Swiss Army Knife Mandy: A Tool For Every Situation

unplayed test deck for first time trying Mandy in Standalone Mode...

• Most decks must be generalists in order to work at all. But with Mandy's ability to dig around for a lone card better than any other investigator, we can include a single copy of some powerful situational cards. To wit, her "Swiss Army Knife" includes six cards you don't see every day: Alter Fate (some of the worst treacheries), Bizarre Diagnosis (heal health), Live and Learn (overcome a bad token), Logical Reasoning (heal sanity or discard a Terror), Nature of the Beast (mill the encounter deck and a get a testless clue), and Predator or Prey (all investigators escape combats).

• Survivor as the secondary class doubles down on bonus clues (Sharp Vision, Winging It) and splashes recursion (Resourceful, Scrounge for Supplies).

• Always try to start your turn at locations with clues, just like Roland Banks. Being on top of clues enables Occult Evidence, Inquiring Mind, True Understanding, and sometimes Nature of the Beast. The Hiking Boots help you scram after you've cleared a location... so can Shortcut

• Guided by the Unseen is your must-have search asset. It lets you dig for your Researched cards for free during any test. So don't use up the last charge unless your life depends on it. If you're awash in cash you can recharge it with Astounding Revelation. Note it can be used to help out other investigators at your location (digging for a Vicious Blow, for example.

• Mr. Rook's searches are limited to yourself only. One thing he can help you do is get your weaknesses out of way while the stakes are low early in the scenario.

• Consider helping fellow investigators get themselves set up via No Stone Unturned and Eureka!, which are enhanced by Mandy's innate power

• Given these four sources of search that enable "filtered draw" the deck avoids "blind draw" from assets (eg Empirical Hypothesis, Grim Memoir, Grisly Totem), and from cantrips like Perception. It's kind of important to find your Research cards while searching and not drawing them during upkeep or blindly.

• The only "blind draw" here is from Surprising Find, which aims to max out the Research options that would otherwise get exhausted from all the searching

• Economy should be solid with the usual suspects that reward you for doing what you want to do already: Astounding Revelation, Burning the Midnight Oil, and Crack the Case. Unearth the Ancients is a huge savings on installing assets.

• Occult Invocation is your go-to card to cope with monster encounters; also it's a great way to get Winging It into the discard pile where it's more effective

• Your other combat options are "I've got a plan!" and Mind over Matter, so you shouldn't be totally useless in combats

• Press Pass rewards you with a free action from three situations. The first is any time that you spend clues as part of the scenario, which is surprisingly often. Second is when you heal someone with Bizarre Diagnosis. Last is via Forewarned to avoid treachery. In all cases the free action is amazing, and you might end up passively recovering dropped clues via Occult Evidence or True Understanding... or for no action with Working a Hunch.

• if your hand gets choked with cards you don't like you can flush and re-draw with Glimpse the Unthinkable. It's probably a great way to get Occult Evidence back into your deck as well.

• side deck = cards that got cut to keep it at 19 XP; Fingerprint Kit seemed superfluous given all the options here for bonus clues, but having never played the deck who can say?