Skill Balanced Starter Decks - Daisy Walker

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

5argon · 9530

01002b.png
　 Notable skill icons
Deduction 　
Research Librarian 　
Encyclopedia ••　
Guts 　
Perception 　
Unexpected Courage 　
Bulletproof Vest •••　
Daisy's Tote Bag 　
　

TLDR : My take of starter decks with plenty of Skill icons, to reduce frustration of failing to setup Asset cards. No longer 100% pick-and-play on any combinations, but I countered this by providing exhaustive team compositions and how to fix overlaps provided at the bottom of this page. Have fun committing cards!

ps. When you decided to purchase one more Investigator Expansion, check out my 2 Packs Deck Guide series!

Lastly, if you like the idea of my decks, it would help many more fellow new investigators like you to find these starter decks if you press the like (♥) button above. Thank you!

I like the premise of Killbray's Better Starter Decks, a Revised Core Set-based series of deck which has absolutely no overlap no matter what amount of players and team compositions ("pick-and-play"), yet better than what the official manual provided.

But going for perfect zero overlap may compromise skill commit icon density. From my experience leading a group of beginners throughout Night of the Zealot, Skill cards are delightful. It feels great to be able to instantly throw in what you just draw to pass tests, and even get some bonus draws to recover from bad starting hand. They also provide the game's most basic team play feature : By pitching a helping commit at the same location. Skill cards are satisfying to play.

I think Asset cards has too much weight on typical starter decks (and therefore highly dependent on mulligan policy). After an unfortunate spiraling down session they can barely do anything, new players often express that everything seems to depend on finding and stacking up static boost Assets and fight Asset fast enough before enemy comes, if they can't then they have no chance of comeback ever since everything takes Attack of Opportunity then.

If you are experienced player trying to get new players to join : It is unfortunate that cannot control luck of draw for anyone. The next time maybe better, but you have limited onboarding session to impress and get new players hooked with the game. Skill card is that solution to smooth out any bad start and allow more happy-go-lucky play style for everyone.

By giving up the perfect zero overlap, here's my alternate take of starter decks : Skill Balanced Starter Decks series, which each deck greedily use Skill cards without concern of sharing with the other decks in the series. (Guts, Perception, Overpower, Manual Dexterity, Unexpected Courage)

It also distributes well double-icon non-Skill cards over starting deck and through the upgrade plan. (Evidence!, Working a Hunch, First Aid (3), "I've had worse…", Scrying (3), "Look what I found!", Cunning Distraction, Elder Sign Amulet, Bulletproof Vest) Upgrade plan also try as much as possible to not replace good icon cards while adding more.

Easy deck overlap resolution

This series does care about card overlaps. Therefore even though there are some combinations that cannot be played together since they want the same cards, the resolution is simple : Just move around the Skill cards and you are ready to play.

The result is satisfactory enough for me. Compared to Killbray's Better Starter Deck mathematically perfect 10-10-5 possible combinations for 2-3-4 player count, I managed to get 9-7-2 possible combinations with zero or easy to resolve overlaps.

I have exhaustively list all those team compositions in a dedicated section at the bottom, categorized by player count, along with an overlap resolution if it has some. You can use that section to pick a team matching your party size, perform overlap resolution as suggested, and immediately start the game.

Let's go on a full campaign!

This series of deck encourages you to take them to full length 8 scenarios campaign. I do this by including an upgrade guide with enough XP spending plan for an entire campaign for each deck, and also some tips to use the upgraded decks. Cards to be swapped in are in the Side Deck section. Side Deck is designed to have zero overlap between all 5 decks in the series.

FFG has moved to new distribution format where you can buy Investigator Expansion and Campaign Expansion separately. This is a good news, it means if you try out Night of the Zealot and is eager for longer campaign to see what the game has to offer, just one more box of any Campaign Expansion is required.

That is in theory. But community is often quick to state that Revised Core Set cards are not enough for full campaign, and then something like "You will run out of options", "Dunwich Investigator Expansion is essential", or "Recommended to get some Investigator Starter Deck first". While additional products are all useful and these suggestions are becoming the norm, more and more spending requirements in addition to the Campaign Expansion box put off some players with less funding from even getting the Campaign Expansion box.

Revised Core Set is viable to have good time in a campaign on Easy or Standard. They just lacked variety and fancy combos. But in my opinion, card variety is secondary to full-length experience any new players should try out ASAP. Players may have to "put up with" using .45 Automatic and Physical Training to the end for all I care, campaign play is still insanely fun. There should be no other minimum purchases for campaign experience than : Revised Core Set + Campaign Expansion.

Main Deck? Side Deck?

The "Side Deck" section is meant to be higher XP cards waiting to be added to your deck. The "Deck" section consists of all 0 XP cards that you start the 1st scenario with. So if you gather both Deck and Side Deck on starting the game, you don't have to go back to your big card collection to pick things between scenarios.

I have prepared some upgrade plans below to swap cards between Main Deck and Side Deck, but you are free to disagree and purchase in different orders or even different cards than suggested.

