Nova-turn Wendy

Table of Contents

1. About this Deck / Summary

2. Lets talk about the cards

3. Mulligan guide

4. Upgrade guide

5. Playstyle

6. Sample turns

7. If you don't have Leo

1. About this Deck / Summary

This is a multiplayer (3-4 players) support deck designed to compliment groups that have the monster slayer / clue gatherer bases covered. In truth, you will often be a nuisance to the rest of the group; another encounter card during the mythos phase, another clue to gather for your cluever. However, you also bring invaluable tools that will bail the team out when they are in a jam as well as free up action space for your group.

The deck is designed to do 4 things:

1. Pull off magic. (see the combo below) Essentially, we use a slew of cards to generate additional actions while getting the most out of those actions. It is very much a The Red-Gloved Man deck, but he is not immediately integral to it functioning (if he ever is at all). Anyway, the deck is built around a set of cards that can combo together to do ridiculous things. You will be able to disperse these combo pieces throughout the scenario, or play them all at once for your "Nova" turn. You will be able to do things like deal 5 damage to a brood in one turn, or 14 damage to Cnidethqua in one turn, or save your fighter from that other enemy engaged with them. The maximum amount of damage this deck can deal if everything falls into place is 24 damage in a single turn.

2. The mundane. There is a lot of work in Arkham Horror, and not all of it is glamerous. Yes, we are talking about Parley tests, clearing low shroud locations. spending actions to achieve X Act card objective, etc. It often feels like a waste for your monster slayer or cluever to bother with such nonsense when they should be preparing for battle instead. Enter Wendy. You take care of that nonsense while better investigators than you get to work.

3. Minor clue support. You're not entirely worthless. You need to pick up the occasional clues whether it's to carry your own weight or to activate abilities.

4. Evasion. This isn't an evade deck, but you will be able to do it in a pinch. This can save lives people!

2. Lets talk about the cards

Every card in here (or that we will be buying with XP) is in some way designed to accomplish one of the aforementioned goals or to provide consistency. So let's talk about them!

2.1 The (Magic) C-C-C-ombo

Summary: In short, use Leo and Double or Nothing/Quick Thinking to generate multiple actions while using Red Gloved Man and Will to Survive to breeze through tests.

Alright, so the most interesting and jankiest part of this deck is "the combo". These cards can pull off some wonderful and absurd things. The best part is the pieces alone are quite powerful and are interchangable; this means that while the combo has 6-7 cards in it you won't need all 6-7 cards to pull off something. That being said, the more you pull together, the stronger it gets.

The pieces are as follows:

Red Gloved Man(5) + Will to Survive(3) + Leo De Luca + Quick Thinking + Double or Nothing + (optional Backstab / Fire Axe / Flare(1))

All of these pieces alone are quite powerful but as you put them together you will be able to do great things. The Red-Gloved Man can both tank but also boost your stats, putting most skill tests within easy reach. Will to Survive cinches passing those skill tests, now that your stats are boosted. Leo De Luca and Quick Thinking allow you to get the most out of these two cards. Double or Nothing needs no explanation in how it can warp the game, but Red-Gloved Man and Will to Survive make passing a Double or Nothing test a breeze. Offensive cards like Backstab, Fire Axe, and Flare can all be used to pump out damage and burst something down when required.

2.2 Recurring Magic

To prove that we are more than a one trick, nova turn pony, we have some recursion in this deck to enable and re-enable our combo. While not terribly action efficient (and opens the door to an Attack of Opportunity), we have A Chance Encounter to bring our Red-Gloved Man back. It also works really well with Art Student if someone else brought that card along.

Wendy's Amulet also provides some nice recursion, though often I find myself chucking it for the icons. Nevertheless, equipping it can relieve the burden of having keeping all these cards in our hand and allows us to get multiple uses out of important events like A Chance Encounter and Backstab.

2.3 Getting to the Magic: Consistency

Our combo may seem horribly janky, and it is, but there are a few things to remember. First, it bears emphasis that we don't need all of these cards to pull it off; each card is quite powerful in and of itself. Second, due to the decks playstyle (with some assistance from Leo De Luca), we will often have a surplus of actions to breath, that is, draw a card or gain a resource. Third, we have a few cards to help with our consistency.

Pickpocketing is often panned for the lack of click economy but we don't care. It helps thin our deck and get to the cards that are important; that alone is more valuable than any clicks it may give. Furthermore, we are inevitably going to have to evade an enemy, so might as well benefit from it.

We also have the standard assortment of neutral skill cards to help support ourselves, but more likely other players. Yes, that means our Guts, Perception, and Unexpected Courage will often be used on someone else but as a support character that's what we are there for. We still get the card draw which means one piece closer to pulling off our combo.

2.4 Getting Clues

We are not a clue gatherer, but we need to do a little if only to help pull our weight. This is especially important in the early campaign when the Cluever of the group may not have all their cards ready to go on sucking up clues. This is why we have Flashlight, Newspaper, "Look what I found!", and Perception. Double or Nothing can also be used in a pinch.

Some of these cards will be phased out as we buy better cards. This is fine; hopefully our Cluever has also bought some cards to improve his/her efficiency. We can't abandon our clue gathering role entirely, however, as we need clues to activate various abilities on the board or occasionally pass a "true" Investigate test. That's we we hold onto Flashlight and Perception as long as we can.

2.5 Killing Monsters

Like gathering clues, we don't want to participate in combat that often but the early stages of a campaign sometimes necessitates it. Fire Axe is there to provide some occasional combat support, while Backstab can burst down a target. Both cards are, of course, great targets for Double or Nothing.

