Patrice: The Deckbuilding Game

This is the second in my "Standard Deck" series, where I create highly effective taboo-compliant decks for specific investigators, with a focus on the most recent Dream Eater investigators first. These decks are designed for 2 Players with Standard difficulty in mind and assume you have a current card pool, but include modifications for 3-4 players. Each deck will highlight the investigator's strengths, including both instructions on how to play the investigator and how to pilot the deck, with the aim of teaching you how they work.

Want to try the new Dream-Eater investigators, but are at a loss and don't know where to start?

Try one of my Standard Decks!

Have an Arkham event coming up and you need to bring a couple of decks, but don't have the time or brain space to build them all?

Try one of my Standard Decks! You can create quick standalone builds by following the Standalone recommendations at the end of each deck guide.

Imagine these as pre-fabricated Arkham Horror LCG decks that you can crack open and start playing with.

THE INVESTIGATOR

Patrice Hathaway

Role: True Flex

Pair With: Monster-Killer, Flex, or Clue-Getter

Strengths: Versatility, Card Draw, Tempo

Weaknesses: Low Stats, Hand Recycling

Modus Operandi: Patrice is a deck-building game, a game of probabilities and chance in which you will see every combination possible of good and bad cards in your hand . Like any deck-building game, the key to her success is stacking her deck with the probabilities you want to see.

Patrice follows the philosophy of the Greek Ascetics, who espouse the transitoriness of all earthly things. Just like Calvin Wright, she will make you re-evaluate cards in a whole new light.

A of 4 gives Patrice a natural mystic bent and an ability to resist much of the encounter deck. But with only 2 in each of her other stats, what else can she really do? Contrary to what you might think, due to her regular hand recycling, Patrice is very versatile and can leverage different skills every turn--not just Willpower. She gets 5 new cards every turn, and even though she may not be able to play them for the card ability, she can use their icons--so icons are very important for Patrice.

When you build your own deck for Patrice, make sure to check out my general deck building advice under the Review portion of the Patrice Hathaway investigator card: https://arkhamdb.com/card/06005

Tempo = Allegro

Patrice's card draw gives her some of the best tempo in the game. What is tempo? It is how fast an investigator can get things done. On turn one, Patrice can play just one asset, then start taking tests. Often she won't get any assets in her opening hand--but that doesn't matter, she can still succeed on most of her tests! You're not going to be able to drop a bunch of assets into play in any given turn, and Patrice gets a full hand of cards each turn, so she might as well use the icons to push the Act Deck forward! Tempo can be important, because the fewer turns it takes you to complete an Act, the fewer draws you have from the Encounter Deck, whose main purpose is to slow you down. Thus tempo can be a self-reinforcing thing.

Don't be afraid to use assets for their icons!

Card Cycling

When playing Patrice, there's a few mathematical probabilities to keep in mind:

(1) How fast she cycles through her deck.

How fast Patrice cycles through her deck determines how often you will see any given card during a scenario. She begins with 45 cards in her deck (42 + Watcher from Another Dimension + Patrice's Violin + Random Basic Weakness). She draws 5 cards each round, which means she will draw through her entire deck in 9-10 rounds. You can rely on going through her complete deck twice each scenario. That means you will see each 1x card in your deck twice and each 2x card four times. Why is this important? Since you have to discard your hand at the end of the round, this helps you plan ahead.

(2) How likely you are to see a card in the next turn.

You know the cards in your hand. You know the cards in your discard pile. You know the number of cards left in your deck. And you know how many more rounds it will take to draw through it. This simple tracking gives you a pretty good idea of what is left in your deck and what you are likely to see from turn to turn. Patrice isn't all improvisation! Trust me, you will see.

Where this becomes very important is anticipating your assets. Unlike other investigators, Patrice will likely not have a setup turn--she may have NO assets in her opening hand! Nor do you want to mulligan for more than one or two assets. You will typically only be able to play one asset a turn, if that. So you need to maintain a supply of resources so you CAN play certain key assets when they do show up in your hand. However, the encounter deck may have other plans, so be prepared to ditch an asset for its icons, if need be. This is the main reason why there are 2x of most assets in the deck. It doubles the opportunities you have to play them.