Upgrade guide

　Cost 　Total
　　 Medical Texts 　→　 Encyclopedia •• 2 XP 2 XP
　　 Medical Texts 　→　 Encyclopedia •• 2 XP 4 XP
　　 Old Book of Lore 　→　 Old Book of Lore ••• 3 XP 7 XP
　　 Old Book of Lore 　→　 Old Book of Lore ••• 3 XP 10 XP
　　 Hyperawareness 　→　 Bulletproof Vest ••• 3 XP 13 XP
　　 Hyperawareness 　→　 Bulletproof Vest ••• 3 XP 16 XP
　　 Blinding Light 　→　 Blinding Light •• 2 XP 18 XP
　
Extra 18 XP
　　 Blinding Light 　→　 Blinding Light •• 2 XP 20 XP
　　 Unexpected Courage 　→　 Cryptic Research •••• 4 XP 24 XP
　　 Unexpected Courage 　→　 Cryptic Research •••• 4 XP 28 XP

(View at arkham-starter.com)

You can use the 18 XP breakpoint to try out Standalone Scenario. Remember to take 2 Random Basic Weakness according to the standalone rule. You can remove one Encyclopedia in order to get both Blinding Light (2) into your 19 XP-limited deck. (Rely on Research Librarian to find that one copy.)

How to play

Daisy has 3 and Lv. 0~2 access that makes you go "hmm..". Often the advice is to make her do only her primary job, just investigate with 5 to the best, rather than trying to boost up to do Spell stuff. (Notice that Shrivelling and Blinding Light has no accuracy bonus.)

While that is very effective to win scenarios when you have a capable fighter besides you, from beginner's point of view, I believe everyone wants to do many different things on that Action Reference Card in their first few games. It felt bad for the person choosing to be relegated to pure "worker" of sorts.

Therefore, I decided to give her the same exact stuff as Agnes Baker so she can Fight and Evade with Spells, though you need Guts or Holy Rosary to get to comfortable level. Variety of actions is the goal of this deck. This decision also caused Daisy Walker and Agnes Baker to be incompatible to play at the same time in this series of deck. Sorry! But it is for the best onboarding experience for this Daisy deck.

Skill icons

　 Notable skill icons
Deduction 　
Research Librarian 　
Encyclopedia ••　
Guts 　
Perception 　
Unexpected Courage 　
Bulletproof Vest •••　
Daisy's Tote Bag 　
　

Daisy has 2 ways of evading : Mind over Matter and Blinding Light. Blinding Light is trickier as even though it let you use , you only have 3 and enemy is likely at 2-3 . Definitely pair Guts with Blinding Light to get a reassuring 5 . Equipping Holy Rosary equals survival due to Blinding Light as well.

Daisy sacrifices her hand slots for Tomes and she does not have Magnifying Glass or Flashlight. Though, she has Dr. Milan Christopher that can add more .

2x Perception may initially look overkill on even 4 shroud location, but there is one big problem that they can fix : Obscuring Fog. Pay attention if the scenario is using the Chilling Cold set, and prepare for it.

When using Deduction on 4 shroud, try adding 1 more with Arcane Studies if you feel like Perception would be too much.

Unexpected Courage is likely used as with this Daisy. But since you are going to be Encyclopedia user sticking to others, Unexpected Courage is a flex card that can help many different investigators.

You may notice that you want to throw her Tote Bag for commit more than actually playing it, that's OK! This deck has a lot of blend without caring about Agnes Baker, that can make use of that .

Research Librarian is one of the notable cards because you may not want to play him if you already have all the tomes, or you got Old Book of Lore on mulligan already and want to find other books with it instead. Therefore, it is quite often that you are relying on his weird icon to get a pass on treachery. The key is to pair this commit with Unexpected Courage, or Hyperawareness pumps. Mind over Matter can be committed similarly, since it is only playable on your turn and Mythos Phase is not yet your turn.

Bulletproof Vest is a legitimate commit for your fighter, it is likely that Old Book of Lore dig up an another copy while you already have one.

Encyclopedia is an unlimited use asset, the 2nd copy you found turns into a handy . Be careful that The Necronomicon or Crypt Chill may take away your tomes, in that case you may actually want to play the 2nd copy.

Investigator synergy

With other decks of my Skill Balanced Starter Deck series :

Team composition

All teams possible within my Skill Balanced Starter Deck series, including and not including this deck as a member.

Trivia! : These reduced combinations are due to how my Daisy and Agnes deck need the same cards, there is no possible team with Daisy and Agnes at the same time. I can't managed make both fun to play without major overlaps.

Also I discovered if I choose to give up just Daisy + Agnes pair, all other pairs are suddenly viable. Daisy + Agnes kind of causing butterfly effect throughout all the decks. e.g. Once you share Agnes's Spell for Daisy's self defense, then Agnes need more Survivor card from Wendy, then Wendy need more Rogue cards from Skids, and so on.

Try out Killbray's Better Starter Decks instead if you would like to play with Daisy and Agnes together.

2 Players

9 teams to choose from, all with 0 card overlaps :

3 Players

7 teams to choose from :

4 Players

2 teams to choose from :

2 comments

Jan 13, 2024 xavierslegion · 1

After a long break, I've restarted my Arkham adventures by going back to basics and focusing on slowly progressing with limited card pools. I've just started with this deck and after two scenarios, I do think Daisy is a bit cash-starved. @5argon, you mention Emergency Cache in the description but didn't include it. What would you recommend swapping out for Emergency Cache?

Jan 15, 2024 5argon · 9530

@xavierslegion Hi! Welcome back to the game!

I'd remove 2x Blinding Light for 2x Emergency Cache, since landing Blinding Light requires Holy Rosary + Guts and even then requires 2 resources. It's a card that ask a lot that can ended up with nothing! (But I like the aspect that beginners can try the Evade action with Daisy, other than Mind over Matter.)

Other than that, hard muligan or spam Old Book of Lore for Dr. Milan Christopher! Definitely one of the most valuable card.