Carolyn Fern, Healing Machine

Support Carolyn

Overview

This is a Carolyn deck I've been tinkering with after a few scenarios of play. The focus is mostly on supporting and healing your teammates, thereby providing them with some extra income, while also investigating in your off time to advance the act deck. The deck is tuned around a multiplayer team, and I generally gauge a card's usefulness based on Hard difficulty, so you may think certain decisions are overly extreme. Mostly a healer and financier, with a minor in cluevering.

Upgrades

Core Upgrades

Get these first; they are required for the deck to run correctly. In order of importance:

Charisma
This helps with that competitive ally slot, allowing us to have an economy ally and Foolishness at the same time. It also lets us upgrade to Peter Sylvestre (2), a far better ally than David Renfield.

David Renfield x2 Peter Sylvestre (2) x2
David Renfield provides fast, risky income, a relevant stat, and is easily killed with horror/damage/by playing Foolishness. Peter Sylvestre (2) gives slow, safe income, the we need, and can be played alongside Foolishness because we got Charisma first (and free to boot!).

Physical Training x2 Ever Vigilant x2
We're eventually getting Keen Eye as our pump card so we won't need these, and a Guardian without Ever Vigilant is 1/3 of a guardian. With 17 assets in the deck (after removing these two), this lets us take 2 actions to play 6 of them, freeing our time up considerably.

Secondary Upgrades

Get these whenever you can, in whatever order you like best.

Stick to the Plan
There are exactly 3 different tactic/supply events in this deck... and they're all amazing. Once Emergency Cache gets upgraded, this gets even better.

Fearless and Magnifying Glass x1 Fearless (2) x2
Not sure about removing investigative power, but this card helps us and fellow investigators pass those tricky tests (I'm looking at you, Liquid Courage) and triggers our ability, so... yeah. It also lets us heal Foolishness faster.

Emergency Cache (3)
Refills First Aid, Liquid Courage, Painkillers - which you then turn into heals AND cash - and your buddy's Lockpicks too, so upgrade early.

First Aid (3)
The level 0 version allows us to take 2 actions in one, as long as we use it to heal horror; this version lets us take 3, lets us use it on ally assets (Beat Cop (2), Aquinnah (3), etc.) and has 4 charges.

Keen Eye
...At some point. Purchase early if you find yourself with mounds of cash and nothing to do. With the stat boost from kitty, you might find the bonus to be surprisingly useful.

Preposterous Sketches x2 Stand Together x2
For 3xp we draw 1 less card, but gain 2 resources and let an ally do the same. Our action efficiency for this slot goes from 3 for 3 (3 draws for 3 actions) to 8 for 1 (4 draws and 4 resources for 1 action). We draw slightly less, but our allies love us.

Magnifying Glass (1)
Just a straight power increase.

Ward of Protection x2 Cheat Death x2
An absolute luxury upgrade, Cheat Death saves us from more things that would kill us than the ward, and pays us its cost because it heals horror instead of causing it. That being said, I don't think the deck needs expensive survival cards at all, making this our lowest priority upgrade (even though it does free up two / slots since it heals horror).

??? Protective Incantation
Carolyn is one of the few investigators who can take this card and afford its maintenance, so it's a consideration. It doesn't exactly synergize with her deck though, apart from taking a slot she's not using, so I'm having a hard time justifying deck space for it.

Total Cost (Core): 9xp
Total Cost (Secondary): 44xp (including 2 from Protective Incantation)
Grand total: 53
Pretty significant, but I blame Cheat Death. On the other hand, we can certainly get the key upgrades in a few missions.

