"Fast Mandy" Knows A Guy

"Fast Mandy" was always a sharp kid, and she's almost as fast on her feet as she is with her wits. But steer clear- she's a quick-thinking card shark who will chew you up and spit you out... if she doesn't have her pals the O'Bannions do it for her...

THEME:

This deck imagines Mandy as a brilliant researcher who has fallen in with some bad apples. She is smart enough to see that something is going on, and she wants to find out what- but she's also smart enough to let other people do the hard work for her.

BUILD:

The idea of this deck is to be the primary clue finder for your group along with anybody else who is built to take on Enemies. Whomever that is will NOT need to worry about clues, as Mandy is amazing at getting at the truth, and getting around the map- they don't call her "Fast Mandy" for nothing.

Every card in this deck is designed to get you extra clues, get you away from enemies, or get you around the map. Mandy's amazing search ability will mean that you will blow through the deck. You can literally draw through the entire 30 card deck in a scenario with Mr. Rook, sometimes without even trying to.

DECK PILOTING:

As with other Mandy decks, the primary goal of your early game is put down Mr. Rook and start searching. Your ideal starting hand is Mr. Rook, one of your assets (Fingerprinting Kit or Magnifying Glass), and one way to "deal with" and enemy (Something that can be used to boost her speed, or one of her Favors). You do NOT want to aggressively mulligan in this deck, as long as you have Rook. If you do not have Rook, keep any other cards that let you search for Rook (No Stone Unturned, Eureka), and Mulligan everything else. The reason that you don't want to mulligan aggressively for anything else is that you don't want to accidentally draw any of your research cards- it's the same reason this deck does not have Manual Dexterity or Perception.

You WILL hit all of your weaknesses every game, but Fast Mandy thinks of this as a benefit. Once you have them out of the way, you can search and draw, search and draw, and do what you do- get clues and run around the map. It's a great feeling to know that your weaknesses are dealt with and you won't need to worry about them late in the game. Since you know you will hit them quickly, you can try to time Rook's search at the best time for you and your party (ie: Enemy weakness, try to trigger while you are at the same space as your fighter. Amnesia- blow all your resources before you use Rook, etc).

UPGRADES:

Heads up- I play with Taboo rules, and if you don't, you can get this deck to insane efficiency VERY quickly. Here are my recommendations for upgrades, assuming you ARE playing with Taboo:

+3 Segment of Onyx---- replaces 2 Shortcut, 1 Intel Report (1 XP) +2 Elusive---- replaces 2 Decoy (4 XP) +2 Deduction --- replaces 2 Deduction (4 XP)

Second wave:

+1 Momentum--- replaces Unexpected Courage (1 XP) +1 Double or Nothing--- replaces Small Favor (3 XP) +1 Emergency Cache---- replaces one Fingerprint Kit (3 XP)

Third wave:

Mandy can finally stop playing craps and wrap up Night School with:

+1 Higher Education (8 XP) +2 Studious (6 XP)

EXPLANATION ON UPGRADES:

"Fast Mandy" wants to be as fast as possible- this means that once you have Segments of Onyx, you can use them to teleport around the map to save you actions, or use charges for auto-evade. I usually prefer this to snapping up a clue, unless snapping up that one clue means you don't need to go there anymore. I'm always thinking about how I can save actions with this deck. Same theory goes for Elusive- use it to ditch an enemy and get you somewhere you want to go, potentially saving multiple actions in one shot.

Deductions and Momentum carry the Practiced trait, which you can dig up with Practice Makes Perfect-- this means double-use out of those upgraded Deductions.

Then comes a bit of fun- Double or Nothing will net you 4 clues with Fingerprinting Kit, 6 clues with Deduction (2), or 8 clues with both! You can also kick it into an ally's fight test if they have the boosts to back it up. Mandy can find this card when she wants it, so one copy is probably enough. Combos extremely well with Momentum, to be able to play it even on high shrouds (again, if you need both- Mandy can find you the Combo).

Finally, this deck generates a fair amount of cash with Astounding Revelations, Crack the Case, and a very low volume of assets. Once you have these other fun upgrades, you can put that cash into Higher Education, and (almost) never fail a will test or book test for the rest of the game.

This deck has been a blast to play, and I just had to share. Comments and critiques are welcome. This deck is designed and does great on Standard mode- for Hard Mode I might consider adding (and keeping) some more test-less cards, but Mandy's 5 investigate means that she is great at succeeding where she needs it most.