Dynamic Duo - Norman and Gloria

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olahren · 3052

Gloria Goldberg and Norman Withers

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"Two starstruck lovers out to save the universe. But it was not in the stars they found their destiny - it was in each other."

Dynamic duo!

This deck is part of a dynamic duo series, and is meant to be played together with Dynamic Duo - Gloria Goldberg. It works just fine when paired with other investigators too, of course, but some cards might be less effective.

Premise

Gloria Goldberg and Norman Withers have a love/hate relationship with the future. Their unique skills and card pool enables you to really massage the encounter deck with Alyssa Graham, Scroll of Secrets, Scrying, Dr. William T. Maleson and so on. I've also enjoyed putting Gloria and Norman together in one duo and pretending that they are lovers. Rawwwr!

Weakness: Mobility isn’t really their thing. Any sort of physical activity isn’t their thing, really.


Synergy

The synergy is that both characters get advantages from scrying. They want different things, however: Norman wants to make sure he has useful cards on top of his deck, while Gloria want to peek at the encounter deck to plan ahead and discard any extra evil stuff.

The astronomer also has Dr. William T. Maleson and can thus redraw an encounter card if need be. Gloria Ward of Protections (that Norman will buy soon too) to cancel out anything they don't want to face. They are both generalists (although Norman starts out as 95% Seeker) and they can both find clues and have each others backs.

Gloria will initially be the main fighter, but she'll fight on her terms when she wants to (unwanted enemies, please report to the discard pile). Those enemies that do pop up will be dealt with by combat spells and Norman evading them with Mind's Eye.

Norman will investigate as well as going the Mind's Eye route to have some answer to strength, agility and evasion tests. Being able to pass and tests can be crucial.


Upgrade path for Norman

Norman is bit a puzzle, really. You start out as an excellent seeker; full access to every level 0 cards, of 5. The world is your oyster. And then you're supposed to do a 180 degree turn and turn into fullblown Mystic. This deck isn't about going full mage; at least not initially - we'll make do with Mind's Eye and support events.

Important upgrades, in my order of priority

  • 3 x Mind's Eye. Thanks to Myriad, that's 3 cards for 2 measly Xp. Mind's Eye will let you use your decent willpower of 4 to for other kinds of tests, and St. Hubert's Key, Hawk-Eye Folding Camera and Arcane Studies will hopefully mean that you'll test at least at 5 or 6 .
  • Foresight could pretty much be Norman's second signature card. And it combos great with Gloria as well, acting as a Ward of Protection if need be. Or just a way to get assets into play fast and at a reduced cost. Livre d'Eibon is a nice way to make sure you favorite card is on the very top of your deck.
  • Arcane Studies is a super card, and a buff to your two favorite stats; and/or (to every stat, actually, if you got Mind's Eye in play).
  • Astronomical Atlas is fantastic for Norman. It will buff your tests and improve your card draw. And last but not least, you can get another shot at getting something nice on top of your deck to use Normans investigator ability on. It's also some really nice combos you can execute with Livre d'Eibon.

Other upgrades (in any order you’d like)

... But I have more Xp to spend..?

What we have so far is a great support Norman for around 25 - 35 Xp. For some campaigns (Dream-Eaters and Dunwich) this will do just fine.

But other campaigns are more generous with its Xp; Forgotten Age for example. If you're already at 25 Xp halfway into the campaign (or earlier), then we got time to go full mage. Just ditch Mind's Eye (it's only 2 Xp lost after all) and buy your regular Mystic spells. I suggest Divination (so great for Norman as it can test on ), Brand of Cthugha and to load up on skill cards with either or pips. Defiance, Guts and the like.


Tips and advice

Feel free to go for something else than Open Gate as your fourth and fifth level zero card. But Gloria got 2 gates in her deck as well, and they are great in some (but not all campaigns). They work great in Innsmouth, often great in Circle Undone and decent in Forgotten Age. But gates are far better if you know what's up ahead. If you need to replace them, switch them out, with for example 1 Read the Signs and 1 Spectral Razor.

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