The Mulligan

The deck has two roles: Healing horror and investigating. To that end, you'll want assets that let you do those things, and which you want more depends on how far you are in the campaign: early on there's no healing to be done at the start of the scenario, so you can focus on investigation; later on investigators will have trauma, so you may need to heal on turn one.
Our priorities look like this:

1. An investigative asset:
   Magnifying Glass
   St. Hubert's Key
2. A healing asset:
   First Aid
   Liquid Courage
   Painkillers
3. An economy card:
   David Renfield
   Forbidden Knowledge
   Emergency Cache
4. Shrivelling
5. Physical Training

The Cards and Why They're In There

Magnifying Glass
The Magnifying Glass has been a staple of Seeker decks since the Core set. There's really not much to say about it that hasn't been said already; it's a great card that helps you win faster.

Shrivelling
It's my philosophy that even the most myopically-focused deck should have some way of doing the two basic actions of the game: Investigating and Fighting (or Evading). To that end, this is our answer to those times when we draw a Swarm of Rats or a Ghoul Minion and we don't want to take up the Guardian's time dealing with it.
As for why I went with this over "I've got a plan!", it's mostly up to preference. Essentially, I decided that 8 attempts at 2 damage each, with a moderate chance to hit, was preferable to 2 attempts at 4 (maximum) damage each, with a good chance to hit. You may disagree, which is perfectly fine, but the deck is tuned to provide extra to make these tests more reliable.
I thought about Machete or similar, but our is too low without Physical Training, and the only reason I'd use a guardian weapon is to free up our / slots to take Physical Training out. If you're getting Keen Eye early it could work, but I think spells are a cheaper, more effective alternative all around.

St. Hubert's Key
With two relevant stats and built-in death prevention that triggers our ability (read: pays us) when it explodes, the Key is perfect for Carolyn. This allows us to investigate more effectively and hit more often with Shrivelling, and also gives two forms of insurance against the encounter deck (the extra and the heal). While it's our most expensive card, tied with Foolishness, the deck makes enough money that it shouldn't be prohibitive.
The reason I like this over Holy Rosary is the extra stat. While the Rosary has a better price, we shouldn't be too desperate for cash in this deck, and I consider the two cards to have roughly the same sanity protection, even though the Rosary's mitigation is active and the Key's is passive. Additionally, if we consider the resource we get back when the Key explodes, the Key only costs 1 more than the Rosary, making it even more attractive.

David Renfield
I know, I can hear you now: "Thou'st not included Peter Sylvestre, but this doom-spewing knave?! Thou'rt truly touched by the Elder Ones!!" First of all, why do you talk like that? To answer your question though, the original deck did have Peter in it and no Davey (as he likes to be called), but I found that Peter's effect was so strong that I never wanted to play Foolishness. In retrospect I think this was just bad play on my part, but putting David in mitigates the issue greatly and immediately (assuming we use his ability when we play him) provides a useful stat to us.
The primary reason David is my preferred economy ally for the level 0 deck is that we want him to get killed. Unlike Peter, we expect David to give us as many resources as possible, then eat it. The deck has many ways to off him (Forbidden Knowledge, Painkillers, Foolishness), and he can be used as a meat shield in times of trouble, so his doom-providing drawback is largely mitigated. Still, you could easily swap out for Peter (which would also free up two / slots), but I like the that David provides.

First Aid
Normally a sub-par card for both damage and horror healing, Carolyn can actually use First Aid as an action compression tool to pay for itself. It takes 3 actions to get it into play (1 to play and 2 resources), and then an action every time we use it, up to 3 times. Since each action to use it is worth 2 actions (1 heal and 1 resource), it actually pays back its install cost as long as we're using it to heal horror. This is also accepting that 1 action = 1 damage/horror heal, which is about the ratio we see on all level 0 healing assets (Liquid Courage being the notable exception).
We take this over things like Emergency Aid and "If it bleeds..." because it's more versatile and reliable. With Emergency Aid we can only heal damage, and If it bleeds requires us to kill a monster, which is already unlikely. Clarity of Mind is a similar card, except that it takes a slot (which would only be occupied if we played double Shrivelling, admittedly) and can only heal horror. It's essentially the same card, just worse.

