Daisy abuses her Library Pass to keep her favorite book checked out, ad nauseum.

Credit: Magali Villeneuve

Thanks to the Library Pass (5) & Scroll of Secrets, it's possible to put any tome into play and recur it, fast & free (or just about). And the best candidate to leverage this with is undoubtedly The Necronomicon.

As this combo only costs 13xp, it's eligible for Ascetic and makes for a very strong deck to replace a killed investigator. This guide includes an upgrade path if you want to play it normally in a campaign.

Disclaimer: This deck has been tested in Hard 2 & 4. The Ascetic version has performed well even in campaign finales and higher XP versions are quite strong. The 0xp deck did well in my tests. I did not try this deck in True Solo or 3, but I think it would do well enough.

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Setting Up

• Advancing the Act

• Thwarting the Mythos

• Are Tote Bags Fashionable?

• Other Cards

• What About Other Secret Generation?

• Upgrade Path

• Final Thoughts

This deck's primary identity is a resilient, high-tempo cluever that can contribute to boss-killing, parleying, and team support.

• Use the Library Pass (5) to put The Necronomicon into play for free, empty it out, and then recur it with the Scroll of Secrets to do it again.

• Use Enraptured, Astounding Revelation, and a 2nd copy of Scroll of Secrets to keep this going.

• Leverage The Necronomicon, Scroll of Prophecies, and the rest of your & toolbox to set up, advance the game-state (cluing, boss-killing, and parleying) and not die in the process.

Use your Necronomicon and Scroll of Prophecies to set up as quickly as possible and start getting things done.

Mulligan Priority:

• Research Librarian
• The Necronomicon
• Scroll of Prophecies
• Anything else should be Mulliganed.

Tips:

• Generally, you'll want to exclusively put The Necronomicon & Scroll of Prophecies into play with Library Pass (5) as this saves you resources & an action.
• If you opened with either The Necronomicon or Scroll of Secrets in hand, then prioritize the other with Research Librarian.
  • If you opened with neither of them, tutor out Scroll of Prophecies. Combined with Daisy's Tome , this helps you find your combo pieces & fills out your toolbox.
• Prioritize The Necronomicon's Draw 2 cards early game to:
  • Get your up with St. Hubert's Key & Dr. Milan Christopher.
  • Find your Scroll of Secrets (to recur your Necronomiconnomicon) or your Scroll of Prophecies (to find your Scroll of Secrets).
• When playing Practice Makes Perfect, prioritize Enraptured if you have Scroll of Secrets out. Just be mindful as this will shuffle your deck and whisk away your Necronomicon if you haven't retrieved it first.

Arkham typically asks of you for clues, dealing with a particular enemy, parleying, or being somewhere. Not a problem.

• Clues?
  • Investigate with 7 thanks to St. Hubert's Key & Dr. Milan Christopher.
  • Boost your further with Higher Education (3) to beat especially high shroud locations.
  • Use Deduction to get an extra clue (and maybe a Practice Makes Perfect to do it again).
  • The Necronomicon's Discover 1 clue at any location not only nets you extra clues, but lets you trivialize particularly tough shroud locations as well as those that penalize you for investigating. It also lets you move away or take care of treacheries while maintaining clue tempo.
  • If your Scroll of Secrets is already topped up, Enraptured (2) can turn into a Working a Hunch (2) by feeding your Necronomicon.
  • This deck's max sustained clue throughput is 5 clues (3 basic investigates & two Necronomicon ) a round with 6-7 burst with Deduction (0). With more XP, you could get up to 7-9 with Deduction (2) and up to 10-11 with Enraptured (2), not including Practice Makes Perfect hits.
• Bosses / VP Enemies?
  • You can output up to 9 damage in a round with The Necronomicon's & 2x Occult Invocation, fighting at 8-10 .
  • If you have Enraptured (2)s ready, you can clock up to 12-15 damage by feeding your Necronomicon.
  • You could also punch things with a Promise of Power and/or Necronomicon-boosted basic fight.
  • This might not be enough against particularly tanky bosses or in 3-4 , but hopefully you'll have a fighter or flex to make up the difference.
• Parleying?
  • Use The Necronomicon & Promise of Power to boost whatever skill value needs to be tested. Use an Analysis to guarantee it.
  • If it's money they want, Dr. Milan Christopher & Cryptic Writings will generate you plenty.
  • If they demand assets instead, you can give up a Tote Bag, a Scroll of Prophecies, a spent Scroll of Secrets, or even a St. Hubert's Key.
• Do you or your teammates need to be somewhere?
  • Take a Shortcut.
• Are your teammates in dire-straits or just need a boost?
  • You can use your Library Pass (5) to put your Scroll of Prophecies into play and give them a boost in card economy.
  • Provide healing via Bizarre Diagnosis or Logical Reasoning

    ---

The Mythos either wants to hamper you or kill you outright. You won't have access to The Necronomicon during the Mythos phase, but you've got options.

Your & toolbox:

• Deny Existence is flexible in what it can stop and that you can play it after pulling tokens is amazing. Could easily make a case for running 2 of these.

• Ward of Protection can handle whatever Deny Existence cannot.

