I really like this. Ive been trying the get cleaver agnes working for a while but all my builds felt a bit convoluted. This looks really tight. Nice one.

Unless i missed it, you also have the a combo using Peter Sylvestre and Meat Cleaver to heal horror from agnes when dealing an odd number of damage. This opens up additional uses for Forbidden Knowledge later on. Its really nice with Fight or Flights turn long bonus. If you are fighting a 2 or 3 hp enemy, you could optionally chose not to take the horror on one or 2 swings to get a little extra healing in, save up s for another day!

Sorry - that should be to heal horror generally, and this also works on an odd number of damage for the Fight or Flight combo. I wish you could edit comments on here :)

Yup, you're right. In fact there is even more synergy in this deck. For example Ward of Protection assigns horror. Horror means damage.

I wonder what could be improved here to make this deck even better. But for now it's fun, consistent and thematic ^^ Who doesn't love mad waitress with a cleaver? ^^

We're currently playing agnes and carolyn. OAs are a good way to trigger agnes ability, if the enemy's damage and horror can be compensated. Painkillers is great for that and can trigger her ability as well, in a later phase. But i guess that leads to too much horror for solo agnes.

@Django I had no problems with health during The Circle Undone Campaing on standard difficulty. However I guess Painkillers would be great in a different environment like The Forgotten Age for example. Thanks for a clue :-)

Well this deck is absolute bonkers. Meat cleaver is just amazing

Isn't Agnes + Arcane Initiate is dangerous? Dark Memory is a spell, so you are forced to draw it off an Arcane Initiate activation if there are no other spells, right?

I think we cannot avoid card draw because of weaknesses. Am I right?

You wrote a list of General Tips to playing the deck, but said nothing about how Agnes is the only mystic in the game that has to deal with the possibility of being forced to draw her weakness via an Arcane Initiate activation.

The fact that the deck only has 10 other spells in it (low for a deck running Arcane Initiate) exacerbates this problem. Even more than that, once a copy of Sixth Sense is found, the remaining copy becomes virtually useless, as do both copies of Rite of Seeking, so that's another factor to consider.

The point I'm making is that there has to be careful consideration as to when playing and activating Arcane Initiate is worth it because it's not a risk-free action as it is with every other investigator.

I just finished playing this through Circle Undone Standard (I won, but only with some luck at the end of Before the Black Throne). Here are my thoughts:

• I barely used Blood Pact, it was only really good in one scenario (Union and Disillusion for the multi stat tests). The timing always seemed to be bad or I didn't have Moonlight Ritual in hand.
• I really had a hard time pulling clues early on in scenarios. Sometimes I would have killed for a Flashlight, there were a bunch of 2 or 1 shroud locations I could have made headway on early. Much of the time I was forced to waste actions trying to draw into clue cards.
• I flat out lost one scenario because I couldn't draw Shrivelling or Meat Cleaver in over half the deck (Union and Disillusion), and wound up dying to a 2/2/2 witch right at the brink of success. It wasn't a persistent problem, but I did find myself relying on evades and Agnes' ability quite a bit, and that only takes you so far, especially without a persistent high value in agility.
• I did face-plant into Dark Memory on turn 2 via Arcane Initiate in one scenario (At Death's Doorstep) but I won anyway (generally a low pressure start scenario and it was one of the few times I opened Sixth Sense).
• There were a lot of times I really wanted the ability to heal horror off Agnes to continue using her ability. I'm thinking upgraded Deny Existence would be great, I'd consider running Deny Existence main instead of something, maybe Prophesy (it was good a couple of times, but inconsistent and the deck feels like it needs additional spells for Arcane Initiate to hit more often).

Thanks guys for your comments. I clearly see your points. I will sum everything up and prepare 2.0 version of this deck for upcoming cycle :-)

Honestly surprised not to see Waylay in a solo deck of Agnes's kind. Any reason why?

I think Agnes has too low Agility compared to Will Power to use Waylay. More: Waylay requires 2 actions to be played (1 for evade and 1 for the event itself). It means we have to pass 2 agility tests with not-that-great agility stat. It gets better after Peter Sylvestre hits the table but still.

Compare it with Shrivelings. Multiple uses, 2 or 3 damage per hit, based on will power... :-)

How does this deck play for resource cost? This looks like a really expensive deck where you can't pay to use your good cards. Perhaps Forbidden Knowledge makes up for it. I haven't played a Mystic deck with it included yet.

I am currently putting together my first Agnes deck and have gone some of this route but also have the Fire Axe/Dark Horse combo going (1 Core - Dunwich - Carcosa).

@TWWaterfalls Forbidden Knowledge is there for resources and damage. I didn't feel to be limited by resources during my gaming sessions :-)

I guess I am just surprised that you could keep up with the card costs (11 at 3+ R) with just Forbidden Knowledge. I just played Akachi and there were just too many 3+R cards in my deck. I had 2 ECache, 1 Alchemical Transmutation and 1 Uncage the Soul.

Of course, some of those cards are duplicates (or the heirloom) so they don't get played as much but I have become much more resource conscious when putting decks together.

Sorry, but this deck has 35 cards, and the limit is supposed to be 30 cards + 2 investigator's specific + 1 basic weakness, so it is 33 total. Why? Thanks in advance.-

@Majere Arcane Research is a Permanent card. That means that it doesn't count in deck size.

Thanks LeFric! ;)

This deck is just awesome for true solo. Tested it twice in Curtain Call. No problem. I did quite well in The Last King as well. Excited to see how it escaldes from here :-) I see the synergy with Blood Pact and Prophecy, but I am thinking about replacing it with something else. We’ll see :-) Fight or Flight has been MVP in both scenarios so far. Great deck.

You may want to consider replacing Rite of Seeking with Clairvoyance as it has a chance to give you horror and trigger Agnes's reaction. That is preferrable to losing your actions yes?