The Doomed Performer

Concept summary

Doom concept, needs work. Not very viable yet as a doom concept, but still a solid 'gator I think. Really wanted to work in De Vermis Mysteriis but there just aren't spell/insight events enough stronger than the assets to make the investment of doom worth it. Ended up being more about a seeker mystic than a doom based mystic.

Stat line ends up being pretty incredible after you get all the bonuses out. you've got 6/7 6/7 1 3 once you have Hawk-Eye Folding Camera, St. Hubert's Key and either Alyssa Graham or David Renfield out depending on if you need cash or want to control the encounter deck.

I went with Sixth Sense instead of Rite of Seeking because we want to burn bonus actions on this whenever we can, and being limited by charges works against that. In addition losing actions to Rite of Seeking is especially painful in this deck. As a bonus, even if you've cleared the location you're working on Sixth Sense can sometimes be useful with it's connecting location ability. Don't forget that upgraded Sixth Sense changes to "in addition" meaning you get a clue at your location and the connection.

Leaving out Charisma since it's actually helpful to be able to just cast a new ally and get rid of the current one covered in doom, but with Calling in Favors/Sacrifice and Moonlight Ritual you might be fine.

If playing a campaign where you want to evade much, (a-hem TFA) then Suggestion will serve you very well. Otherwise might not be worth the investment. I would probably drop Shrivelling for it and just go full cluever.

With Drawing Thin and Sacrifice we've got a plenty of drawing power, so i dropped Arcane Initiate for Alyssa Graham to help on those nastier encounter cards.

Another benefit to all the different bonuses to willpower this deck has is that you can draw thin and still have a reasonable chance of success. You have a maximum base will of 7, Blood Pact if you need it, and Recall the Future before you even commit (admittedly you don't have many skill cards, don't be afraid to use your assets/events for their icons!). You should be using Drawing Thin every single turn you can with stats this high, twice if you get both of them out.

Arcane Research seems less and less useful the more i tweak. I may consider dropping it, or dropping down to 1 at least.

I'm a touch worried we're burning too many actions on assets here, which is why I'm advocating to commit them if you can't use them quickly. You've got bonus actions to help mitigate this, but at some point you've got to focus on the act deck and not on becoming all-powerful. Keep in mind also that if you're drawing extra cards every turn like you should be than you are likely enough to burn through your deck, so assets committed don't have to be lost forever.

Play:

Biggest challenges here are going to be a bad draw making you broke. Mulligan HARD for Drawing Thin and David Renfield especially Drawing Thin as it can act as both cash grab and card draw.

This deck is a slow starter, but in general it's important to get something with doom on it out early, and a spell, probably Sixth Sense. You get bonus actions and you want those to happen quickly. But don't sacrifice mid and late game for the early game. If you don't have solid card draw and cash you aren't going to get enough out to dominate the mid-late game.

Overall plan is to use early bonus actions to make up for the fact that you're taking 1-2 actions each turn for playing assets. Use Drawing Thin to draw cards or get resources as needed, and use David Renfield for extra resources when you need them. (Note you should activate his ability during your turn not during the enemy/mythos phase as someone could draw Ancient Evils etc.)

As you get Fingerprint Kit alongside Sixth Sense you're going to start vacuuming up clues, especially once you've got a few bonuses and Recall the Future. The way you dominate mid-late game is that you just rarely fail skill tests in hard or lower. You can buff up high enough that you can consistently test at +3-4 for any test, and +2-3 on most tests, throw in the ability to negate a failing token (or two if you get both Recall the Future out) and you're unstoppable.

Save Emergency Cache for Fingerprint Kit if you can, you've got lots of ways to get resources but no other way to get bonus supplies (and therefore bonus clues).

You should be using new ally assets, Moonlight Ritual, and Sacrifice to prevent the agenda from advancing. Save Mystifying Song to give you all an extra turn rather than just to prevent Marie from advancing the agenda early.

Asset priority:

1. Drawing Thin
2. Anything with doom (or use Blood Pact once you have it)
3. Sixth Sense (swap with Shrivelling if it's a monster heavy scenario)
4. Recall the Future
5. David Renfield
6. Fingerprint Kit
7. Hawk-Eye Folding Camera
8. St. Hubert's Key
9. Shrivelling
10. Alyssa Graham

Upgrade Priority:

Basics:

1. Perception -> Recall the Future
2. Blood Pact
3. Calling in Favors-> Sacrifice
4. Emergency Cache -> Emergency Cache

Developed:

1. Sixth Sense -> Sixth Sense
2. Shrivelling -> (Shrivelling or maybe Shards of the Void)
3. Defiance-> Counterspell
4. Fearless -> Fearless

Sideboard:

1. Swap Shrivelling for: Suggestion
2. Shrivelling for: Wither -> Wither (People hate on wither, but that -1 stacks down to just 1, and there are no charges or horror, it's solid but you don't get that +1 damage. You do gain-1 health on the upgrade which is pretty solid on any non-boss enemy)
3. Defiance/Counterspell for: Ward of Protection -> Ward of Protection