But how do we make this go infinite? Untaboo the Quick Thinkings and Ace in the Hole? Versatile for a Seeker card? Run it in Lola with Will to Survive?

There must be a way.

This looks really fun.

I'm thinking of running this in my next campaign but one of the other players is already planning on playing a deck with Gregory Gry.

I could swap Gregory out for Moxie as you suggested for the simple version of the deck which would help with soak, but wouldn't help with resources. Do you have any suggestions? Or should I just save this for a run when I can get Gregory all to myself?

Oh, Wini landed his plane at Alessandra's party! I'll try this deck for sure, it seems so funny!

@mattastrophic Yeah if we'd want to go infinite with this deck, ignoring taboo on Quick Thinking and/or Ace in the Hole, and most importantly, ignoring the RFG from All In. Since you test more or less everything at difficulty 0, Will to Survive is not so relevant here.

@Codayus good to know, let me know how it went! Indeed if you can't access the Muckraker, you could use the "simpler" version of the deck, that plays without any allies, and doesn't need that much resources, so "Watch this!" is enough!

@SikoSC I know! Wini does Parley better than Alessandra; who would have thought?! Let me know how it goes for you!

Doesn’t +2 Swift Reflexes make it infinite?

Hey! just a couple of thoughts. Do you really prefer small favour over Intel report? And in case the damage is really needed, would clean sneak or backstab be good upgrades?

Also, would easy marks or three aces make sense here? i guess you have enough money and draw that you dont need them no?

Anywhos, another banger it is, good job

As the person who played at the same table, can confirm that the deck is a bit finicky and attracts a LOT of tentacles but still better than even the best Mandy decks.

On the 12xp, I was under the impression that In the Thick of It didn't affect the number of Random Basic Weaknesses you have to take in Standalone mode, so 12xp would still mean one additional weakness plus some Trauma for your troubles. Did that change at some point?

Oh, now I see the rules response on the card page. It hadn't made it to the FAQ yet. Good to know!

I think I just don't get Winifred. I can never seem to get the card draw engine going. Commit 2 cards to draw one card? The math doesn't work with that unless one of those cards is a cantrip or Opportunist or you happen to draw the Elder Sign. I can see how Crystallizer of Dreams would help, but what if it's not in play? That said, just having 2 Lockpicks in play gets you pretty far, and Vamp (3) is a truly great card. This is not the first high-draw Winifred deck that I've tried and (so far) failed to make work very well. There must be some secret I am missing.

I was about to ask the same: I must be missing something with these high-cycle Winifred decks, how am I supposed to be drawing my whole deck multiple times in a scenario? I can get once through, but I don't seem to ever get much more than that. What am I doing wrong? How do you guys play these decks?

Hey @ChrisSF and @Valaaisvala, sorry to hear it didn't work so well for you!

First thing, bear in mind that this is a 9xp friendly deck and gets better as you get more experience, but nevertheless, let's look at the ways to pilot this deck so you hopefully can find out how satisfying it can be!

1. Play your assets as soon as you have the chance. The beginning will be a little slower and that's ok. Don't wait to play Pickpocketing or Fine Clothes even if you haven't found "I'll take that!" yet, you can always use this on Lockpicks and Crystallizer of Dreams.
2. Opportunist is instrumental. With 2 in hand and your weakness, you have +1 at every test and it counts for 1 of your ability cards.
3. The Neutral Cantrips are your best friends. One of these and Opportunist and you net +1 card. You can also use Quick Thinking's extra action as an additional card at the beginning to get your engine going.
4. Crystallizer of Dreams offers you extra commits so you are sure to have 2 cards to commit to most tests. It is also helpful to throw at a test so you are sure not to lose your Opportunist.
5. Evasion of course. Every time you have the opportunity to evade, you get 2 cards with Pickpocketing. Your main way to evade hopefully is with Vamp (3), but even if you have to land on a location with an enemy and end your turn by evading, it will bring fuel to your engine.

Overall, I would say that Winifred is a momentum deck, and taking an action that doesn't bring the game forward but draws you 4 cards (evading while comitting Opportunist and Manual Dexterity) should be seen as fueling your engine. And the payoffs will come every time you manage to do a Vamp (3) turn with Snitch. The rest of the deck is here to make sure that this happens as often as possible without you dying in the process.

