It strikes me that this card may soon see a new lease of life (or rather a lease of life, since it fizzled on arrival). The reason is that Haste is now a thing. Haste is a fantastic card that will most likely see an awful lot of run in rogue decks. It combos with Henry Wan really well.

The problem with Henry, as has been comprehensively demonstrated by various mathematical savants from the moment this card was released, is that it's almost never worth using the action it requires to trigger his ability because you're only about 50/50 to succeed on more than one pull, meaning you might just as well have taken a standard resource or card draw action. But what if it was a free action ? Haste effectively turns it into a free action because it's an 'activate' action. Fighting with any kind of weapon counts as an activation, as does investigating with Lockpicks or Sixth Sense or any number of other useful actions. This means that you can theoretically do any of these things, gaining a free activate action that you use to trigger Henry's ability. You wouldn't even need to gamble very much. You could just make one pull and in effect it would become "take two fight actions then draw one card", which would be awesome. If you want to gamble for more then you can still do that of course, and since it would only be a free action that you're using it wouldn't be the end of the world if you whiff.

This could be a great combo for Tony or Skids in particular since they value the horror soak. I can't wait to try it out.

Haste requires you to take two of the same type of action in a row, before giving you a bonus of the same type of action. While free actions are amazing, this means that Haste works best if you can use it a number of times to make up for the cost of doing so. (A baseline would be at least 3-5 times in a game, to make up for the card it takes, the play it takes, and the resource cost.) To confirm its usability, I've laid out the listed set of actions, in a vague order of less to more likely to be done in triplicate:

• Unlikely:
  • Engage: You really don't want to repeatedly engage in most cases. It requires you to have 3+ monsters in one space on other characters, and you to take multiple Attacks of Opportunities.
  • Evade: You'll only make multiple evade checks if you're either evading multiple things, or have managed to botch numerous evade attempts. Neither are great situations to be in, but they can happen.
  • Move: Three moves is an awkward amount, since it's the equilvalent of spending your entire turn moving. If you really need to get somewhere, it can help, but since it requires you to move three or more spaces in one turn, it's generally better to avoid being in those positions if possible.
• Possible:
  • Resource: While it's not ideal, there are turns where you need two more resources to get something. A third resource gain can at least help give you a bit of a boost for the future.
  • Draw: Similar to resource, while it's not ideal, if you're desperately searching for a card or need to refill your hand, an extra card won't hurt unless you're pushing yourself over the hand limit.
  • Play: If you have a turn where you really need to get a lot of cards out, this can give you a boost. You'll need to either have a good initial hand with Haste included or be in the right place for a couple of events along with assets lined up, but the saved setup time can be worthwhile.
• Common:
  • Fight: Enemies can often require multiple hits before going down. This can give you a buffer if you're using some of the rogue's Opportunistic weapons, or save you a few charges/shots if you're using an Enchanted Blade or a Firearm.
  • Investigate: Now we're getting somewhere. If you're not playing Solo, you'll often need multiple investigate actions to completely clear a space of its clues. Even if you are playing solo, this effectively gives you a bit of wiggle room to deal with a failure along the way.
• Special:
  • Activate: This is the most build-dependent use of Haste, but also what likely determines whether or not it's a good addition to your deck. You can activate different items in order to make Haste work, as long as all of them require in Activate action. You can spare a little extra to make an attempt at Burglary or take a swig from Liquid Courage. Go ahead and make a couple of attempts with your weapon of choice before using a Flashlight or Lockpicks to help clue up. Preston Fairmont can mix in an action banking his Family Inheritance. Sefina Rousseau can mix in a pull or two from underneath her card as long as you don't overdo it. Ornate Bow allows for you to work in both a shot and a reload before doing anything else. But if you have the XP to spare, the most flexible mechanism to use is Borrowed Time. In the worst case scenario, you can bank two actions for next turn and get a third free, earning an extra action every round. In other cases, you can make any other activations you have and bank the others.

Either oddly or fittingly enough, some of the more flexible users of this will be people who are already using Leo De Luca, or otherwise have bonus actions to begin with. It becomes much more practical to set up action chains when you have a bonus action to better position yourself before starting, and Tony Morgan can save a bit of ammo when he can take a preemptive couple of swings.

Torrent of Power is a tricky card to play well. A single wild icon on a skill is not very good, so you're really looking for ways to reliably turn this thing into 3 or even 5 icons. The problem is most Mystics don't need to be up by all that much, and spell charges tend to be quite expensive to replace. Mystics as a whole have a tendency to rely heavily on assets or events, as skill cards are much less flexible when you rely so heavily on a single stat () to do anything. Events like Spectral Razor and spell assets like Shrivelling for example are often way too good not to include, so skills like Torrent tend to get left behind for other skills that increase consistency. Compare this card to say Guts which draws you back a card and costs nothing to commit for 2 icons, which is pretty much a sweet spot for spell casters, or Fearless which can be used on more certain tests for horror healing, something that Agnes Baker in particular appreciates (but all Mystics can benefit from). Overall, it's a card that understandably sees very limited play in Mystics- Akachi Onyele can benefit from it okay with her better charge economy, and recent addition Twila Katherine Price may make the cost of expending spell charges lower to warrant this card as a more common include.

