No-Frills Darrell Simmons 19 XP

In anticipation of Scarlet Keys here's my first swing theorycrafting for Darrell, a 19 XP deck to test out in standalone mode. For the 0 XP version swap the Side Deck in for the XP cards.

Here we're not trying to exploit every new combo from the cards that just dropped. Instead we're aiming to test out Darrell, play to his strengths, and cover his shortcomings.

The spotlight card here is Exploit Weakness, and to a lesser extent Shed a Light. We make them work by using Darrell's innate evidence power in combination with a suite of cards that reduce target values for tests.

Secondary is free card draw from Empirical Hypothesis. It seems to me it's like the Seeker class finally has asset-based draw akin to Scavenging, Lucky Cigarette Case, and Crystal Pendulum.

Investigation

Most of the time Darrell uses his 5 to trawl the map and scoop up clues with basic investigate actions, earning evidence in the bargain. Hawk-Eye Folding Camera, Old Keyring, Otherworldly Compass, Deduction, Gumption, and Sharp Vision all serve to modulate the skill tests and number of clues gained.

When you grab the clues it nets you evidence tokens, which are similar to Unexpected Courage except that they reduce difficulty (instead of a bonus to your result).

Usually the difference between a shroud reduction and bonus is irrelevant. But when the shroud reaches 0 something magical happens: only the token can make you fail. Even then you can resort to Live and Learn.

The other opportunity testing at shroud 0 is Shed a Light. It seems too niche to have multiple copies, but the third, remote clue makes it worth inclusion.

Economy

No frills here. Efficient Seeker stuff: Burning the Midnight Oil and Crack the Case both pay you to do the stuff you already want to do.

Managing Enemies

My play partner and I firmly hold to the Ghoul Minion Principle, which states that the Guardian investigator shouldn't waste their whole turn to save you from every mook in the encounter deck. Mind over Matter serves to boost your stat line to 2 5 5 5 for an entire turn. Higher with the Hawk-Eye Folding Camera.

If you have spare cash you can fall back on Scrapper for brief fights, or to evade things with lots of health.

Against bigger baddies there's the nuclear option: Exploit Weakness. Looking forward to seeing this in action! The same principles of testing at Shroud 0 apply.

Managing Treacheries

This looks to be a real deficiency for Darrell, so Dr. William T. Maleson was the obvious choice to deny bad treacheries and offer cheap soak. We try to cover more bases by Hawk-Eye Folding Camera (bonus to stat) and Tooth of Eztli, Don't forget that Mind over Matter can save your bacon and it persists into the player phase.

Skill Recursion Loop

Resourceful has no shortage of great targets. And True Survivor affords you the freedom to be liberal with your commits.

Note that they can recycle one another. So late in scenarios your deck should be benign and reshuffling your deck ought to be a rarity.

Action Compression

It's tempting to test out the thematic Press Pass, but it seems pretty situational for the price. Instead we run tried-and-true stuff for free actions. Pathfinder is free movement, Deduction and Sharp Vision for free clues, Empirical Hypothesis for free draw.

Other Card Ideas

Expose Weakness is a natural combination with Exploit Weakness, but given Darrell's innate power it seems superfluous.

Quick Learner can manipulate difficulty and it's permanent, so it certainly has a place in this concept. It also opens up a can of worms of Survivor card possibilities related to benefiting from failure...

Alter Fate lets you contribute to the team by managing treacheries.

Unearth the Ancients is an efficient economy card that puts 2 assets on the table for free

Press Pass is cheaper and more thematic than Pathfinder.

If you test it please let me know how this plays, we're still waiting for this to ship :(