OVERVIEW

Hello fellow investigators, this is Trickster.

Last time, i presented you with an average though extremely functional Calvin Deck, this time though, things will be at least slightly more interesting. After TIC release, Mateo's deckbuilding has become quite a bit more interesting, gaining access to 20+ non-mystic cards, and i intend to take advantage of most.

This deck could be summarized as 80% support with competent clue-gathering and enough emergency buttons to not be defenseless. Most cards in this deck are featured to be used on your teammates instead:

• Rite of Sanctification in addition to Keep Faith can make you the bank of the team, you can tail them most of the time, using your last action for Rite of Seeking and making your allies draw quickly through Scroll of Prophecies.
• For allies i decided to include Arcane Initiatesince most of our cards will be spells anyway. Olive McBride can work wonders late into the campaign.
• To keep our bless economy running since this deck's upgrades will make full use of the bless mechanic, it's quite advisable to use 4 of the 5 Mateo XP points to get Holy Rosary since it's the best way to keep generating bless tokens.

If your campaing isn't very heavy on will-testing through treacheries it may be an issue though. I tested this deck during TCU and the rosaries were MVP. They also help with Mateo's low-ish stats.

Upgrade Path

At level 0, this deck is not strong, so chosing the best upgrades is really important. Take out Tempt Fate as soon as you can. I went with Ward of Radiance for flavour, but you can use Ward of Protectionalso and maybe you'd be better off. Also Olive McBride can be used instead of Arcane Initiate but your draw will suffer.

High priority

• Radiant Smite for Spectral Razor since it's cheaper, sinergyzes more with the build, it's more thematic and allows greater burst damage.
• A Watchful Peace may be the most powerful card in this deck, you can also avoid degenerate play because you can't really use it more than twice. This card buys you so many actions.
• Ancient Covenant let's you bypass Mateo's poor stats and makes tests extra safe, consider Favor of the Sun also for really important tests.
• Sacred Covenant is a better option for bless economy, but usually you'll pair with an enemy manager, if they're a guardian they can be the ones who pick it since you can get only one. I like the safety Ancient Covenant brings to the table since you can give the cherished +2 to other investigators at your space, but Sacred Covenant will keep blesses in the bag for when they're needed.
• Alter Fate is one of the best cards any support can play, say nope to Frozen in Fear Song of the Magah Bird or any other nasty treachery, and do it fast! You can Arcane Research the level 1 you'll start with.

Arcane Research

This card is amazing, and let's you get the bless-tech upgrades without neglecting your spells. Rite of Seeking is amazing action compression at higher levels, Mists of R'lyeh would be enough at level 2 but it lets you be more independent should you need it. Alter Fate is also a great use of this card.

Other upgrades

• Blessing of Isis might not be so consistent. But it is so fun with Mateo, and with a full bag, Favor of the Sun or Olive McBrideit can give you free elder signs and you kinda have a good one.
• Arcane Initiate is not a must buy, but your teammates will appreciate the doom-free properties of this neat ally, it's also cheaper.
• Eucatastrophe because feels bad and our is amazing.
• Jacob Morrison and Charisma since bless generation is in our blood and i really don't like Mateo's stat-line. Carry around a renewable lucky and use it better than most survivors just cause you can!

Piloting

Mulligan for the Holy Rosary , Arcane Initiate, Keep Faith and Rite of Sanctification. Starting the bless engine is really important, so is mitigating our mediocre-for-a-mystic willpower. Once the bank is set, follow the team around, that way you can make them draw via Scroll of Prophecies, help their tests via Blessing of Isisand Ancient Covenant, Ward of Radiance their treacheries, and pay their booze and weapons with Rite of Sanctification. Ideally you'll have Rite of Seeking on play to contribute to clueing with your last action every round you can. You can also soften up boss enemies with a 4 damage Radiant Smiteand remember: if you don't kill the enemy, blesses go back in the bag. You'll be attacking at 8 most of the time so they are high quality attacks given that you can't really fail through .

This deck's weaknesses are relatively mild, you depend on drawing certain cards, but i made sure to include plenty of draw to counteract that. This deck is resource heavy, but through Rite of Sanctificationand Uncage the Soul you should be able to afford paying your stuff and your friends'. You shouldn't stray too far from the team, but Mists of R'lyeh can make you more nimble than you'd think. Lastly, you're no enemy manager despite having emergency buttons.

I recommend this Deck for 3/4 players, for the following campaigns:

• The Dunwich Legacy : Yes. Low XP hurts less with Arcane Research and there's plenty of willpower tests. You can dunk on Beyond the Veil
• The Path to Carcosa : YES. Many treacheries, more XP and no apparent drawback.
• The Forgotten Age : Not quite. Though nimble as the father is, Bless generation will be a problem for most scenarios.
• The Circle Undone : HOLY S*** YES. This build was devised as a way to counter that cycle originally.
• The Dream-Eaters : Why not? Ditch Arcane Research but it should be good on both sides of the campaign, Alter Fate is your priority.
• The Innsmouth Conspiracy: Not so much. Treacheries test many stats and enemy management is more important. Also action compression and clue gathering, you can protect your team sure, but they will have to keep an eye on you most of the time.

Investigator sinergies:

• Sister Mary Is the best pairing for this deck. She can handle the enemies, she can take the Ancient Covenant and generate enough blesses for the both of you. Since you'll take the Holy Rosary you also make her upgrade path more interesting since she can avoid certain upgrades and go straight for Holy Spear and Nephthys.
• Calvin Wright with spirit of humanity, hence my other deck.
• William Yorick with the Sun warrior build, enemy managers are your friends, bless users also are your friends.
• Gloria Goldberg can make certain that you draw the treacheries to keep the bless tokens coming.
• Preston Fairmont doesn't sinergize particularly well but he is often saved during treacheries because of bless tokens. Finn Edwards and Winifred Habbamock can also benefit from a safer bag and oversucceeding benefits.

Are blesses good for me anyway?

See, there's this not-so-well-kept secret: bless tokens are kinda bad. When most tests you're going into you wanna pass, you tend to go above a certain threshold, be it +2, +3 or whatever. So bless tokens will only be useful when you're tanking a test or undercomitting, which may be very risky. So most of the time your blesses will be wasted which is nice in succeed by X rogues but inconsistent and akward most of the time. For blessings to be really good, you need your payoff cards. These can be your Nephthys (which sadly Mateo cannot take), your A Watchful Peace, Hallow , Radiant Smite etc. Without those, a blessed build is kinda not good. This deck can recicle bless tokens to be used as money, ammo, and encounter protection, the oddly succesful test is a nice unexpected benefit.