starting from a solo perspective, for the cost of ~3 ER to play and clear this, you cancel threat from step 1 of the villain phase (~0.5 ER), a villain activation (~2 ER), and minion activations (value varies). You delay the reveal of encounter cards for a turn even though you are still dealt one (difficult to quantify), and sometimes you get random stuff like avoiding a draw from the side scheme deck against Red Skull. The raw value from cancelling steps 1 and 2 is close to breaking even, and waiting an extra turn to reveal encounter cards helps you better prepare for them or clear other threats that could combo with them. That adds up to an extremely powerful combination of effects. The skipping of an activation also provides a rare opportunity to cancel a steady/stalwart villain activation from the likes of Thanos, Venom Goblin, Magneto, and Ronan - some of the hardest villains. Of course, you also get the usual side scheme combos like Skilled Investigator and Stealth Training.

There is certainly a cost to not being able to damage the villain during your extra turn as this can lead you to wasting resources if you draw a few attacks. That's why it's best to clear Run Them To Ground on an early turn, when you still have upgrades and supports to get out, or when the board is getting out of control, since you would be focusing on clearing that anyways. Especially in higher difficulties, you might not turn your attention to the villain until long into the game, lengthening the useful window.

In multiplayer, there are diminishing returns if the table has not coordinated decks to take advantage of Run Them to Ground. The scaling of the raw value is fair. For every 4 threat added initially (~2 ER), an extra 1 thwart and one villain activation get cancelled (~2.5 ER), but it is also more likely to inconvenience other players. Aggression players may significantly waste the extra turn with damage-heavy hands. Protection decks miss a villain phase where they might usually play much of their hand.

For any of my fellow Heroic enjoyers, this is one of the best cards in the game. When you skip a villain phase that would deal you two encounter cards and replace that with getting dealt one instead, you have effectively canceled an entire encounter card in addition to the benefits I have already mentioned. I have been playing the heck out of this card, and it has not disappointed.

I have not played much of this card, but now it is an excellent piece for the decks built around Move in Shadow, Death by a Thousand Cuts, and No Time to Bleed. It's paying a card to draw a card, so the extra trigger on these upgrades is essentially free. It does the same for any Iron Fist deck. Not game-breaking or anything, but worth pointing out.

If you were to ask me what the best aspect was, I would say Leadership.

If you were to ask me what the second best aspect was, I would say Protection.

And yet, if you were to ask me what the best aspect CARD was, I would say Skilled Investigator.

There's no other card in the game that I feel is so much of an auto-include. You should run into side schemes in just about every game. Even without doing anything special, this card will pay for itself. Because of that, it doesn't take the place of anything you would rather play. You aren't sacrificing anything by dropping it down. Normally, the more cards you have, the less consistent your deck is. But if you have a 40-card deck, a copy of Skilled Investigator can only make your deck more efficient and you'd be better off making it a 41-card deck just for this.

This is true if you're doing nothing to play side schemes, but even more true if you have player side schemes in your deck. And since you're playing Justice, you probably should have player side schemes. A lot of player side schemes are good enough to play without Skilled Investigator. Most heroes will have key upgrades that will want Superpower Training. There are tons of incredible support cards you'll want to be able to cheat into play with Build Support. And now we have Run Them to Ground which straight-up skips a whole villain turn.

This was a great card before player side schemes were added to the game, but it's only gotten better since.

I really see little reason not to have a copy of this per player in every Justice deck you play.

I'm absolutely shocked the top comment on this is saying it's a bad card. Skilled Investigator already existed when this was made.

If you're playing One Way or Another, you're playing Skilled Investigator. Unless there's another side scheme you thwarted the turn you play this, it really does net you +3 cards, which is good value for a scheme in solo that's 2-4 threat. In 2-player, you bring a second copy of Skilled Investigator for the other player. Now you're looking at 4-6 threat, but +4 cards. I would say that's still a good tradeoff for Justice which is incredibly efficient at thwarting.

It's only when you go up to 3-player that this becomes more questionable. Now you're looking at up to 9 threat in exchange for 5 cards between everyone. I think it's still worth it, but only barely. I also feel that this is less necessary since the villain will naturally play side schemes in 3-player and you can trigger the Skilled Investigator without it. But it's still not too bad at that level.

My verdict would be that this is great solo, and decent in 2-player. I'd really only use this in 3-player if one of the players was Leadership and using Mission Leader. Because if there's no other side schemes, Mission Leader is in play and everyone has a Skilled Investigator, that ends up being +8 cards for up to 9ish threat.

This also synergizes with cards that attach to side schemes like Followed and Chance Encounter.

A newer card that benefits from this is Stealth Training which lets you stun the enemy when you exactly defeat a side scheme. That one is where I might say this pays off the most.

In solo, when set up, you find a side scheme, draw 3 cards. Complete the side scheme, draw another card, and then stun the villain. You can lock the villain down with incredible efficiency with very little resources lost.