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The Art Department hit the ball out of the park again with page 19 of the guide (page 2 of the Campaign Log).

Joe's Hunch Deck, as speculated, is 2 of each possible in the Deluxe, 1 of each possible from the Core, and his sig. weakness:

Quote

• Evidence! (Core 22)
• Mind over Matter (Core 36)
• Working a Hunch (Core 37)
• Barricade (Core 38)
• Unsolved Case (TCU 10)
• 2 copies of Interrogate (TCU 20)
• 2 copies of Delay the Inevitable (TCU 21)
• 2 copies of Connect the Dots (TCU 25)

Picked my copy up yesterday.... Joe deck is being built.... starting Carcosa next week... the Stars ARE aligned....

Aaaaaaaah... Carolyn is ready, I guess. It's so weird going into a new campaign with no way to defend myself. Not used to it all. Will be relying on Rita and Diana. ❤️

https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/9539/undoing-the-circle-through-logical-reasoning-and-whiskey-1.0

EDIT: We made it through the prologue with pretty good results, and completed the witching hour successfully. Time will tell if this deck will hold up. We're in easy though.

Joe is nice fyi.

Now The spoiler im thirsty for: Enchanted blade!

What does it do?!

The text seems to be:

"-> Fight. You get +1 combat for this attack........

...........initiate this attack...............

.........empower the...................

..........deal +1 damage for this attack."

My guess is:

"-> Fight. You get +1 combat for this attack. When

you initiate this attack you may place one doom on

this card to empower the attack. For every doom on

Enchanted blade deal +1 damage for this attack."

13 hours ago, tsuruki said:

Now The spoiler im thirsty for: Enchanted blade!

What does it do?!

The text seems to be:

"-> Fight. You get +1 combat for this attack........

...........initiate this attack...............

.........empower the...................

..........deal +1 damage for this attack."

My guess is:

"-> Fight. You get +1 combat for this attack. When

you initiate this attack you may place one doom on

this card to empower the attack. For every doom on

Enchanted blade deal +1 damage for this attack."

What's really interesting is that if it follows suit of Tennessee Sour Mash & Scroll of Secrets, it will have 1 guardian and 1 mystic upgrade.

17 hours ago, tsuruki said:

Now The spoiler im thirsty for: Enchanted blade!

What does it do?!

The text seems to be:

"-> Fight. You get +1 combat for this attack........

...........initiate this attack...............

.........empower the...................

..........deal +1 damage for this attack."

My guess is:

"-> Fight. You get +1 combat for this attack. When

you initiate this attack you may place one doom on

this card to empower the attack. For every doom on

Enchanted blade deal +1 damage for this attack."

If you compare it to other cards, you will notice a space between the Traits and the Fight action. Where Uses usually go, likely charges.
It also wouldn't really fit a Guardian card to put Doom on it.

So I expect you expend charges to deal extra damage.

I would also expect a limit of 1 damage. They don't do more than 2 damage with weapons at Level 0.

I'm honing a Murderous Marie deck. Unfortunately, Enchanted Blade looks like it only uses Combat, which doesn't suit her.

On 2/4/2019 at 1:49 AM, tsuruki said:

Joe is nice fyi.

Had first play through with him last night... curtain call... frozen in fear caused some issues early on but generally he worked very well in the team (others are Diana and Zoey)...

hunch Deck is great, although some of the clue gatherers I put in there didn’t seem to get used as much as expected, so might swap them out for other insight events I have in the main deck for the next one...

also 8 xp to spend... woohoo!!!

3 hours ago, gazzagames said:

Had first play through with him last night... curtain call... frozen in fear caused some issues early on but generally he worked very well in the team (others are Diana and Zoey)...

hunch Deck is great, although some of the clue gatherers I put in there didn’t seem to get used as much as expected, so might swap them out for other insight events I have in the main deck for the next one...

also 8 xp to spend... woohoo!!!

My hunch deck was:

Logical

Working on a hunch

Shortcut

Sketches

No stone

The least useful was no stone since Joe had all the draw he needed and really didnt afford actions to support others. I liked all the fast stuff, No stone(5) and Cryptic were great additions when I got xp.

