Drake Dastardly | HC 1K Series

Drake Dastardly

I thought I'd start posting decks again, I'll call this my 1k series because my ranking has now crept above 1,000 (and of course as a nod to Valentin's fine series)! I'll keep my listings shorter this time, and put up new decks every week on Sundays - all of them will include new Hemlock Vale cards. Without further ado...

Overview

• This is a curse ("Curses!") deck, with Wicked Athame, Priest of Two Faiths, Faustian Bargain and Promise of Power dumping tokens in the bag. Wicked Athame in particular gives a large amount of curses very easily.

• Armageddon and Eye of Chaos give bursty compression and recharging when you draw tokens. Recharging is supplemented by kills from Wicked Athame.

• Molly Maxwell can draw Armageddon/Eye of Chaos, Wicked Athame, Priest of Two Faiths, Four of Cups and Holy Rosary/Lucky Cigarette Case. Calling in Favors tutors Molly from Priest of Two Faiths (and refreshes either ally by sending it back to your hand). Card draw is Lucky Cigarette Case, Emergency Cache ••, Guts and Easy Mark.

• Hand slots are filled with two Ritual Candles, which completely offset tokens, and one Wicked Athame (courtesy of Occult Reliquary). Dexter's ability can play off Favor of the Moon well with it being fast, and it's useful for when you need a curse for Armageddon or Eye of Chaos.

• is boosted by Holy Rosary and Four of Cups. Lucky Cigarette Case is a good candidate to discard for a second Holy Rosary once your engine is assembled. Ally assets generally are good targets for Dexter's ability when they're close to being defeated.

Campaign starter and planned progression

Two Arcane Research makes this a 28 XP deck. 0 XP deck is as follows (and link here):

Candidate spells for Arcane Research upgrades are below, and should be upgraded whenever is convenient:

• Armageddon → Armageddon ••••

• Eye of Chaos → Eye of Chaos ••••

A recommended order of purchases/upgrades for remaining cards is:

• 2 x Unexpected Courage, 1 x Fearless → Easy Mark

• Occult Reliquary

• Arcane Initiate → Priest of Two Faiths

• Tempt Fate → Favor of the Moon

• Fearless → Four of Cups

• Emergency Cache → Emergency Cache ••

• Guts → Guts ••

• Relic Hunter

Final thoughts

What surprised me in playing this deck is it can be a little too curse-heavy (particular when paired with a curse Seeker), so as a result I removed Geas and Accursed. The +6 finishers from Wicked Athame are great, but you need to be able to put 3 tokens in the bag to get them - so you'll want to try and keep your curses at a middling level. Overall I thought it was good fun and great when you've got your engine going (which Molly Maxwell helps with enormously). Let me know your thoughts down below!