Whoa! I think this is the first time we've seen a card positively change class from one version to another (I'm not counting the dual class cards or the new upgraded cantrips). So, if you're a guardian who has been casting longing eyes on the Holy Rosary since the Core Set, you can now have your very own, and it's better.

But really, how much better? I'm a little skeptical that this thing is going to fire more than a couple times a scenario, even if you have it in your opening hand. Most turns, you won't see a test on an encounter card. And even when you do, you might not pass it. Of course, there are ways to meddle with the encounter deck so that you see more of these tests, including in the pool. "Let me handle this!" and First Watch come to mind. But on the whole, it seems like a pretty iffy way to add more tokens to the bag. For me, this would be a late-campaign upgrade for a Sister Mary deck, when I'm sitting on a bunch of xp and there's nothing in my deck I want to get rid of. In that case, sure, pimp my rosary (apologies to all Catholics).

I will say that this card may make sense in one campaign: The Circle Undone. That hexy hellride is FULL of treacheries with checks. I just checked -- in the deluxe boy and the 6 mythos packs, here's the breakdown:

checks: 4 cards checks: 4 cards checks: 40 cards

So, yeah, you'll be taking some checks. Static buffs of any kind are advised -- all the better if they reward success. Who knows? Maybe you'll run across a certain traumatised chef in the course of your adventures, in which case you can get paid twice!

One of the worst cards in the game even before the Sword Cane was released. A mystic fighting with Wither is the equivalent of a Guardian fighting with a Kukri, except worse, since Wither only has a chance to make a second attack easier while Kukri guarantees it.

About the only positive things you can say is that it's a spell, so it can be tutored with Arcane Initiate, and that it gives Diana Stanley something to cancel with Eldritch Inspiration.

There is a common misconception regarding Leo De Luca: that you must get him in play early for him to be effective (preferably in your opening hand) and that a Leo De Luca drawn mid or late into the game is useless.

It is true that the earlier you get him, the more extra actions he will give. But the opportunity cost for resources is much higher earlier in the game; spending 6 resources will prevent you from getting other assets out into play, and without other assets or events the effectiveness of each of action isn't very high. It's hard for a rogue to investigate without a Lockpick or Flashlight or to fight without a weapon, so much of the time you'll be using his free action in inefficient ways such as drawing cards or gaining resources.

In contrast, if you put him into play later in the game, the actions he gives can be used much more efficiently. Each Investigate can with a Lockpick is nearly guaranteed to succeed, and can trigger a draw from Lucky Cigarette Case. An evade gives you extra stuff from Pickpocketing. Use the action he gives to play Hot Streaks and Intel Reports. Or it could be as simple as your skill tests being more likely to succeed due to having static bonuses out. The opportunity cost for 6 resources is also much lower in the mid to late game, since tend to over-invest in resources anyway to increase deck consistency (and to run Well Connected/High Roller), and there are few better ways to spend those resources than to get 3-4 extra actions and a 2/2 soak.

So mulligan him away for your Lockpicks, your Ornate Bows, your Berettas, and play him when money's no object. Starting with only Leo tends to be an expensive trap (unless you lucked into Leo along with Hot Streak AND your key assets, but what are the chances of that?).

The real cost is still the opportunity cost of an ally slot. At 0xp the extra action will be difficult to efficiently use, consider other allies to increase action efficiency or give static boosts. Once you've gotten the core of your deck and all the money you can't spend, buying a Leo (1) with Charisma is always worth considering if you've got the deck slots to spare.

Hope, Zeal, and Augur all share a common mechanic where you can discard them to test at a base of 5, and the test is automatically successful. This means that the test difficulty is 0, and no chaos token is drawn, but you still get to commit cards to the test. In other words, you get a guaranteed success by (at least) 5, and you can make use of this to assuredly trigger not just cards that have if successful effects, but those with succeed by X effects. Cards with automatic successes aren't terribly common, and the cats provide a reliable, repeatable way of getting them.

Since you have to trigger a Fight / Investigate / Evade action on the cat itself, this is limited to skill cards and reaction abilities on assets. Most of the succeed by X cards are in the faction, making a / pairing an ideal investigator choice. skill cards include Quick Thinking, "Watch this!", and Nimble at 0xp, and Momentum and All In with XP. For assets, there is Gregory Gry, Pickpocketing and the Lucky Cigarette Case.

Succeeding by 5 maxes out every single one of these cards so far (except upgraded Lucky Cigarette Case), so you get the full benefit. The downside is that you forego the benefit the skill icons would have provided. This isn't such a big deal for Vicious Blow or Deduction, but something to consider for Overpower, Manual Dexterity and the like.

In the faction, you have Drawing Thin, a repeatable, stacking source of income with absolutely zero downside to using, that completely breaks the game.

Moving on.

Preston Fairmont and Wendy Adams have the best access to these cards, with Preston benefiting particularly well from the regular use of the cats' elevated stats. Preston is also the only investigator so far to be able to take Miss Doyle and All In + the upgraded Lucky Cigarette Case, guaranteeing a 5 card weakness-free draw, or a 1 in 5+ filtered draw that is (hopefully) also weakness free. (Actually, Lola Hayes can use the LCC too but this is a terrible idea, putting the cats at risk on one turn and the LCC on the other). Wendy, with her 4 and investigator ability, is a lot less impressed by these shenanigans.

In multiplayer of course, one investigator doesn't have to do everything. A player can trigger an automatic success with a cat, and the rest of the team can pile on skills. The skills above, as well as skills that are valued more for their effects than icons (Resourceful, Inspiring Presence, Eureka!, Enraptured etc) are all great candidates. Someone with Crystal Pendulum can also get a free card draw out of it just by being at the same location and predicting which way the fur flies.

As you can see, the cats are very multiplayer friendly and a great combo initiator. They are a very interesting deck choice for Preston as well, giving him a path to oversuccess other than stockpiling money. He still needs to find Miss Doyle first though, so don't neglect card draw.

P.S. There is one event that modifies an existing skill test, as opposed to initiating a new one. Sadly, tossing Zeal isn't considered a projectile attack, so Marksmanship does not work. Maybe one day we'll get a Cat-apult card?

Edit: Added Drawing Thin..

Lola is not bad.

Rather, Lola is really freaking good.

If people are afraid of her weakness then frankly they're just not playing her well. Her stat line 3/3/3/3 is just one bump away from greatness. And she can bump it a whole whole lot. In a game this week I was running her and with 25xp she had the stat line of 5/6/6/4. With the Timeworn Brand so swinging at 8 Fight. And that wasn't that particularly hard to do. Or even in a way which runs chances of exposure: I think over the course of the scenario there were maybe 2 turns where I was exposing more than 1 asset to be lost to her weakness. Which I drew once, and lost 0 assets because of it.

The formula isn't complex. Load up on cards which provide passive bonuses. Go asset light on a couple of colors and use those for Events or Skills. Harvest the best of them from every color. Profit.