Forbidden Knowledge
There are very few investigators who make you ask the question, "Are there enough ways in this deck to deal myself horror?", but Carolyn is one of them (the other might be Calvin). Once we upgrade into Peter Sylvestre (2), this card provides us with 8 resources over the course of 4 turns, which is pretty great, but in the meantime it's a good way to off our old pal Davey. Even without using it to kill our friends, we can probably take the sanity hit for a little extra cash right now, and then heal ourselves later for a little more cash. As a slightly risky economy card that synergizes with our ability, I think it's pretty key to the deck. We can also get it out with Ever Vigilant once we have that, reducing the install cost from one action to 1/3rd of an action. While it may seem silly to play a 0-cost card with Ever Vigilant, it is absolutely worth it if it saves you an action since actions are more useful than 1 resource.

Liquid Courage
Cheap and slot agnostic, Liquid Courage can potentially provide Carolyn 3 actions in 1, paying itself off with a single successful use. I used to think it would give the target two resources on a successful check, but the most recent FAQ states that both heals are the same effect. Still, there is massive action compression when you can take 12 "heal horror"/"gain a resource" actions for 4 untyped actions.
However, you may find yourself in a multiplayer party with Rogues who ironically can't hold their liquor coughFINNcough. If your teammates are leery of routine (2) tests, you can pretty reasonably swap this out for, believe it or not, Clarity of Mind. Yes, I was just saying how bad Clarity was in the First Aid section, but in this case we're taking it in addition to First Aid, not instead of it. While we lose the massive action benefits from the booze and have to pay a little more and use a slot (so don't play double Shrivelling), Clarity removes the chances that our allies might discard their Typewriters and best friends. Clarity basically gets more attractive the higher the difficulty is and in groups with low to moderate .

Painkillers
Combined with First Aid, this is the deck's only means of healing damage. Additionally, the horror they deal is a good way to kill our friend Davey (poor sap), while providing a "free" heal (and once we get Peter, it even pays us!). Since there is so much horror healing in the deck, this is a fast, cheap damage heal that might also end up paying us later. Regrettably it only works on us, unlike First Aid, but since our health is our weak point and our sanity is tied for the highest, it's a very good trade (which is also the reason we run this and don't even consider Smoking Pipe). Additionally, Carolyn is one of the most durable investigators (tied with most of the crew from Dunwich at 15 total health and sanity), so she can probably afford to save First Aid for her allies in high-damage scenarios, depending on this to heal herself.

Physical Training
The deck makes a lot of money, and you need to have something to do with that money. This allows you to pass tests and treacheries more easily and can also allow you to punch those rats or cultists without using a charge of Shrivelling or bothering your possibly-swamped Guardian ally.
Originally I wanted these two slots to be an Arcane Studies and a Hyperawareness, but we're out of / slots that don't heal horror. If you found a way to free up two slots (say, by taking Peter Sylvestre instead of David Renfield), you could put those in and pump stats that actually matter to you instead of , but remember that the plan is to remove these for Ever Vigilant and take Keen Eye as our pump card, so it won't make a huge difference in the end.

Emergency Cache
The classic economy card, in every level 0 deck since '15 (or whenever this game came out). Weirdly, it kind of gives us too much economy at level 0, but with Physical Training in the deck there's really no such thing as too much economy. The card's function changes completely once we upgrade it, however; we no longer use it to make resources, but to refill all of our healing assets. First Aid, Liquid Courage, and Painkillers all use supplies, and since all of those assets give us money when they heal horror we're essentially just filtering the resource we could have had from this into a heal and then back into a resource (or two with liquid courage). Additionally, it can refill your allies' Lockpicks, Leo Anderson's Venturers, and your seeker's Strange Solution (any version of it). The upgrade is really where it's at.
If you want something else in the slot before you upgrade, I think this is where True Grit could go. I'm not sure the deck has quite enough economy to remove a 3 resource gain and replace it with a 3 resource loss, but it might, and it doesn't necessarily cost you any resources after all (that icon could be handy!). Furthermore, True Grit provides damage healing (in a way) and is super easy to use; it doesn't take a slot, and you're never worried about losing it. There is an increased synergy with the upgrade path of the deck this way too, since you can keep True Grit in until you have First Aid (3). Since First Aid (3) always heals damage, it makes True Grit a little bit redundant, which is fine because now you can swap that for Emergency Cache (3), which puts supplies on First Aid (3)! If you feel the deck has too much economy at level 0, it's a great idea.

