Hungry for Knowledge

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
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PureFlight · 763

UCvI.gif

What's up with Quick Study?

Dog, I got you. Minh want that knowledge so she can turn it into a weapon.

Unlike some of its Boundary Talent counterparts (High Roller, Well Prepared, Recall the Future, Cornered), Quick Study is a bit more of a build-around card. But for your trouble, you can get +3 to any check for the inconvenience of dropping a clue. Super powerful, with an appropriately annoying drawback.

Most of this deck is about maximizing clue-picking-upping efficiency to make up for the lost action(s) of the dropped clue. Although something similar would no doubt be great in Rex Murphy, I've decided to pick up my local Newspaper and give it a shot in Minh.

Newspaper is a card I underappreciated until this build. Being able to pick up 2-3 clues for a single action, and to have a dramatic increase in success for that action from the +, is nothing to sneeze at. If you think of Newspaper as a situational upgrade for Magnifying Glass, it's pretty good.

Strategy

Generally, you're going to pick up clues and then cash them in for the Act deck or drop them on non-Victory locations for benefits from Dr. Maelstrom, Quick Study, or Forewarned. Then you pick them back up if you need them with Working a Hunch, Deduction, True Understanding, and Archaic Glyphs.

There's also a great combo if you hit a location with 6+ clues on it when you have no clues:

  1. Pick up one clue. You have no clues so with two Newspapers you're at 8.
  2. Investigate with Guiding Stones.
  3. Drop a clue with Quick Study to get +3 on the test. You've turned your Newspapers back on, bringing you up to 11.
  4. Throw in a Perception, Inquiring Mind, or Deduction for another +3-4 (+1 with Minh!). Now you're at 14 or more
  5. If you don't fail, you pick up 1 clue, +2 clues for the Newspapers, +2 clues with Deduction, +X clues based on how much you succeed by.

With this combo, I would regularly pick up 6+ clues in a single action from a 3 shroud location. It is most ideal to go into the Mythos phase with 1 clue so you can trigger Maleson/Forewarned/Quick Study, so consider doing step 1 of the combo at the end of your turn, then continue from step 2 during the next turn if you haven't dropped the clue yet.

Other Cards

  • Live and Learn is to ensure your big clue pickup action because the only way you actually fail that check with with the . I also kinda don't like the lack of icons on Lucky!
  • People are down on Tooth of Eztli but I'm not sure why. 2-3 draws a game while giving you a 5 against treacheries is pretty good.
  • No Stone Unturned is there to help you (or an ally) get online faster. It can also be a Courage with Minh's ability, so I think it's stronger for her than other seekers. This could easily be any other card you like, such as Shortcut[2].
  • Jury is still out on Vantage Point. This could be a good deck for something like that, as you can take a clue from someone else's high-shroud and move it to yours, seeing as you're going to pick it up with a big Stones play anyway. You could drop Tooth or NSU for it if you want to try it out.
  • No Milan? Truthfully, the +1 would of course be useful here. And I'm sure you could make your big Guiding Stones play with Higher Ed. I just like being able to pitch cards with Minh, so Higher Ed is harder to use, so then the money from Milan is less useful, so now he's just a +1 that I don't necessarily need. Also, maybe you're playing with Finn and he wants Milan? I mean yeah Maelstrom sucks comparatively so if you have a problem with it just go with Milan.

Upgrade Plan

  1. Glyphs -> Guiding Stones
  2. Mag Glass -> Newspaper[2]
  3. Fine Clothes (or Lucky) -> Quick Study
  4. Deduction -> Deduction[2]
  5. Logical Reasoning (or No Stone Unturned) -> Forewarned

Then it's really whatever else you want to save up for. I personally like 2x Hemispheric Map + Relic Hunter, but 2x Cryptic Research or 2x No Stone Unturned[5] are good too.

Versions in Other Gators

  • Rex is probably the best Seeker for Quick Study. You don't get Newspaper[2] so you'll probably just stick with Mag Glass. You have a built-in multiple clue effect, which is really what the Newspapers are there for anyway.
  • Daisy (or Norman for that matter) makes an interesting candidate for this because she can Recharge the Glyphs with Enraptured. Her high makes up for the lack of Newspaper. You lean more heavily on Glyphs for your multiple clue pick up, so you'll want to find it more quickly with Old Book of Lore or even Arcane Initiate.
  • Ursula is notable because she can trigger the Glyphs with her ability. It might be harder to plan your turns if you are moving into unrevealed locations. Unfortunately, you don't have Newspaper, or Recharge, or Old Book of Lore, so I'm not sure if there's much reason to do this build. I suppose Double Fieldwork into Glyphs would be nice. But then what do you do when you drop clues? Move out and move back?
4 comments

Dec 11, 2018 matt88 · 3093

This is an interesting deck but I don't think it's very easy to just move around and drop clues on random locations so that you can be at 0 clues often enough. Additionally your job is to get clues!! I mean, you pick up clues and then you drop them?? Does that even make sense?? And assuming it somehow does, what do you do after your big clue-pickup turn??

Dec 12, 2018 PureFlight · 763

@matt88: It does take some effort to coordinate when to drop a clue. Although there's several ways to drop clues, that doesn't mean you should do it too often. They are mostly there to combat treacheries or to evade an enemy in a pinch. But you use Deduction and True Understanding to get the clue back.

I think part of the strategy is figuring out how to best use the cards in hand. Even when a location has no clues, you can drop a clue with Quick Study and then commit inquiring mind for +6. Or if you draw a treachery and think "this isn't great...plus I have Sketches in hand" you might then use Maleson to turn on the Sketches.

Generally, your big clue pickups give you almost all the clues you need to advance the act, so you often just cash them in right away. Sometimes you'll pick up 1i worth of clues and you need 2i to advance, so you have to spend an extra round getting clues 1 at a time. Also, this version of the deck doesn't have Milan or other + boosters so ideally you use the newspaper pickup on a 3+ shroud and then get the remaining clues one at a time on a 2 shroud.

I suspect this extra layer of planning might make it cumbersome to play without a partner who can help with clues just a little bit. Even a Zoey with Scene of the Crime and Drawn to the Flame would be a good pairing with this deck.

Dec 12, 2018 matt88 · 3093

@PureFlight Well I just don't think it's really solid. Ok, so you can take enough clues to advance the act deck, but many scenarios do not require you to pick up clues in order to advance the act deck. You still have to pick up clues though in order to trigger various effects that will help advance the act deck and you don't cash in clues in the meantime, so in those scenarios you would have a problem. Some examples are "Blood on the Altar" and "The Depths of Yoth". Additionally, there are those cases where you already have the clues to advance the final act but there are 1 or 2 VP locations with clues on them. What would you do there??

Dec 13, 2018 PureFlight · 763

@matt88I mean, those are valid criticisms of Newspaper; it doesn't do as well in scenarios where you don't turn in clues very often. I think for Blood on the Alter especially I'd probably just use the Newspapers as extra Perceptions. So then you're probably leaning into your Guiding Stones more (that's a situation where a similar build in Daisy would shine, as you would have Enraptured to prolong the lifespan of your Glyphs). I played this deck through Carcosa and it performed really well. Newspaper was super strong in The Pallid Mask, and I bet it would be good for something like Essex as well. So it's probably just scenario-dependent.

You still have a ton of ways to get clues so I don't think those situations are a huge problem. You save your Deduction[2] for 2i and 3i locations, and use Working a Hunch and Inquiring Mind on high-shroud 1i's, just like any other Seeker.

I'm not saying this deck is at Rex levels of strength. But it is incredibly resistant to the encounter deck and I think that gives a unique feel as a defensive cluever.