Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
|---|
| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
|---|
| None yet |
ElseWhere · 4923
For a thematic breakdown of the deck, including its pre-Arkham LCG inspiration, check out the companion article here: https://strengthinnumbersarkham.wordpress.com/2025/02/17/character-concept-the-quantum-mechanic/
Intro
Hey everyone! Today I'm very pleased to be bringing you a deck based on one of the first characters Strength in Numbers ever developed out of the Arkham Files, Quantum Mechanic Daniela Reyes! She dates back to our pre-LCG days with Eldritch Horror, and is an absolute blast both thematically and mechanically, combining a genius-level intellect with spacetime-warping sorcery and a close relationship with several Dreamlands factions including the White Ship and the Cats of Ulthar.
So, how have I chosen to represent that character in the LCG? By turning Dani's rather combat-skewed LCG incarnation into a dedicated primary cluever, of course!
Look, you don't come to my decklists for predictable answers. Or at least I hope you don't. It's all hipster jank all the time here, folks. Let's dig in!
The Deck
The core of this deck is a simple question: how do we make Daniela an absurdly-powerful cluever?
Well, at the moment at least the most powerful investigation strategy in Survivor (and one of the most powerful in the entire game) is Difficulty 0, because the combination of Old Keyring and Shed a Light absolutely sweeps locations clean if you can get them to 0 shroud, and your Intellect value is completely irrelevant to your success. It's perfect for Daniela!
But I don't just want to do a generic strategy, I want something unique that only someone with her deckbuilding can do. Enter Breach the Door. Thanks to Daniela's massive Combat stat, Breach is an easy way to reduce almost any shroud to 2 or less, the perfect range for Keyring to drop it the rest of the way down. But you can only play it twice per game, because it doesn't discard–or at least you couldn't before FHV.
FHV introduced Survival Technique, one of my favorite cards ever, and finally our combo is complete. Quantum Dani arrives at a new location, plays Breach the Door (sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally), and sets about investigating with Keyring and Shed a Light to blaze through the clues. Once she's done, Survival Technique pulls Breach back to hand and she can move on to the next location to do it all again.
In order to keep her stocked on Sheds, we also include Shrine of the Moirai, representing the forces of the Dreamlands taking an interest in our quantum mechanic and lending their aid. Like Breach, Shrine is normally limited-use per scenario (in this case only to 3). But with Survival Tech you can bounce an emptied Shrine to hand, ready to be replayed again and continue recurring cards. I think this combo is easily the second-best recursion in the entire game, falling short only of Scavenging, and unlike Scavenging it can hit ANY card of ANY class. That's pretty insane! In addition to grabbing back your Shed you'll generally get a Keyring, Plucky soak, or Makeshift Trap refill.
Speaking of Trap, I should note that Dani here isn't at all helpless when enemies come calling. Thanks to her Net Trap she can warp space and time around herself to prevent AoOs or leave enemies behind in a distorted reality loop. And her trusty wrench theorem allows her to warp space to pull in enemies, soak their hits on her best friend or sheer force of cheerfulness, then strike back if she needs to or leave them evaded in her dust if she doesn't.
Finally, this whole setup is supported by the powerful econ of Crafty, which pays for Breach, Keyring, Shed, and occasional stat boosts on Wrench attacks. I also threw in Lucky! for team support because I'm just a big fan of it.
Variants
There are obviously tons of directions you can take Dani generally, and Diff0 Dani specifically, but for this Variants section I'm going to stick with suggestions that preserve the spirit of the original Quantum Dani.
-
The new Gift of Nodens is an incredible card (and fits Quantum Dani's relationship to the Dreamlands extremely well!) that could help you hurl extra Gumptions and Resourcefuls around pretty freely. This version of the deck doesn't have enough card draw or disposable cards to keep it fueled, so if you do want to spec into that, I would also take the new upgraded form of Glimmer of Hope. It's not that much better than the original, but it doesn't take up your limited slots. Brute Force might also be a good choice for Nodens Daniela, to dramatically increase her damage output with only a little effort.
