Sweet Aquinnah, i always wanted to welcome you and embrace you as a friend when embarking on a new campaign. You look absolutely gorgeous in your black dress and the neckband! Besides, you are so familiar with horrors of all kind, i really would side with you against the tides of darkness.... if you were not such a self-opinionated person!

Only the loneliest hermit would scrape together the sum to buy your company. Even then, you would not raise a finger to help your fellow in affliction, you would rather soothe him with eloquent words. Don't lose heart! Only in moments of utmost importance you are willing to bundle your mental powers to mesmerize a foe and make it attack one of his kind. Alas, most people disdain your laziness, yes, but me, myself, i would love to tease out your ability! Several times i tried, but you hoodwinked me all the time.

The basic version of Aquinnah(1) requires two or more enemies present at your location to trigger in the Enemy phase (Step 3.3). Furthermore, only the damage is redirected to another target, the horror still has to be dealt with. It's logical that enemies who inflict high damage also inflict high horror, so the investigator who uses Aquinnah has to take massive horror from the redirected slash. If the redirected slash does not suffice to kill the second enemy, the investigator has to take damage and horror from that second enemy's attack, too, if ready and engaged.

Since the experienced Aquinnah(3) has been released, i would recommend to buy the basic version only in case you plan to upgrade her and do not have the 3xp to spend in one go.

Pros

• On it's own, Aquinnah comes with some good sanity and can always be used as an expensive sanity shield.
• If done right, Aquinnah can kill one enemy in the Enemy phase before it can attack.
• The redirected attack can target any (other-than-the-beater) enemy at that location, also an Aloof or otherwise engaged enemy.
• Activated as a reaction. You don't lose an action, you only pay for it upfront by playing Aquinnah.
• Does work on any type of attacking enemy, including Elite and Massive.
• Could be combined with "If it bleeds..." and Evidence!. It was your ally's skill that killed the creature, is not that true?

Cons

• High install cost.
• Occupies the Ally slot. So many other sweethearts give you more versatile bonuses.
• Aquinnah has very low health.
• Very difficult to find a situation where the reaction gets triggered.
• Ability does not work on spoiler.

So amusing, just have a look at that disappointed security guard! Behold the moment, you won't see that often, because Close Call is a very situational inclusion in most decks. For Wendy, who has an abysmal Fight statistic, Close Call becomes a valuable companion, if you are willing to play with the things she is good at, instead of boosting the thing she hates to do.

Playing it mainly depends on two factors:

1. Is the enemy worth the effort? You have to evade that non-Elite enemy before playing Close Call, so add 1 action to the play cost of this event. In most situations, within 2 actions the enemy could have been defeated and placed into the discard or victory pile instead. But imagine a scenario where finding clues in time is essential, or a situation where you have not drawn the right weapon yet, or your investigator is better at evading than combatting. Close Call can buy you the time you need then.
2. How many cards are left in the encounter deck? The earlier you draw Close Call, the better.

For 2xp you get a unique ability that let's you finish some scenarios (see "Recommendations") with greater ease, in others it works like another copy of Backstab. You can not swap this event out with Adaptable, so an inclusion should be measured with your investigator's Agility and the cards in the deck supporting evasion attempts.

Pros

• Can be played in another investigator's turn or your own.
• Is played after a successful evasion attempt, so the effect is never lost to a failed evasion test.
• Fast cards aren't subject to Attacks of Opportunity, so you can conveniently use it to ban one enemy while you are still engaged with others.
• Only card so far that let's you reshuffle an opponent into the encounter deck.
• Works best if used together with auto-evasion cards like Stray Cat.

Cons

• Does not work on Elite enemies that you really want to get rid off.
• Does not work on Weakness enemies like the Mob Enforcer.
• The enemy has to be evaded as a prerequisite, so triggering the effect becomes more difficult against enemies with high Evade.
• The enemy does not count as defeated for combo purposes.
• Rex Murphy can not use this card.

Recommendations

• spoiler, spoiler Follow the imperative in The Essex County Express: RUN!
• Ban unpleasant roamers in Undimensioned and Unseen, and you can do more than using Close Call to buy more time. Actually, you can end the scenario, because spoiler are neither in play nor set aside while situated in the encounter deck!

The exile mechanic is an interesting one. Cards with an exile mechanic are extremely expensive near the beginning of a campaign but seem reasonable near the end. If purchasing before the last scenario, any card you purchase has an "exile" effect.

Stroke of Luck came out with the 2nd to last Mythos Pack of this cycle. So what should be the XP value of this skill card? Most skill cards have an XP value of 1 with few exceptions. This card however, is much more powerful than any skill card. No skill card can do better than Stroke of Luck. It's the most powerful skill card in the game. You could have a base skill of 0 and still have a 95% chance of beating a skill check of 10 or more. And as such, it should have a higher cost than other skill cards. But how much more? Double? It's probably worth a bit more than double considering it's Wild and its also saving you from using multiple cards on one skill check. Three times? Depends on the scenario. Will there be those situations where you need a boost of +4 or more? In the last few scenarios it's much more likely.

The conclusion is that Stroke of Luck seems like its very powerful for the final scenario. It only costs 1 more XP than any other skill card and the exile drawback is negated. For the second to last scenario is its breakeven point. I wouldn't recommend purchasing Stroke Of Luck prior to the second to last scenario.

Excessively poor card - let's analyse it. You draw 3 cards:

• First card: Could have been drawn instead of drawing Preposterous Sketches
• Second card: Could have been drawn instead of playing Preposterous Sketches
• Third card: You pay 2 ressources to get this one (ressources that you gain in 2 actions or round). Only if you have too much money is this move interesting... but wait:

There is also the opportunity cost of eating a slot in your deck, slot that could have contained a much better card. Finally, you need to have a clue on your location.

To the garbage bin!

(edit after 3 years: we now have Harvey Walters and Farsight that make this card significantly more interesting)

I am a bit biased towards investigator cards with cool artwork, so pardon me if i present Survival Instinct a cut above the general opinion.

Considerations about the value of this card are found under the basic version of Survival Instinct(0).

The cost of 2xp have to be put into relation to the additional effect that the upgraded version gives you.

And the differences in Survival Instinct(2) are outstanding! A second Agility icon was added, and the skill text has changed to "evade" from "disengage". In particular, this invalidates every disadvantage i reviewed in the skill's basic version. Now it is resembles a cheaper version of Cunning Distraction, which is limited to all enemies engaged to a specific investigator, as in contrast to all enemies at one location.

Pros

• Adds 2 Agility icons to a skill test. It can, of course, also be committed to a non-evasion skill test.
• The evading investigator evades his/her enemies, they are exhausted, Hunters can't move in the same turn.
• You can now combo it with other cards: Sneak Attack, Close Call, Pickpocketing.