Theory to practice|Amanda Fastest Investigator|Deck Guide

I've been brainstorming some different Amanda decks recently, and I like several ideas you've included here. Particularly, the tricks you can do with Pocket Telescope during the fast window are pretty cool. It is worth noting that the two actions from Eon Chart must be different actions.

Some interesting ideas. I especially like Mind over Matter (2); feels nice. Occult Theory is also an nice way to mitigate her hideous willpower stat; I'd glossed over it due to it not working with PMP, but it's still a good card even without that. (On a side note, you might want to mention in the description that it doesn't work with PmP as that may otherwise confuse some people.)

A couple other things you could try:

1) Segment of Onyx + Relic Hunter. It's 3xp, and slows your setup a little, but after the first cycle you're fine. Enraptured should keep it charged, although you may now struggle to keep Eon Chart charged, in which case you may need to add a 2nd copy so you can cycle them, which is another 4xp and another card slot, and having to replay the chart may mean you need Unearth the Ancients to keep your temp up, at which point this is basically a different deck. Still, Pendant of the Queen every turn is crazy good!

2) Cryptic Writings are good for resource gain with this much card draw. That frees up an ally slot, although I'm not sure to what end. Maybe Michael Leigh? The stat bonus is nice, and it helps flex into combat. Or Gené Beauregard for stats and even more location shenanigans.

3) If you have the spare XP, Ancestral Knowledge is an interesting choice. Pairs well with Segment of Onyx (since that eats up 3 card slots), and I think you'd still be able to cycle consistently. And Amanda never seems to run out of cards to include. Whether the extra consistency at the start is worth the XP is a harder question.

4) Depending on the group you're playing with, Promise of Power can be amazing. More PMP targets are nice, especially ones you can commit to anything. Ideally you'd need another investigator to be running a deck that can benefit from curses though. (I mean, you could run The Stygian Eye or Cryptic Grimoire but neither seems worth it here.)

5) Lastly, you could consider Leadership. It's a bit more resource gain, and it works with PMP, and can be a useful way of helping out allies.

Lovely deck, and I'm honestly not sure any of the cards above would actually improve it.

One other comment - as Pugtato noted, Eon Chart (4) requires you to take different actions, which means:

1. You can't use it to investigate twice (slightly lowering your calculated maximum card draw), since you're not planning on making evade checks.
2. Sometimes you have to move, whether you want to or not. LuckilyHiking Boots and Pocket Telescope help mitigate unwanted moves.

That being said, since you are getting "free" moves from the chart, you might not need Shortcut and Hiking Boots?

Or alternatively, you can save some 3 XP by opting for Eon Chart (1) if you assume that you'll generally only need to investigate.

Or as a third option, you can take two Charts, of either level, and plan on cycling them during the turn to get some more actions back, but again you'll likely need Unearth the Ancients to make it work.

@Codayus Thanks for all the suggestions!

Indeed once we get more XP, it would be amazing to take Ancestral Knowledge and Three Aces + Segment of Onyx/Pendant of the Queen, taking out 1 shortcut or Working a Hunch.

We could also add later Ariadne's Twine to refill the Eon Chart, leaving the Enraptured to the Pendant of the Queen.

Three Aces removes itself from the game after one use, so it does not thicken the deck and you are right, I completely forgot about it, but the Pendant is insane here too.

When it comes to Dr. Milan Christopher, I used him for the mostly, I was happy having 2 passive boosts also to take better advantage of Mind over Matter (2). The cash made by Crack the Case is more than enough not to need Cryptic Writings IMO. Gené Beauregard is definitely an option to mess up with the board even more, and I also thought about Jeremiah Kirby but with all these skills, I was not quite sure...

Regarding the Eon Chart, I will edit the deck description, thanks for the reminder!

You are saying that if you use Shortcut during and investigation with Pocket Telescope, you can move two spaces, shortcutting from the "As If" location. I didn't think this was the case, but I went to the recent FAQ (v19), section 2.10:

° Other card abilities or game effects resolved during this duration are also resolved with the altered game state in mind.

That does seem to support what you said. Interesting.

Hey @Taevus, the FAQ of Shortcut also seem to go in this direction:

You can play this card during a skill test. This will not interfere with the test in any way, the 'target' of a test is determined and locked at the very beginning of the test.

