Skill Balanced Starter Decks - Wendy Adams

Card draw simulator

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5argon · 9543

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　 Notable skill icons
Perception 　
Overpower 　
Unexpected Courage 　
Cunning Distraction 　
Will to Survive •••　
★ Lucky! ••　
☆ Leather Coat 　
☆ Flashlight 　
☆ Wendy's Amulet 　
　
  • ★ : Not a Skill card and has no icon, but provide similar purpose.
  • ☆ : Scavenging-compatible cards, so they became more attractive to commit.

TLDR : My take of starter decks with plenty of Skill icons, to reduce frustration of failing to setup Asset cards. No longer 100% pick-and-play on any combinations, but I countered this by providing exhaustive team compositions and how to fix overlaps provided at the bottom of this page. Have fun committing cards!

ps. When you decided to purchase one more Investigator Expansion, check out my 2 Packs Deck Guide series!

Lastly, if you like the idea of my decks, it would help many more fellow new investigators like you to find these starter decks if you press the like (♥) button above. Thank you!

I like the premise of Killbray's Better Starter Decks, a Revised Core Set-based series of deck which has absolutely no overlap no matter what amount of players and team compositions ("pick-and-play"), yet better than what the official manual provided.

But going for perfect zero overlap may compromise skill commit icon density. From my experience leading a group of beginners throughout Night of the Zealot, Skill cards are delightful. It feels great to be able to instantly throw in what you just draw to pass tests, and even get some bonus draws to recover from bad starting hand. They also provide the game's most basic team play feature : By pitching a helping commit at the same location. Skill cards are satisfying to play.

I think Asset cards has too much weight on typical starter decks (and therefore highly dependent on mulligan policy). After an unfortunate spiraling down session they can barely do anything, new players often express that everything seems to depend on finding and stacking up static boost Assets and fight Asset fast enough before enemy comes, if they can't then they have no chance of comeback ever since everything takes Attack of Opportunity then.

If you are experienced player trying to get new players to join : It is unfortunate that cannot control luck of draw for anyone. The next time maybe better, but you have limited onboarding session to impress and get new players hooked with the game. Skill card is that solution to smooth out any bad start and allow more happy-go-lucky play style for everyone.

By giving up the perfect zero overlap, here's my alternate take of starter decks : Skill Balanced Starter Decks series, which each deck greedily use Skill cards without concern of sharing with the other decks in the series. (Guts, Perception, Overpower, Manual Dexterity, Unexpected Courage)

It also distributes well double-icon non-Skill cards over starting deck and through the upgrade plan. (Evidence!, Working a Hunch, First Aid (3), "I've had worse…", Scrying (3), "Look what I found!", Cunning Distraction, Elder Sign Amulet, Bulletproof Vest) Upgrade plan also try as much as possible to not replace good icon cards while adding more.

Easy deck overlap resolution

This series does care about card overlaps. Therefore even though there are some combinations that cannot be played together since they want the same cards, the resolution is simple : Just move around the Skill cards and you are ready to play.

The result is satisfactory enough for me. Compared to Killbray's Better Starter Deck mathematically perfect 10-10-5 possible combinations for 2-3-4 player count, I managed to get 9-7-2 possible combinations with zero or easy to resolve overlaps.

I have exhaustively list all those team compositions in a dedicated section at the bottom, categorized by player count, along with an overlap resolution if it has some. You can use that section to pick a team matching your party size, perform overlap resolution as suggested, and immediately start the game.

Let's go on a full campaign!

This series of deck encourages you to take them to full length 8 scenarios campaign. I do this by including an upgrade guide with enough XP spending plan for an entire campaign for each deck, and also some tips to use the upgraded decks. Cards to be swapped in are in the Side Deck section. Side Deck is designed to have zero overlap between all 5 decks in the series.

FFG has moved to new distribution format where you can buy Investigator Expansion and Campaign Expansion separately. This is a good news, it means if you try out Night of the Zealot and is eager for longer campaign to see what the game has to offer, just one more box of any Campaign Expansion is required.

That is in theory. But community is often quick to state that Revised Core Set cards are not enough for full campaign, and then something like "You will run out of options", "Dunwich Investigator Expansion is essential", or "Recommended to get some Investigator Starter Deck first". While additional products are all useful and these suggestions are becoming the norm, more and more spending requirements in addition to the Campaign Expansion box put off some players with less funding from even getting the Campaign Expansion box.

Revised Core Set is viable to have good time in a campaign on Easy or Standard. They just lacked variety and fancy combos. But in my opinion, card variety is secondary to full-length experience any new players should try out ASAP. Players may have to "put up with" using .45 Automatic and Physical Training to the end for all I care, campaign play is still insanely fun. There should be no other minimum purchases for campaign experience than : Revised Core Set + Campaign Expansion.

Main Deck? Side Deck?

