In solo play her ability to foresee the future for relatively cheap makes her damningly powerful. Never again shall the mythos deck contain nasty surprises that you aren't ready for. Hell, sometimes it's even worth losing a turn if the card that threatens to come out is that bad. This effect is easily enough to justify her exorbitant costs, assuming you splurge for some ways to boost your income.

Now I think in multiplayer her role changes slightly. Sure knowing what's coming will help someone in the party survive, but it's a diminishing effect when you're pulling 4 encounter cards a turn. Here I think Alyssa is better served as a guardian angel for particularly time-sensitive weaknesses. Keep Zoey or Roland from pulling their signatures when the clock is running out, or keep watch over the person in your group who has a large pool of resources they're saving for something and a bit of a paranoia streak.

Finally the 'bonuses' of +1 books and a decent sanity body aren't too shabby either. Of course, both of our current Mystics are well equipped to deal with horror, but it doesn't hurt. Plus sometimes you just have to investigate.

Is she better than Skids? No, but she might certainly be worth charisma in solo, or if you're just not the Skids guy in multiplayer she's worth the open ally slot.

This card largely sucks on its own. +3 will can be a butt saver against the encounter deck or critical for pulling off a difficult spell in expert, +3 fight tends to be pretty pointless on Mystics but can help them deal the odd 1 damage (2 with fireaxe or something) but it's definitely not worth losing an equivalent of a whole turn (which is what doom is) for a mediocre boost on either of these stats.

Now the first use case where BP can begin to pull its weight is at the end of an agenda. The additional doom doesn't trigger an agenda-advancement check, and when agendas cycle they remove all doom in play, so if you overload the game board with doom on these turns (with Alyssa Graham and arcane initiate also wanting to use these windows for their doom triggers) it doesn't have any negative effect on the game state. (Watch out for this possibly changing in future scenarios). For scenarios with a lot of agendas this can be really crucial to abuse. Still, it's not the most powerful and its situational that the timing will work out that you need to do these tests before the agenda cycles.

Enter moonlight ritual. Lordy, this is an epic combo. With moonlight you can load up on the doom early in an agenda and clear it before it triggers during the mythos phase. The wonders this works are not to be understated, it is not at all hard to put 6 or 7 doom on Blood Pact early in a long agenda and simply clear it later for a swing of +21 or so in tests for one action and 3exp total. It's bonkers powerful, and fairly consistent since with BP's permanent code word you only need one of your two rituals in hand to have the combo ready.

Now here's the big catch, you need to be hyper aware of what threats are available when doing this. A stray doom or two from the encounter deck, or an unexpected discard effect can have you throwing away 6 turns because of cocky overconfidence. Stay alert for what threats exist and always assume the worst, if you do you too can tap the strength of blood magic without fear of repercussion.

Do you discard all assets in play, as well as cards of the appropriate color in your hand?

The rules about "Ownership and Control" mention: "A player controls the cards located in his or her out-of-play game areas (such as the hand, deck, discard pile)."

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!