I took this deck through Dunwich alongside a Lily and it's awesome, even if it was a bit foolhardy to play an investigator that constantly cycles her deck in a campaign with Beyond the Veil. My experiences with it:

• I just could not get Written in the Stars to work at all. It just never seemed like I had the right opportunity to see something I really wanted with scroll on the bottom on a turn where I planned to make a bunch of relevant checks. It always seemed better just to draw the skill with Scroll and commit it. I think I ended up using Written for the ? icon like 95% of the time.

• That said, Scroll was an all-star. It got used a lot to manipulate the encounter deck and help me dodge the dreaded Beyond the Veil and when my hand was full, to give cards to my partner. I ended up not even taking them out for picks, since dunwitch isn't heavy on xp

• Vicious Blow(0) seems really awkward. It's nice to have the dream of putting it under Amanda and having a turn where we deal 6 damage, but with only an effective fight of 3 and almost no other possible commits to help that, it never seemed like something that was actually achievable. Scientific Theory makes that a bit more attractive but 4 still isn't enough to be reliable in most cases, and I'd have to have spent enough resources to boost 2-3 tests, which I didn't have. I think Vicious Blow (2) solves that problem by getting to 5 with theory, it's just possible something else could go in that slot until we're ready to upgrade.

• I ended up using Unrelenting just to seal the bag's worst tokens about half the time. I don't know if that was just me playing poorly but given the choice between for-sure increasing my chances of passing and maybe drawing two cards I could commit for an equivalent boost, I went for the former. Unrelenting is really good at passing tests. So, I didn't ever really get to the point where I was cycling the deck every turn, it was more like every 2-4 turns. The raw draw is there but the order you get it in, and whether there are good chances to use it, is less consistent. The deck is still absurdly fast. Special shotouts to Blood on the Altar, which thanks to getting the best possible key/hidden chamber RNG Amanda cleared on round 5, two rounds before the first agenda would advance.

All and all really fun deck that gave me an appreciation for skill-based builds. I'm bringing it to Forgotten Age with my group and hopefully there I can get enough xp to see the complete build in action.

Thanks for the in-depth review and I'm suuuper happy that you liked that Deck.

1. I agree that written in the stars can be a bit wonky, that's why I've taken it out of the Deck at some point. It's just a way to explore another synergy that is just fine when it works and gives a bit of fun in low xp when most Decks are usually just waiting for XP to bloom.

2. Cool indeed if you played Dunwich, that was brave because that's indeed the one campaign that can be scary because of Behind the Veil. If you do another campaign maybe you'll have a chance to use them differently :)

3. Indeed the Vicious Blow can be awkward, but it is actually intended to be played under Amanda when you can use Mind over Matter to have a higher base (thanks to your boosts or if you have the 2xp version you'll just have a good base. That's a bit of a defensive card that I did not always use in this Deck.

4. I think you've been playing it wrong, Unrelenting draws 2 cards even if you fail. That's why the best way to use it is just to commit cards, seal the good tokens and draw new cards to commit to the next test. Some interpretations even indicate that you could commit the cards that you draw with Unrelenting to that same skill test!

5. Bring 2 Mind over Matter (0) and (2) to TFA for the evasion ahah

Happy you liked it so much that you want to try it again though :)

You can't commit cards you draw from Unrelenting to the same skill test because all cards are committed simultaneously. The draw occurs after all cards are committed.

@Pugtato you are right, it is what the rules say.

Yet the wording in Amanda opens the question by "At the start of a skill test you are performing", so after Step 1 where you decide what test you are performing to know if the card under her is eligible, but before Step 2, which is the Step where cards are committed, and not really the start of the test anymore?

Again, this is probably a case for an FAQ and Amanda doesn't need this to be busted especially with such builds.

Yet it's still a possible reading of the rules :)

Wow, that's a pretty cool point. Thanks for bringing it up.

Amazing deck, I will try it in next Blob event as the main cluever. What are the main targets for the mulligan? How long does it take to have the set-up and running at full power?

I think I will use Take the Initiative insteed of Occult Theory or Inquiring Mind, since it seems more versatil and can be targeted by Practice Makes Perfect

Hey @Julioriquelme, thanks for the comment and happy you like the Deck!!