In the long run, we will want to replace Fire Axe with a Flare which provides additional utility: finding allies. Similar to Cluevers, hopefully by this time our resident Monster Slayer has bought enough cards to consistently kill things.

2.6 Evading/Escaping

We don't have that much evasion tech, and that's partly because it's often unnecessary or relatively weak. That being said, we will need to evade enemies (either to our own benefit or others) so we have Manual Dexterity and the pseudo-Manual Dexterity, "I'm outta here!".

In the long run, we will want to get Scrapper to boost our Agility as required.

2.7 Everything Else

Fine Clothes provides double duty by easing the difficulty on Parley tests while also giving us a meat/mind shield. Also recall in Dunwich that Parley tests are more concentrated in the early campaign so, in that campaign at least, we can safely phase out Fine Clothes after the first few missions.

Liquid Courage provides some horror healing, if needed. Agnes, Jim, Pete, Roland, and yourself are all excellent targets. This can be particularly valuable if either (a) _____ player does not have their mind shield out, or (b) that mind shield is alone insufficient. A bottle of Liquid Courage can keep a Dark Memory at bay a long time, especially if combined with Peter Sylvestre.

"I'm outta here!" gives us a nice get out of jail free card.

Lucky! is obviously really strong, and can bail us out when Lady Luck turns against us.

3. Mulligan Guide

One of the nice things about this build is we don't care that much about what we start with. Most of the cards are quite interchangable. Nevertheless, starting out we ideally want Leo De Luca, Flashlight, and Pickpocketing. Leo is not a make or break yet, however.

Once we have acquired The Red-Gloved Man and the upgraded Leo De Luca we will definitely want to hard mulligan for them.

4. Upgrade Guide

Below lists our wants (in priority order) and the recommended card to take out.

1. The Red-Gloved Man (5 XP) is essential as detailed above. He is an important piece to triggering our combos, bailing us out of emergencies, and acting as a meat/mind shield.

   Replaces: Newspaper.

2. Leo De Luca (1XP x 2) can provide us incredible action economy. A must to get the most out of our Red Gloved Mans and Will to Survives.

   Replaces: Leo De Luca Replaces: "Look what I found!"

3. Charisma (3XP) this one feels rough to buy, but necessary to ensure we can have both Leo and the Red Gloved Man out at the same time.

4. Flare (1XP x 2) provides excellent burst damage or dig out Leo. Ideally it's a card we never have to use besides its wild pip. If you want to enable the maximum amount of damage in a single turn and improve our "punching" ability, keep Fire Axe in the deck and use only 1 copy of Flare.

   Replaces: Fire Axe Replaces: Fine Clothes

5. Scrapper (3 XP) can both help us with combat and evading enemies.

6. Will to Survive (3 XP) provides valuable luck mitigation. Don't leave him without it.

   Replaces: Manual Dexterity

7. Additional copies of Will to Survive and The Red-Gloved Man:

   Replaces: two of Liquid Courage, Perception, or Pickpocketing based on the needs of the group.

5. Playstyle.

5.1 Without our combo (i.e. the early campaign)

Do the following:

a. Lay down a Flashlight to mop of clues.

b. Do any location based action tests / Parley Tests (preferably with Fine Clothes) so clue gatherers and monster slayers can spend their actions doing what they are best at.

c. Scout out locations.

d. Don't scout too far; stick near other players so you can run over and evade/tank if necessary. If you have Guts/Perception/Unexpected Courage in hand, stay especially close to those who may need them.

e. Save Backstab/Double or Nothing until you really need them.

5.2 Have (some) of your combo pieces (i.e. the mid-to-late campaign)?

a. All of the above still holds true.

b. Save Red-Gloved Man unless you really need to pass a set of tests / take an onslaught of attacks. This can be necessary if you need to pull enemies off everyone else. Prepare to sacrifice ourself.

c. If you have excess actions, draw a card / gain a resource as needed.

d. Save your combo pieces and play them when needed (preferably later in the game).

e. ????

f. Profit.

6. Sample Turn / The Combo

Below is a step- by-step guide for a turn to trigger the combo / get the most out of your cards.

Sample 1

In this sample, we (Wendy) are trying to assist another investigator who is engaged with (a) the Boss, and (b) a strong enemy (who may or may not have XP). We have no actions remaining.

1. Investigator attacks the Boss. Wendy commits Double or Nothing + Quick Thinking. We succeed by two or more.

   1.1 Wendy now has two available actions.

2. Play The Red-Gloved Man and Will to Survive if required.

3. Play Backstab and attack the engaged strong enemy. Use Double or Nothing if needed. Otherwise use your second action to punch it to death (if Red-Gloved Man and/or Will to Survive were used).

Alternatively

2. Use your new found actions to engage and evade the enemy, sparing the Investigator from that enemies attack. You can use The Red-Gloved Man to assist and tank the damage from the Boss (likely Massive) and the enemy.

Sample 2

In this sample, we (Wendy) are attacking a monster/boss type enemy.

1. Play The Red-Gloved Man. Boost whatever stats are required for the tests you plan on taking. When in doubt, boost Willpower.

2. Play Will to Survive to automatically tests.

3. Play Backstab to attack an enemy using your evade.

   3.1 Commit Double or Nothing and Quick Thinking. Boost the test as required to succeed by two or more to trigger Quick Thinking.

4. Play another copy of Backstab or Flare for more damage, ideally with another Double or Nothing and Quick Thinking.

5. Punch the enemy a few times with your remaining actions. At this point, Leo's and Quick Thinking's might as well read: "deal a damage to an enemy at your location".

Total potential damage: 18 (24 if Fire Axe is enabled)

7. Don't have Leo?

Add in additional copy of Fire Axe.