Dexter Transforms Mr. Rook into Molly Maxwell (Guide)

Introduction & Purpose

Since his first release, Dexter always puzzled me. How can you turn his ability into something fun and efficient at the same time? Using both his signature assets and throwing a lot of assets away when consumed, I hope to finally have found an answer to my question :-)

This deck is designed mainly to be the fighter of the group, but as surprising as it may seem, it relies as much (or more) on Dexter's as on his , and there are 3 reasons for that, which are the fun parts of the deck:

1 - The deck is clearly designed to use Dexter's ability almost every turn. With the help of Showmanship, you want to use your fight options when they enter play for the most part;

2 - So to make it juicy, why not use assets that you WANT to leave play? Why not abuse assets with dooms on them, clearing the board when needed?

3 - The deck uses Molly Maxwell to her full potential. Every single asset has a unique trait. Just name it and find any asset you want! (Side note: if you don't own Molly Maxwell, the deck works perfectly fine without her. Just replace Calling in Favors by a staple card and you are good to go!).

Assets Breakdown

Dexter's theater stage is composed of 2 big groups of assets: assets you want to keep on stage, and assets you want to consume and throw away. Let's have a more detailed look at the tools in his magic suitcase (and their unique traits).

You want to keep 5 cards to not leave your play area:

• Showmanship (Talent) is the cornerstone of the deck. Since you want to use (and empty) your assets when they enter play, it boosts your stats naturally. It is particularly relevant for your -based assets, since you only have a base 3 .

• Leo de Luca (Criminal) provides you extra actions, pretty straightforward.

• Lucky Cigarette Case (Charm) provides you extra cards. It is a low priority if you find Molly Maxwell early.

• Four of Cups (Tarot) boosts your , because why not? Another low priority, firstly because you start with a base 5 that is boosted anyway by the assets you use it with, by Blood Pact and by Showmanship, and secondly because you use -based assets as much as -based ones.

• Haste (Ritual) also provides you extra actions. Mostly relevant with the activate action, that you use on all your consumable tools. It allows you to empty your Colt Vest Pocket in one turn on a boss, or to investigate with Divination after you killed an enemy for example.

Let's now look at the assets you want to consume and throw away:

• David Renfield (Patron) is your resource-engine. The nice thing in Dexter is that you can push David to the extreme, because you can throw him away whenever you want. So having 4-5 dooms on David (accumulating 10-15 resources in 4-5 turns) before throwing him back to backstage is pretty easy here.

• Molly Maxwell (Assistant) is incredible in this deck. She is a top mulligan priority, since she will find any asset you want. Use her 3 times, replace her by David Renfield with Calling in Favors and repeat. David and Molly are a fantastic duo of economy assistants for Dexter.

• Abyssal Tome (Tome) is your first fighting asset in this deck. It has a big drawback, which is that it exhausts, so it will only be a complement for your other options on its first use. However, since it uses your , you do not need to use it on the turn it enters play. It shines when you can use it on the first turn(s) of the agenda and get to +3 damages later before throwing it away to remove dooms, but it will rarely be auto-sufficient.

• Colt Vest Pocket (Firearm, Illicit) is fantastic against big enemies. With Showmanship, Leo de Luca and Haste in play you basically attack 5 times at a base 7 , for a total of 10 damages! However, since it discards at the end of the round it is a one-shot (so to speak), but it will only have costed 1 resource.

• Enchanted Blade (Relic, Melee) is your base option for combat, that will remain in play per default. You attack at a base 5 (7 if it entered play this turn, with Showmanship), and you can boost your stat and damage by spending charges. The trick here is to NOT systematically spend charges for action compression or stat-boost. With Leo de Luca and Haste, you can already attack 5 times, and with Blood Pact you have other ways to boost your combat. So the charges are actually a valuable resource here, to spend carefully.

• Blood Pact (Pact) is a great option for boosting your and . Specifically, we want the non-permanent version here, to use it 4-5 times in a turn and then throw it away at the end of the same turn. You want to have Blood Pact in play before you use it, because you will need Dexter's fast replacement action to throw its 3-4-5 dooms away at the end of the turn you used it.

• Divination (Augury) is your contribution to clue-gathering when no enemy is in play. Why Divination instead of another spell? Well, only because it is the only one (with Eye of Chaos) to have a unique trait that Molly can find for you :-)

Conclusion

The side deck shows the options for Level 0, which work very well to replace the upgraded assets, the main downgrade being that you will not transform Molly Maxwell into Mr. "Rook" (or is it the opposite?) before having these unique traits in your magic suitcase. After all, your assistant needs a bit of experience to have nimble hands, right?