Dr Fern and Mrs Carolyn|30k Series|Deck Guide

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Dr Fern and Mrs Carolyn|30k Series|Deck Guide 0 0 0 1.0
The Adventures of Carolyn Fern - Scarlet Keys with J & F 1 1 0 1.0

Valentin1331 · 68567

Healing Feds as Dr Fern by day, Hypnotising enemies as Mrs Carolyn by night.

Screenshot-2023-04-21-at-19-20-53.png

Credit: Reiko Murakami & Greg Bobrowski


Introduction

This deck is unique in the series as it comes with 2 builds: a campaign one and one made for standalone.

  • The guide addresses the Campaign Deck, using Ancient Stone - Minds in Harmony, which is a Researched card and, therefore, cannot be used in Standalone. This deck shines by how little experience it needs to start cruising.
  • To make sure that everyone finds what they are looking for, I created a second deck that is standalone-friendly, using Power Word (which can also be slightly repetitive during a whole campaign).

After the 20k Series and its success, this 30k Series will focus on the investigators that are much harder to solve. Expect some jank, some outside-of-the-box thinking and hopefully some love for the underdogs of this game.

Click here to see all the previous decks. I will keep releasing a new standalone-ready deck concept every week on Friday, so stay tuned and keep pressing the button if you want to see more!


Table of Contents:
  • Overview

  • Main Strategy

  • Your day job as a Federal Mental Health Practitioner

  • Employee of the Month

  • Standalone Alternate Deck - Your Night-job experimenting hypnosis on Monsters and Mobsters

  • Other Cards

  • Upgrade Path


Overview:
 
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Enemy Management: ★★☆☆☆
Clue-getting: ★★★★★
Encounter protection: ★★★★☆
Survivability: ★★★★★
Economy: ★★★★★
Card Drawing: ★★★★☆

Main Strategy:

Your day-job as a Federal Mental Health Practitioner:
  • Field Agents see terrible things at work, accumulating many clues, resulting in horrific mental traumas.

  • Fortunately, the Empirical Hypothesis you are testing with a Trial and Error approach gets you cards when you work with them.

  • Your unique hypnotic pendulum is made of an Ancient Stone designed to harmonise minds. The card heals the Field Agent directly. In group therapies with 2 Agents, the card of the upkeep provides enough draw to keep the two patients afloat.

  • When running out of secrets in your Ancient Stone, you can try singing Soothing Melodies to your patients to make sure that they can do their valuable work at all times.

  • As long as you Maintained your stone correctly, you can use a Magnifying Glass (1) to get it back into your hand, look at it properly, get your Magnifying Glass (1) back and play the Stone again with all its secrets.

  • Over time, a Trust relationship will evolve, allowing your team to take on more burden on their field trips.

    • This trust evolves into a totem for your team in the form of a Tarot Card.
  • Sometimes, Inspired by your field Presence, your team can work twice as hard on a particularly difficult situation.

  • Thanks to all your first-hand, on-the-ground information, you can participate actively in the resolution of mysteries with a basic 6 .


Employee of the Month:

Skills:

  • This deck comes with a lot of heavy skills. These are here to crush the Ancient Stone (1) test on scenario 1.

    • I double-checked, and every campaign opening scenario of the game comes with at least a 4-shroud location, meaning that we can achieve 7 secrets easily.
  • After the Ancient Stone (1) mega test, all these cards can be committed to your teammates or to pass any scenario test the game throws at you, including treachery tests.

De-cluttering the board:

  • With all the money earned from your job, you can pay for some Fireworks and lift the mood of the whole city at once.

  • Do not forget to Sooth any damage caused by your pyrotechnic enthusiasm.


Other Cards:
  • We start the campaign with Alice Luxley to get the bonus because she can help your teammates as you get clues. She is especially good in the new TSK Campaign but won't stay long anyways.

  • Pathfinder is pure tempo. A must-have in this deck that can gather clues at a very high pace.

  • Shrewd Analysis saves 4xp by offering a second Ancient Stone - Minds in Harmony for free.

    • Carolyn Fern can only use 1 version of the Ancient Stone, and therefore while picking another version at random, only one meets the requirement.
  • I did not use Hypnotic Therapy other than for the icons, but if you play Carcosa or pair with soft-minded clients such as Daniella, Mark or Roland, it may come in handy.

