Mark Harrigan - To Carcosa and back!

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Mark and Sefina go to Carcosa - Mark Deck 0 0 0 1.0
Mark and Sefina go to Carcosa - Mark Deck 0 0 0 1.0

ilu2112 · 1664

Warning! Minor "The Path to Carcosa" spoilers ahead!

I managed to beat "The Path to Carcosa" campaign with this deck. I played few first scenarios many times (40 or so) and came up with this set of cards. It's been designed to beat first 4-5 scenarios with ease, grab a set of Key of Ys, support them with Brother Xavier and kick Has... ops, I have almost pronounced his name!

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Upgrade order and cards discussion

  1. Stick to the Plan
  2. Prepared for the Worst -> Ever Vigilant
  3. 2 x Fine Clothes -> 2 x Key of Ys
  4. 2 x Guard Dog -> 2 x Brother Xavier
  5. 2 x True Grit -> 2 x Bulletproof Vest

... and the rest depends on your premonitions.

No matter what you cannot drop your Fine Clothes before Party (2nd scenario). Brother Xavier is a must here. He is much better than Beat Cop as he synergizes with Key of Ys pretty well.

Notice that you can attach Elusive, Shortcut and Ever Vigilant to Stick to the Plan.

Ever Vigilant + Stick to the Plan is the most powerful combo in the entire deck. Wanna play Flashlight, Machete and Key of Ys on turn 1? And still keep 2 actions? No problem!

Another nice combination of cards is Shortcut and Scene of the Crime. You can freely move, discover 2 clues and then kill your opponent. Very handy.

After few attempts I realized that there is no need for more than 3 weapons in the deck. I would even consider dropping .45 Automatic. The reason is simple. With Stick to the Plan you can pull out 3 cards from the deck what makes drawing a weapon much more probable. Mark's ability will make you draw many additional cards. And his high strength attribute... Sometimes you just don't need a weapon.

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General strategy

Firstly - you should not overuse Sophie. Remember what's in the Chaos Bag. Calculate your odds and make your decision. It's tempting to use Sophie when you start a scenario and your sheet is clean but simply do not overreact.

Do not waste your time on healing. In a true solo mode every single action matters. Usually healing cards cost you more than 1 action to play. See First Aid and Emergency Aid. Emergency Aid is much better in terms of efficiency (2 hitpoints for 1 action). Now check Bulletproof Vest. It "heals" you for 4 (!) hitpoints, it costs 2 resources, 1 action to play and can be played even if you're at full health. And it can be played via Ever Vigilant what makes it even better card.

Smoking Pipe costs you only 1 action to take off up to 3 horror tokens from Mark and makes it easy to trigger Mark's drawing ability without overusing Sophie.

Use Stick to the Plan to keep Shortcut, Elusive and Ever Vigilant always ready to use. Ever Vigilant should be played on turn 1, maybe 2. If you have a Shortcut in your hand and another copy under Stick to the Plan prioritize playing a copy from your hand first. Stick to the Plan is resistant to discard effect whereas your hand is not.

Elusive and Shortcut are very valuable cards in this deck and this entire campaign. I cannot remember how many times they saved my ass. Psychiatric hospital, Party, Paris, Dim Carcosa. And they're fast. In a true solo mode every single action matters.

Sometimes you can consider switching Elusive for Emergency Cache from under your Stick to the Plan. I guess it could be useful during Party or any other, resource-heavy scenario (Paris chase?).

Do not consider putting in a set of Beat Cops instead of Brother Xavier. Brother Xavier is a must if we want to go with Key of Ys.

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The Curtain Call

This is the hardest and the most important scenario in the entire campaign. You should finish 1st scenario with at least 7 experience points. It would allow you to buy Stick to the Plan and Ever Vigilant and simply crash through the party (2nd scenario). If you manage to do so I would say that the whole campaign becomes significantly easier.

To beat "The Curtain Call" you have to be patient. Discover every possible location and let Fanatics gather clues for you. Always be ready to kill Royal Emissary when he arrives. Save your Elusive to leave The Theatre with ease. Wait for the entire encounter deck to mill if you have to, because killing Agent of the King is a must. And keep 1 or 2 spare clue tokens to get rid of Spirit's Torment.

It all sounds crazy but it's easily doable with this deck. Just do not freak out, do not overuse Sophie and stick to the plan.

32 comments

Dec 20, 2018 Taocayo · 1

Just 3 weapons? I guess more get added with upgrades.

Dec 20, 2018 ilu2112 · 1664

Three is fine. You have "Prepared for the Worst" as a 4th weapon. Mark has very high strength so he can handle weaker opponents without any weapon too.

After 1st or 2nd scenario you should be able to buy Stick to the Plan with Ever Vigilant replacing Prepared for the Worst. Stick to the Plan will pull out Ever Vigilant, Shortcut and Elusive from your deck so it gets much easier to draw a weapon in the early game.

Dec 20, 2018 Taocayo · 1

I’m going to start a Carcosa campaign with this deck as the inspiration. I see only two healing cards, were they enough for the whole campaign?

Dec 20, 2018 ilu2112 · 1664

I think so. Healing all in all costs you an action. Or even 2+ if you use First Aid. Emergency Aid is here "just in case". You could consider using Second Wind as well, but Second Wind won't heal you allies.

After few scenarios I managed to buy 2 x Key of Ys, 2 x Brother Xavier, 2 x Bulletproof Vest. It works well well with Ever Vigilant + Stick to the Plan combo (maybe except Brother Xavier).

