SoSE – Hunger.

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

ElseWhere · 3771

The book wishes to feed.

I will feed it.

I found the book...I don't remember how. I don't remember when. I stole it...or it was given to me...or I found it.

It doesn't matter now.

The book likes to be fed knowledge. It likes to take knowledge, understanding, secrets, memories. I feed it the memories of others, the secrets of others, the knowledge I find. If I don't...I don't remember what will happen if I don't, but I feel it mustn't be good.

Sometimes the book talks to me, asks me questions, gives me commands. I try not to listen too hard. Sometimes it shares just a taste of knowledge with me as it feeds, and I feel my mind expanding. I can hold on. If I just keep it fed I'll be fine, and maybe can even do a little good while I'm at it. If I just keep it fed.

If I just keep it fed, it doesn't have to feed on me.

What was I saying?


Hey everybody! Welcome to Secrets of Somewhere Else, a series where yours truly develops decks for different investigators built around thematic card identities! I love character creation, and deckbuilding, so this series will basically be me indulging those passions through Arkham, and trying to develop some cool new approaches to investigators in the process.

This is my first pass at a proper deck cycler. De Vermis Mysteriis slowly consumes your soul and those of others, removing as many of your events from play as possible (while leaving Knowledge is Power in). Add to that the self-removing Eye of Truth and playing down your assets and in theory you can get your deck down to 13 cards, 6 of which are skills that replace themselves, and two of which (your second spell copies) can be discarded and replaced using Knowledge is Power. From there you can use Feed the Mind or just your normal skills to cycle your deck at least once per turn, providing 2+ Knowledge is Power procs per turn and siphoning up clues with Clairvoyance!

Horror is of course a threat, which is what Fearless is here to mitigate on your Clairvoyances, and St. Hubert's Key can save you in an emergency.

This is obviously a 3p or 4p deck, since it is completely incapable of combat and has up to five turns early in the game it spends predominately setting up, but if you reach that point and successfully get your deck to the point where you can reliably cycle it at least once per turn, it can hoover up 3 clues per action or Knowledge is Power, and it'll have up to four actions and 2 or more Knowledge is Power to play per turn, leading to a conservative ideal case of 12 clues in a turn.

In Mystic.

Seems fair.


The book hungers.


Run.

13 comments

Sep 28, 2020 mogwen · 252

I like it! A thematic deck with a rich, pure Lovecraftian story behind! A really great deck for 3/4 players. And a Marie deck! Thank you!

Sep 28, 2020 ElseWhere · 3771

@mogwen Thank you so much! I tend to play a lot of characters who stand strong against the mythos and fight back against its evil. Here I wanted to create a character who truly is doomed, for whom there is no happy ending, and no optimistic future.

As for the deck itself, I'd never really looked at Marie before until this deck concept got me excited and now I really like her! Those four actions, messing with doom, and the very sorcery-heavy thematics all are really fun to play.

Sep 28, 2020 mogwen · 252

And you don't know how happy I am to see Marie with Voice of Ra, it was her spell in former games.

Sep 28, 2020 PaxCecilia · 396

@HereticPriestWon't there be a bit of an anti-synergy with Voice Of Ra + Tempt Fate?

Sep 28, 2020 ElseWhere · 3771

@PaxCecilia hmmm you make a good point I hadn't thought of. I was using Tempt Fate primarily because it's a very good card for a deck cycler, but was already suspicious of the Curse tokens. I think I'll probably just leave in a solid event spell like Ethereal Form or Astral Travel in instead, and then feed it to the worm book.

@mogwen I know! It's very fun. But now you've got me wanting to build an Arcane Insight Daisy, or a Find Gate Gloria, or a Bind Monster Dexter...I love me some Eldritch Horror.

