Ursula Downs: For Their Feet Run to Evil (Tomes)

An update of my previous Ursula decks with a few changes, including cards from The Innsmouth Conspiracy. As is my usual style, I am building for a 2-player Standard version of any campaign.

The goal of this is still to get the basic setup quick, start investigating, and add to your assets as resources become available. Aim to get Dream Diary down quickly, or Whitton Greene if the tome isn't in your opening hand, then move and grab clues, relying on Ursula's special ability for action compression. It makes Call of the Unknown fairly benign until you have to stay put for some reason (or get a bad chaos draw). If you draw Fieldwork, play it when you have the resources, and so on. By the end of a scenario, she often has a surprising number of Assets out with very little strain. Optimally, you never want to fight; just evade and stay ahead of hunters, saving the event damage for persistent problems or immediate threats. Evade enemies, grab clues, so much fun.

She works OK in solo, although she can get bogged down by bad enemy draws or cramped maps, so she's probably best with a partner who is strong in enemy management (she is a total boss with Rita.

Changes

Since Whitton Greene boosts and , Occult Lexicon gives a little more card draw and damage potential. Emergency Cache is there to help jumpstart the economy if you have to play Ms. Greene first turn. If you prefer to play a leaner economy, you could swap it out for something else; Strange Solution is a decent enemy management tool, although the added XP will make for some difficult decisions. Pathfinder is still a key upgrade, despite the cost. I am still on the fence about Feed the Mind; it fails just often enough to make the set-up cost excessive. Preposterous Sketches or Deep Knowledge are good alternatives.

Assets

• Dream Diary -- this is the core of the deck's enemy management, once upgraded to Dreams of a Madman, this lets you evade engaged enemies at an 8, leaves the option open for an attack (hey an effective 5 will take out a Swarm of Rats or an Acolyte). Once it's leveled up, it's a free Unexpected Courage every turn at the worst. It's cheap to play, too
• Occult Lexicon -- provides some card draw and damage or resources, as needed
• Whitton Greene -- boosts stats and helps hunt for those tomes
• Fieldwork -- the bonus helps with Ursula's free investigate action in the "always be moving" style. If it's not down by the middle of the scenario, it often isn't worth the action to play, since clues are thin on the ground

Events

• "I've got a plan!": very occasionally, you need to kill, rather than dodge
• Crack the Case -- one is usually enough to get her complete rig out by turn 4-5 or replace a lost asset.
• Anatomical Diagrams -- mostly as an evade booster; it's not like Ursula will fight anyone...

Skills

• Eureka!: Just a little extra card drawn, plus versatile icons.

Upgrades

Here's my usual, in rough order of importance:

• 2 Dream Diary --> 2 Dreams of a Madman
• 2 Shortcut --> 2 Pathfinder (3)
• Whitton Greene --> Whitton Greene (2)
• 2 Tooth of Eztli --> 2 Crystalline Elder Sign

That's 22 XP Additional options include:

• Relic Hunter -- because 2 Cruystaline Eldar Signs would be awesome (although your fellow player might hate you
• 2 Studious -- because extra cards in your opening hand is very nice
• 2 Feed the Mind --> 2 Feed the Mind or --> 2 Guided by the Unseen