Vive La Branche!

Card draw simulator

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Setzu · 323

This is a solo deck for Wendy based on synergy between Madame Labranche and Dark Horse. I've played through every campaign scenario with her and found her to be quite durable and reliable working on her own (as she should be!)

Your very first XP buys should be to replace both Hard Knocks with Plucky, and get Scrapper--then you can pump any of the 4 skill test types. With Madame Labranche and/or Lone Wolf in play, that gives you an income of 2 supply/turn to blow on skill boosts and cheap events until you trigger Dark Horse again.

Next you should drop the two Flashlight for Lockpicks. With Wendy's base stats that lets you investigate at a skill of 7, or 9 with Dark Horse active (!). Scavenging and Quick Thinking can trigger reliably at that level, letting you recur Wendy's Amulet or take free actions, respectively.

You can choose a different set of events or skills as you like, but I wouldn't recommend anything that costs more than 2 supplies and/or requires you to have supplies available AFTER a test has been failed (like "Look what I found!").

I've found Fight or Flight pairs well with Cheap Shot--once you've taken some brain damage, it lets you knee Cnidathqua in the groin with a boost of twice your current horror, which helps mitigate Wendy's godawful Fight value of 1. Fight or Flight can also give the impoverished and more mentally unstable an entire turn's worth of +1 damage Fire Axe murder mayhem to play with.

Events that attach to locations, like Hiding Spot and Snare Trap, are especially useful with Wendy's Amulet in play because after they are triggered and removed from play they go to the top of your discard pile instead of the bottom of your draw deck. This allows Wendy to play them over and over again. I can see a variation of this deck where Wendy poops out trap doors and booby traps everywhere she goes like it's an Eldritch Horror Home Alone movie.

If you're looking to give Wendy a whirl, this is a good deck to start with. Try it out and let us know what you think!

14 comments

Jan 04, 2018 theatlas · 217

I hadn't made the Dark Horse + Lockpicks connection, but that's pretty cool. I didn't go the Dark Horse route with the most recent Wendy I built, but now I'm kind of tempted. Thanks for posting.

Jan 04, 2018 jamjams32 · 5554

Excellent ideas and concepts. I especially love the idea of a “trapper” investigator that can use and abuse all of those cool trap cards and maybe Wendy is that investigator (for now). Thx for sharing the deck and your thoughts. I’ve got a solo Dark Horse Duke deck that I’ve been championing for awhile now and it’s gotten even better with Madame Labranch!

Jan 05, 2018 Django · 4854

Nice find that Dark Horse is added twice to Lockpicks.

What do think of the following cards in your deck:

Jan 05, 2018 Setzu · 323

Leo's a fine chap, but in my experience this deck struggles to play anything costing over 2 resources. Even Lockpicks and Dark Horse are a pain at 3, so I try to mulligan for them to get them in play turn one or two.

Peter Sylvestre might be good with Charisma, but otherwise I wouldn't want to swap him and lose Madame Labranche. Getting to at least 2 resources/turn is essential to being able to afford events while still triggering Dark Horse every turn, and the 2 copies of Lone Wolf alone aren't a reliable enough draw. Level 2 Peter's stat boosts are both for skills Wendy is good at anyway, and his ability mitigates sanity loss but Wendy has the most sanity to spare of any Survivor so far and I never found it to be a problem. If anything, I would want to stave off madness by abusing Scavenging to recur a copy of Cherished Keepsake instead.

I looked into Will to Survive when I was XP shopping, but again it's just too expensive. To get the 4 supplies it costs you either have to spend 2-3 turns saving up, during which Dark Horse is useless, or waste actions taking supplies from the bank. It's a great card, but I don't think it plays well with a Dark Horse build.

Jan 05, 2018 Django · 4854

I consider Wendy as having only 5 sanity because her weakness deals 2 direct horror, so in some scenarios Peter Sylvestre I or Peter Sylvestre II may be a good idea. But it's true that the Cherished Keepsake is a alternative (or Elder Sign Amulet later on).

I know that leo is pretty expensive and needs Charisma to work alongise Madame Labranche. However his ability is just so amazing, i'd at least try to include him in any deck that can take him. I consider him an early/mid game drop, I never play him, when the end is nigh (unless i'm drowning in ressources).

I didn't expect Will to Survive to fit into the deck, just wanted your opinion.

Jan 11, 2018 Barkash · 23

Played it through the core and it was excellent, nice work! Survival instinct is perfect for main path.

