Archer Wendy has a clue! (Ornate Bow+Skeleton Key-Updated!)

Hey guys! This is a new version of an old Ornate Bow Wendy deck I created and derives from a version I tried that I used Treasure Hunter. The deck performed incredibly well on Standard and I expect this deck to perform equally well and perhaps even better. The main concept of the deck is to use Ornate Bow as our main tool to deal with enemies and since our hands will be occupied with the Bow we will be forced to use tools other than Flashlight and Lockpicks to get clues. As the title suggests, our primary tool to get clues will be The Skeleton Key and it will be supported by other assets/events that will help us get the clues before or after we get the key in our hands. The main problem that arises of course is how to get the Key in our hands soon enough to get started with investigating. The deck has various tools to do that, but the main one is the Double or Nothing + Rabbit's Foot (3) + Grisly Totem (3)/Try and Try Again combo to search through our deck. How the combo works is stated at the description of this deck (and I recommend checking it out before reading any further, if you haven't seen it before). The main difference, though, between then and now is that the potency of this combo is greatly increased by the addition of Drawing Thin. Drawing Thin really powers up this engine allowing you to search through a large portion of the deck while making money and sometimes it can even search your whole deck making it (almost) guarranteed that you will find The Skeleton Key.

I 'll first briefly talk about the level 0 version of this deck. This version of the deck uses Fire Axe as our your main weapon and 1 copy of Flashlight as the investigating tool. These tools are only temporary, as they get replaced by Ornate Bow and The Skeleton Key really early in the campaign. Before you get there though, you will have to use them and they will not have good performance because the deck is mostly teched to play around Ornate Bow and The Skeleton Key. But they can still do some work, as there are a few cards that are in the deck particularly to support the early campaign. Namely, Rise to the Occasion will help with tough foes during Fire Axe attacks and Perception will help you get clues. Of course there are also some long-term purpose cards in the deck that can support the early game too. Drawing Thin is generally good Fire Axe support and your clueing events can help you get more clues in conjunction or not with Flashlight. Some cards will also be less useful at this stage of the game, but will shine later on. Narrow Escape, for example, will underperform because all it has to offer at this stage is 2 icons. A clever use of it however is to provoke an AoO before an attack with Fire Axe by gaining a resource if you have less than 3 resources, effectively netting you a +4 skill value on your upcoming strike. Double or Nothing will also probably be sitting in your hand, unless you toss it at a 0-shroud location (with Flashlight) for the extra clue, or chuck it in along with Rise to the Occasion during a Fire Axe attack to double the damage.

UPGRADES

Mandatory:

• 6 XP: 2x Fire Axe --> 2x Ornate Bow

• 4 XP: 1x Flashlight --> 1x The Skeleton Key

Essential:

• 5 XP: 2x Rise to the Occasion --> 2x Guiding Spirit + Charisma

• 6 XP: 2x Rabbit's Foot --> 2x Rabbit's Foot (3)

• 3 XP: Scrapper

• 9 XP: 2x Perception --> 2x Grisly Totem (3) + Relic Hunter -OR- 2 XP: 2x Perception --> 2x Try and Try Again (1)

Luxury:

• 2 XP: 2x Leo De Luca --> 2x Leo De Luca (1)

• 4 XP: 2x Lucky! --> 2x Lucky! (2)

• 3 XP: 2nd Relic Hunter (for Wendy's Amulet)

So, on to the upgraded version. This is where the fun begins!

First of all, Leo De Luca is mandatory, as both the Ornate Bow and The Skeleton Key are very action-consuming cards. As I said earlier, since our handslots will be occupied with the Bow, Lockpicks and Flashlight aren't playable, so we need to find other tools for investigating. Our primary tool will be The Skeleton Key but we also have other tools to help us investigate with or without the Key. "Look what I found!" and Intel Report our best friends early game and even Winging It can help us score some clues off of a low-shroud location. We also use Guiding Spirit which we get very early in the campaign to increase our odds of investigating successfully with and without the Key. The main problem here is how to find the Key. Well, as I said earlier we have tools. First of all, Rabbit's Foot (3) and Take Heart will draw us cards. Then we have the Rabbit's Foot (3) + Double or Nothing + Try and Try Again/Grisly Totem (3) combo. With this combo, we can investigate a 3-or-higher-shroud location with the purpose of failing intentionally in order to dig into our deck. Drawing Thin increases the potency of the combo dramatically, allowing us to search into a large portion of our deck while gaining more profit and, in some cases, even search our entire deck! Let me show you exactly how many cards you can search into with this combo:

Let's say you investigate...

