Patrice, Disney Princess - 19 xp core

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Patrice investigates with her doggos and compass (13exp) 1 1 0 1.0
Patrice Shuffle simulation 0 0 0 2.0

Zanni · 194

Introduction

Arkham beating you down? Been feeling like the world could use some more song breaks since the pandemic? Want to make friends with the cutest of critters? Just need some more magic in your life? Patrice, Disney Princess is here for you. Hopefully she brightens your mood and makes all your dreams come true. : )

Core Overview

The guiding ideology for this deck (aside from being cute and thematic as heck) is having many, varied, and powerful contingencies. Patrice can go through her deck quickly, yes, but sometimes scenarios can still be a struggle due to that huge deck and the inability to hold cards for the right moment. To solve this conundrum, we overcommit to having everything we need. Gotta evade? Sword Cane, Mind's Eye, Hope, and Stray Cat can all potentially lend their aid. Similarly, both attacking and investigating also have four available methods to ensure you can always take the actions you need to, when you need to.

Getting 7 uses (or more if you cycle/play Quantum Flux/pull an ) onto Mind's Eye for only 3 resources and 1 play feels super good. Further, having the flexibility to spend as many charges as you need depending on what you haven't drawn yet is invigorating. Not seen any Mysterious Ravens or encountered your Summoned Hound yet? That's okay! Mind's Eye can handle your clues while Sword Cane and Zeal are used to fight things off and conserve secrets!

One thing to note is that this setup can be a little resource intensive. Thankfully, Voice of Ra, Patrice's Violin, and the plethora of low/no cost events have you covered (hence why you should run Live and Learn over Lucky! for this particular build). Voice of Ra is also chosen over Emergency Cache for the sometimes bigger swings and the icon in case you draw it when unneeded.

Similarly, character builds that require heavy setup can be unreasonably action-intensive, especially without standout cards like Ever Vigilant or Archaic Glyphs that give some much needed compression. Thankfully however, our Princess is benefitted by having some extremely quick-acting animal friends and easily accessible trinkets! You can save an action if you play the Sword Cane as it's needed, avoid spending any actions to get the Moonstone boost, or even get free actions for evading, investigating, and fighting thanks to your cute animal buddies! Patrice will still benefit greatly from the infrequent setup turn, however her flexibility to do anything at most any time will easily outpace the actions she spends preparing for the ball.

Cornered is a Patrice staple. She should always be drawing/discarding more cards than she can feasibly use each turn, so the +2 boosts effectively come without a downside. Playing both of them out is also wholly unnecessary, but actually surprisingly helpful when playing at higher difficulties.

Finally, for those not in the know yet, Summoned Hound has exceptional synergy with A Chance Encounter, as putting your dog friend into play avoids the extra cost of Unbound Beast that would normally accompany playing that good bony boi.

Level 0 Starting Deck/Other Options

The 10 cards to use before upgrading is largely up to you! Personally, I prefer running Familiar Spirit from the start to save exp, so I don't have to struggle to add them along with Summoned Hound and the Chance Encounter upgrades. Full disclosure, this can make your first scenario a little difficult, as they're essentially used exclusively as icons or very minor soak.

Mind's Eye is always the first upgrade, frequently from whichever arcane asset spell you choose to run to cover whatever your group or the first scenario demands. Charisma is the second easy upgrade choice, as the ability to have both Stray Cat and Mysterious Raven out simultaneously allows for significantly more flexibility than having to juggle them, as well as setting up for your eventual (or immediate, with enough exp) addition of Miss Doyle. Cornered is important enough that one copy is usually included before the doggo combo

Delve Too Deep is an easy include to squeeze more exp from each scenario. Resourceful can operate as a way to recur allies or A Chance Encounter in case it gets discarded before your little doggy dude does. Quantum Flux is also a personal preference: You won't use it all the time, but when you do, it likely saves your skin, covering for the rare occasion all your cards just come at the wrong time or you need to stave off your weaknesses.

