I've had a bit of time to experience Mandy now. She's in the Forgotten Age campaign that I'm playing, we are on the final (non-epilogue) scenario. We're playing standard, 2 players (with my character, Tommy) I'm not piloting the Mandy deck, but I did build the deck.

I built it as Seeker/Rogue because a) Wanted the good survivor cards on Tommy and b) wanted to use some of the evasion cards from rogue. I've wound up being pretty unimpressed, which is surprising because I thought she was going to be amazing. 40 card deck ended up being more of a burden than a boon, as you'll find yourself less likely to draw the critical cards in your deck.

Eureka is amazing on her, and so is her Star effect, when you can draw it. Didn't end up including Mr. Rook in the deck because I knew the pilot would never, ever, ever play him [even though we are using the Taboo list, this person *likes* Milan, and will never, ever play Rook over Milan. Charisma was a possibility, but didnt end up going that route]. Perhaps I could try to persuade again next time around.

What else is good on Mandy? The occasional Quick Thinking has been very nice, Slip Away has been handy too. Her weakness is not usually all that bad. Sometimes it's annoying. What hasn't worked well is Old Book of Lore. It's not nearly as useful as it is on Daisy. You kind of need to use OBL about 4 times with Mandy's ability to make it worth playing over just drawing cards the old fashioned way. We've found that just isn't feasible. Mandy can't be the draw engine for the team and the primary clue-getter at the same time. Was very disappointed here. Another tough thing is that she has hand problems, like most seekers do, but the competition is pretty fierce to justify OBL.

So overall I've found her to be okay, not great. But I probably could have built the deck better, hence the main thrust of the topic. I'll likely give Mandy a go myself after we sum up this campaign and start the next one, so how should I build her for maximum effectiveness? Is 40 cards the way to go? Should I slim down to 30? I was thinking of going Seeker/Mystic, over Seeker/Rogue to include Ward of Protection and the juicy new Stargazing. Any other Mystic events/skills that I shouldnt pass up? Is there a Mr. Rook build somewhere that's crushing it? Generally looking for any insight on how to make an effective Mandy, and whether or not she is just a slightly weaker version of Daisy.

I’ll playing a 30 card seeker/mystic Mandy (also paired with Tommy)

The main focus of the deck was to buy 3X Segments of Onyx and construct the Queens Necklace multiple times each scenario. It worked quite well so far. I found she typically was sitting on 8 cards all game. Most scenarios would go: play Mr rook, make the necklace, use the necklace 3 times. Usually by now her deck is down to 5-10 cards when the 3 segments get shuffled back in. I could then re-construct the necklace (Mr rook grabs 2 segments with a 9 card search), and play Quantum Flux to avoid running out of cards (I’m playing Dunwich, so Beyond the Veil is a thing). This give 6 free evades, clues, or teleports each scenario from the necklace.

It also includes the Strange Solution, Archaic glyphs, and Ancient Stone. So Mandy can deal with enemies in a variety of ways. She also has Occult Lexicon and Blood Rite can kill enemies as well. She is definitely action-limited compared to Daisy. I did not include Old Book of Lore, she gets enough chances to search with Eureka, Research Librarian, and Mr Rook.

I probably should have included Fingerprint Kit in the deck for clue acceleration. Possibly instead of the Glyphs (which I still have t had time to translate...again, action limited).

I’m still not sure if 30 cards is too small. It a bit sad when your deck is down to 3 cards, your ability to search seems useless.

https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/491423

you use research librarian? Doesnt that automatically draw her weakness and cancel itself?

3 minutes ago, awp832 said:

you use research librarian? Doesnt that automatically draw her weakness and cancel itself?

Yup. By design.

Yes, if you have a Ward of protection in hand, you can just get your weakness out of the way early. Edit: well, if you draw an enemy then you might need help since Ward can’t cancel those.

Then use Calling in Favors to get mr rook into play. And once Mr. rook is out of secrets, play the Research Librarian to fetch the Occult Lexicon for you.

Triggering the weakness is kind of inevitable. Better to do it with a search where you’re not trying to use your ability on.

I'm playing a 50 card Mandy with Rogue through hard TCU and it's going great.

I can't remember the last time I actually investigated and pulled a chaos token to pick up clues. That's a pretty good system to deal with the whole haunted mechanic.

I’m playing a 40 card deck mystic secondary Mandy. Mr Rook is key with Truth from Fiction keeping him stocked. Segment of Onyx has been great, but so has the ability to find and put down all 3 Open Gates. We did Murder at the Excelsior a side scenario with our waking investigators Mandy and Tommy and having all 3 Open Gates saved our tushies!

I've seen Mandy played in 2 campaigns, 40 card rogue secondary both times. She seems extremely powerful.

As Luke Robinson, I appreciated being given a double-use No Stone Unturned turn 1, getting both Hawk Eye Folding Cameras out right at the start.

I don't think I'd find it interesting to play her aside from a gimmicky Tarot deck for fun, but then I don't find any seekers compelling...