-
In another nod to Quantum Dani's Eldritch origins, Miss Doyle would be a solid switch-in for ally to provide some generalist action support t the cost of less soak. Although Hope, Zeal, and Augur are unleveled cards and thus cannot be recurred by Shrine, they have their own methods of recursion (and can always be targeted by a Shrined Resourceful).
-
Lure is a surprisingly solid card for Survival Tech Dani! You can skedaddle away from your teammates, play it down, and draw enemies directly into your Trap; since it discards only at the end of the round, you can resolve its effect during the enemy phase and then pick it up fast with Survival Tech during the fast window in upkeep in order to preserve your Lure forever.
-
Finally, of course, you can spec harder into Daniela's classic card suite. Heroic Rescue, Daring, Toe to Toe, and "Get behind me!" all allow her to trigger her ability during the investigator phase for free evasions and Wrench enabling. If you're feeling like this deck underutilizes her printed ability, sub a few of these in to help the classic bruiser experience coexist with your investigating!
Conclusion
That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed this funky FHV deckbuild–what? What was that? TDC is already out, and I should be making decks with new cards instead of only now publishing things based on the last set? FHV is old news? I'm terrible at content creator engagement priorities?
Uhhhhhhh tune in next time for me to maybe catch up with the times and actually release a deck that uses new cards! Probably!
| 8 comments |
|---|
Feb 17, 2025 |
Feb 18, 2025
Without the overlay of thematics, the deck does come across as fairly silly! Daniela smashes into a room, tries a random set of keys on everything, unravels a mystery for no apparent reason, then smashes right on out. That's pretty funny though, so I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to run this deck under that style instead of the genius Lovecraftian physicist vibe. Whatever is most fun to the player in question! For a serious answer, I would say the keys (like the wrench) are metaphorical rather than literal. They would represent the act of using logic, and/or the scientific "keys to the universe" that Daniela's theorems unlock. Or they could represent magic she's doing, like opening a tiny portal to reach through a locked door or cabinet. The coolest part about approaching a deck with this kind of free-metaphorical lens is that it could represent both (and more) over the course of a scenario, depending on the context in each specific instance where you trigger them. |
Feb 18, 2025This is, without a doubt, the most Elsewhere deck I have ever seen. Bravo! |
Feb 19, 2025How does it play? I really like the idea (I found the deck by searching for decks using the survival technique, keyring, shed a light and breach the door) but I feel like the combo is too complex to play reliably no way to search for breach, shed or survival technique is what bothers me, and it won't work without all together I would add matchbox and flashlight (3) for alternative way to get shroud to 0 and backpack to search for them - not very thematic but slightly more reliable maybe short supply ? |
Feb 19, 2025
All that being said, the advantage of this combo is that all the cards work pretty well on their own! Moirai can still recur anything without the other pieces available. Breach can still be played on a location to allow you to guarantee success on as many basic investigates as you want. Old Keyring can still blast 2-shroud or lower locations (4 with Gumption). Survival Technique and Shed are the only ones that risk being dead draws before you get the rest of the cards, but Tech still helps you pass location tests at least. And thanks to Moirai, any cards you use or discard or commit before the combo is assembled can be handily recovered once you get the full setup online. So while your econ worries are legit, the deck works extremely well even without assembling the full process. Still, Short Supply, some Matchboxes, and maybe some Backpacks would all be great additions to speed up setup.
|
Feb 19, 2025This is so fun! Amazing idea. Do we think (as you only really need to allocate 6/8 cards for the main clueing combo here) that this deck could flex with fighting as well? All Daniela really needs is a trusty Fire Extinguisher in one hand to bash anything that pops up, then she can stick to that while finding and assembling the combo cards? |
Feb 19, 2025I am building a solo deck with this idea for sure. But probably with Yorick |
Feb 19, 2025
Or for the simpler option, like you said, you can always just grab a Fire Extinguisher and bash away. It's one of the most reliable weapons in the game (ironically enough). |
It's quite funny that she breaches the door and then attempts to use the key. But I guess those are the keys to some hidden cache or to the Dreamland dimensions.