The "Side Deck" section is meant to be higher XP cards waiting to be added to your deck. The "Deck" section consists of all 0 XP cards that you start the 1st scenario with. So if you gather both Deck and Side Deck on starting the game, you don't have to go back to your big card collection to pick things between scenarios.

I have prepared some upgrade plans below to swap cards between Main Deck and Side Deck, but you are free to disagree and purchase in different orders or even different cards than suggested.

Upgrade guide

　Cost 　Total
　　 Cunning Distraction 　→　 Lucky! •• 2 XP 2 XP
　　 Cunning Distraction 　→　 Lucky! •• 2 XP 4 XP
　　 Knife 　→　 Lockpicks • 1 XP 5 XP
　　 Knife 　→　 Lockpicks • 1 XP 6 XP
　　 Rabbit's Foot 　→　 Will to Survive ••• 3 XP 9 XP
　　 Rabbit's Foot 　→　 Will to Survive ••• 3 XP 12 XP
　　 Emergency Cache 　→　 Emergency Cache •• 2 XP 14 XP
　　 Emergency Cache 　→　 Emergency Cache •• 2 XP 16 XP
　　 　→　 Charisma ••• 3 XP 19 XP
　
Extra 19 XP
　　 Leo De Luca 　→　 Leo De Luca • 1 XP 20 XP
　　 Leo De Luca 　→　 Leo De Luca • 1 XP 21 XP
　　 Stray Cat 　→　 Aquinnah ••• 3 XP 24 XP
　　 Stray Cat 　→　 Aquinnah ••• 3 XP 27 XP

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Wendy has to put up a bit with no starting 2x Lucky! because I want them on Agnes' deck permanently. However, the first two upgrades add Lucky! (2) quickly, which has a draw added to benefit Wendy's token redraw . This allow playing Wendy and Agnes together and have 4x Lucky! (of different versions) at the same time on the table, a very lucky team. Go for 4 XP and over on the first scenario!

The 19 XP breakpoint can be used to play Standalone Scenario. Remember to add 2 Random Basic Weakness according to standalone rule.

How to play

The most important thing of Wendy on Standard difficulty is that you must be confident to "wing it", testing at just +1 over the difficulty or even equal to difficulty. You probably win if you use her token redraw . Which, often you would win anyway in the first place without the redraw!

Suddenly, a Baseball Bat (1 + 2 = 3 ) on 2 enemy, or Flashlight on 4 shroud are looking attractive to try.

This mentality requires steady influx of cards on hand to discard, so we have : Pickpocketing, Rabbit's Foot (removed mid campaign), Lucky! (2), Emergency Cache (2) to provide the cards. You can also use Leo De Luca's extra action to just draw cards. Think of it as recharging "success" for your next test.

  • Baseball Bat is the game's first two-handed Asset. This deck teach you the dynamics of transitioning from Flashlight/Lockpicks "one-handed phase" to Baseball Bat "two-handed phase". Flashlight and Lockpicks runs out, and Baseball Bat can break. So you may find natural timing to switch around assets as you play. Scavenging rounds out the deck, allowing you to replay them to fix timing problems.
  • Lockpicks is a very accurate investigation asset, but it exhausts so you only can pick 1 clue per turn. But the real point of high accuracy is to be Scavenging activator. Scavenging should revive Leather Coat / Baseball Bat / Flashlight. If Baseball Bat is in discard, it is likely you just transitioned out of the 2-handed Wendy mode because it breaks, to be able to equip Lockpicks in the first place.
  • Add in Evade as much as possible with Pickpocketing to draw more cards. For example when getting an enemy while you want to get clues, you can Evade first then use Flashlight 2 times to end your turn, which you would get the engagement back next turn since you didn't walk away, but you don't care and repeat the same thing to grab more clues, and more card draw from Pickpocketing that refreshed the exhaust in Upkeep.
  • Emergency Cache (2) added at around 15 XP are expensive XP spending for others, but not for Wendy. The draw is powerful. If you can replay it with Wendy's Amulet, you will have a lot on hand and a lot of resources to deal with problems.
  • Will to Survive is your moment of awesome. Without chaos bag, you just declare that you pass the test as soon as you match the test's difficulty! (Remember that normally, matching the difficulty is not good, as you need to draw 0s from the bag.)
  • Will to Survive can burst down 3 enemies with Baseball Bat, or burst down 3-5 shroud location with Flashlight. (Lockpicks is not ideal with Will to Survive, since it exhausts.)
  • Leo De Luca extends Will to Survive turn to more actions.
  • You can also evade inside Will to Survive chain if you found some enemy you can't reach its . It also get you some draws with Pickpocketing.
  • You can use Lucky! inside Will to Survive chain by testing under the difficulty intentionally. You instantly "would fail", then you pass after the +2.
  • To fund Will to Survive's 4 play cost, use Emergency Cache and again with Wendy's Amulet, also try just a simple resource action when you have Leo De Luca.
  • Stray Cat can evade for Sneak Attack without costing an action, but you must prepare it beforehand.
  • Stray Cat can evade an enemy engaged with another investigator at same location, essentially disengage it and rescue that investigator.
  • Stray Cat can "trip" a Hunter enemy walking into your location and is about to hit you. You use window after Hunter enemy move but before it attacks to evade and exhaust it. Yes it will ready soon, but now you get a turn of 4 actions to go at it with Leo De Luca + possibly Will to Survive.
  • Charisma added right at the end of 19 XP zone allows stacking Stray Cat with Leo De Luca. Stray Cat would then be replaced with Aquinnah (3) if you do really well in a campaign, then you can stack her with Leo De Luca too. (But expensive to setup!)

