Mary’s Spectral Shield Shenanigans

Credit: McDucky

Inspired by Immortal Zoey by adriendittrick https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/55684/immortal-zoey-1.0

So Spectral Shield can still trigger asset effects that care about assigning damage/horror then immediately canceling it. In the current TDC card pool there is only 3 player cards that have it: Guardian Angel, Hunter's Armor (Hexdrinker/Thorns), and Armor of Ardennes. Hunter's Armor is especially interesting as it allows you to cancel damage/horror from enemy attacks or treacheries while dealing damage or drawing cards.

• Overview

• Scenario 1 Strategy

• Main Strategy

• Other Comments/Notes

• Upgrade Path

Get Runic Axe/Brand/Breath into play, stay alive, and clear enemies. If you have time, play Refine.

Tip: Regardless of if you get the Refine you will generate 3 EXP with The Great Work / Down the Rabbit Hole. So always prioritize team safety instead of stretch goals.

Get your core combo assets into play:

• Runic Axe
• Hunter's Armor
• Spectral Shield (on the Armor)

Now when either an enemy attacks you or you take damage/horror from an encounter card you distribute it as applicable to Hunter’s Armor to deal 1 damage (if you have Guard Dog it will need to take damage from an enemy attack in order to trigger its effect) or draw 1 card. All for one charge off your axe that recharges every round.

The rest of the deck is geared towards drawing the combo or further supporting it such as Brand of Cthuga and Breath of the Sleeper which can also be used as charges. Ofuda can also chip in a charge here and there are Mary naturally provides Bless tokens.

Your second Spectral Shield can either be placed on Mary herself or Guardian Angel. Guardian Angel can also take advantage of the cancel effect to generate a Bless without it actually taking damage, however once you get Saga (generate 2 charges every round instead of 1) on Runic Axe it's usually better to get both Shields in place instead of waiting for Angel. You should not place it on Guard Dog as then you’ll have to always assign 2 damage to it to trigger its effect since the Forced effect of Spectral Shield always has to cancel one of it and again Guard Dog needs to be dealt damage from an enemy attack to trigger its damage.

Later on, once Hunter’s Armor gets Protective Runes, Guard Dog (2), and Ward of Protection (2) you can basically protect anyone else on the team if you're at the same location. Pretty good for a Guardian.

Why Mary?

There’s a couple of investigators who can run the combo cards such as Diana and Zoey. But I think Mary has the best setup for the combo due to:

• Getting the most out of the customizable cards due to Down the Rabbit Hole and Guardian level 5 access
• Mary being able to generate bless tokens herself allows you to run Ofuda/Breath of the Sleeper reliably since you likely will hit a bunch of bless.
• Mary has Guardian Angel which works with Spectral Shield as well.

However, due note that || Zoey can support 2 Hunter’s Armor by switching it from taking up a body slot to taking up an Arcane slot for 1 exp and Armor of Thorns (do keep in mind that || Zoey can only take up to 6 checks on upgrade sheets). Then run Bangle of Jixes to generate 2 damage every round while ignoring as many 1/1 enemy attacks as you want. However, that means drawing both copies of Hunter's Armor, Bangle of Jixes, and Spectral Shield. Plus play them all.

No clues?

As you might have noticed this deck includes no clue acquisition. You can definitely switch out cards like Spectral Razer, Ward of Protection, and Breath of the Sleeper for their clue counterparts (Evidence, Read the Signs, and Eyes of the Dreamer). I tend to play in 3-4p groups so usually the Guardian has to be all in on enemy management.

Warning: Mary is still a shaky 1st scenario fighter.

The main problem with Mary as always is that she struggles at her job of being an enemy slayer in the first scenario if things don’t go her way. Spending 2 charges of Runic Axe and being 6 v 4 isn’t a good of a feeling as 7 v 4 with the average Guardian's 4 fist.

Upgrade Path is pretty straight forward (if you can’t get Stick to the Plan can put Down the Rabbit Hole EXP on other ups for Armor/Runic Axe)

1. Armor of Thorns (3 exp)
2. Stick to the Plan (note it costs 7 exp)
3. Stand Together (6 exp)
4. Saga (3 exp)
5. Hexdrinker (3 exp)

After this point you can get what you want.

Better Economy:

• Emergency Cache (2 exp)
• Heirloom (1 exp)

Team Treachery Protection:

• Protective Runes (2 exp)
• Ward of Protection (4 exp)
• Prayer Beads (2 exp)
• Guts (4 exp)

Better Fighting:

• Brand of Cthugha - 4 (6 exp)
• Scriptweaver (4 exp)
• Inscription of the Hunt (2 exp)
• Guard Dog (4 exp)

Once you’re set you can replace the following:

• Refine -> Dynamite Blast (4 exp)
• Spectral Razor -> Call the Beyond (6 exp)
• Charisma / Relic Hunter (4 exp)

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No Safeguard because you have Spectral Razor and later on Inscription of the Hunt.

No Vicious Blow because I value draw (thus Guts/Daring) and early on we rely on Brand/Breath to fight with enemies using her higher base so can be awkward to apply Vicious Blow.

No Nephthys/Radiant Smite because she costs 5 exp per copy and you will have Guard Dogs taking up spots. However, you can slot them in instead if you have spare EXP later on.

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