Not going to lie, a 40 card deck is very appealing.

My Carolyn deck is okay so far. Nothing spectacular. I really need more resources for the high cost cards I have in the deck, but I'm not sure what to replace. I figure I can always commit the high cost cards if I can't afford them or don't need them (like Thermos). Going into the 2nd TCU scenario this weekend. I'm really hoping to get my ancient stones identified asap.

I really wanted to keep anatomical diagrams, but I needed upgrade space for the stones until they turn into 'heals horror' cards.

https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/309195

If only Joe had higher sanity, anatomical diagrams would be a great choice for his hunch deck.

30 minutes ago, Soakman said:

I really need more resources for the high cost cards I have in the deck, but I'm not sure what to replace.

With the warning that I have never played Carolyn and therefore probably have no idea what I'm talking about... I'd say replace Delay the Inevitable. It costs 2 resources to play, might continue to eat resources to stay in play, and could end up cancelling horror that Carolyn wants to heal so she can use her ability. Of course if you are using Delay the Inevitable because it is a new card and you want to test it out then you should probably ignore that suggestion! Maybe swap out the second copy of Connect the Dots instead? Or Thermos, unless you think your investigators will end up heavily traumatised.

Depending on how much investigating you are doing you could also maybe swap to 2x Dr. Milan and 1x Peter Sylvestre, unless you have a strategy that revolves around handing Peter off using Teamwork?

Best of luck identifying those stones in scenario 2!

Thanks. I think part of my issue is just still grappling with the best way to play Carolyn. Oddly, despite having such high cost cards, there was a point in the first scenario that I had more than 10 at once, but I doubt it's going to stay that way. Carolyn has a way of generating more resources that you expect, and teamwork has always been a card I thought could be used to share some around, but maybe not with this deck since there are so many high cost cards. It's a nice idea, but maybe not practical.

Peter is there to help with resource generation (every time he heals, I get an extra resource); this in combo with forbidden knowledge lets me gain resources, put the horror on Peter, and then get more resources when he heals. All at a cost of no actions at all other than playing the cards. But it also requires the initial investment of 3 resources.

I have Delay the Inevitable because it's new, but it's also fast and as a guardian, I am still trying to tank a bit to make dragging monsters off of me less risky, or just maybe to hold off death until help can arrive (with agility and fight of 2, getting caught off guard could be a problem especially in regard to damage not horror) but we'll see how much I actually use the card in scenario 2. It's probably on my list to swap out. 2x Milan would be an option, but I only have 1 core (even after all this time!).

Thank you, you've given me some things to think about. I appreciate it.

5 minutes ago, Soakman said:

Peter is there to help with resource generation (every time he heals, I get an extra resource); this in combo with forbidden knowledge lets me gain resources, put the horror on Peter, and then get more resources when he heals. All at a cost of no actions at all other than playing the cards. But it also requires the initial investment of 3 resources.

That's a nice combo! Peter will probably be taking horror from other sources throughout the game as well, so the initial 3 resource investment doesn't look bad to me if you can play him early. I had somehow totally failed to spot that Peter healing would trigger Carolyn's ability. I guess in my head I imagined him healing himself?

So, I've played a lot of Carolyn and have published a decklist a while back. I have quite a lot of thoughts about building her, but to an extent it depends on your group. If your group desperately needs horror healing (e.g. Roland, Skids, Finn, Agnes) some of this advice may not apply:

I think you've leaned too much into horror healing - specifically, that Thermos, Liquid Courage and Kerosene are all poor choices for Carolyn. I'd probably start with First Aid, drop it immediately for Ancient Stone (and just accept that there'll be one scenario where you don't have healing assets). I'd drop Connect the Dots entirely for an extra Working a Hunch and Logical Reasoning, grab an extra Forbidden Knowledge, 2x Painkillers, Ward of Protection. If you want to increase your will higher (e.g. Peter Sylvestre (2)) Mists of R'lyeh or Shrivelling are both OK options for emergency defence, and they both work well with Anatomical Diagrams if you're going that route; also, if your team has poor willpower or fragile sanity/health you can take Let Me Handle This! to take treacheries off people - Carolyn is a very effective tank with decent willpower, high health/sanity, access to lots of horror soak, damage soak and healing. Deny Existence is one of the most useful cards in the game, and I would always start with at least 1 copy of Premonition, not only because it's a generally incredible card, but also because it can be key to ensuring you succeed optimally at identifying the Ancient Stone.