Preposterous Sketches
The deck needed card draw, and I felt this was the best option. While it is 3 cards for 3 actions (2 resources and play), which is no better than just spending a turn drawing, we have enough money coming in that we probably got the resources to play it without using an action. Still, it's largely subjective; you could argue that the free scry from Eureka! or the tutor effect from No Stone Unturned are more useful options, but it's this card's synergy with Carolyn's weakness that put it over the top for me. Since To Fight the Black Wind applies the horror when it's drawn and it's usually drawn during the upkeep phase, we have no opportunity to remove the horror before its effect adds doom to the agenda (Rules Reference p.23; the only player window is before you draw, so even Smoking Pipe couldn't save us). Ergo, Carolyn prefers to draw her weakness during her turn so that she can prevent its effect, and this card lets us draw more than 10% of our deck.
Later we get Stand Together, which is a much better value on the draw (2 cards for 1 action) even before we consider the other 6 actions this card provides (2 more draws and 4 resources). It's targeting requirements (you actually can't play it without another investigator at your location) are generally a non-issue, since you'll probably stick near the Guardian or Seeker teammate for most of the game, and it will make them love you until they draw two weaknesses from it.

Shortcut
A ridiculously good card, it's regrettable that I could only find room for one. Being able to move while engaged is very good, and being able to shove your Guardian ally into enemy-filled rooms is even better. Even outside of these scenarios, using a card for a totally free move action itself is good.
Sadly, with only one in the deck we may not want to eventually swap it out for Pathfinder. Depending on how efficient you want Stick to the Plan to be, you may decide that Pathfinder is worth only putting Ever Vigilant and Emergency Cache on the Plan. It's essentially a choice between the guaranteed single Shortcut or the occasional Pathfinder. Or you could find a slot for a second Shortcut.

Ward of Protection
Another very good card, we can use this to say no to any treachery card that would kill us or otherwise destroy our prospects (like say if Ancient Evils would end the game). Personally I would wait for those scenarios before I used it and hold onto it in every other case. Like Shortcut, it's a card that is taken by nearly every deck that can run it.
While our upgrade list eventually switches this out for Cheat Death, I feel the need to reiterate here how excessive I think that is. Don't get me wrong; Cheat Death is nearly always the better card (except that it can't cancel Ancient Evils), but the xp investment to get it is a little bit much. On the other hand, we can turn this into Forewarned, although with Carolyn that's a more lateral move than usual. Since we can turn the horror from this to our advantage, we may decide that its price (1 resource and 1 horror, that we can heal for 1 resource) is lower than Forewarned's (losing a clue). Also we probably won't be so strapped for cash that we can't afford the ward, and we won't always have a clue to spend. It's an option, but I don't suggest it.

Deduction
Even though we can't upgrade this to its level 2 version, I think Deduction is an absolute necessity in any deck that can take it that intends to investigate. Like Shortcut, it's another instance of spending a card to take a free action, in this case Investigate. While I continually look at it and wonder if it's the weakest card in the deck, I always come to the conclusion that its effect is just too good to remove, especially since we can use it to help the actual clue hound of the group.

