Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
Dedalus · 5700
Queen Mandy of the Stacks!
I haven't playtested this at all!
Here's a theorycrafted pure seeker Mandy deck for multiplayer. It's built with four goals in mind:
- Use the Pendant of the Queen as effectively as possible
- Maximize action economy from deck searches
- Boost to 8 and keep it there, then hoover clues
- Be a strong independant librarian who don't need no guardian (most of the time)
As I pointed out, I haven't tested this deck yet. Please comment (or even try it) and let me know what you think!
Pendant of the Queen
Why yes, I would like to clear off that Shroud 6, Victory 2 location on the other side of the map without touching the token bag. Why do you ask?
Pendant of the Queen is this Mandy's superpower. It seems like she's the obvious choices for the build. When a Segment of Onyx gets stuck at the bottom of the deck, she's your girl, with her enhanced tutoring ensuring she can assemble the pendant faster and more reliably than anyone else.
We're looking to maximize the uptime of the pendant in four ways:
- Mulligans
- Two copies of Studious means four more chances to get a shard in your opening hand!
- Tutoring
- There's already a lot of search in the deck. And Backpack is specifically there to pull out your shards. Mandy transforms it into a 9-card dig.
- Deck thinning
- Astounding Revelation isn't just a great economy card; it's also free, fast deck thinning. Most investigators are looking for 3 segments out of 33 cards. It doesn't take actions or draw to remove your research cards from your deck, so you're looking for 3 segments out of 29, improving your chances of drawing a segment in any given card draw by at least 2%. This is why we've got a 30-card deck instead of anything larger.
- Adding charges
- Once the pendant is up, you can use Enraptured to milk it for just a little longer while you do what you do best.
Deck searches and action value
I hope you like shuffling, because you're gonna search your deck a lot.
Mandy's ability (being better at deck searching) doesn't innately provide as much action value as, say, Finn's free extra action every turn to evade. A vanilla Finn will likely net more free actions during a scenario than a vanilla Mandy, who only can build a limited number of searches into her deck, and who has to split them between the "search deeper" (no extra action) and "resolve the target twice" (extra action) abilities.
To fix this, we run Astounding Revelation. Let's demonstrate how it helps with a look at Mr. "Rook" calculus.
Mr. Rook
Before Dream Eaters, Mr. "Rook" could be evaluated as: "Pay 3 resources; gain a damage/horror soak and tutor 3 cards". Seekers were happy to pay this cost, judging by Mr. Rook's popularity.
Now let's look at Mandy with Astounding Revelation and Occult Evidence. Now the evaluation is, "Pay 3 resources, gain a damage/horror soak, tutor 3-6 cards, and gain 2-6 resources, with the possibility of a testless clue". The resources alone are hopefully enough to put Mandy ahead of Finn in the action economy game.
Eventually you're going to run out of beneficial research cards and start to flag, so you've got Quantum Flux to shuffle all your research back in and do it again!
A word about odds...
The first Mr. Rook dig of 12 cards, in a 28-card post-opening-hand deck, is 91% likely to pull one of your four positive research cards. A second dig of 12 cards is 84% likely to pull one of the remaning three, and a third dig is 72% likely to pull one of the last two.
Eight Intellect
That's what I do. I drink, and I know things.
The deck's goal is to use static boosts to get your to 8+, putting you at the magic "3 over the difficulty" mark for most tests you'll encounter. You've got Higher Education to get you over anything harder.
I've chosen Dr. Milan Christopher (for money and Calling In Favors synnergy), Magnifying Glass (free! fast!), Hawk-Eye Folding Camera (relatively easy to tutor and get out early), and a Tarot package of 1x Anna Kaslow and 1x Death • XIII to boost intellect.
The tarot package is probably the most controversial part of this, and I'll have to playtest it. But I sincerely hope it plays well with the deck concept. I love the Magic Christmas Land scenario: Calling in Favors on a depleted Mr. "Rook", with the search target resolved twice, to net Dr. Milan Christopher, Anna Kaslow, Death • XIII, and two Astounding Revelation, for a cost of two dollars.
Enemy management
The least thought-out part of the deck!
Two Mind over Matter and the Pendant of the Queen should get you out of scrapes when it really matters, most of the time. You're still a seeker though. And even more than other seekers, when there are no clues on the board, you're more of a liability than a help to the team.
Miscelaneous things
Core cards that I would not cut ever, so don't ask:
Cards I'm especially unsure about:
Tarot package
Weakness management:
Lots of people have mentioned Research Librarian as a good way to reliably fish for Shocking Discovery. I tried to fit it in, but there wasn't enough room for both the librarian and tomes in the deck. I plan on just taking the weakness on the chin. Ideally, it would show up in a Mr Rook or a Eureka! search. Worst-case scenario would be Calling in Favors or Backpack, so I'd try to fish it out before attempting to use either of those cards.
Economy:
Expected costs in a scenario:
Hands: 2
Pendant: 5-15
Allies: 3-10
Tarot: 0-3
Higher ed: 2-8
Mind over Matter: 2
Quantum Flux: 1
Shortcut: 1-2
Total: 16-43
Expected gains in a scenario
Starting resources: 5
Upkeep: 16
Astounding Revelation: 6-12
Milan Bucks: 2-10
Total: 29-43
Whoa, you're still here?
Seriously though, let me know what you think!
| 5 comments |
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Oct 01, 2019 |
Oct 01, 2019
My plan is to always mulligan Anna Kaslow to reduce the odds that I have to deal with a turn 1 treachery... although clearing out the weakness immediately does have its perks. |
Oct 01, 2019
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Oct 01, 2019
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Oct 01, 2019
Whoever you play No Stone Unturned on, that player can always pull draw cards, since you must play it on an investigator at your location. The Council's Coffer is harder to figure out. I think that the "limit once per round" text on Mandy's card means that one player at your location will draw two cards, and everyone else will only draw one. |
Does the following work with mandy: If you have anna kaslow in your opening hand and you have 2 tarot in your deck the death and the mystic one, could you search them both and put them both in play for free at beginning of the game with Mandy's ability?