Fast, Fortified, & Flexible - [Hard / Expert]

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Patrice "Dark Studies" Hathaway - all cards up to DE + inves 0 0 0 1.0

Holy Outlaw · 215

Concept: Operating on the theory that Patrice’s five cards in hand are “her rig” (or at least part of it) and you don't need too much more; the important thing is that you use all five cards each turn. Intended for multiplayer (especially two player with a similarly well-rounded deck, or four player as a “flex”). Balanced cluer/ killer, very resilient against Mythos. Can usually use the whole hand, especially once Cornered. Can always pass test, get clues (two at a time), and handle enemies.

Strengths: defensively tough, fast out of gate, can help others’ skill tests.

Weaknesses: fidgety resource juggling, loss of cards each round, needs the assets early.

Mulligan: for assets. Prioritize Patrice's Violin and Madame Labranche. In middle rounds, Scrounge for Supplies to link Uncage the Soul with spells if they come in a weird order. In clutch moment, Scrounge for Lotto tickets.

Notes: Might struggle with the Watcher from Another Dimension and lose valuable time if he’s drawn too early. The deck only makes tests and the kind of tests where you don’t care the result. No great shakes to give the Last Chance to a buddy if the turn went well.

Substitutions:

Solo:

Upgrades:

Note that at some point you'll have reduced utility from Scrounge for Supplies once your cards are leveled, but with Resourceful, you can still scrounge your way to recur your best cards through a two-step process.

Okay, I think that does it.

6 comments

Oct 18, 2020 unremb · 237

Fortified?

Oct 18, 2020 Holy Outlaw · 215

Yeah, I was gonna use a word like "Resilient" because I think one of Patrice's chief strengths is that with a good build she can handle treacheries, enemies, and keep moving forward. But I wanted a third "F" word just for alliteration. I mean, if you're calling me out for the absence of soak ... well, guilty. Although you can heal horror with Fearless and can replay the old lady very, very many times so this deck can handle a great amount of damage and horror as long as it's over duration and not overwhelming at once. So yeah, I'm going with fortified!

Oct 18, 2020 Lord Triloth · 1890

I really like to have a Ethereal Form as Watcher tech in Patrice. With Moonstone and Dark Horse your already at a 10, so you should be pretty sure of discarding him.

Oct 18, 2020 Holy Outlaw · 215

I think you’re right—it’s a legitimate oversight. I mentioned Ethereal Form as a “solo” adjustment but I didn’t emphasize enough that in my four player group I have a Nathaniel who’s so happy to kill my Watcher from Another Dimension that I just whiff an attack on action 3 and let it be his problem. But if I didn’t have him, I couldn’t be so serene about the whole thing. Glad you raised the point.

Oct 29, 2020 DAAAN · 1

I can't help thinking Robes of endless night would really work in this build, particularly the l2 version. When I've played Patrice, 2 resources a round was easy thanks to madame labranche, but 3 had to wait for the violin. The Robes push your 3s to 2s and 4s to 3s, which make them all a lot more manageable until the violin turns up.

Also, one of my favourite upgrades in Patrice is versatile bringing in lone wolf (although my deck was tooled for 2p where lone wolf is a lot more effective). I just brought in 4 skills at the same time reducing my average deck cost. I like lone wolf as it functions like a second violin, bringing you up to the 3 resources per turn mark a lot more easily.

Oct 29, 2020 Holy Outlaw · 215

There's definitely an argument for Robes. I'm in the camp that considers the gap between the level zero and level two robes the difference between a bad and good card, so I particularly agree with you about the level two version.

To me the mileage of the robes is less about the assets--since if you're running Uncage the Soul and Scrounge for Supplies to recur it, you're hoping to pay zero for those anyway--than about reducing Ward of Protection to free and the 2-cost events like Spectral Razor and Read the Signs to 1. The question just becomes how often you're going to pull that off and the answer needs to be 4+ times to justify the initial outlay. But your point about considering the robes a third resource asset complementary to Madame Labranche and Patrice's Violin is a good one.

I like the idea of Lone Wolf, but I'd worry about the tension with Dark Horse. It's probably most attractive in a Fire Axe variant. Hard to say for sure; how many resources she needs for a given build is tricky to estimate. She's a weird one.