Fearless
Helps with those iffy tests and triggers our ability. Only heals us (and Foolishness, of course), which isn't ideal, but it can be especially useful if we need a little healing and we use Liquid Courage on a buddy. Once it's level 2 it just gets better and makes it even easier to hit with Shrivelling, which actually applies horror to you (if you reveal , , , , or ) before you get the heal from Fearless, which is probably the worst interaction for us since we probably already have horror if we're pitching it, but at least we can heal it right off. Anyway, it lets us help our allies on tests and lets us heal our own horror without using an action, so it's quite strong.

Inspiring Presence
This may be the flex slot of the deck, but I like what it does for us. Generally it's pretty useless for our allies, except for Foolishness, but it's another story for our allies'.... allies. For instance, it's a great card when Leo Anderson has an exhausted Beat Cop (2) with a horror on it or an exhausted Venturer with horror and another charge, or even if those assets don't have horror on them, but damage. If you have a Survivor ally with Aquinnah (3), Inspiring Presence can let you abuse her ability two more times; especially useful if you're pitching it to help your ally take Investigate actions while engaged with an enemy (action provokes AoO; Aquinnah triggers and takes 1 horror; action succeeds, healing Aquinnah). A great card if your allies have allies that hurt and exhaust themselves to do something cool.
If that's not the case, it's still pretty decent for healing your allies' allies and giving them some free cash at the same time. If your team doesn't like allies or free money, you could probably swap it out for something else, like a second Shortcut and Fearless, but it is pretty great for helping the team out.
Allies.

Foolishness
While the kitty is an interesting ally, it takes an apparently huge investment: 5 to play it (including the play action), probably 3 actions to heal it (either with First Aid, Liquid Courage, or the action we're taking when we commit Fearless or Inspiring Presence), and our ally slot. However, there are two things to remember: we can heal it as if the horror were on us (so Liquid Courage, First Aid and Fearless all work), and we get paid when we do so. The resources gained from healing it bring its cost back down to about 5 total, or 3 and 1/3rd if we play it with Ever Vigilant. If we can heal it without taking actions at all (like with Fearless), we reduce that cost even further. Let's compare it to other cards with similar effects.
Dark Horse provides you the exact same stat benefit for an install cost of 4 and effectively all of your resources. While you only need to be at 0 resources when you want to pass a test, we have to assume that there are, say, 2 turns when you choose not to gain resources (I'm totally winging that number, but it feels right), if you play it correctly. This brings the install cost up to 6 resources, or 4 and 1/3rd if you play it with Ever Vigilant (if you're Bill), which is a tiny bit more than Foolishness. Our advantage over Dark Horse is that once Foolishness is healed, he is online until he gets more horror, while Dark Horse is only online when you can afford it. So, we can consider Foolishness a better Dark Horse that takes an ally slot, but doesn't count toward our deck size, which is pretty great honestly.
The other card that provides many stat points is The Red-Gloved Man, whose install cost is only 2. However, he costs a whopping 5xp and only sticks around for one turn, so it's a little hard to compare his short-lived, let's say, 8 stat points (assuming he improves two 2 point skills) to Foolishness' semi-permanent 4. In one sense, if Foolishness is online for two turns out of the game, he's provided as many stat points as the Man would in his single turn of existence, which is pretty cool, but this ignores the fact that the Man's points are specifically the ones you want while the cat's are across the board, and you can get the Man back various ways (there's Bill again). Obviously the man is better, he's level 5 for goodness' sake, but Foolishness actually seems to hold his own in a comparison.
The bottom line is that Foolishness' install cost is mitigated significantly since it activates our ability, and +1 to all stats is incredibly powerful. Being able to heal him like the horror is on us is what makes him so very good, since it allows us to use Liquid Courage and pitch Fearless for the test, removing all the horror from him and gaining 3 resources in a single action. If you're running the deck with Peter Sylvestre instead of Davey, remember that while Peter is a very strong effect, Foolishness is much better and should never be held onto when you have the option to play him over Peter. That was the mistake I made when first playing the deck.

