50 Is The New 30. Mandy

Overview

This deck was built for a 3 player campaign. It relies on other investigators to deal with enemies. Mandy has an incredible amount of searching power. Using a larger deck with the intention of rooting out her signature weakness early allows her to use a larger deck to her advantage on top of having 3 signature cards. Her special can also be used with great success on fellow investigators. They will appreciate the help and return the favor by using those freed up action/resources by protecting Mandy.

Basic Deck Goal

The basic focus is to gather all the clues on a location in one action. This is achieved by using Dream Diary & Essence of the Dream, Archaic Glyphs, and Dream-Enhancing Serum. I am using 50 cards because why not. Many times it has been said that every card above the minimum deck size is not optimal, but I want to have fun searching, and limit the exposure to Mandy's weakness, Shocking Discovery. Additionally 50 cards allows the engine to run longer with a high hand size.

Mulligan Strategy

Studious Is a very much appreciated card in this deck. 7 cards on the initial flop is very helpful. I want to mulligan as little cards as possible to avoid research cards. I generally look for the main clue gathering cards for the combo mentioned above and Mr. "Rook". I may take Dr. Milan Christopher, Research Librarian, Old Book of Lore, Magnifying Glass, or No Stone Unturned. Normally i will leave Dr. Milan Christopher in the deck in hopes to hit it with Calling in Favors

Setup

The early goal is to get assets out and root out Mandy's weakness, Shocking Discovery, as early as possible by playing Research Librarian ASAP to pull that weakness out. Getting Dream-Enhancing Serum out early and then using Mr. "Rook" allows for some great efficiency. Search 9 cards, hopefully hitting a research card for a free clue, secret, or 2 resources, and then taking 2 more cards. This hopefully allows me to get a duplicate to draw an additional card. This single free action from Rook can net 4 cards. If the mulligan was bad, go 12 cards rather than 9. I will take secrets rather than resources if i don't find core assets.

I will normally turn the corner once Mr. "Rook" has 0 or 1 secret left, and i have a way to play Dr. Milan Christopher with either Calling in Favors or Unearth the Ancients. If not, i will just use the resources from Astounding Revelation to play him. I will additionally be looking for Fieldwork and Magnifying Glass if i don't have those yet.

At this point you should be at or above 7 cards. I normally run around 11-13 cards in my hand. Playing A Glimmer of Hope from my discard pile if I need a quick boost to the hand size. Now the engine is primed and ready.

Big Clue Turn

With a base skill of 5 , Mandy can easily get past 10 , and even the mid teens. For that reason, she does not need Higher Education. Using Dr. Milan Christopher, Magnifying Glass, Essence of the Dream, and Fieldwork Mandy will be at 13 intellect. Add in one of the skill cards, A Glimmer of Hope, Curiosity, or Inquiring Mind and that puts her to 14-16 . This is +10-12 on a shroud 4 location. Even drawing a minus 4, this pulls 4 clues and only committed 1 skill card. Simply move to a new location and take all the clues. Using this on low shroud, high clues such as 2 or 3 can easily result in 6+ clues. Combine this with any type of chaos bag manipulation or Premonition for added benefit.

Helping The Team

During the first part of the scenario, or after clearing big locations is a great time to help the team. A few cards are great for that.

• No Stone Unturned Simply let the guardian suit up with 2 cards anyone from their deck.
• Old Book of Lore Either search 3, keep 2, or 6, keep 1. 2 cards with a discount and window to play them is incredible. Combine this with Knowledge is Power for the , and that is an incredible amount of action suppression.
• Crack the Case Due to her 1 action clue gathering, she can essentially decide exactly when she wants to clear a 3/4 shroud location. The mystic is broke, boom, here is 4 resources.
• Eureka! Another method to help fellow 'gators search for cards, but with the added benefit it is very flexible.
• Essence of the Dream A great card to help if I don't need to clear big clue locations. 2/4 icons is amazing, especially towards the end of scenarios with the boss.

Off Turns

Generally this is time when either I have no big locations to clear, or have no remaining charges on Archaic Glyphs. A few cards are in the deck to help smooth out these transition times.

• Deduction This is great for high shroud low clue locations, or just snagging the last 2 clues.
• Extensive Research This can almost always be played for 0 or 1 resource.
• Fortuitous Discovery Generally these cards are 1st used to pump the hand size up past 8, but then can be used for clues if needed. I never use the first card, instead i discard it for max hand size or Occult Lexicon. I may even discard the 2nd as well for it. the third is 2 resources for 3 clues which is great.
• Pendant of the Queen & Segment of Onyx Same situation here. I always use these to pump my hand size up early on. I pull these out for the Queen once my main clue gathering runs out of gas, we are running out of time, or the big bad shows up.
• Blood-Rite Use this primarily if I need to draw more cards, or deal some testless damage while putting Fortuitous Discovery in the discard.
• Basic Clue Gathering. Mandy can always join the likes of normal people and just investigate.

End Of The Scenario

Toward the end of the scenario the core engine of Archaic Glyphs and Knowledge is Power will be all used up. It is at this point I rely on the discard and large hand, A Glimmer of Hope, Fortuitous Discovery and Pendant of the Queen to help with the here and there clues, and primarily deal with the big bad. I can effectively exhaust problem enemies every turn, or fly to a critical location to snag those crucial clues. Due to a 50 card deck I can reshuffle the Segment of Onyx cards into the remaining deck a couple times before needing to shuffle allowing me to grab the Pendant of the Queen faster and faster. These combined with a recurring Essence of the Dream will allow me to pass a crucial Parley test, or help the guardian unload a shotgun blast, etc.

Upgrades

Core Upgrades (19XP):

• Dream Diary 3XP
• Archaic Glyphs x2, 6XP
• Segment of Onyx x3, 1XP
• Studious x2, 6xp
• Charisma 3xp

Further/alternate possible upgrades:

• Old Book of Lore x2
• Magnifying Glass x2
• Extensive Research x2
• Dream Diary 2nd copy
• No Stone Unturned x2.
• Eidetic Memory x2
• Otherworld Codex x2
• Deduction x2
• Forewarned x2

The main idea is to further the normalization of the off turns, finding the main cards needed, or using the Codex to help with management.