Minh Thi Phan's Super Seeker Party: "Axe" Me a Question!

It's a super Seeker party! What would a four man party of the men and women of that orange/yellow faction look like, knowing that they'd all have to work together?

These decks are made with the intention of playing through any campaign on Hard difficulty. Some minor changes should be made depending on which campaign you are picking (Fine Clothes is almost mandatory for Carcosa).

Minh Thi Phan's Role

Just one look at her deck says it all; Minh is all about those skill cards. While she does not necessarily have to be just skill cards, the fact that she can boost one of her own cards with an extra icon means she will want to make her contribution as large as possible (3 icons with the relevant Core Set neutral skill cards, or 4 icons with Inquiring Mind).

Her ability affects each Investigator's cards when put into skill tests, but Minh has to be at their location. It's not uncommon for Minh to go first during rounds, so she can move herself to where the group is planning on moving next. Her Investigator asset, Analytical Mind, helps supplement the draw engine to ensure she's never out of cards.

Additionally, with the highest health value of the group, Minh serves as a tank and the group's main 'conventional' fighter. She does so through the use of three great Level 0 Survivor cards: Fire Axe, Dark Horse, and Madame Labranche. Using these together can boost her Combat skill up to a value of 9 during a fight, which is quite high against most enemies on Hard! If she needs to swing more than once, she can pace using Madame Labranche's ability and instead use her powerful skill cards to boost her own Combat ability instead to ensure she gets the +1 damage bonus on Fire Axe. Dark Horse is really too good to pass up, and works well in a low-resource Minh deck!

Of course, her 4 Intellect is nothing to scoff at. Minh can certainly help with Investigating the lower shroud places, but her role as support means she's more likely going to spend her turns moving to the places she needs to be, whacking enemies over the head with the Fire Axe, or drawing more cards to act as skill fuel for the other members of the group.

Deckbuilding Considerations

Since (almost) all the Seekers have access to all the Seeker cards, it really comes down to two things:

1. Who takes the unique assets (Ally assets, and particular unique assets like Disc of Itzamna?

2. What out-of-faction assets can this Investigator bring in to the group?

Unique Allies

With access to the Seeker and Survivor cards, it's hard to justify Minh getting any of the Seeker ones. Dr. Milan Christopher is working with Rex, Charles Ross, Esq. helps to channel the resources generated by Rex to the others in the group, and Dr. William T. Maleson is helping Daisy out as lead Investigator (although it could have just as easily gone to Minh).

This leaves the Survivor allies, Peter Sylvestre and Madame Labranche. Minh Thi Phan is not likely to be evading enemies, and Sanity is not a metric that is in short supply in the Super Seeker party, so Peter does not make the cut. Madame Labranche though jives excessively well with Minh; you can use her free action to take a resource during boosts with the Fire Axe, or you can use her free action to grab an extra card when you have no cards in hand. This lets Minh be liberal with her use of skill cards, as Madame Labranche can further improve upon her card draw speed.

Out-Of-Faction Cards

Minh's access to Survivor cards means she can bring some great tools from that faction. Great cards that support the group would be Cunning Distraction (to auto-evade everything is great!), but Dark Horse prevents Minh from accumulating the 5 resources needed to play it. A Chance Encounter works well in a group that takes advantage of it, but the lack of on-play Seeker allies from her partners (Research Librarian, Art Student, Laboratory Assistant) means that it won't have too high an impact. Likewise, unsure of who'd have enough experience to pick up the incredible The Red-Gloved Man between upgrading those lovely Strange Solution and Archaic Glyphs.

Also yeah, no Lucky!. It just doesn't work well with Dark Horse (although it's certainly a great stop-gap card for those times that you don't find Dark Horse). Hmm...

• Fire Axe is Minh's staple damage card. It works because its free action ability to spend for a great +2 Combat per 1 Resource holds synergy with Dark Horse, and helps Minh turn her pathetic 2 Combat into really high, Guardian worthy values!

• Madame Labranche as already mentioned works well as extra fuel for the Fire Axe, or as card draw to find Minh more of her skill cards.

• Dark Horse just makes Minh better at everything. Higher Willpower to resist Encouter cards, higher Intellect to boost her effectiveness at Investigating when she just has to do it, higher Combat in conjunction with Fire Axe and Madame Labranche, and higher Agility for those many times where someone needs to evade the Elite boss with that annoying Retaliate keyword.

• Hiding Spot: While Cunning Distraction is expensive, Hiding Spot is cheap and very effective. Especially for the Super Seeker party; a group of Academics and Journalists who'd rather focus on gathering clues than gathering the ire of the Mythos. On quiet rounds, Minh can gain the 1 resource she gathers per turn to put down a Hiding Spot in the location where all the Investigators are expected to congregate, and stop any Non-Elite enemies from engaging with anyone there. This holds synergy with Rex's use of Dynamite Blast, as, in the case of a lot of low health enemies spawning, the low-health Investigators can easily move away from the Aloof enemies at that location, and Rex can blow them all away.

• Resourceful means more Hiding Spots and Rise to the Occasion. They'll also be helpful in case Minh wants to grab some higher level Survivor cards, like the awesome Snare Trap or the Level 2 version of Survival Instinct.

• Rise to the Occasion is not as good as Inquiring Mind, and is probably one of the first cards to make the cut. However, you'd be surprised at how frequently Minh'll be tasked to Fight or Evade an enemy with 4+ Combat or 4+ Agility. This card, at 4 icons with Minh's ability, is a wonderful tool to have in such moments. Being a Survivor card means it can be pulled back into your hand with Resourceful.

Seeker/Neutral Cards

• Archaic Glyphs upgrades into a fantastic clue-gathering or enemy evading tool. Daisy, Rex, and Minh have these to ensure higher odds of getting these translated in the first or second scenario! Only one for Minh, as she's not likely to focus on clue gathering, and she'll probably end up using the Evade version to help deal with enemies at her location.

• Magnifying Glass: A one-of to boost Minh's already impressive 4 Intellect up to 5. As Investigating is not her forte compared to Rex Murphy or the 5 Intellect investigators, she can get away with just one copy.

• Strange Solution is just too good to pass up. Helps provide another avenue for more damage for the team. Daisy, Rex, and Minh have these to ensure higher odds of getting this identified in the first or second scenario! Even then, the 6 Combat offered by the acidic version is quite iffy against 4+ Combat enemies (especially on Hard difficulty), but Minh's skills and her ability can help improve those values even more!

• Deduction: Even more clues for helping out Rex Murphy!

• Inquiring Mind: Minh's typically going to moving first, so she's probably going to end up on a location with some clues on it. As others come in to help out, she can pitch Inquiring Mind for a stupendous 4 icons.

• Guts: Helps out Daisy and Norman with their Mystic spells, and everyone against the Encounter deck. Awesome!

• Manual Dexterity: Given the four decks in the Super Seeker Party, Agility is actually one of the weakest stats in the group. Sometimes you just have to evade an enemy. Two Manual Dexterity cards help with those instances where that needs to happen.

• Overpower: Helps with Minh's Fire Axe strikes, or helps with other Investigators who use the Acidic version of the Strange Solution.

• Perception: Yeah, yeah, even in the Super Seeker Party, you just gotta have a little help with Investigating or doing some crazy high damage one-shot play like "I've got a plan!". Perception helps in those situations.

• Unexpected Courage: Still the best dang skill card in the game. Everyone's getting two of them, especially with Minh around to boost it even more!