Patrice Hathaway - Stargazing for the Nature of the Beast

Largely inspired by "Are the Dilemmas any good?" asks Patrice deck, only less focused on Dilemmas and tweaked according to my personal preferences.

I'm not going to talk about staple cards for Patrice which I borrowed from other guides (Cornered, Grizzled, Last Chance...) and will focus on cards that felt more like my personal choices when building this deck.

Also, this deck is ment for a 2 campain with the other player focusing on enemy management.

• In the Thick of It - We use it to get Mind's Eye x3 and Four of Cups x1 right from the start.

• Mind's Eye - With Holy Rosary, Four of Cups and later Plucky to boost our , Mind's Eye will ensure we pass any important test. We try not to burn its charges too fast and focus on using it with added value effects (Improvised Weapon and Winging It played from discard, 2nd and 3rd copy of Fortuitous Discovery), the occasional evade an enemy or scenario card skill test. Or deal with our weakness.

• Alchemical Transmutation - Lets us decide when we need the resources, and does not get cycled back in our deck. Preferred over Emergency Cache which has no icons and is essentially a dead card when drawn in later cycles. Familiar Spirit provides the 3rd arcane slot that we need.

• Meditative Trance - Very situational, but as we are using 3 arcane slots and starting with 2 traumas, it will have use cases. Commits for too. I'm just sad it cannot heal horrors on Plucky.

• Improvised Shield & Leather Coat - Provide cheap recyclable damage protection, especially usefull to protect Plucky's 1 health.

• A Test of Will - This deck has a lot of boosts so passing the test should not be a problem. This card is essentially a Ward of Protection (2) for 0xp but with a small risk of failure.

• Stargazing - I'm especially curious to see the interaction with Nature of the Beast: if we manage to play Stargazing first, then Nature of the Beast either draws The Stars Are Right for us or puts us 3 cards closer to drawing it. Similarly, Drawn to the Flame is another encounder deck draw accelerator which synergies with putting The Stars Are Right in there.

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Starting deck

Core upgrades

Luxury upgrades

(View at arkham-starter.com)