Dexter Drinks Doom Beer on Tour

Dexter is the Magician's magician, the master of Doom, the epitome of style, and one of the most flexible and powerful investigators in the whole of Arkham.

As the most powerful and flexible Mystic, Dexter can be built to do anything and do it well. You can make a good case for Akatchi, since she brings more charges to the table, but Dexter can burn through Shrivelling(5)s, pull them back to his hand and play them all over again, and nobody can manage Doom like he can, with complete cardless control.

In this deck I have embraced a playstyle around Doom. Dexter is uniquely qualified to dabble in the temptations of these potentially game losing token, wringing from them every last drop of delicious power, casting them aside before the downside can take effect.

Doom

David Renfield brings in big money fast. As with all of Dexter's best cards, he can potentially pull them back to his hand with an elder sign draw, which at higher xp levels we can of course guarantee.

Blood Pactgives us a turn of +2 to every test before we have to discard it, usually to smash through a high shroud location fast.

Then we have the new ones, Ceremonial Sickle and String of Curses. As a fresh deck, these are interesting, but we will be able to play more games with them as xp enables more of the Doom management.

Cash and Draw

Renfield, Uncage the Soul and an Emergency Cache for money, while the Scroll of Prophecies, Arcane Initiate and Lucky Cigarette Case bring in the cards. Both of these are usually problems for mystics, who typically build around big Assets like Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking, but Dexter's Rogue access makes his life easier. Dexter also has access to the best card tutor in the form of Molly Maxwell.

Defensive Cards Ward of Protection is the classic staple, with Liquid Courage and Fearless to bring a little overkill and Elusive that burst of emergency speed just when it is needed. The weakness here is a lack of health soak, but that is where the allies come in. Molly in particular can take a lot of big hits. Dexter also has his thematic sword cane to make evasion viable for him.

Seeking

Clairvoyance is one of the strongest Clue cards and upgrades nicely. Accompanying this is Sixth Sense, which guarantees a solid, if slower, drip of clues, and Read the Signs for a tiny bit of clue acceleration and String of Curses if things get desperate.

This Dexter also has a Summoned Servitor. At this point it is practially useless, but with a tiny bit of xp investment it will become a semi-pathfinder with Wings of Night, as well as an extra Investigative option with Eyes of Fire. There is also an interesting combination with Dexter's ability, in that he can replace an asset with another, and the Servitor requires an asset to be discarded. My reading of this is that these can be one and the same.

Fighting This Dexter build leans more towards Seeking, but with the solid Enchanted Blade, as well as the Spectral Razor, Sword Cane and Ceremonial Sickle, and String of Curses for that occasional foe who comes ready laden with Doom.

Costs The cost curve of this deck is quite reasonable, especially given Dexter's potential income, and his native ability to save money on nearly every asset.

Future Upgrades Charisma will enable the Summoned Servitor to blossom, or simply to run a suite of allies for soak and profit.

For Doom, there is the Elle Rubash ally and Sin-Eater] on the horizon, though these are slightly at odds with Dexter's 'bury the bodies quickly' approach to the management problem.

The obvious path is to run Clairvoyance upwards, and potentially lean back into Shrivelling, for that classic Mystic who is better than the Seekers at Seeking, and tougher than the Guardians at fighting, once huge tranches of XP have been splashed around.

The fun path is the summoned servitor. Choose fun! With a little bit of XP, this makes for a Pathfinder-lite, plus a bit of offhand Seeking, further investment will combine well with Dexter. Dreaming Call will serve as a useful Doom clearance tool, or powerful exhauster charge card reviver, and ultimately the Influence may lead to an autonomous drone, gathering clues and fighting remotely, but this is all for the future!