Dexter Drake: "Money, Movement, and Magical Murder”

Dexter Drake: Money, Movement, and Magical Murder

"Do you want to see true magic? It's a switchblade hidden up my sleeve"

The focus of this build is to make Dexter something of a self-sufficient effective roamer picking up clues away from the party but being able to defend himself. It mostly focuses on action compression, i.e.: not wasting time failing skills checks he specializes in, turning Dexter into being efficient with , instead of trying to spread to cover his weaknesses.

This Dexter deck build takes a little bit of prep work, but once you have a healthy resource economy and a couple of assets on the field, Dexter becomes like a magical efficient version Roland Banks, able to handle combat and clue collection on his own while actively pushing forward.

I've also tried to add a decent spread of assets with unique traits so Molly Maxwell can pick them out as needed, but also to try to prevent everything from being a 3 cost spell card.

Important play tips to remember regarding Dexter Drake's ability

• It should be worth noting that spells that have used up their charges become prime fodder for Dexter's ability to slot in new assets at a discount.

• The definition of an ability and it's interaction with asset control. https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Ability

• Dexter's ability is a trigger. Thus he does not invoke an attack of opportunity if engaged with an enemy as it is not an . This also applies for Molly Maxwell

Dexter's main flow should be to:

1. Build resources 

2. Equip himself with spells as needed for fighting and investigation 

3. Action Compression 

Clues:

Dexter's basic investigation skill is terrible so we have plenty of cards to pick up his weak and turn it into his strength .

• Clairvoyance - Only eliminates risk as you get harder in difficulty or as campaign lengthens. However if you're properly boosting your , you start gaining pseudo seeker abilities in action to clue rates. Exchange with Sixth sense as needed.

• Sixth Sense - Inherently less risky than Clairvoyance with a constant effect, with less potential reward. Pairs well with Uncage the Soul if in your hand.

This all pairs well with cards that boost his innate high such as David Renfield and Holy Rosary

Money:

Dexter's innate abilities encourages you to play assets and to swap out assets as a situation demands meaning you need resources to back that up. So you might be resource starved.

• Emergency Cache - Straightforward burst bonus resources for when the other cards just aren't showing up and you don't have time to gamble.

• Lone Wolf - Two copies were included for hopefully an early draw where it can start paying off more the longer it is in play. This is also meant for solo roaming. If you see yourself hanging around with your fellow investigators more, with you acting more as secondary support. Considering dropping it down to one copy.

• David Renfield, - He gives power boosts and resources. Adding doom feels like a little price to pay for making you that much better.

• "Watch this!"- The gambler's card, but if you're sufficiently boosting your and taking easier checks, even of your own making with Liquid Courage. You should be able to work this to your advantage. Easy money.

Movement (Action Compression):

These are cards chosen simply to save time from fussing around and wasting your actions in the pursuit of picking up clues or enabling yourself to kill things.

• Sign Magick - The less time you spend having to equip spells mid-battle the better. Taking advantage of Dexter's ability to freely cycle through at a discount.

• Ward of Protection: The ability to nope out a treachery card that can potential stop you dead in your tracks. A cost 1 and a horror you can easily take is a small price to pay.

• Deny Existence - A fast spell cost 0 that can pretty much negates an encounter deck, weakness (As they are considered encounter cards), or enemy attack with the right draw. This all translates into free actions my friend.

• Uncage the Soul - You have lots of spell trait assets cards, this helps to alleviate situations where you can't do anything because you ran out of resources. Saving an action in a way Emergency Cache couldn't.

• Spectral Razor - Take the guess work out and move in for a free engage paired with your attack, which can more or less drop 3 health enemies in one go. That's practically 2 actions for the price of one.

• Leo De Luca - Fairly obvious, expensive but free actions pay for themselves. Ideally you'd use Uncage the Soul to put a spell assets into play, and after its use, use Dexter's ability to swap it for a now cost 5 Leo De Luca.