To Fight the Black Wind
This weakness is annoying, but seems pretty easy to deal with. This deck is focused on healing horror, so there shouldn't be that many turns you take that you don't heal people back up from the mythos phase. It can get really rough if you draw it while there are monsters engaged with your team, since you won't have an opportunity to heal horror from attacks before the end of the round, but you might be able to play around this if you have assets that can soak it. The trick here is that To Fight the Black Wind specifically says if "horror was assigned to an investigator" this round, which allows investigators to assign the horror to their assets to avoid its effect. If it said "dealt" instead of "assigned," there'd be no way around it.
Still, it deals you direct horror when you draw it, which is literally impossible to deal with in the upkeep phase (as I mentioned with Preposterous Sketches). It behooves us, then, to draw this during our turn instead of waiting for that, since we can then heal the horror we took and prevent extra doom. If we're lucky enough, we'll draw it on the round that the agenda was going to advance anyway and it will just be 1 direct horror and a dead draw. All told, I think it can be a pretty tame weakness if you play around it right (and get a little lucky).

Random Basic Weakness
At the top of our list of absolute worst weaknesses is Paranoia. That being said, it's not the end of the world if we get it. The deck enjoys having resources to spend on Physical Training and Keen Eye, but it doesn't need resources to do its job and its assets are (mostly) pretty cheap. Conversely, I feel the other economy weakness, Indebted, wouldn't be that bad at all since the deck just needs a few cheap assets (First Aid, Liquid Courage, Magnifying Glass) out to do its job and make money. I actually love Indebted because the game starts and it's done; you don't have to plan around drawing it at some point. On Guardians it's usually the absolute worst, but Carolyn is a strange guardian.
With the minimal focus on fighting, any enemy would be a pretty terrible weakness to draw, but the Stubborn Detective has the added drawback of turning off our ability, which is especially awful. The other enemies are all pretty bad, with the Mob Enforcer probably being the best one, since we can pay him off.
As for the rest, they're pretty equally bad, but Psychosis and Internal Injury are a little worse since direct damage is especially bad. I thought Chronophobia or Hypochondria would actually be useful to this deck for free resources with Peter, but the horror is direct so no dice. Even so, we can still turn horror to our advantage so they're probably better than the rest. Overzealous gets a special mention as well, since it's terrible, but you can mitigate its effects very heavily if you hold onto Ward of Protection to cancel the first card you draw.

Alternatives and Niche Picks

Peter Sylvestre instead of David Renfield
Alright, Peter Sylvestre is too good to pass up, you say, so you're getting rid of David Renfield and putting him in the deck. In that case, you've now got two extra / slots that you can make use of, and my suggestion is to replace Physical Trainingx2 with Arcane Studies and Hyperawareness. Not only do these pump cards provide you with and instead of , both of them provide , making you a great investigator. In the long run the deck will be the same, since these eventually come out for Ever Vigilant (which I feel we can't do without) and we get Keen Eye, but early scenarios might be easier.
Protective Incantation
I'm not sure what we would remove for this, but Carolyn is one of the few people who can take this and afford its maintenance. Additionally it uses her arcane slot, which we aren't using very much now (unless we have Clarity of Mind). The effect has yet to be accurately measured by the community, but it looks pretty significant on paper, especially in higher difficulties (removing the -8 from the expert bag is pretty good).
Dynamite Blast
I'm of the opinion that Carolyn is about the only Guardian who can actually afford to play Dynamite Blast. It's not in this deck because it's way outside the whole philosophy, but if you're feeling like you need a little more group damage I'd take out a Preposterous Sketches and just put one Dynamite Blast in, for special occasions (especially since you can put it under Stick to the Plan to always have it).
Dr. Milan Christopher
The good doctor is mentioned nowhere in the deck until now because I feel he is extremely redundant, and we're already strapped on allies. The we gain with him out is a strong boon to our investigation, but we already have Magnifying Glass and St. Hubert's Key to help us do that, not to mention Foolishness. He provides us with resources when we investigate, but the allies we have already give us resources without any tests or actions. Lastly, his cost is tied with the highest in the deck, making him an even less attractive pick. I think it's a bad pick for this deck, but you may find him useful for killing David or if you know the scenario is focused on investigation.
Charles Ross, Esq. and Teamwork
These cards help us share our wealth with our allies, but they didn't make it into the deck because I felt that we do enough of that by healing horror. In Charles' case, there was no way I could justify another ally that did nothing for the deck, but you might decide to take him because your Guardian drew Indebted or Paranoia or something. Teamwork is a card I always want to work, but that never really happens in practice. If everyone's decks are tuned right, it shouldn't be necessary in the first place.

