Higher Education Rex

This is my version of Higher Education Rex, intended for multiplayer only. This deck presupposes that Rex is paired with an investigator or investigators who will handle most of the combat.

This deck is designed with Expert in mind, but it should perform fine on lower difficulties, too.

The idea is pretty simple. Rex will automatically start with Higher Education in play, and he will spend as much time investigating as possible. Using Higher Education, Rex will have little trouble triggering his ability and amassing clues at essentially double the rate possible to any other investigator. Most of the time, Rex will churn through clues so quickly that the investigators will be able to advance the Act Deck far faster than the game designers intended, and so the entire team will face fewer monsters, draw fewer encounter cards, and just generally have an easier time of things.

To make this work, the deck has been kept as cheap as possible. The only expensive cards are Dr. Milan Christopher, who will easily pay back his cost if played early, and "I've got a plan!", which is mostly for emergencies. Other than that, the deck is dirt cheap, so that most of Rex's resources can be funneled straight into Higher Education.

An explanation of my selections:

Magnifying Glass: Just generally a great card because it's so cheap and fast. The +1 Intellect is doubly useful for Rex because it essentially has twice the chance of making a difference--it will help if it takes you from -1 to 0 and if it takes you from +1 to +2. The upgraded version has wonderful synergy with Higher Education and should be an early buy.

Dr. Milan Christopher: Excellent if you can get him out early--so much so that he's a good card to look for in your opening mulligan. As with Magnifying Glass, the +1 Intellect is a huge difference maker for Rex, and the resource generation's synergy with Higher Education doesn't need much explanation. If drawn late in the game, the Dr. probably will not be able to pay back his cost, so just use him as an Intellect icon.

Strange Solution: Included with the intent of identifying the solution and upgrading to Acidic Ichor, which is just a beastly card. Acidic Ichor more or less amounts to a much cheaper Lightning Gun, which is pretty broken. If you want to go pure investigation, you could skip this, but I find a little combat punch is helpful--sometimes scenarios just require more fighting than investigating, and it helps to be able to chip in a little. The wild icon is not bad.

"I've got a plan!": This card will often sit in your hand, which is OK because you needed a bunch of cards to do that anyway to make Higher Education work. But when you can use the full power of this card, dealing 4 damage in one action is insanely good--even Guardians have a tough time matching that, and generally need high XP cards like Shotgun to do so. Higher Education can make sure the hit lands.

Delve Too Deep: In here because this is the most fun card in the game. It's often not too hard to find situations at the end of a scenario where you can safely delve, either because the scenario is almost certainly won or because it is almost certainly lost. Feel free to swap this out if it's not your style. If you're feeling feisty, you can swap out an Elusive for a second one.

Elusive: Like "I've got a plan!", this is a card that either sits in your hand or is insanely powerful, and that's perfect for a Higher Education deck. Being able to automatically escape from all monsters--no skill test needed--and teleport to a space of your choice is incredible. This card just dominates certain scenarios, e.g. The House Always Wins and Carnevale of Horrors, and is generally an excellent safety net.

Emergency Cache: Not strictly necessary in this deck, but sometimes you need a lot of cash in a hurry for either Higher Education or "I've got a plan!", and then Emergency Cache is nice. Sometimes scenarios will ask you to spend a lot of resources, too.

Shortcut: Wonderfully cheap and versatile. At the very least Shortcut turns a card into an action, which is good; and very often the saved action ends up being far more significant than that.

Ward of Protection: A nice utility card. Rex has tons of horror to spare, so the cost for cancelling a treachery is quite low. Cancelling things like Ancient Evils does a lot to help the whole group, and cancelling things like Grasping Hands does a lot to help Rex's durability.

Working a Hunch: The price of this one clashes a bit with Higher Education, but this event is so good I had to include it. Getting a guaranteed clue for zero actions is just excellent, and the rock-solid reliability of this card is a rare blessing in a game like this. Great icons on this event, too.

Deduction: A staple of all Rex decks, this increases the rate at which you can rip through clues to disgusting levels. Pretty self-explanatory.

Guts: Great support--passing Will tests against the Encounter deck is often very important--and the fact that it replaces itself synergizes excellently with Higher Education. Generally speaking, this line of skill cards is highly efficient.

Inquiring Mind: +3 to a test is excellent, and it's not too hard to find a situation where you can use this.

Overpower: For helping your teammate fight. Giving a little support to the Guardian can make a big difference, and Overpower will usually replace itself. Also useful for yourself once Acidic Ichor comes along. (If you're paired with Agnes Baker, cut this in favor of something else.)

Perception: Great efficiency on this card. A very useful bonus for triggering Rex's ability and it essentially costs nothing. Sign me up.

Unexpected Courage: The versatility of this card is excellent, and I find room for it in pretty much every deck I ever make. Whatever the game situation is, this will be helpful.

XP:

Obviously, Higher Education is the first buy. Most of the campaign-openers are pretty generous with XP, so getting 3 for it should be achievable.

After that, the three main upgrades you want are Deduction, Magnifying Glass, and Strange Solution.

After those, there's a marked drop in the usefulness of XP. Cryptic Research is fine if overpriced. Pathfinder doesn't fit snugly into this deck's cost curve, but it's still pretty good. If all else is taken, the upgraded Emergency Cache is better, albeit not much. I don't really recommend the other Seeker XP cards, as they tend to be expensive and slow and run counter to what this deck is trying to do.

A note on a few common Rex cards I did NOT include:

Burglary: I think this is a trap. It's expensive and slow, and Rex doesn't need it to fund Higher Education--either he will get Dr. Milan Christopher into play early, and that will take care of his resource needs, or Rex simply won't play anything expensive, and his starting money and automatic income should be enough. Besides, getting 2 clues in 1 action is usually superior to getting 1 clue and 3 resources.

Scavenging: I often see this in Rex decks, but I don't like this one at all. What is Rex going to Scavenge? Strange Solution is hardly enough to justify running it. I see the synergy with Rex's ability, but is it really worth filling your deck with crap like Knife and Leather Coat to try to get something out of Scavenging? No way. And trying to scavenge up Discs of Itzamna is a huge waste of time and money when you could be hoovering up clues instead.

Mind over Matter: I like this card, but I just couldn't find room for it. Keep your Guardian buddy by your side as much as possible and hopefully you won't miss this too much.

Seeking Answers: Not bad in Rex, but it's a little situational, requiring things to align just right to really become efficient. I think the cards I included are more consistently useful.

Fire Axe: This would be a good pick if you want a little more combat, but I went for durability with Elusive and Ward of Protection instead. Certainly a valid option.

Manual Dexterity: Not a bad card at all, but at the end of the day Agility just isn't quite tested often enough for it to make the cut.