We'll discuss this more later on.

(3) How many icons you have in hand.

This is a central concept for Patrice: AHIPR (Average Hand Icons Per Round). You can't keep those cards in your hand, so you might as well use them! A big part of playing Patrice is figuring out how and when to use her cards in hand. Most rounds you will be spending one action either moving or playing an asset, and the other two taking tests.

Don't be afraid to over-commit: you can't keep those cards anyway!

Elder Sign Ability ()

Patrice's Elder Sign Ability is incredible, at least for her, but it can also be inconvenient when it crops up at the wrong time, making cards like Fortuitous Discovery less useful than you'd think. Since Patrice's Elder Sign ability allows her to reshuffle all but one card back into her deck, you want to make sure the card you are leaving out is very strategic.

As a general rule, the card you want to keep in the discard pile is either (1) Watcher from Another Dimension; (2) her Random Basic Weakness; or (3) one of the Improvised cards (Improvised Weapon, Impromptu Barrier, Winging It). Ideally you want it to be a weakness. Barring that, a card you can play out of your discard pile. If none of these (and it will happen), a card you can live without for the next 8-9 rounds.

Investigator Signature Asset: Patrice's Violin

Patrice's Violin doesn't look like much, but believe me--it's incredible! Cheap, and amazingly one handed (yes, she's THAT good), the violin allows Patrice to bank useless cards as Resources or ditch useless cards to fish for more something more useful. You will mostly use the Violin to bank additional resources so that you can play your key assets when they show up in your hand.

In 2 player Patrice will mostly be using this ability for herself. Often Patrice needs it to finance her assets! However, in 3-4 player where she can assume a more supportive role, she will more easily be able to use the Violin's ability to assist her fellow investigators.

Don't be shy about using the Violin's ability for yourself!

Investigator Signature Weakness: Watcher from Another Dimension)

This is a big, bad, scary monster. But in reality, it's actually one of the easier signature weaknesses to deal with. 5 and are no small matter...unless you're Patrice. This biggest problem the Watcher poses is clogging your hand. Unlike all your other cards, it stays in your hand instead of being discarded, reducing how much Patrice can do in each round.

The classic and most reliable way to get rid of the Watcher is to evade it using a Stray Cat. But this isn't your only option. Stray Cat are inexpensive, but they pose a large opportunity cost in actions and resources, especially without Charisma. To play a Stray Cat you may have to bump Madame Labranche out of your one Ally slot. Then after you use it, you need to play another Madame Labranche, meaning it has now cost you (a) an action and a resource to play the Stray Cat plus (b) another action and 2 resources to play Madame Labranche--for a total of 2 actions and 3 resources! That's almost two entire turns! But what about the second time the Watcher shows up in your hand? Dealing with it again brings you up to 4 actions and 6 Resources!

Enter the Fire Axe, which is my preferred method for dealing with the Watcher. It's only one-handed, which means you can hold a Patrice's Violin and a Fire Axe at the same time, which means they both stay in play unless a treachery card discards them. Once the Watcher from Another Dimension shows up, use the Fire Axe to pump your by +6 for only 3 resources then toss in a few more icons to test at 10 vs. the Watcher's measly 5 . The best part is, you don't have to get rid of your previous Madame Labranche, AND it becomes more action-efficient than the Stray Cat. Nor do you have to risk not seeing Madame Labranche for several more rounds.

IMPORTANT: if you do this, you need a backup plan in case you draw the .

The Watcher is only 2 health, so it is not too hard to kill with a Fire Axe or Shrivelling. Plus, you have several tools to deal with this possibility. Deny Existence can cancel all the damage you take during the Enemy phase. Next turn you draw 5 new cards. Kill it. Even without Deny Existence, you can tank a hit and assign the damage to your Leather Coat and Madame Labranche. You will see both again, so make use of them!

IMPORTANT: Make sure to deal with the Watcher from Another Dimension BEFORE you cycle your deck!

THE DECK

Premise: Stay versatile by shifting from enemy management to clue acquisition from round to round to maximize the efficiency of the team.