Team Composition

Best Fits

Investigators with high but low sanity
The majority of characters who fit this description are Guardians. Specifically, Zoey Samaras and Leo Anderson have a solid 4 , and fairly low sanity at 6. Leo also has many allies that interact well with this deck, and doesn't fight with Carolyn over Peter. Meanwhile Roland Banks and Mark Harrigan have average at 3 each, but only 5 sanity, meaning they need Carolyn's help more. Luckily, guardians might not mind losing cards from their hand once their combat rig is set up, making the booze a palatable choice (they may even prefer the resources from healing to their cards). Carolyn is the guardian's guardian.
Other investigators in this vein include William Yorick and "Ashcan" Pete. Pete specifically has an ally we want to keep healthy and ready, and a solid 4 with only 5 sanity. They both have access to Aquinnah, who becomes an even better pick since we claimed Sylvestre, and Yorick can take some great guardian allies.

Investigators with high , regardless of sanity
There are many investigators with 4 and 7 or more sanity, but there are only two with 5 : Agnes Baker and Akachi Onyele. Agnes, even though she takes Peter Sylvestre from us, is an incredible ally for Carolyn for two reasons: for one, her ability synergizes with our deck extremely well for free damage all the time; for two, Agnes can be built as a monster-slaying machine, which covers Carolyn's non-combat orientation. As for Akachi, we don't fight with her for Peter and she has similar monster-slaying abilities, but we don't synergize with her for free damage. With either one though, we can reasonably assume our Liquid Courage will work, even on hard difficulty.

Good Fits

Investigators with low and low sanity
While these investigators don't allow us to abuse Liquid Courage as much, they're probably the group most in need of Carolyn's tender care. These situations are where Clarity of Mind finally comes into its own as an alternative to the booze. Our synergy with "Skids" O'Toole and Finn Edwards is a little bit worse since they don't necessarily need the money we generate, but that's never a problem with Streetwise or other pump cards (or with Skids using his ability every turn).

Everyone Else
I think Carolyn synergizes with pretty much anyone, since horror is one of the ways the game kills us. Sure she fights with some people over Peter Sylvestre and can't abuse Liquid Courage in every group, but I still feels she's a crazy-good healer/seeker support character even without those cards. If your teammates have already picked a dedicated clue-hound and monster-slayer and you need a character to fill in, she's perfect. She's even good as the dedicated clue-hound in a 2-man group, although I wouldn't use this deck for that.

Conclusion

This deck has many choices in it that I can see changing, and that's the great thing about Carolyn: her deck-building options are insane. Her ability is also incredibly strong, removing the typical Guardian problem of being poor all the time. When I initially realized her stat line was lower than usual (she has 11 total instead of 12), I originally thought it was compensated for with Foolishness, which I didn't like; you had to draw him, play him, then heal him for her to be good? Once I started seriously creating a deck around her though, I realized that the 1 stat point she loses is well worth her versatility and the power of her ability. In fact, she's so good I haven't even mentioned her ability... and I never will.
Thanks for reading!

A Note
Turns out Arkhamdb uses Markdown formatting; who knew? Anyway, if you want to know how I formatted this description, I mostly referred to this cheatsheet I found online: https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet. Perhaps this will tide us over until DadouXIII releases his post about making beautiful, beautiful deck guides.