No Spell Allowed Luke Robinson (Taboo, Hard mode)

Well this deck came from a challenge my friend gave me when we started the Dream-Eater campaign earlier this week: Playing a Mystic investigator without having any cards with Spell trait in his/her deck.

We're running the A side - The Dream Quest and I have to follow these rules:

1. I have to pick a Mystic investigator and build a deck with his/her legitimate card pool.
2. I cannot, at any point in the campaign, include or use any cards that has Spell trait.

With that in mind, I decided to pick Luke Robinson since he has a good splash on Seeker () cards level 0-2 in his card pool. However, I still have some problem that I have to deal with:

• The first problem I've got with the challenge is that almost every card that takes up an arcane slot in his card pool are spells, so it feels like the 2 most important slots I can have as a Mystic are crippled.
• The second problem is a lot of great events in his card pool are also spells, so no Ward of Protection, no Deny Existence, no Recharge nor Time Warp if I would wish take them in the future. Other fantastic events that can go really well with Luke such as Spectral Razor, Read the Signs, Storm of Spirits, Hypnotic Gaze, ect. are all Spell. Cards with bond cards that are Spell are also excluded (Occult Lexicon and Hallowed Mirror).
• The third problem I have to face is that, since I can't use any Spell, I will have to rely mostly on my , and stats to get the job done. In other words, I don't get to use my to do stuffs as a Mystic normally would do.

But on the bright side, I have access to the Seeker () card pool, and an average 3 . So I decided to take on the Clue-harvesting role of the team.

The first thing I did was looking at the arcane slots, and the only options that I had at level 0 were Dream-Enhancing Serum and Arcane Enlightenment. 1 lets you draw more cards, and 1 gives you 1 more hand slot to hold Tome assets. The idea of using Tome assets fits me better since some of them can actually replace the Spell cards that I cannot use. That thought brings me to the lovely Whitton Greene.

It's fair to say that this lovely lady is the key to this deck. She gives me a nice +1 as long as I have a Tome or Relic asset in play, which is convenience since I begin the game with Gate Box in play. Also her ability can be triggered whenever I use my Gate Box, letting me search my deck for a Tome asset as well as get my economy boosted via Astounding Revelation.

I then decided to use Hawk-Eye Folding Camera to fill up my hand slots, since they give a good , and sanity boosts. And with that in mind, St. Hubert's Key is the obvious choice for the accessory slot. The -2 Sanity from St. Hubert's Key are compensated with the +2 Sanity by holding 2 Hawk-Eye Folding Camera.

So with Whitton Greene, 2 Hawk-Eye Folding Camera and a St. Hubert's Key in play, I easily reach 7 and 7 . I can then use my to get the job done and only use to defend myself from the Mythos. Backpack helps me dig most of those cards out.

Now back to the Tome asset that I want for my deck, at level 0 most of them are untranslated versions, which means nothing since I have no access to their upgraded version (mostly level 3 or higher) anyway. At this point Medical Texts appears to be the best choice after Occult Lexicon, which as stated above, is excluded. Without Ward of Protection or Deny Existence, treacheries that make me take damage are pretty scary, especially when I have only 5 health and can't use Healing Words. Medical Texts then become a great choice for me to heal myself.

In terms of events, Shortcut, Logical Reasoning and Working a Hunch are the obvious choices for action economy as well as good protections for me and my team. Practice Makes Perfect keeps the search engine going, as well as to give my skill cards a second use. "I've got a plan!" helps with enemies management, so that I don't have to rely too much on Gate Box to get myself out of danger. Vantage Point gives a free clue and a great set up for Hawk-Eye Folding Camera.

The skills I use are Enraptured, Deduction and Promise of Power, all are Practiced skills and can be found by Practice Makes Perfect. Enraptured gives an extra use on my Gate Box, Deduction for an extra clue and Promise of Power act as a backup plan against evasion and/or tests.

I've ran through the first 2 scenario of The Dream Quest with this deck and it was quite successful in my own opinion. We've managed to pull through in a nick of time, and I had a lot of fun with it.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this deck and let me know if you would have any better idea for the deck. If you'd like to give it a try, please feel free to do so. I had a lot of fun with it and hope you will, too.

See you next idea!