If you want to try an alternative, there is also the deck with 2 Lucky Cigarette Case and Hidden Pocket which offers the benefit of triggering +2 draw on your Lockpicks turns. It is also more simple as you don't have to pay attention to the cards on the Crystallizer, but you need enemies on the map to really kick off, so better with more players.

Finally, it could be an option to explore the deck at more experience to maybe find the tipping point that will unlock this archetype for you. Maybe upgrading Manual Dexterity for an extra card, or Ace in the Hole that can be used to draw 3 cards every cycle. You could get all these for the cost of an extra weakness, so maybe it's worth trying!

So I guess I should mulligan hard for the key assets here, and expect to draw into the relevant skills/events afterwards, setting up for a big turn down the line to get the engine running?

Thanks Val! This deck did improve with XP, and Wini and Skids ended up winning a FHV run, including saving all but 2 in The Longest Night! It turns out having 2 investigators with high and decent is really good for that campaign. Opportunist and the neutral skills are so critical for Wini, and eventually I started just committing any card I didn't immediately want to play to get some draw going. We probably should have paid more attention to the fact that other investigators can commit cards to trigger Wini's card draw, too.

I never got much use out of the Crystallizer. I think if I were doing it again I would go the Lucky Cigarette Case route just to get some more consistent card draw. Thanks again for all the great decks and for being so generous with your time to respond to comments!

How about adding Charisma and Chuck Fergus in there? Getting a +2 on the tests makes many of them super reliable for hitting the "succeed by" targets on your skill cards even if you pull higher negative tokens, and fast frees up an action from playing a card, which you can use to draw cards to refill your hand and cycle the deck faster, or perform environmental actions if needed.

@atowncalledmalus: Chuck doesn’t do that much here I think; while there are many Trick events, they won’t benefit that much from his abilities. Either already Fast, not involving a skill test, or costing only 1 or 0. The skill tests on Vamp don’t need the help either, starting at difficulty 0 and with several card commits incoming for draw.

@ChrisSF: other investigators’ committed cards won’t trigger Wini’s ability, but she can trigger it committing to their tests. That is, unless there’s some weird ruling on who controls committee skill cards that I am unaware of?

@Valaaisvala You are totally right -- only Wini's committed cards count. And since an investigator can only commit one card to another investigator's skill test, that means Wini's ability can never trigger on someone else's test. We were accidentally playing it correctly, it turns out.

Heyo, new player here trying this as my second deck as we play a 4 player FHV campaign. 26 xp into the Lucky cigarette case version adn managed to almost cycle it 3 times last scenario (Bertie side q) before I (Kinda) had to resign. Enjoying the deck, starting to get a feel for the decision-making, so thank you ^^

Got a lil question about vamp(3), if I am engaged with an enemy as I play it, I have ruled it that I get an atk of oppurtunity on me even though it is Parley, cuz the action of playing a card still triggres an atk of oppurtunity, am I right?

@Eebsee You don't take an attack of opportunity when playing an event card that gives you a Parley action (or one that gives you a Fight, Evade, or Resign action). This is clarified in the official FAQ. That's one of the reasons Vamp is so good!

oo Nice, thanks @ChrisSF ^^ Akways sacced Moxie, but this will defo make things smoother.

Ok, I tried the deck again, this time knowing what to do for early setup: that worked a whole lot better. Getting those Pickpocketings in to play early is huge, and as soon as I could play a Vamp with a full grip of cards (even without Fine Clothes!) it was off to the races. I’ll definitely be trying this for a full campaign at some point, it’s mad fun when it gets going. The only question I still have is what on earth an I supposed to do with all the money I get off Greg?

@Valaaisvala You could add in Pilfer!

I'm enjoying this deck and getting good cycling of cards, but three episodes in intend to swap out Hit and Run with Stir the Pot. I don't see how with 1-2 low cost ally cards how Hit and Run gets any consistent play for its intended purpose. I have yet to use it once. Thoughts or feedback?

The idea is you put Gregory Gry into play with Hit and Run, then play your Vamp(3), do lots of skill checks and empty him of money, then he goes back into your hand again at the end of the turn. This does two things for you: your net gain is +8 resources instead of +6, and he's ready to go again next turn, instead of having to play him, get him killed, and cycling the deck to find him again. Ideally you manage to time it so that Greg is in play when you draw from an empty deck, meaning he can take the horror, and then bounce back into your hand.