Skill icons

　 Notable skill icons
Perception 　
Overpower 　
Unexpected Courage 　
Cunning Distraction 　
Will to Survive •••　
★ Lucky! ••　
☆ Leather Coat 　
☆ Flashlight 　
☆ Wendy's Amulet 　
　
  • ★ : Not a Skill card and has no icon, but provide similar purpose.
  • ☆ : Scavenging-compatible cards, so they became more attractive to commit.

Because she has only 1 , 2x Overpower is retained. Initially it may looks like her deck (or anyone's deck) should not have any skill cards related to 1-2 skill of that investigator. How come we have Overpower that looks like a mismatch here?

Wendy's token redraw changes the probability. Repeatable 2 damages / +2 hit from Baseball Bat is powerful, and once paired with Overpower she is at 5 . This value is OK to go vs. 4 enemy with token redraw . Add in Lucky! (2) and it is very likely to hit. Will to Survive adds more double icons later too. Unexpected Courage is also good for landing the bat hit. You can think of commits as ammunition for the Baseball Bat.

☆ : They are notable skill icons due to Scavenging. Sometimes you grab them up while using Lockpicks with no opportunity to play them yet. Feel free to commit to pass / tests, you may able to Scavenging them back again. Wendy's Amulet is also Item, it is actually practical to commit it for then try get it back later once you are out of trouble!

Cunning Distraction : Don't be distracted by the card's text, this card is just commit to help passing 4 treachery. They are removed soon, but can guide your team's / through treachery on the first few scenarios.

Will to Survive is looking attractive to play 2 times with Wendy's Amulet (Play while the amulet is not here to avoid the bottom-of-deck effect, equip amulet, then you can play it again.) But I think that is too costly! (8 resources) By the time you get enough resources and the right moment to play, the discard is probably puffed up with other Event cards on top of Will to Survive...

More practical play is commit it for . When the devs give good icons to a card, they thought the actual effect is so good that player would not want to commit it. But with Wendy's Amulet, you can commit and then play it too! Commit is not a "play" so you avoid the bottom-of-deck effect. You probably have Baseball Bat ready to Will to Survive, so can let you hit normally for 5 first.

Investigator synergy

With other decks of my Skill Balanced Starter Deck series :

  • You can save your own actions to get exhaust for Sneak Attack by letting other investigator Evade for you. "Skids" O'Toole can Evade naturally. Agnes/Daisy can use Blinding Light.
  • Get Encyclopedia +2 from Daisy Walker to reach the "golden" 4 / 4 for Will to Survive. This number beats almost everything with no chaos bag in the equation.
  • Get even more actions for Will to Survive from Roland Banks's Police Badge, in addition to your Leo De Luca.
  • Stray Cat can Evade even an enemy engaged with other investigator. (Normally you have to engage first to perform the Evade.) This could be handy for 2 investigators : Roland Banks and Daisy Walker. It would also help Roland Banks fight without risk of Retaliate, he cannot turn Retaliate off by evading on his own.
  • Purposefully stay with others when you have Cunning Distraction for a helping commit, since treachery is a popular kind. You may not need it on your own test since you have 4 and even can do token redraw .
  • You want others to hold off enemies for you while you move into enemy / location that you want to Will to Survive the next turn. You don't want to do it the same turn you move in, since you want all meaningful actions without the Move to take your awesome Will to Survive test-less actions.

Team composition

All teams possible within my Skill Balanced Starter Deck series, including and not including this deck as a member.

Trivia! : These reduced combinations are due to how my Daisy and Agnes deck need the same cards, there is no possible team with Daisy and Agnes at the same time. I can't managed make both fun to play without major overlaps.

Also I discovered if I choose to give up just Daisy + Agnes pair, all other pairs are suddenly viable. Daisy + Agnes kind of causing butterfly effect throughout all the decks. e.g. Once you share Agnes's Spell for Daisy's self defense, then Agnes need more Survivor card from Wendy, then Wendy need more Rogue cards from Skids, and so on.

Try out Killbray's Better Starter Decks instead if you would like to play with Daisy and Agnes together.

2 Players

9 teams to choose from, all with 0 card overlaps :

3 Players

7 teams to choose from :

4 Players

2 teams to choose from :

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