...a 3-shroud location using 1 Drawing Thin: 3 becomes 5, 5 becomes 10 (from Double or Nothing). Depending on the difficulty level and whether you are using Grisly Totem or Try and Try Again, you get to search into 5-10 cards.

...a 3-shroud location using 2 Drawing Thin: 3 bocomes 7, 7 becomes 14. You get to search into 9-14 cards.

...a 4-shroud location using 1 Drawing Thin: 4 becomes 6, 6 becomes 12. 7-12 cards.

...a 4-shroud location using 2 Drawing Thin: 4 becomes 8, 8 becomes 16. 11-16 cards.

...a 5-shroud location using 1 Drawing Thin: 5 becomes 7, 7 becomes 14. 9-14 cards.

...a 5-shroud location using 2 Drawing Thin: 5 becomes 9, 9 becomes 18. 13-18 cards.

And as you can guess, these numbers can get even crazier at higher-shroud locations, but these cases are extremely rare.

The choice of whether to buy Grisly Totem or Try and Try Again will mostly depend on the amount of XP you expect to get from the campaign. If you expect to get a lot of XP, go for Grisly Totem, otherwise get Try and Try Again. It also depends on how soon you want to get these cards in your deck. I would suggest getting them as soon as you can, so if getting Try and Try Again means you 'll have them for 2-3 more scenarios go for it. Going either route has advantages and disadvantages. If you go Grisly Totem, you will have more value overall, as the Totem works with any cards, not just skill cards and it recurs Take Heart, which is super good for this deck. However, the time to acquire it may be too long and the deck depends on it for a part of its functionality. If you go for Try and Try Again instead, you will get it much sooner, but its use will be very limited -mostly to recur Double or Nothing after using the combo. It will also be mostly useless after you get the The Skeleton Key in your hands.

By using the combo multiple times in conjunction with Drawing Thin, as you can tell, will make you rich. It will give you the resources to pay for anything and any excess can be used for Scrapper. We also have the Track Shoes + Drawing Thin combo to generate even more resources, so as soon as your engine gets going you will be swimming in resources.

Double or Nothing, except for being part of the combo, has more uses (of course -otherwise it wouldn't be so important to recur it). It can be used with Ornate Bow for a big hit, or in conjunction with Winging It while investigating a 1-shroud location with The Skeleton Key in order to grab 4 clues in one action. 1 becomes 2, with Guiding Spirit you 're at 4 and with Double or Nothing + Grisly Totem you go up to 6. 2 versus 6, that's some good odds by default and you can still chuck in a "Look what I found!" or Intel Report if you don't feel confident! Take Heart + Drawing Thin is amazing and with Grisly Totem, you can use that combo multiple times, to the point where you will never want to draw any more cards for the rest of the game! You can then freely use it for your teammates or discard it!

One thing to keep in note, is that this deck works incredibly slowly. Setup isn't fast and using Ornate Bow and The Skeleton Key together make you very slow, so having tempo-generating cards is important. Leo De Luca is our main way of generating tempo, but Winging It and Quick Thinking can also help. Winging It can get us multiple clues multiple times and Quick Thinking can give you 1 or 2 extra actions (with Double or Nothing) at the time you will need them. These 3 cards can be vital for the deck's performance.

To talk about other cards, Narrow Escape is for avoiding an AoO during Ornate Bow action and Intel Report and "Look what I found!" give you options before you get the Key and flexibility after you do. Both are cards that can speed things up. Note that with the incredible economy this deck has it can pay for expensive cards like Intel Report without much trouble. Track Shoes boosts your , making you a better archer and it's another card that can boost your tempo either by generating more resources (with Drawing Thin) or by allowing you to double-move in one action. It's in the deck as a 1-of mostly because you don't need it early game and because one of the cards in the deck had to be a 1-of. There are also plenty of good targets for Wendy's Amulet. That card will usually not be in play, but at the late stages of the scenario it can easily replace a Rabbit's Foot. Relic Hunter allows you to have all 3 accessories though. Even though this is not really necessary, if you have both the Amulet and Rabbit's Foot in play, you can shuffle the events you bottomdeck with the Amulet and that's useful.

Lastly, the combo is not only useful to find The Skeleton Key. If you get it early and you 're missing key assets like Leo De Luca or Ornate Bow it can search for them as well. If you are in such a position, don't hesitate to use it as many times as it is necessary.