Dreams of a Madman: The Idoomarod

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more

Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.

Inspiration for
None yet

Two struggling cards find hope - and family - with each other.

PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY

Mulligan Targets (in order of importance): As many Sled Dogs as you can find, Elle Rubash, Dowsing Rod, Parallel Fates.
In the Thick of It: 2 mental trauma.
Strategy: Use Amina's cost reduction to play a full pack of Sled Dogs.

GATHERING YOUR PACK

Use Amina's ability to play Sled Dogs with doom on them. This will make them valid targets for Elle Rubash and Sin-Eater.
Use Amina's ability then Calling in Favors on the just-played ally for massive tempo gains.
Parallel Fates and Scroll of Secrets help you find what you're looking for, Calling in Favors helps bring out your Allies.

SURVIVING THE WILDERNESS

Deny Existence and Ward of Protection help protect you from the Mythos.
Sin-Eater and Parallel Fates + Foresight protect you from your doom cards, the latter being used to prevent Ancient Evils in your deck from going off, the former helping manage doom buildup.
On a lesser note, St. Hubert's Key provides a bit of sanity protection, though its main use is to boost your to make investigating less painful.

RUNNING THE RACE

Attaching a Sled Dog to Elle Rubash allows you to fight with 5-8 , depending on how many dogs you exhaust. If need be, you can pump an attack with Word of Weal.
You can use Sin-Eater to ready and un-doom a Sled Dog, then Word of Woe when you need doom on them.
- Side note: Going by the rule of "anything after the colon is not considered part of the cost" for cards like Word of Woe, exhausting X Sled Dogs is hilariously not behind the colon, meaning that you should be able to attack with your whole pack without exhausting.
Spectral Razor provides burst damage and anti-aloof tech.
Read the Signs provides help with cluevering.
Dowsing Rod isn't much, but it does allow you to investigate at higher than 3 without having to expend uses.

PACK PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Potential cards to cut: Read the Signs (not sure how useful burst cluevering will be), Spectral Razor (the highest Amina will be able to hit without committing cards is 7, which might be a bit too shaky for combat).
Potential cards to add: Ward of Protection (best use of 2 XP possible?), Explosive Ward (alternative to Spectral Razor, testless damage, another meme archetype to try).

Let me know what you think in the comments. Hope you enjoy!

3 comments
Dec 05, 2023 Berrysimo · 21 I don't think ignoring X cost on dogs does anything with the word of woe. Yeah, you ignore the action and exhaust clause, but since nothing had been exhausted you get no value for X in the card effect.
Dec 05, 2023 suika · 9389 Ignoring dog cost works perfectly fine. Consider: For costs involving the letter X, the value of X is defined by card ability or player choice, after which the amount paid may be modified by effects without altering the value of X. You don't even need all your dogs played out. Choose X=1000 with just one dog in play. Ignore the cost of exhausting 1000 dogs. Deal 1000 damage,
Dec 05, 2023 NightgauntTaxiService · 386 You actually bring up a really interesting question, `@Koten`. My thinking was that ignoring the cost would allow you to consider it as if it were fully paid (for example, if you used Knowledge is Power to trigger Earthly Serenity before FAQ 2.24, it was generally assumed that you could heal 1 damage/horror per point you succeeded by because you were able to ignore the cost of spending charges). However, if the cost is simply ignored (i.e., treated as if it didn't exist), then you're right, X is undefined and thus defaults to 0. However much my ego doesn't like it, I think you might be right here. On the bright side, that doesn't really change the deck; the free wolf pack attack is nice gravy, but not integral to the deck's functioning.