Decoy

Event

Favor. Service.

Cost: 2.

Rogue

Evade. Automatically evade a non-Elite enemy at your location.

When you play Decoy, increase its cost by 2: Change "a non-Elite enemy" to "up to 2 non-Elite enemies."

When you play Decoy, increase its cost by 2: Change "at your location" to "at a location up to 2 connections away."

Tim Tsang
Union and Disillusion #234.
Decoy

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Automatic Success/Failure & Automatic Evasion: Some card effects make an investigator automatically succeed or automatically fail a skill test. If this occurs, depending on the timing of such an effect, certain steps of the skill test may be skipped in their entirety.
    • If it is known that an investigator automatically succeeds or fails at a skill test before Step 3 (“Reveal Chaos Token”) occurs, that step is skipped, along with Step 4. No chaos token(s) are revealed from the chaos bag, and the investigator immediately moves to Step 5. All other steps of the skill test resolve as normal.
    • If a chaos token effect causes an investigator to automatically succeed or fail at a skill test, continue with Steps 3 and 4, as normal.
    • If an ability “automatically evades” 1 or more enemies, this is not the same as automatically succeeding at an evasion attempt. As per the entry on “Evade” in the Rules Reference, if an ability automatically evades 1 or more enemies, no skill test is made for the evasion attempt whatsoever. Consequentially, because no skill test is made, it is not considered a “successful” evasion. The investigator simply follows the steps for evading an enemy (exhausting it and breaking its engagement).
    • For example: Patrice uses the ability on Hope, which reads: “ If Hope is ready, exhaust or discard him: Evade. Attempt to evade with a base value of 5. (If you discarded Hope, this test is automatically successful.)” If Patrice chooses to discard Hope, the skill test automatically succeeds before chaos tokens are revealed; therefore Steps 3 and 4 of the skill test are skipped. However, the skill test still takes place. Cards may still be committed to the test, and the investigator’s total modified skill value is still determined, as it may have some bearing on other card abilities. However, if Patrice instead uses the ability on Stray Cat, which reads: “ Discard Stray Cat: Automatically evade a non-Elite enemy at your location,” no skill test is made whatsoever. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020
Last updated

Reviews

From the suit of favor cards (Decoy, Intel Report and Small Favor) Decoy is a relative step down from Intel Report.

Evading is not a typical issue for a , so that's already unfavourable, it also will not affect elites unlike Cunning Distraction. Finally, because the Evade text is Bolded it will not provoke attacks. So, a breakdown:

  • 1 evade at the cost of 1 action, a card and 2 resources is iffy efficiency for a , a few characters will need/like the guaranteed nature of the event. The unique factor of the card shoots up a mile because you can use it in the name of a friend in trouble.
  • 2 evades immediately makes the card more interesting, you can dig out a character that's in a heap of trouble or 2 separate friends who both drew enemies simultaneously, giving them breathing space, very strong in duo.
  • Ranged evading is obviously mostly useful in multiplayer, you can dig out your friends or delay a stalking hunter, this is one of those cases where you'll often choose to just evade 1 enemy, it's still a great effect.

Not affecting elites and being printed in the specialised faction are negative points to this card, it's still good for Preston Fairmont and very helpful in multiplayer.

Tsuruki23 · 2527
Good for anyone with access to Rogue cards but with bad evade. Jenny likes it since her evade isn't special, Preston likes ti because he's Preston, and Leo obviously likes it with his 1 Agility, though it competes against other mobility cards like Think on Your Feet and Elusive. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
Also, Rogues are getting an investigator with low agility next expansion with Tony Morgan. Granted, he’d rather kill than evade, but as part of a supportive toolkit, it’s something to consider. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
You also don't need to be engaged with the enemy you're evading, so in some cases it will save an action (particularly in multiplayer). It also can make an aloof enemy available to attack without evading it first, which can be situationally useful in multiplayer, though unfortunately MitPM is Elite. — Zinjanthropus · 227
Aloof enemies can't be attacked while they're exhausted. From the rules: — yikesdotgov · 2
"An investigator cannot attack an aloof enemy while that enemy is not engaged with an investigator." — yikesdotgov · 2
@cikozen exhausted =/= cannot be engaged. You can engage an exhausted enemy. — adran06 · 19
I think this card gets more value in Finn Edwards since it doesn't cost him an action. — AlderSign · 284