Rex Murphy The Clue Engine (Support)

The core philosophy is

Build Intellect → make investigations extremely reliable → multiply your clue output → convert successful tests into cards, resources, and actions → support the team while they handle enemies.

Overall Playstyle

This Rex is a high-efficiency clue engine with a genuine support role.

You're essentially playing three phases.

Early Game — Build the Machine

Your priorities are:

Dr. Milan Magnifying Glass Higher Education Find Deduction/Perception Build your hand

You don't need every asset immediately.

Get the pieces that make Rex's investigation engine reliable.

Midgame—Start Printing Clues

Once the engine is running, this is where Rex becomes ridiculous.

Look for opportunities to combine:

Higher Education

Magnifying Glass

Milan

Inquiring Mind

Deduction

Quick Thinking

You don't need every card every turn.

You want to recognize when the board gives you an opportunity to create a massive-value investigation.

Late Game — Finish the Scenario

By the end of the scenario, Rex should be thinking less about setup and more about the following:

"What clues are still preventing us from winning?"

Use:

Working a hunch for critical final clues. Shortcut to get where you need to be. Deduction to clear locations rapidly. Ward of protection to prevent catastrophic setbacks. Quick thinking to squeeze additional actions out of strong tests.

Don't waste time fighting.

Don't over-invest in assets.

Just finish the investigation.

Rex's Golden Rule

Don't ask, "Can Rex get this clue?" Ask, "How many clues can Rex get from this action?"

That's the difference between an ordinary clue investigator and a properly built Rex.

Your ideal turn isn't

Investigate → 1 clue

It's:

Stack Intellect → Investigate → Rex ability → Deduction → Perception → Resources → Possible extra action → Investigate again.

When the deck is firing properly, your fighter can spend the entire scenario worrying about monsters while Rex quietly empties the map of clues.

The fighter wins the fights.

Rex wins the investigation.

And the Ancient One eventually has to ask itself the most terrifying question of all:

"Why are these investigators finishing the act this damn fast?"

Your Main Priorities

Your deck has four major jobs:

1. Generate clues

This is Rex's primary responsibility.

Your main tools are:

Magnifying Glass Dr. Milan Christopher Higher Education Deduction Perception Inquiring Mind Working a Hunch

2. Compress actions

You don't just want to get clues.

You want to get more done with every action.

Your main tools are:

Shortcut Quick Thinking Deduction Working a Hunch Rex's investigator ability

3. Keep the engine fueled

Your deck needs a steady supply of cards and resources.

That's where you have the following:

Dr. Milan Christopher Laboratory Assistant Preposterous Sketches Perception Emergency Cache Higher Education

4. Protect the team

Rex isn't just a clue machine.

Your 2× Ward of Protection lets you actively protect the group from the encounter deck.

Your goal is to make the entire team more efficient.

Rex's Core Ability

Rex's ability is the reason this deck can produce absurd clue numbers.

When Rex successfully investigates by the required margin, he can discover an additional clue.

That means you don't want to approach investigation as

"Can I pass this test?"

You want to approach it as the following:

"How much value can I squeeze out of this test?"

A successful investigation can potentially give you:

Normal clue Rex's additional clue Deduction clues Perception card draw Milan resources Quick Thinking's additional action

That's the engine.

Your Mulligan Priorities

Highest Priority

Look for:

Dr. Milan Christopher Magnifying Glass Higher Education Deduction Perception

Milan is particularly valuable because he improves your investigation and your economy.

Strong Keeps

Inquiring Mind Shortcut Preposterous Sketches Working a Hunch Laboratory Assistant

These become much stronger once your basic investigation engine is established.

Situational

Flashlight Ward of Protection Emergency Cache Quick Thinking Strange Solution

Don't throw away a good opening hand just because it doesn't contain every piece of the engine.

Building Rex's Investigation Engine Dr. Milan Christopher

Milan is one of your most important assets.

