Mystical Mary Wills Snakes Away

What if I told you Mary can be spectacular from game 1? Not an investigator to be carried by her teammates until she gets her upgrades but a powerhouse from game 1 to the very end of the campaign.

Here's the key: forget winchester, blessed blade, all that... with a fist of 3, that gun is unreliable. As for the blessed blade? It exhausts if you add a bless token to the bag so you can't then use it as a weapon. Ugh.

Mary is uniquely positioned to play a lot like an 'Edge of the Earth' investigator. With her willpower of 4, she can start as every bit as strong a mystic as any purple character. Then, she upgrades into guardian bless-tech and hybrid mystic-guardian cards. Here's what makes this such a great strategy for her: Mary has unparalleled access to Willpower boosters and going all-in on willpower boosters & pay-offs from scenario 1 means you can make her tremendously reliable.

Mary's Willpower Boosters: Holy Rosary & Holy Rosary - a mystic classic, but unlike mystics, Mary can upgrade to the level 2 version that also tosses bless tokens into the bag. Fantastic.

Nephthys - the ally that rewards you with passive damage for having bless tokens in the bag also boosts willpower. Absolutely ridiculous!

Bandolier - do you need an extra reward for running cyclopean hammer? How about a bandolier that boosts your willpower when you whip out your hammer. Great asset for Forgotten Age, because it lets Mary hold a sword cane for evasion while fighting with her hammer.

With all three, she can get to a ridiculous passive willpower of 7. Cyclopean Hammer adds her fists to her value... so your Mary can be testing a 10 even without any commits. It makes it super easy to oversucceed by ridiculous numbers, which is great for extra hammer damage.

More importantly: that's enough willpower boosters for Mary to be extraordinarily reliable. She always draws what she needs because her deck ends up stuffed with equivalent cards.

About the level 0 deck:

• you have too much economy in the level 0 deck. It's there for the spell-casting. You will cut some of it, like robes of endless night for Bandolier, as you upgrade
• Prepared for the Worst is in there so you don't have to add it later to find your hammer
• Armageddon is in the deck because I was playing with Mateo who put both blesses & curses in the deck and because promise of power adds curses. Also, it's just fun. Just don't run azure flame; Mary doesn't have the health for it
• Also, you may want to make some substitutions for cards that add bless tokens if you're not playing in multi-player. This deck was designed to play 2-player with Mary adding tokens passively and Mateo playing the cards to actually do it.
• Soaks are essential because Mary is very fragile with a health of 5. Always have some sacrifices out.
• Arcane initiate is a way to find spells and just plain card draw. She's also great for helping find deny existence, which you need to counteract your weakness
• You don't necessarily need to run sword cane if you're not playing forgotten age; it's just very high utility for 1-damage and evades

Upgrade strategy: Here is an example of her upgraded deck: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/36877/mystical-mary-wills-snakes-away-fully-upgraded-1.0

• Nephthys is your #1 upgrade (replace Olive) followed by Cyclopean Hammer (replace a charge-using attack spell). Nephthys is a willpower-booster, bless tech, soak, and passive damage, so she's absolutely essential. Cyclopean hammer is your big weapon, so that's why you want it.
• Your next upgrade after Nephthys and hammers should probably be Sacred Covenant to keep tokens in the bag until Nephthys comes out (or when she's overstocked)
• Do not cut storm of spirits (you need it for dealing with big groups and you can definitely afford it)
• Cut robes of endless night for Bandolier; it's a willpower booster
• Upgrade holy rosary to the level 2 version
• Consider Brand of Cthugha as a backup for when you don't draw your hammer. It wasn't necessary for me because I was always able to get away with using event spells and such until I drew it, but it's an option.
• Stand Together or Stand Together is a fantastic opening round move (and while not a priority upgrade, it's a real team tempo-builder if you have the upgraded version); this and uncage the soul (which makes storm of spirits free) are my favorite of the many economy cards in this deck
• A really great upgrade is Righteous Hunt. I didn't use Righteous Hunt until I ran out of things to upgrade because of the forgotten age maps being on the small side, but it's great for getting across the map, engaging, and adding bless tokens to the bag while doing it. Great for aloof enemies & great for the giant maps of innsmouth or edge of the earth.
• Radiant Smite is a fun event spell for Mary. It uses her willpower and lets you seal bless tokens to do extra damage, getting you up to 4 damage potentially in 1 action. It's a pretty great upgrade to Spectral Razor as it still has value even if you have your hammer out.
• The side deck lists some other options, including many that I didn't try like blessing of Isis or shield of faith. This deck is flexible: the core is really the willpower boosters, hammers, and Nephthys. You can customize the rest to your team's needs.

How to pilot Mary:

• Mulligan for a) ways to fight and b) willpower boosters. At level 0, you have fewer willpower boosters, so you may need to hard-mulligan for the rosary as that 5 willpower is a pretty big deal. An ideal opening hand tends to be Nephthys and a way to fight.
• Keep your deny existences for one of two scenarios: you're about to take a ton of physical damage (you only have 5 health!) or Mary's weakness comes out and you haven't yet been able to seal the tokens onto Nephthys.
• This brings us to the other point: until Mary's weakness or a deny existence (which can cancel her weakness) has been drawn, try to make sure you seal most of your bless tokens and keep them out of your bag
• Use promise of power for tests you need a stat you can't have for
• You're very strong against the encounter bag, with your high willpower, but keep soaks out to absorb excess damage

Notes based on playing this deck:

• I personally don't like rite of sanctification because it exhausts and takes up too many actions (in my opinion), but it's here if you're worried about paying for your hammer. Don't bother using it until you have you have upgraded into your hammer unless you're just using it to keep tokens out of the bag... you have better economy options for spells. Frankly, even after getting the hammer, it didn't get much use - I prefer stand together if I draw it.
• If you need slots for put-bless-tokens-in cards because your teammates won't take any of those cards, then feel free to cut excess economy.
• you could add some clue-getting cards like Evidence! or Scene of the Crime to give Mary something to do during off-turns but this Mary is meant to be 100% fighter. In the forgotten age, her role was exploring & fighting everything in sight. She can absolutely take on other roles if you'd like her to, but it will cost a bit of reliability.