Versatile Calvin: The Hero We Need

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Calvin takes every nightmare 0xp 0 0 0 1.0

Sassenach · 173

Ever wanted to know how to massively improve your popularity...? Your friends will adore you if you play this deck :)

I present to you Versatile Calvin.

I've been playing around with various different ideas for a card that justifies including Versatile into a deck. Nothing really grabbed hold of me until I realised that Versatile allows Calvin to take First Watch. If ever a card and an investigator were made for each it surely has to be this combination. This deck is intended for a 4 player game to maximise the insane tankiness that Calvin and FW can engage in, but it would probably work just fine with 3.

I see this as a prototype for a whole new deck archetype. Calvin's role here is neither fighter nor cluever not flex. Rather, his primary job is to take as much of the encounter deck right in the face as humanly possible so that his teammates can go about their day unimpeded. There's a whole range of different tools he has with which to do this.

First Watch: The potential here is huge. Ideally you'd want to draw it as early as possible, and possibly even hard mulligan for it. If you get it early then you can take all 4 encounter cards and save the rest of your team from an entire mythos phase. You're going to faceplant pretty badly of course, but that's a good thing right ? Instant stat boost. If you do get it early then you have the ability to recur it with Scrounge for Supplies two more times, and Resourceful let's you potentially recur Scrounge. With a fair wind you could tank 5 full mythos phases ! Later in the game your stats are likely to be insanely high so you have an excellent chance of passing almost every test that the encounter deck throws at you, certainly a better chance than most of your colleagues would have. I honestly can't think of a better investigator/card combo for Versatile.

But what if you don't draw it early ? Fear not, you can still make yourself useful in the mythos phase.

Ward of Protection let's you cancel any treachery card anywhere on the map.

A Test of Will Let's you do the same for investigators at your location.

"Let me handle this!" allows you to take away those tricky will checks from low sanity colleagues or pull enemies away from your seeker.

Self-Sacrifice lets you pull any negative effects from tricky skill checks your teammates may have onto yourself, while also giving you a nice card draw engine to go fishing for your tricks.

Fortune or Fate can stall the agenda by a turn.

Solemn Vow lets your friends dump all of their damage and horror onto you and your huge array of soaks.

And you have plenty of soaks to do that with of course. Once you get the full Jessica/Peter/Leather Coat/Keepsake rig into play you can tank damage and horror for days.

Finally, I really like the addition of Try and Try Again to this deck. It's there to facilitate recursion of Self-Sacrifice and Take Heart. You'll be able to fail your way right through this expanded deck in no time, so the extra 5 cards shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Can't wait to give this a try once my group are able to meet up again.

2 comments

Mar 26, 2020 Sassenach · 173

Actually, I'm told that the Try and Try Again recursion trick doesn't actually work, so that will need ditching in favour of something else. Shame, but it does save 3xp.

Mar 27, 2020 matt88 · 2968

It works with Grisly Totem (3)