Check Bulletproof Vest for example. It costs 2 resources and 1 action to heal up you for 4 health points. You can play it even if you're full health. Isn't it much more efficient than Emergency Aid or Second Wind?

You just have to be careful with Sophie. Do not overuse it!

Dec 20, 2018 Taocayo · 1

Brother Xavier is a great choice. Upgraded Beat Cop and Charisma sound interesting too. I'm going to replace Physical Training and Scene of the crime for 1x Smoking Pipe and 2x First Aid to add more uses to Sophie. Playing on the edge!

Dec 20, 2018 ilu2112 · 1664

@Taocayo Let me know how it went! :-)

Dec 20, 2018 ilu2112 · 1664

@Taocayo One more thing! For "The Curtain Call" you should be able to gather 7 or 8 experience points (and buy Stick to the Plan + Ever Vigilant at once). Check strategy tips in arkhamdb.com guide. With Mark I managed to survive ALL encounters and kill Royal Emissary many times finishing the scenario with 7 experience points.

Dec 21, 2018 FractalMind · 36

Thanks for bringing our attention to the synergy between Shortcut and Scene of the Crime! I never thought of using shortcut in that way.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

According to his deck building options, I don't think he can have Shortcut. Even though it's a Tactic, it's a Seeker card. It doesn't say he can use Seeker cards.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

Same goes for Elusive.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

You also can't upgrade to Ever Vigilant. That's a level 1 Tactic. I'm guessing you are disregarding the deck building rules?

Dec 21, 2018 Taocayo · 1

@edomingox as long as they are Tactic level 0 they can come from any class. Ever Vigilant is a Guardian card and Mark Harrigan can use any level 0-5 Guardian cards.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

@Taocayo Yes, it's a Guardian card, but it's Level 1. He can't use Level 1 Tactics. Only Level 0's.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

I don't see where it says they can come from ANY class. I thought it's restricted based on what Classes are mentioned, then the cards are restricted based on the type which would apply only to those cards he has access to.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

Ashcan Pete demonstrates using cards for "any other class". This one simply does not say that.

Dec 21, 2018 Taocayo · 1

It’s common in this game that when there’s no explicit limits to mean it’s not limited. Read the Deckbulding Options again and replace every comma with “and in addition to that...” and it might make more sense.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

Finn Edwards, Jenny Barnes, Jim Culver, Marie Lambeau. I can go on.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

The limits seem pretty explicit to me. Especially when other cards mention Any Other Class in their options. This one simply says he can only use Guardian and Neutral cards, and Tactics level 0. To me, it's implied that Tactics belongs to those 2 classes. Otherwise, it would say "Tactics Level 0 from any other class."

Dec 21, 2018 Taocayo · 1

Another way of reading ever rule in the deckbuilding option is to think in terms of sets (from set theory). So for Mark Harrigan we have the following sets:

  • A : Guardian cards level 0-5
  • B : Neutral cards level 0-5
  • C : Tactic cards level 0

So Mark’s available pool of cards is A+B+C.

Dec 21, 2018 edomingox · 1

That does make sense when you see it that way. Now why didn't they just add "from any other class"? That is why it makes me think it's not from any other class.

Dec 21, 2018 Taocayo · 1

Fantasy Flight is (in)famous for their succinct approach to the writing on their cards. Check out their FAQ on their website for this game for other examples of this. :)

Dec 21, 2018 FractalMind · 36

@edomingox,@Taocayo Another way of looking at is by way of contradiction. If the requirement "Tactic level 0" excludes level 1+ guardian tactics then this contradicts the first requirement of "Guardian cards level 0-5".

Dec 22, 2018 Greatsageishere · 141

Ever since Second Wind was released I’ve included it in every Mark deck I’ve played, but I think my general attitude towards Sophie might be a bit different to yours. I see her as the key to soloing as Mark, as she gives you the flexibility to reasonably attempt any kind of test. Plus there’s the card draw every time you use her, which leads to Mark’s incredible consistency.

I still don’t like First Aid since, as you say, it’s slow, but with 2x Emergency Aid and Second Wind you can get quite a bit of use out of Sophie whilst still staying in the safe health zone.

It’s very interesting to see a different approach, though, and I do like your write-up.

Dec 24, 2018 PureFlight · 743

Congrats on Deck of the Week!

Dec 24, 2018 ilu2112 · 1664

Gosh, thanks!

Jan 30, 2019 Dwelling_Despair · 1

I played this through Carcosa at the beginning of the month in true Solo, and as describe, it's a breeze. I stalled Curtain Call until my deck ran out of cards to get that XP needed and it's crazy this deck can do that. This deck did great through the whole campaign.

Feb 01, 2019 ilu2112 · 1664

@Dwelling_Despair Thanks a lot! :-)

Mar 24, 2019 Yury1975 · 1

But what is the synergy between Key of Ys and Brother Xavier? Brother don’t attract more horror to Key, it’s a soak. Why did you mention more then once regarding importance to have both cards?

Mar 25, 2019 ilu2112 · 1664

@Yury1975 It's all about the soak :)

Jul 04, 2019 Rancord · 1616

What is the difficulty you played it?

Jul 05, 2019 ilu2112 · 1664

@Rancord AFAIR it was "standard" :-)

Apr 20, 2021 J-R64 · 1

Hello, what changes would you make to play with two investigators ?