Rex Murphy - Hoovering up clues

The first time I used Rex Murphy in a campaign, I made a small error during deck construction and included some illegal cards. Turns out that there are some really great Survivor cards that happen to be "Fortunes," and therefore can't be in Rex's deck . . . let this be a lesson: read ALL of the text on a card. Every time!

Anyway, Rex is an exceptional seeker. Base 4 lore makes it viable for him to investigate some locations without any additional assets or skills. But his ability encourages you to try and over-succeed to get clues more efficiently. His other stats are fine, though you'll want to avoid fighting if you can. This deck caters to his natural strengths while shoring up his weaknesses a bit. It also expects you to earn a decent amount of experience in your first couple scenarios so you can earn some critical early upgrades.

I built this deck for a two-player run through the Night of the Zealot campaign, paired with Mark Harrington as a dedicated combat specialist. That said, this archetype should work fine in most other scenarios as well.

Key cards (you want at least one or two of these in your opening hand) Lantern / Magnifying Glass - These assets are both huge helps. They are fairly cheap, and they effectively give you a +1 bonus to investigate checks. Having lore 5 on turn 1 is a great way to get clues quickly and advance the Act.

Deduction / Inquiring Mind / Perception - You want to succeed on your Investigate checks as often as possible, ideally by 2 or more, so you get your clues as efficiently as possible. Deduction gets you another bonus clue, potentially earning 3 clues in one action. Inquiring Mind is great for high shroud areas, especially in conjunction with a Magnifying Glass or Lantern. And Perception gets you a card if you succeed.

Important Cards that make the deck work Preposterous Sketches and Search for the Truth - You'll want to keep your hand well-stocked with cards. Skills are critical for finding clues efficiently, and for surviving event cards. And once you upgrade your deck, having cards in hand will become even more essential.

Other cards Fire Axe and "I've got a plan!" are your last resort combat options. Fire Axe lets you turn resources into strength, which is handy because this deck is extremely cheap. Nothing costs more than 3 supply, and it doesn't run any copies of Emergency Cache. "I've got a plan!" can deal a significant amount of damage, which is handy against bosses or some tougher enemies. Generally, though, you want your allies to kill the enemies while you focus on clues.

Art Student and Dr. William T. Maleson are your primary allies. Art Student gets you a clue for 2 resources then soaks some damage, while Dr. William T. Maleson is incredibly cheap to play as a damage sponge, and you can always use his ability to save yourself from a particularly terrible event if you must.

Strange Solution - Often, the campaign will progress to feature terrifyingly powerful boss enemies in later scenarios. Researching your Strange Solution early on so that you can upgrade to Strange Solution is crucial. Try to research your Strange Solution in the first scenario while the threats are minimal, then purchase the upgrades once you can to get a better card in your deck. Even if you can't upgrade it straight away, though, drawing two cards is a nice supplement to Preposterous Sketches.

Emergency Aid - This is optional, I included it because the other player in the campaign has two copies of First Aid already, and I wanted to throw in a card to help keep them alive.

Shortcut - This is probably the least crucial card in the deck, but it is really nice to pop into a location for free so you have all your actions available to investigate.

Upgrades Higher Education - As soon as you have the experience to buy this upgrade, do it. Higher Education is incredibly powerful, and if you can keep your hand well-stocked, you won't need to use your cards to over-succeed on investigate checks and earn bonus clues. Plus, access to +2 will for just 1 resource is a godsend for many events.

Strange Solution - You'll probably want the Acidic Ichor version to deal with powerful late-campaign enemies, but the evasion one is also rather handy.

Deduction - Getting extra clues is what this character is all about, so getting EVEN MORE extra clues is even better!

Magnifying Glass - If you have extra experience, this further reduces the resource cost of your deck so you can allocate your resources toward Higher Education. Plus, returning your Magnifying Glass to your hand helps power up Higher Education! It's a win-win!

Seriously, though, this deck is very straightforward: get as many clues as you can, and draw cards so you can use Higher Education to help you get more clues. Happy Seeking!