DECK PILOTING INSTRUCTIONS:

Mulligan and Opening Hand

You want your opening hand to consist of (in this order):

(1) Patrice's Violin

(2) Madame Labranche

(3) Mists of R'lyeh

(4) Uncage the Soul

(5) Winging It or Impromptu Barrier

Why this order? Because getting Patrice's Violin out early means you will be able to generate the most possible resources, enabling Patrice to play the assets she needs, when she gets them in hand. Madame Labranche does much of the same. Between Patrice's Violin and Madame Labranche, you can easily generate 3 Resources per turn!

Mists of R'lyeh is a way to avoid enemies while also boosting her movement and action efficiency. Patrice's hand cycling trivializes the downside of drawing a bad stuff token.

With either Patrice's Violin or Madame Labranche down, Patrice can easily pay for 6 resources worth of assets in the first turn. This allows her to play Patrice's Violin, Madame Labranche, and Mists of R'lyeh in the first turn. If you're lucky enough to also get an Uncage the Soul, you can play any of your spell assets for free!

The last two, Impromptu Barrier and Winging It, you want in hand early, because you want to get them into your discard pile as soon as possible. Since you're not likely to take many tests in your first turn, especially if you will spend all 3 of your actions playing resources, you might as well draw the cards that have no icons! They will go to your discard pile at the end of the round, meaning any future cards you draw WILL have icons on them.

How to Use the Cards in this Deck

3 Spells, 2 Slots

Part of being versatile is having the ability to shift roles from round to round. This deck packs 3 different spells to fulfill various purposes--Mists of R'lyeh for evasion, Shrivelling for damage, and Sixth Sense for investigation. These three spells allow Patrice to take on any role she needs to (sorry Lola Hayes!).

Need to concentrate on investigation? Slot Sixth Sense for reliable stats and Mists of R'lyeh to ignore enemies.

Need to switch over to enemy management duty? Slot Shrivelling to kill enemies and Mists of R'lyeh to exhaust the ones you don't have time to kill.

Don't be afraid to replace spells with charges left over. You only have 2 spell slots, so pick the two spells that serve you best!

• Fire Axe: as mentioned above, this is an effective way to deal with the Watcher from Another Dimension, but also a good way to chop through enemies. The Madame Labranche + Fire Axe combo is well known, allowing you to spend all your resources in your first hit to ensure you deal 2 damage, then activating Madame Labranche to get another resource back. This allows you to pump for a second hit at +2 . But with Patrice's Violin added into the mix, you can now do a third hit at +2 , or pump your second hit to +4 !

• Patrice's Violin: As you have likely gathered, this will be one of your most important assets. There will be games where never get a chance to play it. Don't worry, it happens, but Patrice can still do fine without it.

• Mists of R'lyeh is one of the best spells in the game. It's inexpensive, comes with 4 charges, and creates incredible action efficiency by allowing you to evade with your (probably) highest attribute (), AND let's you move away, which means you won't have to evade that enemy again the next turn. This creates an efficient way to deal with enemies, especially those who don't Hunt. If you have Deny Existence in hand, you can even drag an enemy to a location you wish, then uses Mists to leave them behind. It's very fun in Essex :D!

• Shrivelling is a powerful enemy killer. At 2 damage a shot using Patrice's , it's a great way to efficiently deal with 2- and 4-health enemies, and especially enemy bosses. Don't sweat the downside. You have plenty of soak. In this deck, stack most of that horror on your investigator (!). You have 2x Fearless to heal it off. This will minimize having to replay Madame Labranche and Holy Rosary, which costs resources, actions, and serendipity.

• Sixth Sense is a powerful investigative tool, especially if Patrice needs to lean into investigation. However, you can often get away without ever playing it, if you find your other investigative tools sufficient. This spell is included to add consistency--something that is very important in Patrice.

• Holy Rosary is a plain +1 boost with the added benefit of having 2 Horror soak. At only 2 resources, this not only boosts Patrice to 5 , it also makes her spells more effective and helps her resist many malicious effects from the Encounter Deck, especially when using Drawn to the Flame. It's cheap soak. Don't be afraid to assign excess Horror.