I think Take the Initiative makes perfect sense here if it is just to protect yourself against tests. I haven't thought about it.

Please come back here to post a comment when you are done, I am always happy to get feedback on the Deck and hear how it went (that's my little pleasure as a Deck Guide creator).

Oh and for Mulligan, I would say in this order:

1. Perception (2) (helps with investigating at turn 1 and get a lot of draw)
2. Unrelenting
3. Cryptic Research

Ideally, you want to play 3 Assets at once so that you can do it when you have Whispers from the Deep/another meh Skill under Amanda and not waste an action with one of your best Skills.

Hey, thanks for the deck as always. I was planning to bring a more traditional amanda deck into scarlet keys until the campagin intro dashed my dreams of relying on the red gloved man. So now I am scambling for a deck and yours, as always, looks so fun I am going to give it a go. I am wondering if you have revisited this recently. I looked through the scarlet keys cards but none of them leapt out at me since clue dropping doesn't seem like her thing.

I am definitely thinking about only getting eon chart (1) since I am not a huge fan of eon 4. With no other high XP payoffs though I guess who knows what ill do come the final few scenarios.

Have you though about any big payoffs you might add if the campaign gives a ton more exp?

My take is that clue dropping is probably a strong enough mechanic right now that it would work, but as you say, there's not much synergy there. Other than that, I think the various customizable cards added by Skarlet Keys are options:

• Empirical Hypothesis should be a strong card for Amanda even with 0xp spent, and more XP will just make it better. It also works well with the latest taboo on Eon Chart, since it will trigger from a basic investigate. I think this should be worth adding to, probably, any Amanda deck.
• Alchemical Distillation is generally strong. If following the latest taboo you can't trigger it from Eon Chart, but it gives you some support options and you should be able to cycle it easily enough. Probably worth it if your team needs some support; otherwise no.
• The Raven Quill is extremely strong in general, and opens up a bunch of fun options, eg, Grim Memoir or Scroll of Secrets, but it's probably not worth the deck slot and the XP without a more specific plan than that. If you find a spell or (more likely) a tome asset you want to focus on, this could be good though.
• Hyperphysical Shotcaster is great for anyone with a spare hand slot and the ability to routinely pass tests on at least one stat, especially if you cycle your deck frequently, which very much includes Amanda. The Realitycollapser upgrade is amazing but (probably?) not worth it. But you could go for Railshooter and lean into being a primary damage dealer instead of a cluever.

Nothing else from TSK really leaps out at me. Fighting Lessons almost looks interesting, but you can't commit it from underneath Amanda, so it's got anti-synergy unfortunately.

Thanks @Codayus for the quick recap about the few interesting cards!

@Masterface7 I definitely would add Empirical Hypothesis tot he deck if I would post it today, so feel free to find a spot for it!
Another one that could be helpful, thinking about @Malacante's message from a little while ago, Orphic Theory could also be helpful in some campaigns.

Out of the Practiced skill cards from TSK, there is only 3, one being Carson's sig, that's only Fighting Lessons and Analysis, and indeed none of them seem to fit the deck.

I'm not so sure about your interpretation of combinating Pocket Telescope with Shortcut. While I do think your interpretation for Pocket Telescope and Hiking Boots is correct.

Referencing the 'As If' rulings (https://arkhamdb.com/rules#As_If), imagine Amanda is at location A, using the Telescope to investigate connected location B. Also imagine that location B is also connected to an undiscovered location C.

Amanda starts the skills test and uses the 'lightning bolt' window to play Shortcut. This means that Shortcut checks for an investigator at location B, due to the 'as if' ruling you are now considered to be (temporarily) in location B. But location B has no investigators, so the card cannot change the boardstate and therefore is not allowed to be played. So I think the claim that it could be used to move 2 locations away is incorrect? Or am I missing something in my reasoning here?

Now imagine that we succeed at the skilltest and we discovered the last clue at location B. This triggers Hiking Boots, which (referencing arkhamdb.com "If an entity is "moved to..." a specific location, the entity is moved directly to that location, and does not pass through other locations en route.") evaluates still from location B due to 'as if' of Pocket Telescope and makes location C a valid target to move to. The player card of Amanda physically moves from location A to location C, never entering/leaving location B while doing so. Pretty cool tech from a 'rules as written' point of view :)