Peter S. + Forbidden Knowledge/Painkillers is a cornerstone of why Carolyn can be effective - it's a mistake to think that her main job is to heal horror from people; it's part of an engine and an efficiency boost that you can lean into a bit to help out your team (e.g. take the pressure off for dealing with enemies with horror damage or treacheries like Rotting Remains), but if you go for healing as a strong focus you're going to be pretty useless (as you aren't contributing enough to actually winning the game). You should only be healing if it's efficient to do so: if you can do so without compromising your ability to contribute to the game, and/or if doing so enables other teammates to be more efficient by concentrating on offense over defense.

My approach to Carolyn is pretty much going for Charisma x2 asap, but even if you aren't going that route I don't recommend Milan, and certainly not just one copy - if you're using Milan it's because you want him for a strong economy, so you want to get him out ASAP, so 2 copies are a must - Carolyn has a huge amount of flexibility and already has very strong economy so she doesn't need Milan at all (also, I'm in the camp of refusing to use Milan on principle). In the absence of Alice Luxley, I'd say 2x Peter S., 2x disposable ally (either a Laboratory Assistant or a Guard Dog), and maybe Calling in Favours to get Peter S. out as soon as possible.

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm kind of planning on weaning some of the horror stuff out depending on how the cycle goes and also once I get my stones online. I hadn't though of using pain killers for some reason to trigger peter. i'm kind of regretting that now as I'd have to pay xp to put them in. And I love Deny Existence/ward and would have included copies but one of my partners for this cycle is Diana who is already canceling quite a lot. My other partner is Rita, who I expect to have to heal sanity for on occasion.

Kenosene is just a new card I'm trying, and I intend to stick with at least one of the other two investigators for protection, so I'm thinking triggering it shouldn't be too hard.

Essentially, I'm more focused on clue-ing this time around, which is why I've included Milan. Mostly for Intelligence boost. I could have used Alyssa or add Ikiaq to this end, and I usually would prefer Peter, but I like having soaks for damage/horror as well.

Ikiaq in case you aren't familiar with her:

5 minutes ago, Soakman said:

Essentially, I'm more focused on clue-ing this time around, which is why I've included Milan. Mostly for Intelligence boost. I could have used Alyssa or add Ikiaq to this end, and I usually would prefer Peter, but I like having soaks for damage/horror as well.

If you just want intellect boosts, Milan is not a great choice because of his high up-front cost and taking up the ally slot that you absolutely want filled with Peter S. Instead I'd recommend a second Magnifying Glass (Magnifying Glass (1) works really well with Ancient Stone/Fingerprint Kit, because you can take it back into hand if you need to free up a slot for a temporary boost), and/or replacing him with a second tarot card. I would also recommend taking a second St Hubert's Key since it doesn't use up any of your limited slots - obviously a lot of these are level 0 cards so maybe not something you want to switch to mid-campaign. I can't wait to try out Alice Luxley on Carolyn...

Alyssa Graham was a cornerstone of my Carolyn deck but then I had To Fight The Black Wind to deal with and no Deny Existence to counter it. Still, Rational Thought looks like a pretty horrible weakness as well since it forces everything offline until you can deal with it - Obviously with two of Ancient Stone (MIH), Hypnotic Therapy and Moment of Respite it can be dealt with very quickly, but otherwise it shuts down your resource engine entirely, so it might still be worth using Alyssa for scrying your deck, though I haven't played with the "standard" signature cards yet.

Assuming Ikiaq remains the same, Carolyn can't use her since she's level 2 and doesn't heal horror.