• Leather Coat: Patrice can handle Horror and Horror-causing treacheries quite well. But damage is another thing. She typically won't take a lot of damage, but there are times when she might, which is why she packs her lone haute couture leather coat. This is especially useful in scenarios with Grasping Hands and against tanking a hit from the Watcher from Another Dimension.

• Madame Labranche is your best friend and benefactress, allowing Patrice to double her resource output using no additional actions. She also provides a good soak (2/2) at a relatively inexpensive cost of 2 Resources. Especially if you use your Stray Cats to evade the Watcher from Another Dimension, don't be shy about assigning Labranche damage and horror. You will rarely use Labranche's ability to draw an extra card, though it can happen. Once you get Cornered out, it can help you pass an additional test.

• Stray Cat will be your primary way to evade the Watcher from Another Dimension, but since you have 2 in this deck, you can always use a 2nd one to evade an annoying enemy or especially enemies with the Massive trait to protect your fellow investigators.

• Deny Existence may seem circumstantial in Patrice, but it's not as much as you'd think. Deny Existence has a icon, so that means you can always commit it to a test. However, it also allows Patrice the luxury to fail encounter card tests (which means you can save your cards to commit to more proactive tests like investigating) or by allowing her to drag an enemy to a more useful location, canceling the opportunity attack. Trust me, you will find ways to use this card.

• Drawn to the Flame: Patrice has high and lots of yummy icons in hand, which allows her to shrug off a lot of what the Encounter Deck can throw at her. That makes cards like Drawn to the Flame very, very good for her. At a 0 cost, it allows her to scoop up 2 clues for 1 action at the cost of a minimally dangerous Encounter Card draw. Worst case scenario, it has some helpful icons.

• Impromptu Barrier: This card is a way of banking a future bonus to evade an enemy. Sometimes you will even be able to evade multiple enemies. Impromptu Barrier allows Patrice to have a fall-back option in case she finds herself engaged with too many enemies, or must evade the Watcher from Another Dimension without any other options left. Let it sit in your discard pile until needed. It imposes a -1 penalty to the enemy you're attempting to evade at a cost of 1 resource, which is very decent. I've found that you can always use one Impromptu Barrier in your deck, but almost never two. Like Winging It, Impromptu Barrier is a card you use to feed Patrice's Violin--discard it for a resource or another card.

• Uncage the Soul is another card that may seem circumstantial, but it's more of a multi-function card. If you get it in hand with an spell, use it to play that spell for free. If not, use it for its icons, which makes it essentially a Guts.

• Ward of Protection: like Deny Existence, Ward seems like a circumstantial card. When you get this in hand, consider using it to cancel whatever treachery you draw that turn. 2x Fearless will keep your horror levels down. It's often better to not test against something if you don't have to--you just might draw the ! Also like Deny Existence, even if you can't or don't want to use it, it's still a icon, so it's always useful! Note: later on, upgrading to Ward of Protection can really decrease how circumstantial this card is. The ability to cancel any treachery drawn by an investigator at your location means you will always be able to put it to good use.

• Winging It is a fantastic Patrice card, and one you will be continually surprised by how often you can play it. Why is that? Well, when it's in your deck and you draw it, you can use Patrice's Violin to discard it for a resource or another card. When it's in your discard pile, you can pay the 1 resource (often, the SAME resource you received from discarding it) to play it and get 2 clues. Then it gets shuffled back into your rapidly diminishing deck. This means that the more you play Winging It, the more often you draw it. You can reach a place where you are playing one copy of Winging It it every turn--sometimes twice a turn. In terms of clue acceleration, that's VERY hard to beat, making Winging It Patrice's most powerful cards AND one of the best clue-acquisition cards in the game.

• "Not without a fight!" is slightly more circumstantial than most cards, but being or getting engaged with an enemy is not that hard to do. Even engaged with one enemy, "Not without a fight!" is or or , giving Patrice options to commit it to boost a spell, her Fire Axe, or to evade an enemy or the Watcher from Another Dimension.

• Defiance is modestly okay, but it has a , which makes it universally useful, with the added benefit of being able to negate one of the only bad stuff tokens that will cause you fail a test. It's an all-around useful card. Upgrading this into Defiance is absolutely phenomenal.

