Hey there!

What's your take on the Pendant of the Queen? Is it worth including in the base 30, or would it make a great use of Versatile, or is it not that great?

Is shrewd analysis really a good idea? all the stones are good but you really want the healing stones. Is it worth the risk that you don't get them?

@Neramoor the healing stone is the only one Carolyn can take, as is the only one that heals horror and she can’t take other seeker cards past level 1. When you upgrade the one, it picks both out of all legal options, there is only one legal option, so you get them both healing stones.

Interesting deck, Doma! Carolyn is one of my favorite investigators, but I had experienced difficulty splitting my actions between clues and healing, which this list seems to deal with. Definitely worth a test!

I also wanted to mention that Logical Reasoning doesn't clear Rational Thought because it doesn't have the terror trait, so I would consider that two extra OoF slots for extra clues/damage early on.

Neat deck!

Totally not my deck, that's StartWithTheName, Just wanted the point out the way shrewed analysis works.

@SGPrometheus Rational Thought does not have the Terror trait, but Logical Reasoning can still heal horror of it

Cheers for all the comments all. Sorry i may be a little slow to respond on here due to various community stuff for my local games group monopolising my pet project time somewhat atm.

@mattastrophic - You and your chocolate oranges! for anyone who is reading, Matt and I play together Hes actually in the Broforce campaign i talk about above. Anyway - I think you could possibly get the onxy in after making space with versitile. It would have to take some of the bonus clue OOF event slots and you`d probably need a Relic Hunter, so it would need some testing. The hard bit is digging out the components. Rook could probably assemble it once, but after that the deck might lack the draw to keep re-building it like other decks would. Which i guess means it would likely net you the same 3 clues as the events it replaced, but at range and with auto clue benefits and alternative evade/move options. Basically slower to use but more flexible i think. Maybe theres a deck to be made that can do passive healing, then a massive draw engine to keep cycling the oranges.

@Neramoor also knows me and I messaged him this after the comment, but for anyone reading, @Doma0997 is right in the logic you spend 1 OOF slot to save 3xp later on (cheers for explaining doma). I am actually on the fence about whether this is worth it but for a different reason. Those out of faction slots are very very useful for bringing in bonus clue tools and after the set up as listed the benefits of more xp seem to offer diminishing returns fairly quickly. Certainly I at the point in TFA im at i would happilly spend 3 xp to be able to bring in 1 more Read the Signs for example, though TFA does have more xp available than other campaigns so perhaps im spoiled.

Cheers @SGPrometheus and The King in Yellow. I had never even considered that Logical Reasoning could remove a weakness from play if it had a terror trait. I was just referring to it removing 2 horror where fearless removes just 1. This gets a bit mathsy but you need either Hypnotic Therapy + Logical Reasoning or 2x Logical Reasoning to clear Rational Thought in 2 actions, where fearless needs Hypnotic Therapy and both copies of fearless (so 3 cards total). I also want the certainty of clearing at a time of my choosing and without risk of bad luck that Fearless cant offer.

Also I wasnt sure if you thought this from your comment, but in case it helps, neither Logical Reasoning or Fearless count towards your OOF slots since they heal horror. I forget the ruling but it works and its at least how adb is programmed to count them.

Anyhow - Thanks all for reading.

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You should of linked the Hastur

I really enjoyed your Diana deck - played it in 2p game. Looking for a 2p Carolyn deck but you mention this is best 3p/4p. Is that bc Carolyn doesn't do well 2p or bc this deck isn't set up for 2p? And if the latter, what changes would you make to allow 2p mode? -THANKS!

Hi @richwiss

A group healer who is essentially feeding off the horror generated by others will naturally lose some of their charm with 2p simply because there will be less horror streaming in. However you could just pair up with someone like Agnes who will be deliberately taking extra horror. Or maybe someone like Roland who is used to taking horror on soaks could free up a little more deck space and go full glass cannon.