Sep 28, 2020 DAAAN · 1

This is a very cool concept. A few things I'd consider tweaking. I think premonition should go in, I'd try to find space for a single copy of archaic glyphs (markings of isis) as with premonition you could replay your spells pretty frequently with no resource cost. You don't ever need to play it, just keep it in hand and always activate via KiP (my high cycle Mandy deck does this with guiding stones, she activated it 5 times in my last mission without playing it). By the same logic you could keep a single copy of mysts of R'lyeh in hand, it has the benefit of free moves too. Premonition also helps you to avoid overshoot with feed the mind. A crystalline elder sign might not be a bad thing instead of Hubert's key to reduce the number of times you take horror from clairvoyance. I don't know what using those does to the maths for drawing your hand every turn though, especially deliberately holding cards from round to round.

Sep 28, 2020 ElseWhere · 3771

@DAAAN ooh that's a great idea! I'd considered using my second copies of spells as flex slots for other fun spells, but you've convinced me to try it out. Evasion ability via Suggestion/Prophecy Foretold/Mists seems really fun, free plays off of Markings of Isis seems actually REALLY useful, and KiP negates the need for extra arcane slots. I'll have to give that a whirl and I'd say if anybody else wants to use this deck those second spell copies can definitely be used as flex slots.

I'm more suspicious of Premonition, both because I really love taking crazy risks and because it neither replaces itself nor wants to be fed to the worms, so it would slow the cycling of my deck (which I'm doing my best to avoid). Still, I imagine it would be strong, so I'll probably test that out too! Thanks!

Sep 28, 2020 ElseWhere · 3771

Alternatively, cutting Arcane Studies (since I'll rarely have the resources for that) for another spell flex slot is a cool option. Running my tech spell there allows me to still ensure drawing Clairvoyance and Feed the Mind early and being able to discard and replace them by KiPing their second copies in my hand in the lategame.

Sep 29, 2020 chirubime · 25319

Very very interesting. I think that Seal of the Elder Sign could potentially be an even better addition than Eye of Truth. You can use it to get rid of Baron Samedi in just 2 turns!

Sep 29, 2020 DAAAN · 1

But you'd draw it again the next turn. Samedi is discarded not rfg'ed

Sep 29, 2020 ElseWhere · 3771

@chirubime I love Seal of the Elder Sign, not least because it removes itself from the game after use, and had it in an earlier version of the deck but cut it for Fearless to handle the horror from Clairvoyance and cycling. I suppose it could be swapped back in instead of Eureka or Perception, or better one of the copies of Moonlight Ritual or another event.

Unfortunately, as @DAAAN brought up, it's not worth it to shift Baron Samedi out of the ally slot, because he'll just come back the next time you cycle (this turn or next). So we have to get comfortable with the good Baron sticking around, and just try not to take much damage (hence Eye of Truth on damage-dealing treacheries).

Oct 17, 2020 wedgeex · 74

The only real nerf from the most recent Taboo is to Knowledge is Power - I'd just cut Charisma (I like having the Arcane initiate drop off when Samdi hits sometimes) and then you're only 1 XP extra.

Love the deck - Marie is an investigator that I keep coming back to.

Jul 22, 2021 ElseWhere · 3771

@wedgeexyeah, the extra 4xp slows us a tiny bit. But that's ok! Charisma is mostly only needed during my setup cycle and if I'm lucky I get the Initiate for most of that cycle unobstructed anyway.

Other recent musings on the deck: why did I never include Shortcut? Using it allows me to move as well as clue semi-infinitely. I may swap out 1-2 Eurekas, or the Occult Lexicon, for that added boost. The other reason I may drop Occult Lexicon is for Sign Magick. I know that once I begin cycling indefinitely it only gets one real use, but there is a reasonable chunk of the game prior to that point where it might still be useful. It would also open me up to potentially running an extra spell, like Suggestion, for defense.

If any cool new Mystic events get printed, those may also get a look. I have very few DVM targets in what claims to be a DVM deck, and I am worried about drawing so much that I actually instakill myself by drawing from an empty deck and discard pile.