He gives Rex:

+1 Intellect

That makes your investigation tests more reliable.

And:

Resources from successful investigations

That means Milan feeds the rest of your deck.

The ideal loop is:

Investigate → gain clues → trigger Milan → gain resources → use resources to improve Rex's next turn.

He's doing double duty as your investigation boost and economy engine.

Protect him when practical.

Magnifying Glass

This is your cheap, permanent intellect boost.

Get one into play early whenever possible.

The beautiful part is that it doesn't require you to spend actions every turn maintaining your investigation bonus.

Once it's out:

Rex is simply better at investigating.

Two copies give you good consistency.

Higher Education

This is one of the biggest upgrades to the deck.

Higher education turns your large hand into additional investigation reliability.

And this deck is very good at keeping cards in hand through the following:

Laboratory Assistant Preposterous Sketches Perception Successful investigations Other card draw

That means higher education isn't merely a bonus.

It becomes a scaling engine.

The basic idea is:

Keep a healthy hand → spend cards when a test really matters → make important investigations extremely reliable.

Don't automatically spend cards on every test.

Save Higher Education for:

High-shroud locations Important Deduction tests Tests where Quick Thinking is attached Tests where Rex's ability can generate significant extra value Deduction

This is one of the most important cards in the entire deck.

You want to put deductions on investigations where Rex is already highly favored to succeed.

You're not merely getting the following:

1 clue

You're potentially getting:

Base clue + Rex's ability + Deduction

That's why your investigation tests need to be reliable.

The stronger your intellect becomes, the more ridiculous deduction gets.

Perception

Perception is doing two jobs:

Improve your investigation

and

Replace it with another card.

That's exactly what Rex wants.

You aren't sacrificing long-term hand size just to make a test better.

You're turning a successful investigation into additional cards.

Use it on investigations you're already strongly favored to pass.

Inquiring Mind

Inquiring Mind is your big investigation booster when the location situation is right.

If clues are available at your location, this becomes extremely useful for difficult tests.

Use it when:

The location has a high shroud. You are trying to trigger Rex's ability. You're also committing deduction. You're trying to trigger quick thinking.

It's another way of turning Rex into a near-guaranteed clue machine.

Flashlight

Flashlight gives Rex another way to manipulate the difficulty of an investigation.

Use it when reducing the shroud makes a meaningful difference.

Don't automatically spend charges on locations Rex can already investigate comfortably.

You have:

Milan Magnifying Glass Higher Education Inquiring Mind Perception

You already have enormous investigation potential.

A flashlight should be used where it changes the math.

Working a Hunch

Working a hunch is one of your best support cards.

It gives you a clue without requiring an investigation action.

That's extremely valuable.

For example:

A location has one clue remaining.

Instead of spending an entire action investigating it:

Working a hunch → take the clue.

Now Rex gets to spend his action on something else.

That's action compression.

And action compression is one of the most important concepts in this deck.

Your Action Economy Shortcut

Shortcut is incredibly important for Rex.

Movement normally costs an action.

Shortcut lets you reposition without consuming that normal movement action.

That means Rex can do things like the following:

Shortcut → investigate → investigate

Instead of:

Move → investigate → investigate

That's potentially an entire extra action's worth of scenario progress.

Quick Thinking

Quick Thinking is your high-risk/high-reward action card.

When Rex is already very likely to succeed by the required margin, quick thinking can turn that successful test into another action.

This is particularly powerful on

Deduction investigations High-value investigations Tests boosted by Higher Education Tests boosted by Inquiring Mind

The key rule:

Don't risk your investigation engine just to get an extra action.

If you're barely favored, don't use Quick Thinking.

If you're crushing the test,

That's when you start getting greedy.

Your Card Engine Laboratory Assistant

A laboratory assistant helps keep your hand full.

That's especially valuable because higher education wants you to have cards in hand.

