At Your Disposal : Underbridge Stray

When I first saw the doggie I wasn't too impressed. Just another generic little ally doggie that could help a little, and it has no bleed. Not worth the deck space was my original thought of this little card. I, of course, like most other times, were proven wrong rather quickly when the Stray turned up left right center among the ANI decks in my area. And these doggies are good!

The little doggie might look innocent at first glance, especially to naive neonates like me, but looking deeper into it now (several of my preys and/or predators have motivated me to read it carefully), it has a lot of utility packed into one single card.

Let's look at what it does, and where it fits. (besides under the bridge)

First, it is an ally, and therefore a minion, giving you another action (or reaction) once it hits the table. It looks innocent, and generally most enemies will leave it alone, and few will actually attempt to block your effort in recruiting this dog. They will soon regret it. The Stray can then do what most allies can do, block or burn some random cards (like an Army of Rats, or even better, some random Path, and would be really funny if you manage to use a Wall Street on the Stray and has some investment to target).

Don't forget that it only costs 1 blood. The only other non-unique allies which costs 1 blood or less, and has the utility of this little dog, IMHO, are the Nocturn, and the Arms Dealer. (And the Bima if you can actually has a deck built with him in mind). And even these 2 doesn't have the overall effectiveness of the Stray. I think it is not too much to say that the Stray is probably the best non-unique ally at his cost.

But that's if you play it at superior ANI. At basic it's cool, but not something you can write home about, and probably dies rather quickly. Once you play it at superior (that's the issue with ANI, at basic it is usually not too exciting, and the value-added at superior is truly superior), the doggie truly shines like a Pluto.

It now has 1 strength, therefore it can fight. If it causes 1 damage to the opponent it usually means you have more or less make back the cost of the Stray. Since it has 2 life, there is a chance that it can cause 2 points of damage before it goes~

But the true value of the Stray is in his ability. Burning a blood to provide a press (at superior it can do this twice) is useful once in a while in the right ANI deck to allow Carrion Crows to do one more round of damage, or prevent the enemy from getting away from that persistent Aid From Bats. In fact, the presence of the Stray alone can sometimes convince your enemy to give up on pressing to end. So you see, at superior ANI, you now have 2 on-table presses.

But that's not all, if you need, you can burn the Stray to untap a minon you control. Note the word UNTAP. This is not a wake card, it untaps a minion of your choice, so that even if you do fail to block with that minion, he or she will still be good to block the next action and so on. It also allows that untapped minion to take all sorts of defensive reactions that he/she fancies - Telepathic Misdirection for the Tzimisce, Terra Incognita for Akunanse, and all the other funky things that ANI vampires can do besides blocking. (even Fast Reaction would be cool). Of course, the untap is limited to useable only during a D action against you, but I'm sure you'll agree that D actions against you happens really often.

For ANI decks, blocking is a common strategy, and the presence of a Stray forced your opponent to really consider his actions against you, and therefore is something like a litmus test when the opponent tries to do something to you. Normally, if all your vampires are tapped out, an attempt to bleed might be a gamble to lure your untaps and wakes, but with a Stray on table (it doesn't even needs to be untapped), the action (unless the opponent is careless, ignorant, or plain stupid) is usually taken with some consideration of either surviving your blocks, or defeating your defenses. That is a pretty good hint for you to decide what to do. (There are devious psychological warfare meant to confuse you even when you have a Stray - don't care, just burn it and block it with your biggest vampire, chances are, if the opponent tries to talk to you about not blocking, do the opposite!)

Almost all of the ANI decks will benefit from this ally, some more than the others, and almost always superior in decks that use a good number of ally cards. I think that Derek is on the right track by including some of these puppies in his Renegade Garou deck, and a couple of them with the Tzimisce will serve both as the foundation of the War Ghoul's right foot, or as an alarm clock to remind the War Ghoul that somebody is knocking at the door (certainly better than using On the Qui Vive)

When all else fails, it bleeds for 1 with Computer Hacking.

(o.o)