• Bizarre Diagnosis & Logical Reasoning. Unlike the first two, these both lose some tempo, but are still great healing cards, are great commits, and can be used to support your teammates. And after all, a defeated investigator is not contributing much.

  • If you're running solo or your teammates are especially tanky, it may be worth cutting Bizarre Diagnosis for another Deny Existence.
  • You can consider upgrading out of Logical Reasoning for Steady-Handed. It's a great source of persistent horror healing, at the cost of team support & some treachery management.

• Promise of Power gives you a good chance against a number of treacheries. Tack on Analysis for peace of mind.

• If you've drawn an enemy, you can protect yourself with The Necronomicon & Occult Invocation. If you can't put them down or evasion is necessary, Promise of Power & The Necronomicon should be enough to let you juke them.

When should we play Daisy's Tote Bag? What about her Advanced Tote Bag?

• This deck makes peace with Daisy's lesser Necronomicon and effectively has 1 handslot. We can leverage that by bumping a spent Scroll of Secrets with a new copy. However, this relegates Scroll of Prophecies to being purely a backup in case your main combo runs out of gas.

• If you find yourself with breathing room, you can play Daisy's Tote Bag to increase your deck's ceiling with Scroll of Prophecies. Once you have Enraptured (2), you may not ever need to play a 2nd Scroll of Secrets unless you want to support your teammates or bump an emptied Scroll of Prophecies.

• Daisy's Advanced Tote Bag is incredible and alleviates the tempo loss of playing out your scrolls. That said, it's worth considering your risk tolerance if you're looking to play on Hard/Expert as the symbols can get pretty nasty (I always seem to draw more elder signs when playing Daisy...).

• Ascetic? This deck at 13xp is quite powerful and fares well even against the toughest scenarios. If you're playing in a campaign, you can omit it and follow the Upgrade path instead.

• Astounding Revelation lets you tutor out your key tomes while still letting you afford to play out a Dr. Milan Christopher or St. Hubert's Key on turn 1. It can also be an inconsistent source of secrets with Practice Makes Perfect.

• Analysis is ridiculous. Effectively guaranteeing a key test is easily worth dropping clues. It can even be tempo positive (i.e using it on a Deduction can still get you ahead). If you're feeling lucky, you can cut it, but I've been mentally scarred by the auto-fail.

• Cryptic Writings eases your setup, helps you afford your events, and become pseudo-Perceptions when you don't need the money. And some scenarios want you to spend resources to accomplish things and this helps with that.

• You could run Delve Too Deep if you'd like. I'd consider cutting 1x Occult Invocation and 1x Analysis first.

• The Great Work is worth considering if no one else is running it. This deck has pretty good survivability and encounter protection so the threat of death is unlikely.

• Ariadne's Twine guarantees that you'll have a constant supply of secrets. That said, I found upgrading to Enraptured (2) did a stellar job of keeping my secrets topped up with Practice Makes Perfect without losing any tempo.

• I prefer Occult Invocation vs. "I've got a plan!" in this deck. This deck can easily supply the cards necessary and Occult Invocation is less vulnerable to the act / agenda leaving you in a bad spot. "I've got a plan!" has a higher damage ceiling though and is worth considering.

  • If you have a dedicated fighter in your team, you could cut 1x Occult Invocation for more clue tech (Working a Hunch or Read the Signs are good choices) or more resiliency (any of the treachery management stuff).

This deck primarily leverages Enraptured, Astounding Revelation, and a 2nd copy of Scroll of Secrets to keep up the Library Pass (5) recursion and using Scroll of Prophecies to fill in gaps. It's easy to keep your scroll topped off with Enraptured (2) & Practice Makes Perfect, but you could run out of steam with just the L0 version if you're not careful. What else could you consider?

• Truth from Fiction is a solid card. 2 secrets for 2R and it has good icons. I find the needing a clue restriction to be prohibitive and so cut it personally, but it's worth considering.

• Truth from Fiction (2) is quite good, but I find Enraptured (2) the superior choice (getting those secrets fast keeps up tempo and can even help with combat) and is sufficient.

• Correlate All Its Contents is pretty good. If you're running Ascetic, it's worth considering taking a copy. Let's you get a secret, 2 if you're lucky, while maintaining tempo.

• Eldritch Sophist is great soak and disposable, but I found it prohibitively expensive unless you get lucky with Cryptic Writings. Dr. Milan Christopher is also really important for getting us to 7 .

• Ariadne's Twine effectively guarantees infinite secrets on either your Scroll of Secrets or your Scroll of Prophecies. It's worth considering for its certainty, especially if you're getting unlucky with Enraptured (2).

• The Raven Quill with Energy Sap does a solid job of mimicking Ariadne's Twine at an XP discount. Supernatural Record would even let you tutor your Scroll of Secrets at an XP premium. If you're interested in this, I would definitely keep the Astounding Revelation to help offset the cost.

Link to the 0xp deck

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Link to the full xp deck

I think Amanda Sharpe would also be really powerful with this concept and would have a higher ceiling, but I do think Daisy starts off much stronger in Scenario 1 and isn't as reliant on tests. I built a version of this deck that focused on recurring the Grim Memoir with Antikythera that also turned out well and was a little better in Scenario 1, but was much more a pure cluever.

My sincere thanks to Valentin1331 for the deck guide template and their many cool deck guides over the years.

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