Alternatively, or indeed additionally (and this is all untested), re-jig the deck to bring a little more combat or Evade. You can at least free up 1 of the Solemn Vow spots (i realise you will have 1 spare in the deck but you want to see it early and its pipped so the spare can be chucked for an encounter check).

for enemy handling options perhaps something less bursty, but longer term like Mists of R'lyeh or Shrivelling would be ok. Note that you will struggle to land these pre Peter Sylvestre (2) and getting St. Hubert's Key/Hemispheric Map down without throwing pips at the test, but there are a TON of will pips in there. Ofc this will make sc1 a bit rougher without Peter Sylvestre (2) like.

Hi, first of all, thanks for the deck and the write up, very complete.

I've just played the deck at lvl 0 to start a campaing, on hard, and I see some problems, and most of them are stats related.

• Fearless with 3 Will is quite hard to land, you can always play it on a friends test, if you have a friend with high will, else it's probably a dead card for most of the game as it's hard to create a will test most of the time. With Peter(2) AND St Hubberts key we'll be testing at 6, but that's later, and we are suppossed to drop fearless by that time anyway.

• Hypnotic Therapy test Intellect(2), Carolyn has Int(4) and the only boost in the deck is a single copy of St Hubert's Key, later we'll get the healing stone (so we'll use the response effect) and the tarot (so passing the test is easier), but at the start of the campaing drawing Rational Thought is a killer. As you depend on passing a test with Hypnotic Therapy and playing a logical reasoning on it (while having Hypnotic Therapy played, of course). Healing with Fearless is not reliable, at all. Rational Though could mean no extra money for a very long time, and no healing for anyone, that harsh. That also means that searching with Rook is quite dangerous, as he will get Rational Though more often than not.

• The healing stones are the solution to Rational Though, and here we can benefit from the Mag Glass, but again, we need more robust boosts. I'm lucky as I got and ally that boost Will and Int, so going into game 2 I can get to 9 Intellect with assets (Key, Tarot, ally, double mag), but that's specific to my campaign and requires a lot of xp. Else, passing a test of shroud +3 is going to be a huge gamble.

And that's all, once I get the stones in the deck I'm sure the experience will be much better with the deck, but the start can be way more rough than with other decks.

Thanks @Jef - Always nice to hear the deck is getting used!

Yes indeed the first scenario blues are a little harsh in this deck. Im afraid to say the second sc will be similar while you solve the Stones, though you will at least have more available. To address your points:

• Fearless isnt easy to land on your own tests without throwing pips in with it. The deck does at least have a lot of these. Rational Thought will show early because of Mr. "Rook". It does at least do no harm early game letting you then use rook to find Logical Reasoning, and ideally Hypnotic Therapy to get a 3rd horror from Logical Reasoning with its effect (you are healing Rational Thought as if it were on Carolyn - who is an investigator. You then just need to wait until it resets and pass that test, or land a fearless by burning pips. Working a Hunch has 2 pips, or Take the Initiative is 3 wild. But this doesnt have to be done asap. it can wait until you find the parts. Not ideal at all i know. But this issue becomes moot with the Stones later on at least. Another option which i used for a while was Smoking Pipe + Hypnotic Therapy to clear Rational Thought in 2 turns with actions. Im on the fence about which is better between fearless and pipe, but then i was paired with a Zoey chaperone who was using Sixth Sense so perhaps i was spoiled for fearless targets.

• Mr. "Rook" is the answer to getting the tools out early. This is the reason for the very focused muligan, though admittedly more for clueing than healing. Note that you are not reliant on the cash from Carolyns to get cluing. That is used later on for event bursts. You are hoping to play a rook, a mag glass and either a second mag glass, or the key, so 3+1+[1 or 4] = 5 to 8 total. Which is doable by turn 2 if you found the parts. With Stick to the Plan you will start the game by hitting the Astounding Revelation automatically rather than relying on rook at least. if you are looking for pips for Hypnotic Therapy, use the tricks above. But really you can just float the Rational Thought until the big guns are there. You shouldnt really use Rational Thoughts ability to clear it unless you are aiming to draw a card anyway so the action isnt fully sunk.

