Agnes Guide (Expert) - DreamEaters Update (Multiplayer)

Because a new campaign is the perfect excuse to revisit everyone's favorite investigator!

(WIP) Update to the Agnes guide found here. Exact same description given here can be found at the end of the original guide in the update section.

Multiplayer Update Quick Overview

Note: I do intend on making a separate update for Solo Agnes (praise Sixth Sense!) but that will likely not be for another few weeks since I want Ethereal Form to be released prior to that update.

After two and a half cycles and coming up to 2 years, I am giving an update to the original guide. The changes made to my current preferred base Agnes deck compared to the original are as follows...

Baseball Bat -> Meat Cleaver

Unexpected Courage -> Live and Learn

Fearless(Or Delve Too Deep) -> Deny Existence

...plus the other important cards added...

The Chthonian Stone - Important tech option, primarily solely for the Forgotten Age campaign

Mists of R'lyeh - Another important tech option if you need a more consistent evasion option... like in the Forgotten Age campaign

Premonition - Solid card, worth considering

Take Heart - Solid card, worth considering

Sixth Sense - Solid card, worth considering

Thermos/Arcane Research - Fun little combo

Time Warp - High priority upgrade

Rite of Seeking(2) - High priority upgrade - Typically superior to RoS(4) on 2 player

Ward of Protection(2) - Medium priority upgrade

Four of Cups - Medium priority upgrade

Shards of the Void - Replaces Song of the Dead as a combat alternative to Meat Cleaver + Fight or Flight

Fate or Fortune - Nice exile upgrade towards the end of a campaign or on standalone

There have been other solid cards released as well which aren't being specifically mentioned, but I believe these to be the most important ones.

Multiplayer Update Card Analysis

Meat Cleaver - I could spend quite a long time weighing this card against Baseball Bat, which is the hand weapon I initially included in the list, but it ultimately comes down to this. Meat Cleaver is usually going to be the stronger weapon in combination with Fight or Flight since it won't break on you and it can be used to put horror onto Agnes to trigger her ability, then immediately take horror off of Agnes when she kills an enemy. Additionally, when it is out in play, it gives Agnes a very consistent way of dealing a damage to an enemy. For these reasons, I personally prefer Meat Cleaver over Baseball Bat. However, Baseball Bat's biggest advantage is it's consistent +2 fight on use which does make it an effective option when dealing with low fight enemies, while Meat Cleaver will often only give you +1 fight, which is quite significant in those early encounters.

Live and Learn/Time Warp - These two cards are extremely high value for more or less the same reason. Live and Learn can be used after failing a test on your turn to refund the action and any charges used on the failed test, as well as effectively giving you a free unexpected courage on the redo at no cost. Time Warp can be used after any investigator at your location fails a test during their turn to refund the action, any charges used and any cards committed on the failed test, as well as negating any penalties associated with failing the test. I don't think I can understate just how valuable both of these effects are. Super useful cards.

Deny Existence - Another card which is just super high value. Having another way to shut down treachery cards in the encounter deck is just really good.

The Chthonian Stone - Analyzing how good sealing cards are is something that I could go on about for paragraphs, so I'll try to keep it short for this one. The biggest issue with this card is that in most scenario's, especially early on in a campaign, the modifiers on scenario tokens are rarely worse then -4, even on hard/expert. As such, having one of those tokens sealed on a test where you're 4 above the difficulty will cause your chances of passing to decrease since it increases your chance of drawing a -6/-8/auto-fail. This makes the value of this card extremely inconsistent and usually not worth the high cost associated with it. However, this card is still an important tech option since it can still be worth running in scenarios where there are scenario tokens with really devastating effects

Mists of R'lyeh - You can usually get away without too much evasion with this deck, but if you really want to have a strong and consistent evasion option and you're not too worried about filling up your arcane slots, this is the card for you.

Premonition - This is a nice card because it can be used prior to an important skill test to let you and your teammates know whether you need to commit to that skill check, and how much to commit if you do need to. While this is definitely a useful effect, it suffers from the issue that Agnes usually isn't running a lot of skill cards to commit to a test if needed, giving her a bit of anti-synergy with this card. Additionally finding the deck slots to include this card can be tricky.

Take Heart - Strong econ card which is worth considering. However, since Agnes has very high will, you're less likely to be failing at skill checks from treachery cards, meaning that if you want to trigger the effect for yourself, you will likely end up needing to to an action to intentionally fail a fight/investigate, making it less useful on her then on investigators who can trigger the effect consistently without spending the actions. This is also another card where it can be hard to just find the deck slots for it.

Sixth Sense - Another card which I could spend a long time going on about and I'll try to avoid. If you want to build Agnes to primarily be just a clue gatherer, take this card in addition to Rite of Seeking. If you are in a team comp which isn't very good at getting clues and you are likely going to need to be spamming the investigate action, take this over Rite of Seeking. If you are playing on solo, absolutely take this card. However, if you are looking to be doing a mix of fighting and investigating, I prefer Rite of Seeking over this card. Since Rite of Seeking is going to be picking up twice as many clues on average, Rite of Seeking has a higher value proposition unless you are looking to spam the investigate action with Sixth Sense (7+ times after playing). Since, this usually isn't the case for me, I typically just take Rite of Seeking over this card, even though this at least partially comes down to personal preference.

Arcane Research/Thermos - Fun combo since it gives you bonus XP long term. However, Thermos can bog the deck down a bit as another high cost card, and starting with 2 mental trauma can be very painful if you aren't able to draw into Peter/Thermos.

Rite of Seeking(2) - Nice stepping stone between Rite of Seeking(0) and Rite of Seeking(4). Additionally, on 2 player, you may want to consider not upgrading past this card since a lot of locations will only have 2 clues, making this card more efficient for those locations then Rite of Seeking(4).

Ward of Protection(2) - As mentioned with Ward of Protection(0), blocking nasty treacheries like Ancient Evils can potentially flip the scenario from a loss to a win, and the upgrade here helps to ensure that it can find it's mark. Additionally, this can be used to potentially save a teammate with lower will from a treachery which would otherwise cause huge problems for them.

Four of Cups - Agnes tests her will a lot. As such, assets with give +will are pretty much going to be good on her by default. However, I typically only one copy of this card because 1) It isn't as strong a card like Holy Rosary or Peter Sylvestre(2) and 2) Since it cannot be committed to skill checks, if you draw a second copy of this card, it will be a dead draw.

Shards of the Void - Even though this card is a bit weaker then equally costed Shriveling(3) for Agnes, it's still a strong combat option due to it's consistent +1 damage which I believe to be Agnes' best option if you want to run another combat spell in addition to Shriveling. Sealing the 0 usually isn't too big of an issue, though keep in mind that immediately releasing the 0 with your first attack is a valid option.

Fate or Fortune - Just like with Ward of Protection blocking an Ancient Evils, Fate or Fortune can potentially save a scenario by buying you that one extra turn. Do to it's high cost, you will likely only want to buy this at the end of a campaign instead of purchasing it multiple times, but it's still a very nice card.