Dexter Drake uses smoke and mirrors

TL;DR version: Dexter is amazing, and I doubled down on his stuff-swapping power to mollify the horrible downsides of playing a Mystic. I also played silly buggers with the chaos bag for fun and profit.

This is my first time playing a Mystic. They always looked great, but I hate having my deck stall, and mystics really, really suffer if they don't get the cards they need out of the box, because without the ability to use willpower in place of everything else they rapidly find themselves in serious trouble.

Dexter is amazing at dealing with that issue. I turned his ability to swap cards out into a machine for keeping limited charge spells in play, and invested in some interesting card draw options, power production and cheap/fast assets to keep that engine fueled.

Basically, Dexter's ability to discard an asset to play a new one is super powerful, but is limited by three things: Firstly, he needs assets on the table to discard to play new ones, secondly, he needs new assets in hand to play, and thirdly he needs resources to replay expensive cards.

The first issue I addressed by getting a bunch of 0 or 1 cost assets - 1 cost is the same as 0 cost when you're using his ability to play them. Alchemical Transmutation, Arcane Studies and Arcane Initiatefall into this category. I put in some fast cards as well, like the Leather Jacket, but never really found any that really stuck for me.

The second issue I dealt with in a way that I thought was fun as well as flavourful - cheating the chaos bag and using it to gain free stuff. I used Prescient and Crystal Pendulum to bet on the bag, then used Scrying Mirror and Premonition to know what was coming, and guess right every time. That way I can draw cards, and recover burned out Shrivelling and Azure Flame spells from my discard pile so I can replay them. Combined with Molly Maxwell and the Arcane Initiate for card draw, and the upgraded Guts, I was able to keep myself in a relatively strong position.

The third issue was less of a problem, given his ability to play cards at -1 cost, but when I was doing all the fighting for a three player game I was burning through combat spells every other turn, and replacing them got pricey quick. Alchemical Transmutation was useful occasionally, but my main income came from heaping doom on David Renfield until we were about to advance, then swapping him out at the end of the round.

In terms of firepower, he was hard to beat. With David Renfield and a Crystal Pendulum, using top tier Shrivelling, he was rolling at base 10, and with the Scrying Mirror I could commit cards after seeing what I needed to play.

The main issues he tended to run into were:

Burn-up from using Shrivelling and Azure Flame - Deny Existence was essential for keeping that at bay, but even then I'd recommend playing with someone who can heal damage or horror and keep you in the game.

Also, this deck runs very, VERY hot. One turn it looks like you're top of the world, with a Shrivelling in play and another one in hand, but with only limited use spells and the ability to burn charges on Torrent of Power, two turns later you can find yourself running on fumes, desperately trying to pull more spells from the deck. There's a definite Riding The Tiger vibe to the way I was crashing round the map melting faces left right and centre - it's tremendous fun, but feels like it could come crashing down at any time.

Other neat bonuses - I was also able to be very free with Torrent of Power, both for combat and for utility - even on non willpower rolls it's still worth a +4, so I'd burn tokens off the spells (particularly Alchemical Transmutation) and replace them if needed. The Sword Cane seems almost made for Dexter too - playing it with his unique rule means you get to activate it once for free, giving you a free attack or evade whenever you need it.

So in summary, I had a great time with Dexter, and I think he might have spoiled me for any other Mystic. Let me know what you think. I played him through Path to Carcosa on Normal, and we smashed our way through with very few problems.