The Deck

• No Strange Solution / Archaic Glyphs because it's a short campaign, and I'm afraid I won't have enough XP or the occasion to "identify" or "translate" the cards ;
• Since we're only 2 and playing on standard, I'm taking both "I've got a plan!" and Mind over Matter to help with defeating monsters, even if my main way of handling them should be evasion ;
• Preposterous Sketches is there to compensate for Amnesia and refill my hand for the future Higher Education ;
• Logical Reasoning could change depending on the campaign, I guess, but it's a very versatile card: managing horror (from Ursula's weakness or for Zoey), handling a crippling treachery, or using it for its willpower icons ;
• Otherwise, I think it's a pretty standard Ursula Downs deck.

Night of the Zealot

After a slow start from Zoey (no weapon during a long time), but an adequate encounter deck (no monster for a long time), Ursula did was Ursula does, and all in all, we manage to advance without too much difficulty, although the final battle with the Ghoul Priest was a really close one.

The return scenario has a lot more rooms, meaning a lot of moving actions for Ursula, and a lot of free investigation actions, so it was a blast ;-)

=> R1

9 XP:

• No Charon's Obol because it's a short campaign, and the Obol really starts paying off after the 3rd scenario
• Higher Education
• 2x Hyperawareness => 2x Forewarned
• 2x Shortcut => 2x Pathfinder
• 2x Perception => 2x In the Know (to try to mitigate Call of the Unknown)

Midnight Masks

The encounter decks slowed us a lot, and we manage to find only 2 cultists before the agenda advanced, leaving Zoey with a trauma because her weakness was still in play).

But a turn one Pathfinder + Fieldwork was the perfect Ursula setup, you just move very fast, doing whatever test necessary(mainly investigating, but breaking Locked Door or other things can happen).

=> R2

4 XP:

• 1x Tooth of Eztli => 1x Crystalline Elder Sign
• 1 XP left

The Devourer Below

We started the scenario with a negative mindset, thinking we'd be crushed quickly. Altough the first act went without any hiccups, we didn't pause to think when to advance the deck, and Zoey quickly found herself in the middle of 4 cultists without any Elusive or mean to sufficiently defend herself. Urusla tried to rush to the ritual site to to her things… and found herself engaged with 2 monsters, went mental, unable to see Zoey die a painful death.

Morality : think before you act ;-)

Opinion about the deck

• The game(s) where I start without Dr. Milan Christopher are sometimes short on resources, since Ursula Downs uses several 2/3 costs assets, so you don't always have what it takes to fuel Higher Education sometimes ;
• But that is compensated because Tooth of Eztli does the job, at least for encounter cards, fueling your draws while doing it. It was my first time playing this, and in this deck I didn't regret it, it managed to trigger at least 3 times by scenario ;
• Mind over Matter does only 1 damage per attack, which was often not sufficient to help Zoey Samaras defeat a monster, and I'd rather have agility boosts ;
• All in all, the cards icons are not really well distributed, I would have appreciated more agility boosts / eventually combat, so maybe Unexpected Courage could replace Perception in the starting deck ;
• I didn't feel the need to add other allies, especially because I want Dr. Milan Christopher on the table, but there are times where I would have appreciated additional damage or horror soaks (yeah, I'm talking to you, Hunting Shadow). Maybe only in 1x, to make 4 total with Jake Williams.

Opinion about Ursula

She's fast, and calculating the best order of actions to trigger her reaction action as well as Fieldwork on different tests is fun. I would pack a little more willpower boosts to better avoid some treacheries (Frozen in Fear kind of negates her awesome power, since I needed the Logical Reasoning to help maintain Zoey's sanity to an acceptable level against the punishing new cultists, especially with 1 mental trauma per scenario), but all in all I really enjoyed playing with her.