I think this is an underrated ally for Carolyn.

Although if you look closely, you might realize, why this cat is unbelievable great. Bear in mind, Carolyn's main ability and this little text from FAQ "Other card abilities or game effects do not resolve with the altered game state in mind; only the indicated ability/action." - you get:

If healing two horrors from Carolyn, but actually removing it from both her and her cat, you get two resources, instead of one. Clarity of Mind helps with that))

As a side note - FFG always makes better versions of the personal cards in the books :)

One other thing. You can give your partner investigator this card with Teamwork and heal horror from it as if it were you giving your partner even more resources and a chance of +1 to all skills. And that's totally thematic - like a cat would take your troubles away.

It is first player card which allows you to banish clues in game. Simply place your clues at this location, and wait until this location is set aside; then, clues on this location are banished. Note that all player cards (except this) don't spend any clues and only place clues on your locations to keep the total number of clues in game. You can do by using Vantage Point, Dr. William T. Maleson, Forewarned, Quick Study. or by eliminating in this location with Ghastly Revelation or "I'm outta here!".

You don't need to do in most cases, and have to avoid this situration in order not to break the game. When this is useful? 1) for a dunwich scenario, 2) if you're a cultist, and ...

I was just building a deck for Dexter and realized this card is PERFECT for him. Firstly, Dexter blows through his assets very quickly and is constantly looking for his "next trick" to pop into play. The Arcane Initiate is the perfect assistant to ready the next spell in your never-ending magic show. And when the agenda is about to flip and the initiate's time is up, Dexter can instantly discard her as a free action in order to put yet another asset in play. This way, you don't have to frantically find a way to murder your initiate in fear of the doom counter; when the time has come, you have a surefire ability to discard her on the investigator card itself.

I haven't extensively looked through the Mystic allies before posting this, but as of right now, I would instapick this card for Dexter.

By itself, this is a TERRIBLE waste of 3 XP. no discount or bonus damage and on any average result you wont be picking the card back up at all.

Enter:

• Hard Knocks and it's bigger brother Hard Knocks.
• Well Connected.
• Streetwise and it's little sister, Streetwise.
• High Roller.
• Manual Dexterity and every card with icons on it.
• The Moon • XVIII and every other static boost in the cardpool

And last. but probably most importantly:

Chuck Fergus.

And there it is, I daresay I dont need to talk much more about why this might be a cool upgrade. Play it in a deck with other stuff that rewards you for overcommitting (Lucky Cigarette Case) and to generate Chuck value grab a heap of other Trick or tactic cards, Cheap Shot and Slip Away are obvious complements.

Nearly every can build a deck where this thing shines, only Finn Edwards (who cannot take Chuck Fergus) and Tony Morgan (with his low agility) aren't interested.

My biggest counterpoint to use Backstab is the existence of Ornate Bow, which itself is basically a Backstab on tap, but I guess you might come to the conclusion that they complement one another or that, once fully set up, a Chuck engine is WAY faster then the action intense bow.

This is a terrible card. Despite it's name and assumed intended effect, it cannot copy any actual cat cards.

Such a weird design decision. There is definitely design space for some kind of cat-copy mechanic in arkham, surely they put something of the sort in Barkham horror.