Ursula Downs and the Lost City of the Monkey God

Card Choices Let's start by talking about what's not here, Dr. Milan Christopher. Why eschew this powerful card? Because Insects are icky. Because it lets other investigators use him (you're welcome, Finn Edwards). Because we want to show that Seeker decks can function efficiently without the card. This Ursula deck focuses on relics, and Dr. Elli Horowitz offers an amazingly powerful search effect to maximize that strength and allow you to increase the number of relics in play.

You want to further increase that strength with Backpack and Eureka!. Roughly half of the cards in your deck qualify for Backpack, making it a better choice than Preposterous Sketches. Yes, you will get he occasional bad draw with only a card or 2 instead of three, but you will never draw a weakness and increase your chances of drawing the items, which will quickly become the best cards in your deck. Also, the amusement of finding a Backpack inside your Backpack offers a moment of delight in the face of Eldritch Horror. Eureka!doesn't focus on items, but it adds flexibility and choice of card over the more narrowly focused skill cards.

Okay, so what relics can we pack to take advantage of this card search. For starters, we will go with The Chthonian Stone, Tooth of Eztli and Decorated Skull. The Chthonian Stone helps you control the chaos bag in powerful ways and has the added bonus of using a hand slot rather than relic slot. Tooth of Eztli is a sneaky good card that both protects you from treachery by boosting your already strong statistics and generates more cards. The Decorated Skull helps Ursala's economy, but it's not a great fit for her (Leo Anderson may make better use of it). But we need to fill out our artifacts. It will be on of the first cards we cut from the deck when we get xp.

In an effort to fill-out her backpack with items and spullies, Ursala packs her Magnifying Glass, Strange Solution, Archaic Glyphs, and Emergency Cache. Magnifying Glass provides a much-needed boost to her investigate (particularly important without Dr. Milan Christopher, while Strange Solution and Archaic Glyphs are essential components of the upgrade path for the deck. The deck doesn't have a ton of resource generation, so Emergency Cache is essential.

Fieldwork and Shortcut seem obvious choices for any Ursala deck. Shortcut ensures you get a move action, empowering your free investigate and helping overcome Call of the Unknown. Fieldwork turns Ursala's penchant for mobility into big bonuses (usually used to investigate, but occasionally used on location or enemy specific tests).

We round out the deck with some staple cards Deduction, Perception and Logical Reasoning. Ursala's value in the group lies in large part her ability to get clues for her group, and Perceptionand Deduction help her do that more efficiently. You general have clues on hand, so Logical Reasoning will help you maintain the fragile sanity of your comrades.

Early Game Strategy
You want to draw Fieldwork, Jake WilliamsDr. Elli Horowitz, Backpack, and Magnifying Glass in your initial hand, and probably want to mulligan anything else. If you end up with both allies, you will need to make a choice on what to do. Early on in a campaign I would probably take Jake Williams, but after a couple of sessions you are better off starting with Dr. Elli Horowitz and switching over to Jake after you burn through her artifact. Ideally you want to get an asset or two in play on your first turn, and then start exploring and investigating.

Upgrades
Charon's Obol Your first decision will be whether or not to take the Obol. If you want it, make it your first purchase to maximize its value. Your deck lacks emergency tools to keep you alive, so know that you are relying on your teammates to keep you from taking the journey to the great beyond. But you are playing an xp intensive deck and can certainly make use of the the points if you get them. Personally, I am gripped with terror and thought of losing my character FOREVER and couldn't bring myself to make this purchase

Shrewd Analysis Your second decision is whether or not you prefer cold, calculated deck building or if the sweet, sweet enticement of roughly 10 addition xp is worth throwing your deck-building future to chance. Thematically, I like the feeling of random discovery for Ursala, and would encourage you to take this card.

Strange Solution In your first adventure, make it a priority to 'Find the Solution', so you can upgrade this card right away. As an item, you will be able to store it in your Backpack. If you opted out of Shrewd Analysis you will probably want to take Strange Solution to make up for your abysmal combat score, but I encourage your to pull your solution at random and use that additional xp to get yourself...

Key of Ys What makes one of the most powerful cards in the game even better? Being able to pull it early in the game with regularity. Using aggressive mulliganing, Dr. Elli Horowitz and Backpack you can have this card in hand on your first turn, even with just a single copy. Replace one of your Decorated Skull cards with this as soon as possible. If you can get 9 xp (make your teammates play those Delve Too Deeps!) in your initial scenario you would be picking up to upgrades to Strange Solution and Key of Ys after a single game.

Relic Hunter If you've been paying attention, you are probably feeling squeezed for relic slots, and Dr. Elli Horowitz can only carry so many things, so picking up Relic Hunter will give you more fexibility both now and going forward. Once you get two Tooth of Eztlis in play you can start viewing treachery cards as a resource!

Archaic Glyphs In your second scenario, commit to "translating the Glyphs." If you went with Shrewd Analysis you can upgrade this card twice with minimal cost. On the upside, the upgraded version of the card uses an arcane slot, which is going to reduce the competition for your valuable hand-slots. The downside is that it is no longer an item, which makes your Backpack sad. Fear not! picking up Ancient Stone or two will let maintain the item balance in your deck and give you another problem to work on. Drop Logical Reasoning ,Perception, Eureka!, or Shortcut depending on party composition or personal preference.

The Gold Pocket Watch Yes, it weighs in at an incredibly hefty 8 xp, but, for those of you who haven't used it, it is worth every pip, particularly when you can fetch it so efficiently. While it's great to use the watch to get an extra investigator phase in a moment of crises, surrounded by monsters and with the agenda breathing down your neck, don't be afraid to use it early when things are going. Skipping the mythos phase to grant your party 4 free resources, 4 cards, and 12 additional actions builds tremendous tempo and eliminates the risk of losing the watch to a treachery card, a particularly acute problem if Dr. Elli Horowitz ends up carrying it. Plus, it frees up your valuable relic slot! Drop your second Decorated Skull to pick up this card whenever you have saved the resources to make this investment.

Pathfinder Though it isn't an item or a relic, Pathfinder is perfect card to help maximize Ursala's passive action generation and minimize the impact of Call of the Unknown. A great upgrade for when you have a point or two of xp and don't know what to do with it. Drop Logical Reasoning ,Perception, Eureka!, or Shortcut to make room for the card.

While I could recommend additional upgrades, the promise of powerful relics in future packs of The Forgotten Age Campaign will probably supersede whatever else I could recommend. However, upgrading to Emergency Cache or Emergency Cache works great with the backpack! Disc of Itzamna is quite strong in light of the vengeance mechanic and helps you put those multiple relic slots to use. Grotesque Statue makes a natural upgrade to The Chthonian Stone, and gives you more control over choas bag pulls. My group doesn't like using Higher Education, and Backpack doesn't synergize well with it. This Ursala functions quite well, even on hard difficulty, without it, but its a choice for those of you who think they need it.