Too Big To Fail Daisy - Big Hand

A First Try at a Big Hand Build

Big Hand is a deck strategy that uses cards like Extensive Research that reward you for retaining a lot cards in your hand. So Big Hand themed cards are pretty useless unless you build your whole deck around it… and when you do you might as well include a lot of them!

Early versions of Big Hand surely must've been attempted before the 2019, but the release of Harvey Walters had to be a game-changer. Most of the Big Hand cards dropped in his set.

I’m still pretty new to the game I haven't actually tried this yet. So I really welcome any advice before I try it out in an upcoming Carcosa campaign.

Two Key Assets to Get on the Table

A common piece of advice I saw on similar decks is that the key card for Big Hand is Dream-Enhancing Serum, so it's important to draw duplicates to make it work. Being a big fan of Daisy Walker, I really wanted to take advantage of her free tome action -> use Old Book of Lore to search for a duplicate card -> add dupe card to hand (which doesn't count against hand limit!) -> draw another free card. Daisy's "filtered search" method seems like it ought to find duplicates much better than Harvey's's "draw blindly and keep paying for assets to expand your hand size" route. So my main goal here are to get the Old Book of Lore and the Dream-Enhancing Serum into play as early as possible!

Why Waste Actions and Resources When the Chaos Bag Will Screw You Anyhow?

I think Researched assets are fun and thematic for Seekers so I threw a copy of Forbidden Tome - Secrets Revealed in this deck, since it gets a great action-compression power with Big Hand. That set me down the path of adding other testless cards to this deck. So I intentionally skipped all of typical bonus-to-stats assets (like the good doctor, Magnifying Glass, St. Hubert's Key, Higher Education, etc. ). So I plan to charge at low-shroud locations with Deduction or Perception... and for the hard tests I hope to use Drawn to the Flame, Extensive Research, True Understanding, and Forbidden Tome to skip the chaos bag entirely!

As for researching the Forbidden Tome - Untranslated, I hope to arrange to get the Eldritch Sophist to translate it for no actions, all while adding extra secret tokens to the Old Book of Lore (3). A guy can dream!

What’s With Occult Lexicon?

The Big Hand theme devoured most of the deck space, so there’s very few cards here besides Mind over Matter left for fighting. The Lexicon throws 3 copies of the amazing Blood-Rite spell into deck. That alone makes it a great card for the purposes of the Serum. And it deals testless damage. And it draws free cards in the bargain. Should Daisy pair up with a combat-oriented investigator? Yes, but at least she can often handle many of the assorted mook rats and ghouls that lurk in the encounter deck.

Down the Rabbit Hole makes your first two card upgrades cheaper! Do exactly two at each opportunity, or you'll run out before end of campaign! Here are all 14 possible upgrades:

• 2 XP Old Book of Lore (3) x2 is a priority; grants free Play actions + the combo with Forbidden Tome and Eldritch Sophist

• 1 XP Cryptic Writings (2) x2 is another priority; powerful economy card

• 2 XP Forbidden Tome - Secrets Revealed has to wait until researched, and unlocks a staple of the deck's theme

• 2 XP Occult Lexicon (3) is important insofar as it can leave play and you can keep the Blood-Rite spells in your deck. Given Daisy's signature weakness this is pretty important!

• 0 XP Extensive Research (1) x2 is 2 resources cheaper to use!

• 1 XP Deduction (2) x2

• 1 XP Mind over Matter (2) x2

• 1 XP Perception (2) x2

... but Down the Rabbit Hole also makes new cards cost extra, so try to add one between adventures or just bank extra XP. Try and squeeze in Delve Too Deep at the end of scenarios to grant extra XP to your party!

• 7 XP Ancestral Knowledge is likely the first new card to buy. Every scenario it gives you a powerful jump-start to your hand! For the required additional cards I'd go with a Research Librarian, Guts x2, and True Understanding x2

• 5 XP Miskatonic Archaeology Funding is proabbly next; it lets you put the Sophist to work decoding the Forbidden Tome

• 9 XP The Necronomicon - Petrus de Dacia Translation is a great addition and squarely ties in with the themes here: testless clues, testless damage, and secret tokens used to recharge it!

• 5 XP Farsight I'd swap in for Arcane Enlightenment. It saves actions and the extra hand slot is less meaningful once you have the upgraded version of Occult Lexicon

• 3 XP Knowledge is Power x2, to exploit powerful tomes; swap for the Delve Too Deep late in campaign when the bonus XP is less meaningful

Please offer any advice you can, especially about absent cards or the advancement path, thanks!