• Yeah hitting those stones is a moment you need to throw the book at. You can get to 7 base with your own tools (one mag glass, huberts, Death - the other hand will have the stone in). But you just have to throw pips at it hard it at least gives 2 clues as base plus any deductions you add. A pip or two from a comrade wouldnt hurt. But build up to it and look for a 3 or 4 shroud location. 6 charges on the stones will go a long way. Anything above that is a bonus, but you probs dont need to find a 5 shroud location unless you think you can shoot the moon (and if you can then go for it, with enough deductions in there you may well clear the location afterall)

Hope that helps. The good news is the hard bit is almost over for you!

I like the Stones/ STTP/ Versatile upgrade path. I am trying a slight variant of this deck using Backpack to Backpack2 instead of Mr.Rook with more 'items' (dropping SolemnV for HallowedM etc) to save Charisma upgrade cost. Backpack should work well with Ever Vigilant. Good write above, lots of helpful ideas, thank you.

Trying out this deck w/ Akachi in RtPtC, Doubt path (after failing miserably in the last scenario with Tommy and Mandy who were up to that point absolutely dominating every scenario I really wanted to try the team who can both mitigate the Horror and have Willpower to put a reign on Doubty Hastur).

So far it's going great, I have managed to identify the stones and am slowly working towards STTP.

fantastic @ratnip. Would love to hear how you find it. Top tip thats just been released - Dynamite Blast (3)

So, as expected, Carolyn and Akachi were completely wrecking Return to Carcosa on standard. The first few scenarios are a slight struggle, but once Ancient Stone and Twila Katherine Price appear it all starts going really smoothly. After Stick to the Plan shows up and Akachi gets that Shrivelling the duo becomes a little bit OP. Return to Dim Carcosa is still insanely difficult though - I managed to win, but only barely and with more than a little luck. I think they really went a bit overboard with difficulty there, and I don't see myself repeating that scenario any time soon (if I revisit Carcosa, last scenario will probably be the vanilla variant, there's only so much punishment one can take).

One flaw of this pairing is that it pretty much depends on how quickly Akachi gets that Shrivelling. I am considering bringing this duo to TCU (with resetted decks), and I think a bit more damage dealing options for both Carolyn and Akachi might be in order. I still don't have those new starter decks, but adding 2x Azure Flame in addition to Shrivelling might be a good idea to mitigate those awkward situations when both Shrivellings get buried on the bottom of the deck.

Anyways, great decks, and possibly one of the best synergies in the game I've seen so far!

sounds great@ratnip. Yeah anyone who is going for a dedicated combat role mystic might be best to bring both shriv and azure if they can simply for consistency. If you have a carolyn in toe, or any token cancelling/sealing tech, shriv is likely to be the safer card to put into play if you have both in hand at once somehow. Not least because most mystics have high san and low hp. But ofc bringing spare attack spells for the days the shriv doesnt show early is probably a good plan. And ofc Akachi can just Spirit-Speaker away the azure flame for the cash to play the shriv if she want to change over. Or indeed spend the charges on Angered Spirits the way the early akachi decks used to bring Alchemical Transmutation purely for the disposable charges.

Add Book of Psalms. So good at level 0.

Great deck, thanks! Is it possible to swap Peter Sylvestre out and still make the deck work? And if yes, what would you replace it with?

Just popped in to speculate: seems like Whitton Greene could fill the Rook/Tetsuo role. I might give that a try in this deck on my run through TCU with Joe and Yorick.

Hi @captainequinox I keep trying Whitton Greene in various decks and I seem to find that I cant trigger her that often, at least in multiplayer, to get the benefit from the searchs. I get the impression she may have higher value in lower player counts where you are more likely to be the one moving to an unrevealed location (rather than someone else). At which point she is basically one card of several with an buff on them, but this deck makes less sense in a smaller party. Worth considering, but if i were to guess i would expect Tetsuo Mori to be more useful. You can Solemn Vow the horror (or damage) onto him to trigger on demand and supply the passive healing the deck is based around. It just doesnt generate you cash in the process like it would if moved to Peter Sylvestre.