• Fearless may look like a wimpy card, but in Patrice it is very good, due to her deck cycling. The lone is, admittedly, somewhat deficient, but this allows Patrice to boost a skill test she is already likely to pass, while healing 1 horror in the process. Fearless mitigates much of the downsides of Shrivelling and Ward of Protection. Later on, you can replace one copy with the upgraded Fearless, and drop the other copy. One copy of the upgraded version does the same as two copies of Fearless, but works more efficiently and takes up less deck space.

• Last Chance is a hard card to pull off in most investigators, being highly circumstantial. But how is it even worth considering in an investigator who draws 5 cards per turn? Once you get comfortable with committing your cards in hand freely and willingly, you will come to understand just how powerful this card is. First of all, your Patrice's Violin allows you to ditch a card in hand, bringing you down to 4 cards before you've even taken any tests. So next you take a test, committing 1 card to pass, leaving you with 3 cards in hand. Even if you commit Last Chance to your next test, you will still only have 2 cards left in hand, meaning it's still worth ! Once you upgrade into Cornered, it will be even easier to reduce the number of cards in your hand. Last Chance is usually reserved for Patrice's last test on your turn.

  Important: the number of "cards in your hand" is determined after you commit Last Chance! So if it's the last card in your hand, it's 5 icons!

• Manual Dexterity is a place holder for when you later upgrade into Survival Instinct x2, which is one of the best cards in the game. The Neutral skill cards are VERY good in Patrice. They allow her to pass key tests (such as evading the Watcher from Another Dimension or an enemy engaged with her, while also allowing her to draw a card, increasing her chances of passing subsequent tests. For this reason, you want to try to use the Neutral skill cards on your first or second action (or during the Mythos phase, if possible). The Neutral skill cards also expand the power of Cornered, when you upgrade into it. Anyway, Manual Dexterity helps Patrice evade enemies and avoid nasty treacheries that test , all the while replacing itself in your hand.

• Perception: Like Manual Dexterity, this card helps Patrice do the things she needs to do, while replacing itself. Often Evasion or Investigation are the two skills you test on your first or second turn, making both Manual Dexterity and Perception valuable icons.

• Prophesy is, at worst, a single --and that's not bad. Often it's , and sometimes it's even , which feels good. This is an all-around icon utility card that helps Patrice pass any kind of tests.

• Unexpected Courage: like Prophesy, this is a -dense card that can be used for anything.

Adjustments for 3-4 Players

In 3 or 4 player games, Patrice is less likely to be targeted for damage or horror, and will often have another investigator that is better at dealing with enemies, which means she does not have to dedicate as much space to dealing with either of these problems. However, there are also many, many more clues to be gathered. So in my 3-4 player adaptations, I focus on clue acceleration, which is where Patrice can make the biggest contribution.

These are my recommendations. You can take any or all of them to suit your needs:

1) Read the Signs --> replace 1x Fearless and 1x Defiance. This card further expands Patrice's clue acquisition. For a nominal fee, this allows her to investigate at a base of 6, often more!

2) Rite of Seeking --> replace Sixth Sense. Though expensive, this allows Patrice to grab more clues on her last action.

3) Open Gate x3 --> replace 2x Defiance and 1x "Not without a fight!", or 1x Defiance and 2x "Not without a fight!". Patrice is more likely than any other investigator to see all 3 Open Gates, and every one you put into play is removed from her deck cycling, increasing the likelihood of seeing your other cards. Open Gate helps your fellow investigators move around larger maps much more easily.

4) Hiding Spot x2 --> replace Manual Dexterity x2. They have the same icons! Don't underestimate Hiding Spot, which is an incredible card. It's important to realize you don't have to be at the location where you place Hiding Spot! Since it's also Fast, you can drop this down on any revealed location as a way of creating a safe haven for a seeker, or any other character, to avoid enemies. Furthermore, the Hiding Spot doesn't get discarded unless an enemy ends the round at that location. At worst, this card is still . Such a great card, especially in multiplayer.

ALTERNATIVE CARDS

If you want to try some different cards, check out these. You can tailor Patrice to your taste or need. Just remember, whatever cards you pick...make sure they have good icons! I good rule of thumb is to make sure they have either at least or 2x icons for a skill she will be testing often, such as , , or .