Defiance is excellent for Carcosa, while Fearless might be more important if you are expecting to take a little more horror than you're comfortable with, especially when being visited frequently by those spoopy birbs. A Glimmer of Hope is also not essential to the deck, but the icon is always a welcome draw, and the event is surprisingly useful (and available!) in the niche situation where you don't mind trading an action and a resource for a +3 boost to that important test. Similarly, Promise of Power's curse tradeoff is almost imperceptible compared to the massive +4 it offers when you need it.

Generally, a princess should keep in mind the needs of her people for those early scenarios. Gonna play The Last King? Starting with Fine Clothes is an excellent option to upgrade out of. Open Gates are kind of hard to pull off, but maybe invaluable for all the potentially late-spawning victory points in Return to the Gathering. Be flexible and have fun: After all, you're probably not going to be able to play too many of the cards you draw anyways.

High Exp Upgrades

If Patrice has gone through a flurry of experience and still hasn't found her happily ever after, you've got some great options to provide a little magic push. Level 2 A Test of Will and Alter Fate are both exceptional, especially if the Princes Fred or Edward wish to dance.

When you just can't decide what to cut, you can: cast a 3xp spell on Live and Learn to turn it into Lucky!, bring Relic Hunter for some extra crystal bling, or even simply work to improve your regal disposition: Defiance, Guts, Fearless, Unexpected Courage. Nothing Left to Lose can substitute as a stronger, albeit slightly different Voice of Ra as well.

Closing

Let me know if you try this out yourself or come up with any edits to make this run in an interesting new direction. I'd be ecstatic to see the kinds of powerful Princess Patrices that are still out there, just waiting to save the day.

8 comments

Apr 12, 2021 sweetpumpkinboy · 36

So Familiar Spirit only lets you have 1 more arcane slot for Spells. Neither Summoned Hound nor Mind's Eye are spells. I can't see how this deck works with Mind's Eye and 2 Summoned Hounds all competing for arcane slots.

Apr 12, 2021 Zanni · 194

@sweetpumpkinboy ... oh my god. I... I... don't know how to read! T_T

I suppose this idea is in need of some retooling with Sign Magick instead. Maybe the saved exp from the second Charisma can go towards switching out the Sword Canes for Blinding Light, Flares, or Brute Force/Expeditious Retreat.

Unfortunately we lose one of our animal friends, but this should be functional at the least. What do you think?

Apr 12, 2021 suika · 9254

You should run either Mind's Eye or Summoned Hound, not both. They serve very similar purposes. Having the Sword Cane as well is just a tad excessive.

Apr 12, 2021 Zanni · 194

@suika gonna disagree on this one. Done some excessive testing (clearly not enough to catch my above mistake though lmao), and I really appreciate the ability to be ready for any situation from turn one. That extra redundancy really comes in clutch, especially for playing on solo or hard.

Yeah, you're right that eventually you'll not need the excess, but at that point you're discarding for the Violin or Cornered anyways. Summoned Hound gives a free action each turn and Mind's Eye works for any test, so if anything, I'd be more tempted to remove Miss Doyle, despite the easier setup.

I will concede that clue/damage acceleration, like the kind from the improvised suite or Blinding Light are suitable replacements for Sword Cane. They do, however, have the downside of not really working at all in the level 0 deck.

Apr 12, 2021 suika · 9254

@Zanni I meant dropping one instead of trying to add in Sign Magick. Of course if it weren't for slot restrictions, running both for redundancy wouldn't have been a bad idea at all!

To add Sign Magick, you'd either have to drop the Sword Cane or not play the violin; losing the Sword Cane is much worse for consistency, while dropping the Violin would wreak Patrice's resource curve.

Maybe the upcoming The Hierophant • V would be what you're looking for.

Apr 12, 2021 Zanni · 194

@suika Ah, yes, I see what you mean. My bad for misinterpreting the context.

And yes, thanks for the suggestion! Had no idea the new RtTCU would have something so perfect! I'll definitely have to revisit, test, and upgrade this build once that releases.

Apr 12, 2021 Zanni · 194

Ope, nevermind, just noticed it's a level 3 Mystic card. Regardless, gonna test some more now.

Apr 15, 2021 The Lynx · 952

I really like the concept of the deck especially the animal friends in it. I think dropping Mind's Eye should be sufficient with Sword Cane, Stray Cat and Miss Doyle's cats. Add a Rite of Seeking and away you go.