I was going to use Luxley as well, and then realized that she's not out yet. ☹️ Also, crud. You're right about Ikiaq, I thought she was lvl 1 for some reason.

Thank you for these tips. I agree with a lot of them. I have trouble focusing my decks because I want to 'do it all' and they end up haphazard at times. I'm not completely opposed to swapping in lvl 0 cards either, but it really depends on how much xp this cycle is going to generate. My next upgrades, if I translate the stone, will require at least 3 xp. So we'll give it some though after the end of scenario 2.

One of the things I found with Carolyn is that you really need to know exactly where you're going with her, why you've chosen to use her rather than someone else, what you intend to do with her unique deckbuilding. Because otherwise, you've got a seeker without access to high level seeker cards and with 1 less stat point, and mediocre signature cards.

I don't mean to sound arrogant there, rather that you can't simply throw together a deck and just go for it. That seems to be the same as Diana and Preston, you can't just piece together a simple mystic or rogue deck and find success. First time I played Carolyn I used First Aid to heal Foolishness. Or, to put it another way, I wasted 2 full turns and everyone on my team had to pick up the slack.

2 hours ago, Soakman said:

Not going to lie, a 40 card deck is very appealing.

Well, since the Insight events actually go into a separate deck, the "40 card deck" doesn't dilute weaknesses. But it's really even better, in that it supplies a virtual +1 to hand size, and playing those events at a -2 discount means they are usually 0 cost. If you focus on the free action and fast events, it's like Joe leads a charmed life.

I played Extracurricular Activities last night with the Good Stuff Joe deck from ArkhamDB (with Overpowered replaced with Guts) and the aforementioned murderous Marie. I was worried at first, as things were going slow. But I lucked out with few enemies (they worked together on a Wizard of Y-S, a Thrall appeared in a dead location, and that was it, other than the boss), and both were able to slowly but surely clean up on clues. The Hunch deck is great, especially when you get a Fast. Marie was sitting on a Beyond the Veil, and I was practically HOPING to run through the deck, just so I could nix it with the Delay the Inevitable that I attached to her.

I should also mention that Marie was swimming in cash, letting me keep Delay in play. An early Renfield with a 7-doom agenda -- jackpot!

I'm aiming to try Marie next. Doom scares me though and I've never been able to make Renfield work without feeling horrified that something was going to go wrong. Do you just activate him every turn basically until you can't? Do you wait until you have a Moonlight Ritual? What is the strategy there, if you don't mind my asking.

36 minutes ago, Carthoris said:

Well, since the Insight events actually go into a separate deck, the "40 card deck" doesn't dilute weaknesses. But it's really even better, in that it supplies a virtual +1 to hand size, and playing those events at a -2 discount means they are usually 0 cost. If you focus on the free action and fast events, it's like Joe leads a charmed life.

I kind of does dilute the weakness as his sig weakness, Unsolved Case, is in that second deck. If he were to get Indebted, he wouldn't have any weaknesses (starting) in his primary deck.

11 minutes ago, Soakman said:

I'm aiming to try Marie next. Doom scares me though and I've never been able to make Renfield work without feeling horrified that something was going to go wrong. Do you just activate him every turn basically until you can't? Do you wait until you have a Moonlight Ritual? What is the strategy there, if you don't mind my asking.

In this case, I had an Arcane Initiate in hand, ready to replace him (she'd be bringing in her own Doom, of course, but not as much as I had on Renfield) so I wasn't too concerned. Moonlight Ritual is obviously the most reliable thing, but he doesn't have much soak, so just have a plan to off him. Take an AoO. Maybe run Painkillers (Dave-killers!) for that very purpose, mwahaha.

Realize that you don't have to put another Doom on him to collect resources. You can just exhaust him and take X resources without adding more.

I went back and forth on whether to run Renfield or Alyssa. I went with him because he's cheaper and I wasn't planning to have Marie handle the investigating.

11 minutes ago, Duciris said:

I kind of does dilute the weakness as his sig weakness, Unsolved Case, is in that second deck.

Ah. I had forgotten that. So in a way, it concentrates his weakness, since it goes in a smaller side deck.