Investigation/Clues

• "Look what I found!" (): While a little more circumstantial, it's not all that hard to fail an Investigate test with Patrice. Furthermore, at the very worst, this cards has , and that's hard to argue with.

• Read the Signs (): This card further expands Patrice's clue acquisition. For a nominal fee, this allows her to investigate at a base of 6, often more!

• St. Hubert's Key (): Though quite a bit more costly than Holy Rosary, St. Hubert's Key also grants a +1 and has the innate ability to heal horror off your investigator. Personally, I prefer this over Holy Rosary, but not everyone does. Keep in mind: it IS expensive to play.

Evasion/Mobility

• Peter Sylvestre (): What can I say? He's good. His level 0 version is merely okay compared to his incredible upgraded Peter Sylvestre incarnation. If you go with Peter Sylvestre at level 0, you may want to place your Stray Cats. Peter is far too expensive to replace on a regular basis. Furthermore, he grants a +1 , which helps Patrice evade enemies and the Watcher from Another Dimension. However, I typically recommending skipping the level 0 Peter Sylvestre and just upgrading into Peter Sylvestre once you have Charisma. But combine Peter Sylvestre + Track Shoes for a base 4 Patrice!

• Track Shoes (): Wait, don't laugh. This brings her up to a modest 3 , which is respectable, and allows her to more easily evade enemies, especially the Watcher from Another Dimension. However, it's biggest boon is in allowing her an additional move action each turn. Picture this: Patrice uses her first action to trigger Mists of R'lyeh, successfully evades her enemy and moves to an adjacent location, THEN triggers her Track Shoes and moves AGAIN. This is 1 Evade action that translates into an Evade, Move, and Move. That's an entire turn's-worth of actions in just 1 action!

General Use

• Grisly Totem (): This occupies the hotly-contested Accessory slot, but it does boost Patrice's icons every round. What's great is you can pack 2x of these and never need to upgrade them. They aren't unique either, so you can upgrade into Relic Hunter and put two of these in play. Combined with 2x Cornered, Patrice will be able to smash every test. The biggest drawbacks are their expense (3 Resources for essentially +1 each round) and they occupy the Accessory slot, which could be used for a Holy Rosary or St. Hubert's Key.

• Live and Learn (): This card lets you attempt or re-attempt tests that aren't already slam-dunks, without costing an additional action. Great for important or difficult tests.

• Premonition (): While not as good in Patrice as it is in other investigators, Premonition can be a valuable tool to help you evade the Watcher from Another Dimension if you're not using Stray Cats. It also has the added benefit of letting you, the player, know how many cards you should or should not commit to the next test.

• Resourceful (): This is a fantastic card...except in Patrice, where it is more situational. The deck listed here does not have enough cards to get this to work. However, just because you don't have enough now, doesn't mean you won't have enough in the future, once you begin upgrading. Either way, in this deck as it stands, it will be typically underpowered and situational. I like to use it to pull back a powerful Last Chance to be used as my last action. Later one, once you begin acquiring more upgrades, you can use it to pull back a powerful Rise to the Occasion, Will to Survive, Survival Instinct, Alter Fate, or Eucatastrophe (which has )--or even play any one of these cards twice in one turn!

• Torrent of Power (): Here's a card that doesn't get much love, but is phenomenal in Patrice. You will often find that you aren't completely using up your spell charges before you want to replace them. That's where Torrent of Power comes in. Zap those extra charges and convert them into icons! Torrent of Power is easily 3 icons with 1 charge, which is a great deal, but also 5 icons for 2 charges. At worst, it's still a icon. Definitely consider this card.

UPGRADES

• Cornered x2 --> Replace any combination of Defiance, "Not without a fight!", Perception, or Manual Dexterity. Some of your first Patrice upgrades will almost always be 2x copies of Cornered. With the ability to have up to 2x copies in play at once, this allows Patrice to get the most out of her cards by being able to boost any skill by a minimum of +4. You can also commit cards to these tests for even larger bonuses. Things like the Watcher from Another Dimension will come to seem trivial. The Neutral skill cards (such as Manual Dexterity and Perception) extend this card's capabilities by giving you more cards to toss or commit each round.

