Song of the Spheres

Our dear Patrice is a...mercurial individual, to say the least. Oh, she says she hears music all around her, the music of the cosmos, guiding her to what she needs to do or where she needs to be. But I think she's probably just crazy. Right? I mean, it is an occupational hazard for us investigators.

This deck is designed with the idea that Patrice pitching cards into the discard pile is a GREAT idea! Once cards are there, they can be recurred by Resourceful or just played from there if they're A Glimmer of Hope or any of the Improvised cards (which have the added benefit of leaving her discard full for longer after they're used). Plus that clears out her hand for Last Chance.

Her set of Assets are designed to convert her Will into an effective ability to perform other tasks, and often I'll mulligan most of my hand if I don't start with one of the three spells, preferably Sixth Sense or Wither so I can be useful to the team right off the bat. The Accessories boost that Will, and Scroll of Prophecies allows her to pitch cards at an even faster rate!

Obviously, this is a very all-rounder Patrice, designed to fill whatever role the party (usually 4-player) needs most in this particular scenario. When she gains XP, there are a number of good options that allow her to focus in. With all of her Insight and several Spells, De Vermis Mysteriis is a strong contender for one of her hand slots, and might allow you to start running more Spell events. Versatile is also good for her, allowing her to take Occult Lexicon and/or Hallowed Mirror, since both of their Bonded spells are exceptional for her (and can later be De Vermis targets). With this build, Key of Ys has essentially no downsides. You could also go an Ally build, with Charisma, Miss Doyle, Yaotl, and the Summoned Hound//A Chance Encounter combo. This Ally route helps her more reliably deal with the Watcher from Another Dimension, courtesy of either the Hound or Zeal.

I personally choose the path based on the events of the campaign, and how her mercurial nature solidifies into something powerful and concentrated, but she's also powerful enough that no matter what direction you take you'll find she has an extremely high degree of consistency–not necessarily what you'd expect from someone who can't keep a plan together for more than a round, hmmm?

She's also just fun to play and feels quite different from any of the other characters, even those like Wendy and Pete who do a lot of discarding! So I strongly recommend her if you like a completely different-than-usual resource-assessment system, seeing your entire deck possibly several times, or being the apparently-airheaded musician who comes out of nowhere to discover the crucial clue or bash in an unusually powerful monster's head, all the while listening to the alien, ethereal, beautiful song of the spheres.