The reason I'm writing this review, however, is to tell you about one particular use of this card that just has me absolutely floored, and it's one that I've seen almost no one talk about or try yet.

So let's look again at Torrent's biggest problems. 1. It's a skill card that doesn't give a nice utility effect (such as card economy) that Mystics tend to require from including skills over assets/events 2. charges are expensive because it's unlikely you'll be able to replace that Shrivelling or Rite of Seeking fast enough to warrant spending 1 or 2 charges to make Torrent good, and 3. the icons aren't necessarily wanted anyway. What we require then is someone who doesn't care as much about economy cards, for whom tossing charges is a relatively low cost, and for whom the icons- even possibly just for wild icons on non-Willpower tests- are super valuable.

Let me introduce you to Patrice Hathaway.

Patrice draws through her deck quite fast, so spells can be replaced very quickly. The combination of Patrice's Violin and Madame Labranche makes paying for spells surprisingly easy, particularly the already low costed Mists of R'lyeh. She is someone, in my experience, who can fully benefit from torrent even just for icons, spending 2 or 3 charges she no longer needs on any test to put herself up by 3 or 4. In fact, Patrice is so flexible with her event draws and ability to test insanely high that I often find myself not needing to rely on the spells as much, and spells sit around with extra charges. Torrent of Power is, take my word for it, a fantastic Patrice pick. Give it a try!

It's a good principle of card design that when the effect of one card is objectively, statistically better than that of another, then it should come with a higher cost -- whether in money, actions, or xp. Given that principle, could someone explain to me, please, why this wretchedly inefficient card costs the same as First Aid? They both come with three charges/supplies; they both heal for an action; they both cost two resources; and they both have a single will icon. The only differences are that First Aid can heal sanity as well, and Healing Words takes up a valuable arcane spot -- both of which make the Words worse. This upsets me...

When you put this card up against other healing options, it only looks shabbier. Painkillers get you the same amount of healing for half the cost and 1/4 the actions! (sure, it'll cost you 3 sanity as well...) Thermos, which, for the record, I hate for it's ruinous 4-resource cost, at least has the versatility of First Aid, and is a decent deck addition if you're loaded up with trauma. Or what about humble Emergency Aid? Heal two damage for two resources and an action. Would anyone rather pay three MORE actions for one additional point of healing? That's the deal Healing Words offers you....

Full disclosure: My animosity against this card is personal at the moment. I'm in the middle of a Dunwich run with a beat-up Daisy Walker, and she's in desperate need of additional healing. Out here in nowheresville, she can't get a steady supply of her pills, and the Medical Texts she totes around look like they're from the 17th century... All I have access to by way of deck upgrades is this lousy spell -- or a Thermos of clam chowder... Broods of Yog-Sothoth, here I come...

As a cat person I have always wanted to include the Stray Cat in a deck but it never quite made the cut. I think there was once or twice that it made it in with the hopes that I could use Calling in Favors to search for the ally that I wanted but it got bumped out almost immediately by XP upgrades.

The cat has always been an iffy play because of its one time use AND restrictions on use but I was trying to find an investigator to pair up with Ursula for my first play of The Forgotten Age. The only thing that I really knew was that evasion was good and I knew a little of the Vengeance mechanic. Most of the other types have really poor evasion skills but I got the idea to pair Yorick with the Stray Cat.

And it was an amazing combo. Ursula and Yorick were usually able to clear clues off of locations and even stay ahead of previously evaded Hunters.

It's ALL Actionless

The best part is that the Stray Cat with Yorick achieves the ultimate action efficiency. Once it is in the discard pile it can be played/recurred after any kill without using an action and it can evade without using an action. It can even evade ANY enemy at your location.

It isn't that hard for Yorick to kill enemies but it usually takes 2-3 actions to do it and there are always the chance of bad token pull (retaliate) or special tokens that cause something else to happen. Yorick can instead use his Flashlight 1-2x and move to the next location getting closer to completing the scenario instead of needlessly hacking at an enemy.

Does it makes sense to play the Stray Cat with other investigators or in other campaigns

This was obviously the perfect campaign for the cat but I will definitely keep this in my Yorick decks for action efficiency.

Other possible investigators to use it and none of these are definite since they all have other strong allies to include

1. Ashcan Pete - I could see this working in solo where he can avoid enemies and sneak through scenarios.
2. Patrice - I haven't played her yet so there might be too much competition for allies but it is cheap so it can get played easily and it keeps her safe if she hasn't drawn/played the right cards.
3. Tommy Muldoon or Tony Morgan (Survivor) in TFA (and only in TFA) - Not very good matches for them but they will really need to evade with some regularity in the campaign. But would you push out another ally that works so well for them? Unlikely.
4. A splash card for Zoey? in TFA - Very unlikely
5. Minh Thi Phan - It gives her some mobility but it would probably just be easier for her to play skill cards and evade

The rest of the other survivors have high evade skills so it wouldn't help much.

I have never played nor even thought about how to build decks for Preston, Lola or Calvin. I doubt it makes sense.

Overall it worked great for Yorick in TFA but Ashcan Pete is probably the only other investigator that I would try to include it in. And that is only because I want to setup a deck without Peter Sylvestre for Pete. I think it is safe to keep this in your unused cards section. Unless you are playing Yorick.