Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
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| None yet |
unitled · 2265
Campaign results
My deck after finishing the Dunwich Legacy Campaign! We were playing on Standard, and this was largely a blind playthrough (my initial playthrough died when a player in the group left). My companions were a relatively heavy spellcasting Daisy Walker, and a fantastically tricksy Wendy Adams.
We won, with a total (including Lost in Time and Space) of 44 xp (lots of Delve Too Deep was played...), 2 mental trauma, and 2 physical trauma. My friends kept more detailed notes on what happened, I'll try and link their decks if they upload them.
Deck thoughts overall
This was originally a Lone Wolf deck, intending to play Keen Eye and Fire Axe off each other. Luckily I pulled Indebted as my random basic weakness which played into the plan!
When Dark Horse came out I swapped it in for Lone Wolf, hoping I could keep bouncing up from broke with the much stronger economy from the upgraded Guardian cards.
Turned out that didn't work so well! I ended up just picking up Quick Thinking over Dark Horse as it was never doing much, and a Guardian with extra actions (especially out of their turn) is pretty useful for engaging enemies or attacking.
So, in general, my deck suffered a little from jumping around in my strategies as we went through. Dark Horse really didn't come off like I hoped it would, which also means I could have had less reliance on Fire Axe. However, a lot of other cards worked so well together, and meant Zoey at the end was a 'gator who worked well with lots of resources with some high cost allies, with no resources with Fire Axe and Dark Horse; by herself tanking enemies and encounters, or supporting allies and keeping them safe or providing them with Stand Together or Teamwork cash.
I'd certainly do things a little differently over, though I'm broadly happy with the event spread... An extra Drawn to the Flame would be good, and maybe a single "If it bleeds..." and Prepared for the Worst? Quick Thinking proved to be great in the last scenario, so I would look into that more.
Campaign thoughts overall
I really loved the campaign overall. It feels like it drew a lot from the most Arkham Files-y of Lovecraft's stories. Some particular highlights stand out: The House Always Wins, which has a very cool setup with Criminals all being aloof and slowly closing in on you; the feeling of desperation in Essex County Express when carriages start disappearing off the back of the train; and feeling at first terrified then grimly determined in Undimensioned and Unseen when confronted by the horrific broods. The end was certainly an epic end to the story (potentially too epic... where can we go next?!).
I'm definitely looking forward to Matt starting to explore the more 'weird' side of the game, though, where cards aren't quite what you think they are, and possibly force us more to think our way rather than fight through scenarios. I've started to read The King in Yellow in anticipation!
Individual Cards
I knew I would love this card as soon as it was spoiled. It fills a similar spot to Dodge, which I swapped it in for, but gives you a chunk of change at the same time (and can also help against nasty encounter cards that are potentially dealing 3+ damage or horror). To turned up a fair few times in the games, notably to let Zoey stand toe-to-toe with a Crazed Shoggoth!
This upgrade was almost an afterthought, but turned out to be a really great pick. Emergency Cache is usually a no brainer to play (aside from Dark Horse/Fire Axe shenanigans, and even then you can hold onto it until you need to burst up and play a chunky asset), making it even more powerful is just gravy. When your deck is full of powerful cards you want to draw them (Beyond the Veil notwithstanding...) and use them as quickly as possible; this helps you do that and to let you pay for them.
My original plan was to go more in on the Fire Axe/Keen Eye interaction, so Prepared for the Worst really let me dig for my combo. It's also fine to see instead of a weapon in your opening hand as most of the time it'll pull one one (5 card opening + mulligan + 9 card search is probably 50%+ of your deck). The icons aren't terrible either, but I feel it would skyrocket in value if you stick some rarer high xp weapons like the Shotgun or Lightning Gun into your deck.
I started off the cycle pretty cool on Xavier. I threw him in as I wasn't really needing the Combat boost from Beat Cop and with the intention of grabbing Beat Cop II when I had the xp. However, Xavier was totally proving his worth from the game I added him in. He turns you into a real tank, someone able to take hits for the other characters, facecheck the encounter deck with a willboost, and can even turn taking a beefy hit into some instant damage (a favourite move of mine became taking a deliberate AoO on Xavier to kill him and lay into an enemy with my freshly played weapon).
Thanks for reading, and please check out our podcast Drawn to the Flame over here to here Frank and me ramble on about Arkham Horror!
| 9 comments |
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Jul 10, 2017 |
Jul 10, 2017Ahh, the final line, SOOO CLOSE. And I can't even go back and edit it now as you've mentioned it in a comment. What a monster. |
Jul 10, 2017Oh this is niiiiice. Got to say I've cooled on Dark Horse a bit. Feels like the card pool isn't fully there in order to really work it yet. Gawping at my final deck lists I've found one of the most interesting things to be spotting those cards and combos that are throwbacks to the time when we only had the core and the deluxe. So much has changed in a mere six months. |
Jul 10, 2017Totally agree on "I've had worse…". It costs a lot of XP but makes a huge difference to a guardian's staying power and economy. Instead of fearing failing an encounter deck deck and suffering 3 horror in one go, sometimes this can provide an economic boost to fuel Keen Eye or expensive guardian Assets. I think I'll try to make this an early purchase in future campaigns with Roland Banks, probably right after Keen Eye and Pathfinder. |
Jul 11, 2017I agree about Brother Xavier. It's a weird combination of abilities, but he's a great damage sink, and deals damage when he's full. The +1 is almost incidental (but very nifty too). I'm coming around to preferring him to Beat Cop for 4 investigators. |
Jul 11, 2017
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Jul 16, 2017So, what out of faction cards would you suggest if you are dropping dark horse? Would you also drop fire Axe and just run some traditional weaponry? I ask because this is about five cards away from what I was going to try with Zoey in my next playthrough. You definitely convinced me to drop the dark horse and maybe fire axe. |
Jul 17, 2017I think I would keep a fire axe as it's great cheap weapon, but I reckon, considering the content of the campaign, I think a firearm or two wouldn't go amiss. Also, I think at the moment Quick Thinking is a great swap for Dark Horse. Fighters with extra actions, particularly out of their turns, is really powerful. Interested in your list and how it ends up going, |
Jul 17, 2017Shortcut can be surprisingly handy too - use it to get to a location, and have 3 turns to batter an enemy. Or, if there is an Agnes around, Liquid Courage is excellent, though for very different reasons. |
Pretty great write-up but you spelled 'hear' 'here' in the final line so I'm downvoting this x1,000.
In all seriousness: great discussion. Really like how this is a roadmap for the twists and turns a deck can take in a campaign. Particularly love how event-heavy it is. Those six assets look lonely but sweet as!