Wendy Adams - Behind You

Hi! This is my Wendy deck for single-handed solo play. I am still a bit of a beginner playing on Standard difficulty but I made lots of tweaks to get it to this point. I have recently discovered the power of having only 1 copy of some cards. It only uses cards up to Forgotten Age because I haven't opened the other expansions yet, and it obeys the taboo list.

In true solo, you still need to fight monsters sometimes. But I didn't want to compensate for her meagre 1 combat skill if I could help it. So I put in a lot of Rogue cards that can help deal some damage which seems to work fine so far. Consequently, this gave her many Event cards, which can potentially play off of Wendy's Amulet.

With Waylay and Narrow Escape you add quite a bit of flexibility. You can now investigate ignoring an attack of opportunity just to get a +2 at a location with high shroud and have 2 chances at a clue using your ability. Or you can move along with a monster engaged to you to a better place. Or play an Asset in combat like Gravedigger's Shovel getting your effective combat to 5 in the next attack. Etc. Waylay was a late addition. Normally non-elite enemies aren't that big a deal but since Wendy has such poor combat skills, it pays to have a card that can ditch a non-elite based on their agility and not their combat.

I included Scavenging because it can retrieve cards like her amulet and hand assets, because I know sometimes Arkham Horror forces you to discard cards, and I wanted to prevent being locked out of a potential victory that way. Aside from that, I don't think it's that good, so I only put in 1 copy. Lone Wolf and Scavenging also function as good throwaway assets in case you need it.

You'll notice I don't use Emergency Cache. Take Heart is a great economic card for use when you need resources, or cards to discard for her unique ability, or if you're digging through the deck for something. In my experience Wendy plays faster than most investigators in true solo (less doom in play) because of her unique ability, so I am less concerned about pure resource gains and favor versatility and planned card draws.

Peter Sylvestre is used because he adds an agility and this deck uses evasion a lot. The defence it provides to Wendy's sanity is nice because her Abandoned and Alone Weakness hurts your sanity. I could see some other allies being interesting alternatives. You could remove a card like Cunning Distraction, Coup de Grâce or Waylay and use Leo De Luca instead of Peter Sylvestre with an Emergency Cache to make up for the cost bump. Personally, I don't think Leo fits too well with Wendy, since she is already more reliable than most if not all other investigators.

For clue gathering I chose to rely on her Survivor cards like "Look what I found!", Lantern, Lucky!. And Perception. And her ability if need be. I used to have 2 Gravedigger's Shovels but I didn't like its economy and its attack boost much. 3 attack is not very versatile. So I replaced one with a Fire Axe which in an emergency can be used to boost her combat to 3/5/7 with a potential +1 damage. The Gravedigger's Shovel can still be nice in a smaller combat emergency, or in case there is an impossible pesky clue that you must get to.

I could see people just taking 2 Fire Axes instead if the focus is on combat. I tend to build my decks to be functional in most scenario's that I know of, and I like the feeling that there is usually a card available that can get me to a clue no matter what happens.

Fine Clothes is a cheap way to get 1 health and sanity, which is nice for Wendy because she doesn't have any great ways to heal that I have found. It is also thematic to me, and the -2 to parley tests has actually been pretty nice in unexpected places.

Don't be afraid to draw the game out with her, to fill your hand with new opportunities or to draw resources to be ready for a bigger battle. You will likely have a little more time to do so with her, than with other investigators.