• Charisma: This is just good. Now you can have your Stray Cats and Madame Labranche too. You can easily get 2x Charisma so you can also have Peter Sylvestre and Miss Doyle in play too!

• Miss Doyle --> replace Stray Cat. Miss Doyle and her cats allow Patrice to assume whatever role she needs with a base stat of 5. Most of the time, this will be . Furthermore, her cats have the added benefit of having good icons!

• Peter Sylvestre x2 --> replace one or two copies of Stray Cat. If you are going the Charisma route, Peter Sylvestre is a great selection. Not only does he provide voluminous horror healing, he also gives Patrice a boost to and --both of which she loves. I highly recommend this as an ally. It's hard to go wrong!

• Rise to the Occasion x2 --> Replace any combination of Defiance, "Not without a fight!", Perception, or Manual Dexterity. The level 0 version of Rise to the Occasion is too circumstantial to get much use out of. But the upgraded Rise to the Occasion is VERY useful. One of the most powerful upgrades, this gives Patrice an absurd number of icons to use, and is a retrievable for re-use by Resourceful.

• Survival Instinct x2 --> Replace Manual Dexterity x2. This is one of my favorite cards and easily one of the best in the game (that's saying a lot!). Why? First, it's free to play. It's a skill card with , allows Patrice to not only evade every enemy at her location, but also move to an adjacent locations. What's more, you can use it to evade the [Watcher from Another Dimension] (/card/06017) in your hand, which also evades ALL the enemies at your location AND lets you move to an adjacent location---for free! This card alone gives Patrice the power to manage a mass amount of enemies AND escape from extreme danger, while ALSO dealing with her signature weakness. WOW!

• Defiance x2 --> Replace Defiance x2. This allows Patrice to ignore ALL the bad stuff tokens. That makes it hard to fail tests. Plus the icon makes it a universal utility. #FailNoMore!

• Will to Survive: This is an oldie but a goodie. It's very expensive, but can be used on some important clutch plays. I like to use it in conjunction with Shrivelling. It lets her hit an enemy 3 times for 6 damage without taking horror. That seems like a good deal to me, and has been a veritable boss killer for me in 2 player on several occasions. At worst, it's icons are pretty good.

• Eucatastrophe x2: With , it's hard to go wrong with this card, It trigger's Patrice's ability, which is absolutely incredible. If it's bad timing, just use it for the .

• Ward of Protection x2 --> Replace Ward of Protection x2. As stated earlier, this upgrade makes Ward much more versatile, allowing you to protect your fellow investigators from encounter cards that are more likely to hurt them worse than they will hurt Patrice.

• Stargazing x2: This is another encounter deck mitigation card. Combined with Deny Existence and Ward of Protection, Patrice might start looking bored when she draws an encounter card! This has the added benefit of protecting your fellow investigators, while also granting additional resources and actions to whomever needs them.

• Alter Fate x2: It's no secret, Patrice is more likely to see her cards than any other investigator, so why not pack a little bit of insurance to help your fellow investigators? For only 1 resource, Alter Fate allows Patrice to swat away the worst treacheries for other investigators, particularly Frozen in Fear. You can plan on seeing 2 copies of this twice, for a total of 4 times over a scenario. And that seems pretty good. This is a great option if your fellow investigator includes Joe Diamond, Finn Edwards, "Skids" O'Toole, or Tony Morgan.

• Recall the Future: Hate failing tests? Then Recall the Future is your card. Patrice can already test fairly high, but with Recall the Future on the table, you can ensure she almost never fails again. This also increases your investigator's chances of passing important tests. The fewer tests you fail, the better your tempo, and the better you'll do.

• Relic Hunter: If you've gone the Grisly Totem route, you may want to invest in up to 2x Relic Hunter. This allows you a max of 3 Accessory slots, which can hold 2x Grisly Totem and a Holy Rosary or St. Hubert's Key (though you may be hard-pressed to afford the latter).

Standalone Builds

9 XP

COMING SOON!

Check out my other Standard Decks:

• Tony Morgan
• Mandy Thompson
• Luke Robinson
• Tommy Muldoon