I must have missed your comment last november @evoker - Sorry! The deck doesnt need Peter Sylvestre once it has The healing Stone, you can get away with just stacking the horror on your own quite generous 9 san space, then heal it back as you draw cards. But still Peter Sylvestre saves you quite a lot of charges over a game, and provides a huge amount of team support. It possibly depends on the reasoning for not bringing Peter Sylvestre. if its simply that you dont own the card, by all means stack the horror on yourself and heal it back via somethign else. Cards like Book of Psalms or First Aid will work, but they`ll be quite action intensive. If the reason for not using him is that someoen wants him for their deck, its worth reasuring them that by having Solemn Vows and Carolyn in the party, horror will not be as big of an issue for them, and there are plenty of non unique boosts in survivor these days that usually give extra bonuses like Track Shoes. A further alternative that admittedly is a differnt deck, is to bring Solemn Vows in Tommy Muldoon as a passive team healer. Then you can move the horror onto Cherished Keepsakes or Tetsuo Moris etc and get a similar cash bump, again with minimal actions spent on the actual healing, letting you do other activities.

@StartWithTheName these are good points! I feel like getting solemn vow and Tetsuo down and killing him off seems like nearly as tricky as using Whitton, butit's all theoretical for me at this point and you've got on-the-ground experience. I do like the boost from Whitton and might end up leaning on her instead of Death • XIII, making Charisma more integral. But again, I've only played the first true scenario of TCU and didn't even draw her until the very end. Tetsuo or even Rook wouldn't have made any difference in that case. I'm in a 3p team so maybe Whitton will be consistent enough.

I'm trying out Safeguard instead of Pathfinder. Your point about triggering Whitton reliably makes me more tempted to upgrade to Safeguard (2) since that would (I think) mean Carolyn could be considered to "reveal" the new location when she travels with a buddy. (?) But then that's a lot of cards to have to draw to guarantee "consistency" which kind of defeats the purpose of consistency. Obviously, non-taboo Rook is the best choice, but I'm trying to avoid him if possible.

Update:

Playing this is two player with a mark Harrigan. It's aweomse, but here's a few points: -fearless probably isn't worth it, smoking pipe is nice early game healing for Rational Thought though -In The Thick Of It is huge! Starts you with 2 mental trauma (early game target for making money, yay), and 3 xp (start with ancient stone in sc1, double yay!). -I'm thinking she needs a spare hand slot for a tome, so I think arcane enlightenment if you can spare the slots. Then she can tome while running double mag, or even the fingerprint kit + mag. Arcane enlightenment essentially = +1 passive knowledge symbol once you start into them. -taboo hurts. A Mr rook would be nice, and a tesuo is pretty sad. It's probably better than any other ally though, for that slot. -I have no idea what permanent assets can dramatically speed up clueing, but I think this build would be perfect if it had a touch more clue potential in it. 2 player seems slow on the clues at times.

Hi @FlarkeFiasco

Completely agree with all that. There has been a lot of really good carolyn tech that has come out since this deck was first published, and Fearless was always the loose link at lvl0. There just weren't many good low action options back then - hence it being first cut. In the Thick of It is ideal for her to break the need to open with some self harm and even skip some of these lvl0 blues!

As for clues, this was always the compromise with this deck. It was never going to clue as well as a seeker AND provide the team healing. Its a cluer/support deck really. When ive taken this through campaigns, i usually spend my OOF slots on one shot bonus clue cards like Working a Hunch/Read the Signs/Deduction to bring in a bit more compression. She has the cash to just pay for these afterall. I also had an old build using Fingerprint Kit and Venturers, then killing off the Venturers with Solemn Vows etc. THough this was even more convoluted than the above setup, and actually still pretty slow. I like the Arcane Enlightenment angle with the release of Book of Psalms and Grimm's Fairy Taless. Especially when not going down the Shrivelling route. It might be one you use at the start of the campaign, then xp over later on once you have Ancient Stones. As for Mr. "Rook", Backpack(2)s are another option. Rook is the bacon of the arkham world. he makes every deck better, but its not necessarily healthy to be reliant on him. And you can pay the XP for him of you desperately want him in. He is a lvl0 card for deck building access purposes.