At first glance the gloomy Stray Cat seems like a premeditated evade which is not particularly great,
but there are some nifty tricks you can do on your turn:
- Exhaust enemies who ready in the Enemy phase. There's a free action player window (between Step 3.2 and 3.3) just before enemies attack,
so simply discard the Stray Cat to exhaust them.
- Exhaust enemies who are engaged with other investigators at your location. Handy to bail them out when you don't have the actions
to spare to engage and evade that enemy.
- As a bonus, combo Stray Cat's evade with cards that have the same triggering condition: Close Call, Pickpocketing
Pros
- Guaranteed evade. This can save you many conventional evasion attempts if the enemy is quicker than you.
- Activated with a free action. You don't lose an action, you only pay for it upfront by playing Stray Cat.
- Decent install cost.
- You should combo Stray Cat with other cards to maximize it's value: Sneak Attack, Close Call, Pickpocketing.
- If William Yorick finds himself engaged with two non-elite enemies, he can kill the weak one, recur Stray Cat with his ability and use Stray Cat's free action to evade the big baddie.
Cons
- Does not work on nasty Elite enemies that you really want to exhaust.
- One-time effect only. Hardly worth on it's own, until you know of a certain enemy you want to avoid. In this case it could easily be swapped in with Adaptable.
- Occupies the Ally slot. You know the darling who wants to take her place! Are you willing to pay 3xp (Charisma) for the company of cat and boyfriend?
- All current survivors have an Agility base value of 3, which is sufficient against most threats.
Recommendations
Instantly parley spoiler on the Midnight Masks scenario.