• Holy Rosary - Benefits from taking up an accessory slot but gives you more sanity to throw horror onto but more importantly gives a straight boost to . A failed skill test in something you're good in is practically a wasted action. Stack the odds in your favor.

• Switchblade - There to give you a fast 1 resource option to throw down and assets switch out for a discount in later turns when you need it or just fight in a situation where you can't pay for more expensive spells.

Magical Murder:

Straightforward magical murder cards comes in 4 flavors.

• Azure Flame Pulling a +1, 0, or an leads to you taking a damage, which you don't really have that much of. But the more options the better. In addition for long campaign play when the chaos bag starts being messed around with even on normal, it increases the chance that you're probably not going to draw a +1, 0, or .

• Shrivelling an old standby, I'm more of a fan of this one for Dexter in early games since you have a high horror and a methodology to heal said horror through Liquid Courage if you're running high. You'll also benefit from not usually taking as much horror from the encounter deck based on

• Spectral Razor Useful for action compression of engagement to take out the risk of frying a friendly investigator mid-combat. But also great for its damage boost.

• Mists of R'lyeh Sometimes it's just a smarter option to run or when you get bonuses for evasion.

Defense against the dark arts

Ambush Insurance

• Deny Existence : A fast play card that's cost 0 to help against enemies and the encounter deck. This also works against weaknesses as the are considered to be encounter cards.

• Ward of Protection: Insurance against those extra annoying treachery cards.

• Liquid Courage : for healing horror with the benefit that you're likely going to pass its skill check to gain the +2 horror heal. Pairs well with "Watch this!" for easy resource money gain.

• The Chthonian Stone: Slight utility chaos token control for multiplayer. Helps that there aren't many hand assets in the deck and has two unique traits for Molly to pick out if needed.

Drawing Assist:

Generally speaking, more cards gives you more options and Dexter seems to be all about having options to deal with situations as they arise. So these cards focus on helping you draw.

• Scroll of Prophecies - Chosen for its Tome trait, making for easy pickings for Molly. Assists with card draw in general.

• Lucky Cigarette Case- A cheap charm but presumably you are getting boosts to your so you'd be able to easily activate it for card draw assists.

The Mulligan:

The general opening draw you want to aim for in my opinion, breaks into the following categories to which multiple cards qualify for.

1. Offensive capacity - Arcane spells, the weapons, anything that can give you a fighting chance, since you're certainly not going to escape with an evade of 2. and a 3 just isn't that great.

2. Investigation assist - Any card that assists in turning your investigation checks into checks. You don't want to be dead weight on your team. If you can't fight, and you aren't prepping some kind of utility shenanigans, then you'd better be helping to pick up clues.

3. Resource generation - Dexter is frankly resource starved, anything that can boosts your resource tick of 1 per turn is very useful indeed.

4. Allies - This is a looser optional desire, but being able to draw Molly, David, or Leo first hand, assists quite a bit. Since they pay off more the longer they're in play.

Honorable Mentions / Options :

These are cards that I considered but did not include, but can be swapped in as needed to change up the multiplayer support utility of the deck or to increase his resource gathering potential.

• Astral Travel
• Arcane Initiate
• Crystal Pendulum
• Open Gate x2
• Forbidden Knowledge
• Investments
• Alchemical Transmutation
• Decorated Skull
• Read the Signs
• Quantum Flux

Molly Maxwell List:

Item: Scroll of Prophecies, Switchblade, Holy Rosary, Liquid Courage , Lucky Cigarette Case, The Chthonian Stone

Charm: Holy Rosary, Lucky Cigarette Case

Weapon: Switchblade

Melee: Switchblade

Illicit: Switchblade, Liquid Courage

Ritual: Sign Magick

Talent: Sign Magick, Lone Wolf

Spell: Azure Flame, Clairvoyance, Mists of R'lyeh Shrivelling, Sixth Sense

Ally: David Renfield, Leo De Luca

Patron: David Renfield

Criminal: Leo De Luca

Tome: Scroll of Prophecies

Relic: The Chthonian Stone

Cursed: The Chthonian Stone