The Akachi Onyele Mysteries

Note: this deck was made before Miskatonic Museum. You should definitely add I've Got a Plan to this deck. Probably drop a Manual Dexterity and a Deduction.

I played a version of this deck on Core at the Hard level and also on Rougarou. We beat the Core campaign and also won the Rougarou Scenario. Rex is a monster.

The deck is particularly good paired with Zoey, but it should work fine paired with Roland, Pete, or Jenny---any investigator with reliable, decent attacking.

First, there is one card here that really needs some explaining: Arcane Studies. It is the card that makes this deck go from great to nearly invincible. Lots of Rex Decks use Scavenging or Dynamite Blast, but Arcane Studies is much better to start with. Here's why:

Scavenging makes a lot of sense for Rex in general... except there are just not that many great items for him to use at 0xp. Once you put scavenging in your deck, you feel compelled to load it with lots of other items to scavenge, and the result is pretty crappy. Instead, put scavenging in after you have used some XP on the premium items with good icons, like Bulletproof Vest and Elder Sign Amulet. Dynamite Blast is powerful, but on Hard survival is at a premium, and you can make Rex so awesome he does not need Dynamite Blast to win. The one stat Rex + Fire Axe cannot pump up easily is willpower, and there are a lot of willpower checks. With Arcane Studies and tons of cash, there are no chinks in Rex's armor. Revision: As of Blood on the Alter, Higher Education changes a lot to how you should play this deck. It covers the one chink in Rex's armor and also lets him get higher intellect for investigating. Once you have Higher Education, you can sub out Arcane Studies for a Scavenging. You can also go for Charisma so you get both Dr. Milan Christopher and a Laboratory Assistant out to increase your hand size to make Higher Education easier to use.

With this deck, mulligan hard for Old Book of Lore and Fire Axe. Get the book out and use it to pull out your key cards: Dr. Milan Christopher, Burglary, and either Hyperawareness or Arcane Studies to get the intellect boost. Once you get kitted out, drop Magnifying Glass down and kill the book.

(If you don't get Old Book of Lore or Dr. Milan Christopher initially, you can consider playing Magnifying Glass and then ditching it later. Of course, this isn't an issue once you have the upgraded Magnifying Glass, which can be pulled back into your hand easily.)

Use Burglary liberally. You can get a ton of cash. Use the cash to power Fire Axe and investigations, pushing your intellect up to pop the extra clue.

Upgrade cards:

Magnifying Glass Bulletproof Vest Elder Sign Amulet Cryptic Research Note that Cryptic Research is an awesome card, but it turns out to be not quite as useful for Rex in this Deck as I thought. Once you get your stuff out, you end up just not needing lots of extra cards. It is definitely lower priority than Bulletproof Vest.

Once you have the premium items in your deck, you can consider replacing one of your burglaries or fire axes with a Scavenging, depending on whom you are partnering with and how imperative it is for you to get the Fire Axe out early.

Cards to drop for upgrades:

Emergency Cache Manual Dexterity Shortcut