Field Agents on a Boat! | HC 7.5k Guide

Field Agents on a Boat!

I'm continuing my series with a deck each Sunday using the new Drowned City cards, in this case Marion herself being the new card in question. Ever wanted a Lonely Island-style I'm on a Boat party with a pair of Field Agents? No? Well it's happening anyway! Use Soothing Melody to heal horror from your Agents so the party never stops (I'm not reaching with these deck intros... you are...).

Overview

• The crux of this deck is Hallowed Mirror ••• and two Field Agents to benefit from the recurring Soothing Melodies. So long as you have another event you want to play, Marion's ability makes Soothing Melody effectively action-less. Once this engine is set up then quite often you can get two testless clues from your Field Agents, heal the horror on those Field Agents, and then draw two cards (one from Melodies, one from your ability itself) at little to no cost. Inspiring Presence on top of this makes keeping your Agents sane even easier. I chose Field Agents over Beat Cop •• as Guardians have a lot of ways to deal damage but not so many to find clues. The boost from the agents also gives Marion an effective 5 for investigating (up to 7 with Good Weather).

• Speaking of damage, 11 is doable for a big round (a Dynamite Blast, two One-Two Punches, one other two-damage attack). Dynamite Blast in particular sits more comfortably on this deck because because you have a few ways to heal. This is a good (not great) level of damage for a Guardian - but then again most Guardians don't get the level of clue compression here.

• Card draw is very good! As long as you're playing an event per turn Marion gets an extra card which helps you find Hallowed Mirror. From there Soothing Melody and True Awakening offer additional cards on top of this - with Soothing Melody in particular giving an endless supply of healing paired with card advantage.

• Resource economy is also good. With Marion's access to Fortune cards she's the only outside of Leo who can take Hot Streak (which is very noticeable in terms of the resources it provides), and you have a lone copy of Clean Them Out as a fight event which earns you money. She can also take the usual Ever Vigilant and keep it on Stick to the Plan along with Emergency Cache, adding even more economy on top.

• Improvised Weapon, Winging It and Fortuitous Discovery mean your weakness is not a large burden - and the latter two give nice clue compression in addition to True Awakening and the Field Agents (while the former two are playable from your discard pile, which makes triggering your ability easier). The investigate events in particular are useful for when Hallowed Mirror stubbornly refuses to come out of your deck despite your good card draw - giving you multiple ways to solve the same problem. Good Weather is responsive to whatever you need to be doing at a given moment - e.g. a big combat turn, or if you need to spend the whole time clue-finding. It also synergises very well with Determined.

Campaign starter and planned progression

In the Thick of It makes this a 29 XP deck, and the chosen Trait for Marion's deckbuilding here is Fortune. In terms of side deck Backpack •• can allow you to find Hallowed Mirror faster but, as you have a number of different means to clue-find plus innate card draw to find the Mirror, this was overkill for me (especially as the deck isn't awash with other targets for Backpack). This is one of those decks where the core engine is really great, but the deck doesn't hinge on it to be effective and so I didn't feel the need to overcompensate. 0 XP deck is below (and link here).

A recommended order of purchases/upgrades is below. Stick to the Plan is reserved to a much later upgrade than normal due to Marion's high card draw:

• 1 x Perception → 1 x Field Agent

• Hallowed Mirror → Hallowed Mirror •••

• Charisma

• 1 x Overpower, 1 x Perception → True Awakening

• 1 x Overpower, 2 x Short Rest → Good Weather

• 1 x Clean Them Out, 1 x Emergency Cache → Hot Streak ••

• 1 x Toe to Toe → 1 x Ever Vigilant (19 XP here for standalones)

• Stick to the Plan (load with Emergency Cache, Dynamite Blast and Ever Vigilant)

• 1 x Machete → 1 x Blessed Blade ••••

Final thoughts

I have always been a big fan of flex, and Marion flexes superbly well. This deck boasts 5 fight and 5 investigate events, with two of each being playable from your discard pile, so more often than not you have what you need in given moment. Field Agent and Blessed Blade or Machete give persistent non-event based capacity for clue-finding and damage, with Good Weather then providing boosts which align to the group's priorities for that turn.

I really liked how this one turned out, finding an easy way to use Field Agents has been a monkey on my back since they came out in TSK. Overall I think Marion is a superb addition to the investigator roster - there's so many ways to build her that it's crazy (literally every deck I've seen has a really cool and completely different take on her - which is awesome)! Let me know your thoughts.