Core Set Starter Deck: Agnes Baker, the Waitress

Sample Starter Decks from Fantasy Flight Player Resources

Agnes is a high-willpower spellcaster who is particularly good at dispatching enemies. Since her ability can trigger once per phase after she takes horror, the more on-demand ways you can deal horror to yourself, the better. Forbidden Knowledge is probably your best tool for fueling Agnes’s ability: Take 1 horror, gain 1 resource, and deal 1 damage anytime you want! You can also trigger her ability through Ward of Protection, or even Shrivelling if you are lucky (?) enough to draw a chaos token with a , ,, , or symbol on it. Use this ability to easily take out enemies with only 1 health remaining, or to put extra damage on bigger enemies.

But beware! Since Agnes’s ability only triggers when horror is actually placed on her, you’re going to want to soak or heal horror as well. Holy Rosary is a must-play card, since it boosts Agnes’s willpower and also provides you with a way to protect against horror when you don’t wish to trigger Agnes’s ability.

Shrivelling and your investigator ability are your two primary ways of defeating enemies, but a Baseball Bat is a good back-up plan. If you are having trouble investigating, you can use "Look what I found!" or Drawn to the Flame to discover as many as 4 clues without having to succeed at an intellect test.

Finally, since you are quite dependent upon your Spell cards, getting an Arcane Initiate in play early can be a huge benefit to you. Make sure the doom threshold on the current agenda isn’t close to being satisfied, then play Arcane Initiate and make the most out of its ability each turn. When doom is close to the threshold, if you can discard it from play (usually by assigning damage or horror to it), you can be rid of the doom on it as well.