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!

It is still situational, but this can be interesting in Daniela Reyes. You trigger a attack with your Mechanic's Wrench, evade with your and then shuffle the enemy back to the Encounter Deck. What's best is that you don't even have to wait for your turn to do it.

It costs you an attack and 2 resources to send an enemy back into the Encounter Deck without spending a single action. Good to free your at the beginning of their turn to let them investigate at will, speed up a late scenario temple run, get rid of a Cultist full of doom, or an annoying Conglomeration of Spheres that steals your weapons without giving you a single Victory Point for this.

So, several cycles later, this card still isn't a must-have, but it's still good, if situational. The main use for it is dealing with enemies with either attachments or tokens that you want to reset: the most obvious is any kind of cultist picking up doom. In that sense, it has gotten competition in the form of Dumb Luck. Dumb Luck costs 0 XP and has arguably better skill icons, but there are still reasons to take Close Call.

For one, Dumb Luck requires you to be the one doing the evading. This is a bigger deal than it might seem, especially when coupled with the second problem, which is that you have to exactly fail by 1 or by 2. Technically you could fail by 0, I suppose. If you really need to get an enemy with doom off the table, having to figure out how to set up the "correct" failure can be a precious waste of time, especially if you accidentally succeed and have to engage the enemy again.

So far, I've mostly played Close Call near the end of the Forgotten Age. Especially in the scenario Shattered Aeons, being able to take certain enemies off the table for a bit can be a very needed moment of relief. And don't forget you can Close Call your fellow investigators' evades as well, so even someone like William Yorick or "Ashcan" Pete who might not be evading much could slot one or two of this in.

With the upgraded Dumb Luck now in play, I wonder if this card will get less use? Sure this one requires you (or someone) to pass an evasion and Dumb Luck (2) requires only you to fail one, but putting an enemy at the bottom of the deck for the same cost and fast action seems better than shuffling it into the deck, at least most times,

–RULES CLARIFICATION

This card is played in the Step 7: apply skill test results (source: my email to FFG). This card wording is "after an enemy is evaded", like Pickpocketing. You can draw it with Lucky Cigarette Case in the Step 6 or Pickpocketing in the Step 7 and play it.

–Dunwich Legacy SPOILER This card get rid of the Brood of Yog-Sothoth, but you don't place them in victory display (which is the goal).