So these cards work together:

Laboratory Assistant → more cards → Higher Education has more fuel → stronger investigations.

Keep the assistant around when the card capacity is helping you.

Preposterous Sketches

This is your big hand-refill button.

Use it when your hand is running low and you need to reload your engine.

You want to find more:

Deduction Perception Inquiring Mind Quick Thinking Ward of Protection Working a Hunch

The more cards you see, the more likely you are to assemble your next giant Rex turn.

Your Team Support Ward of Protection

This is where Rex becomes more than a clue investigator.

Ward lets you protect the team from the encounter deck.

Don't use it on every mildly annoying treachery.

Use it when the card would

Destroy your team's tempo Damage an important investigator Shut down your clue engine Create a major scenario problem

Think of Ward as:

Rex spending one resource/card to save the team several actions.

That's excellent support.

Emergency Cache

Emergency Cache is your backup economy.

Milan should provide a lot of your normal resource generation, but Cache gives you a reliable injection of resources when you need them:

Play expensive assets Fund Higher Education Pay for Laboratory Assistant Set up a big turn

Don't play it automatically.

Use it when you have something worthwhile to spend the resources on.

Strange Solution

Strange Solution is your optional side project.

This isn't part of Rex's primary clue engine.

If you get the opportunity to identify it and turn it into something useful, great.

But don't let it distract you from the mission.

Your priority is

Clues first.

If the Strange Solution becomes useful, it can provide additional flexibility.

If it doesn't, don't spend half the scenario trying to make the science experiment work.

Rabbit's Foot

Rabbit's Foot is your secondary card-generation tool.

It's not as central as your other draw engines, but it gives you some value when tests go badly.

Ideally, Rex shouldn't fail very often.

But when he does, Rabbit's Foot helps soften the blow.

A Typical Rex Turn

Imagine Rex has:

Dr. Milan in play Magnifying Glass in play Higher Education in play A high-shroud location Deduction in hand Quick Thinking in hand Inquiring Mind in hand

This is exactly the sort of situation where Rex gets scary.

Step 1—Stack the investigation

You have:

Milan + Magnifying Glass + Inquiring Mind + Higher Education

Now Rex should be heavily favored.

Step 2 — Add Deduction

Now you're not simply trying to investigate.

You're trying to explode the clue count.

Step 3—Add Quick Thinking if appropriate

If your final skill value is strong enough, add Quick Thinking.

Now the test can potentially produce the following:

Clues Additional clues Another action Step 4 — Investigate

If everything goes according to plan:

Rex investigates

↓

Gets normal clue

↓

Rex's ability produces another clue

↓

Deduction produces additional clue(s)

↓

Quick Thinking potentially produces another action

↓

Milan potentially generates resources

↓

Perception, if used, replaces itself

That is an absurd amount of value from one action.

The Ideal Rex Turn

The dream turn looks something like this:

Investigate → multiple clues → gain resources/cards → gain another action → investigate again.

Then:

Shortcut → move → investigate again.

Or:

Working a hunch → grab the last clue → spend the freed action elsewhere.

Rex is all about turning one action into the equivalent of several actions.

How Rex Supports the Fighter

This is especially important if you're pairing him with one of your fighter builds.

Your fighter should generally be spending their actions on:

Fight → Fight → Fight

Rex should be spending his on the following:

Investigate → Investigate → Investigate

And Rex's efficiency means those aren't necessarily equal three-action turns.

A strong Rex turn might clear enough clues that the fighter never needs to stop fighting to help with the clues.

That's exactly what you want.

Don't Fight Unless You Have To

This version of Rex is not a combat investigator.

If an enemy appears:

If your fighter can handle it:

Let them handle it.

Rex keeps investigating.

If the enemy is threatening Rex:

Move.

Use a shortcut.

Let another investigator engage it.

Use defensive cards if necessary.

Your goal isn't to become a mediocre fighter.

It's to remain an exceptionally good clue-investigator.