Couple of questions, what would you dump for cherished keepsake? And what would you be spending xp on after plucky, scrapper and lockpicks? I popped in Flare for Bait and Switch, though realise flare has zero synergy with Wendy’s amulet.

Jan 12, 2018 Setzu · 323

I don’t like spending more than 6 actions/game on playing assets, so if I were making room for Cherished Keepsake I would be looking at dropping one or both copies of Scavenging. Alternatively, Lone Wolf is only necessary to provide redundancy if you don’t draw Madame Labranche, so if you were to bring in a copy or two of Flare you might instead be able to drop Lone Wolf for the teddy bear.

For late-campaign XP buys I would suggest picking up Close Call, then take a liberal approach to Exile cards. Gravedigger's Shovel is really just meant to be a backup weapon until you find a Fire Axe, so you could get away with replacing one or both copies with a Flare instead. I might also think about mustering out your least favorite Events for some Devil's Luck and/or A Test of Will. There’s also no reason not to take Adaptable to tweak your Event stock for each scenario.

Feb 23, 2018 Gizmo_86 · 14

Very interesting deck! I wanna try to use this deck in multiplayer games...
I have doubts about these cards:

  • will [Lone Wolf](/card/02188) in multi works fine? Otherwise any suggestion about a replacement card?
  • why you have only one [Hiding Spot](/card/03038)? I really like traps and I would like to have 2 in my deck (I will replace them with [Snare Trap](/card/03199)).
  • also [Sneak Attack](/card/01052) is a good card and I would like to have 2 in my deck...
  • I have doubt about the 3 neutral skill cards ([Guts](/card/01089), [Perception](/card/01090) and [Overpower](/card/01091))... Why not only 2 [Unexpected Courage](/card/01093) for all the possible situations?

Can you help me @Setzu?
Thanks in advance :)

Feb 23, 2018 Heyenzzz · 6422

I like this version of black horse Wendy. Like Django, I would really like to fit Peter Peter Sylvestre (or upgraded Peter) in the deck. With a reliable horror soak like Peter, you could keep Plucky online much longer. I do see the importance of Madame Labranche in this deck. Going Charisma is an option, but together with 2 upgraded Peters, that would be quite a big XP investment. Tough call...

Feb 23, 2018 Gizmo_86 · 14

@HeyenzzzI don't understand how Peter Sylvestre can soak horror instead of Plucky... If I have Plucky in play, I have to assign the horror on it, and I can't assign the horror to Peter, or not?

Feb 23, 2018 Django · 4854

Plucky and similar cards don't speak about other assets, only horror that would be assigned to the investigator. So i think you can use Peter Sylvestre and other horror soaks to keep these cards online. Mind you, i'm not an english speaker so i could be wrong.

Feb 23, 2018 Gizmo_86 · 14

@Djangoafter a fast web search, I have found the same answer! I have misinterpreted the card!
So, I also want a Peter Sylvestre in my deck (with Charisma of course)...
Now I have to find a good replacement for him and for other changes that I have listed in my previous post...

Feb 23, 2018 Setzu · 323

Gizmo, here’s my thinking:

Lone Wolf—This card is in the deck in case you don’t draw Madame Labranche early. If you have trouble in 3 & 4 player games starting your turn alone I would suggest finding another solution; you could maybe replace it with two copies of Flare to pull Madame Labranche directly from the deck, or maybe add a dirt cheap Lv.0 ally, like Stray Cat, and Calling in Favors. As long as you can consistently make 2 supplies per turn the deck should work.

Skill Cards—I chose not to use Unexpected Courage because I really wanted the free card draw the other cards give you if you succeed. There are several cards in this deck, like Dark Horse and Lockpicks, that you will really miss if you don’t draw them early, and so having a few cards to speed up your card draw is a good idea. If you would rather take Unexpected Courage though, there’s no reason you can’t.

Hiding Spot—The Event cards in this deck are pretty flexible, so if you want another copy of Hiding Spot just pick another one you don’t like so much and swap it out. I think as long as you have the same number of events it doesn’t matter so much which ones you choose.

Sneak Attack—I started testing this deck with 2 copies and I found it didn’t work very well, but that was before I started playing around with traps like Hiding Spot and Snare Trap which give you more opportunities to be in the same space with unengaged enemies. You could try playing with 2 copies of each of those 3 cards and let us know if it worked well.

Mar 01, 2018 Heyenzzz · 6422

@Gizmo_86 Just remember that you have to take 'direct' damage and/or horror om your investigator. So that would cause Plucky to be discarded.