  • Ward of Protection is also pure value, especially as the horror is so easily compensated...

  • ... by your Fearless behaviour.

  • Out of all the skills, Helping Hand is phased out first because it serves primarily to the ridiculous oversucceed during the Ancient Stone (1) test.

Further Upgrades:

  • Ever Vigilant is an excellent way to compensate for what is maybe the only downside of the deck: set-up.

  • This deck runs out of upgrades surprisingly early, so I thought it was the perfect moment to appreciate the incredible artwork of the Tarot cards coming with Observed.

  • Upgrading to Dynamite Blast and Fearless (2) is of lower added value, but if there is xp, why not...


Standalone Alternate Deck - Your Night-Job Experimenting Hypnosis on Monsters and Mobsters:

CarolynFernReikoMurakami

Credits: Reiko Murakami

Click here to get the link to the Standalone deck

Screenshot-2023-04-21-at-18-27-30.png

32xp version:

It is possible to take one more basic weakness for more raw power:

  • Upgrade the 2 On the Hunt (3) to pick your minions in the whole encounter deck.

  • This leaves you with 4xp available, which you can spend in Martyr's Vambrace to protect your whole team, as you can pass literally any treachery test with your infinite Soul Sanctification offerings.

Here's another decklist by @Providence using the same approach if you want to see a much better write-up about this build.


Upgrade Path:

Link to the 0xp deck


 Cost  Total
Core Upgrades 0 XP
   In the Thick of It  →  Ancient Stone 1 XP 1 XP
   In the Thick of It  →  Ancient Stone 1 XP 2 XP
   Empirical Hypothesis    ☑ Trial and Error 1 XP 3 XP
   Ancient Stone    Ancient Stone •••• 3 XP 6 XP
   Ancient Stone    Ancient Stone •••• 0 XP 6 XP
   Alice Luxley  →  Field Agent •• 2 XP 8 XP
   Alice Luxley  →  Field Agent •• 2 XP 10 XP
    →  Charisma ••• 3 XP 13 XP
 
Quality Upgrades 13 XP
   Hallowed Mirror    Hallowed Mirror ••• 3 XP 16 XP
   Forbidden Knowledge  →  Pathfinder •• 3 XP 19 XP
   Helping Hand  →  Magnifying Glass 1 XP 20 XP
   Helping Hand  →  Well-Maintained 1 XP 21 XP
   Trusted  →  Well-Maintained 1 XP 22 XP
   Trusted  →  The Star • XVII ••• 3 XP 25 XP
   Inquiring Mind  →  Ever Vigilant 1 XP 26 XP
   Inquiring Mind  →  Ever Vigilant 1 XP 27 XP
 
Luxury Upgrades 27 XP
    →  Observed •••• 4 XP 31 XP
   Dynamite Blast    Dynamite Blast ••• 3 XP 34 XP
   Dynamite Blast    Dynamite Blast ••• 3 XP 37 XP
   Fearless    Fearless •• 2 XP 39 XP
   Fearless    Fearless •• 2 XP 41 XP

(View at arkham-starter.com)


Link to the full xp deck



To create your own guides, find the template I have created here

18 comments

Apr 23, 2023 mattastrophic · 3246

Nicely done! I'm a big fan of Carolyn!

Quick question, with all the spot horror healing, how necessary is The Star and its 3XP?

Apr 24, 2023 Nansams · 1

I have a Scarlet Keys campaign coming up and as soon as I read this, I think I found my investigator! Thank you for continuing these!

One question, does Field Agent trigger Empirical Hypothesis? Empirical states when "you" take horror. I always get caught up on what damage "you" take.

Apr 24, 2023 Giuseppe_octgn · 1

@Nansams from the Rules Reference: You/Your, Interpreting "You" When Taking or Being Dealt Damage (added in FAQ, section 'Card Ability Interpretation', point 2.12): When an ability refers to "you" in response to taking damage or being dealt damage, it also includes any assets you control.

So it seems it does work.

Apr 24, 2023 Nansams · 1

@Giuseppe_octgn Thank you for clearing that up, I must've missed that small section whenever I searched.

Apr 24, 2023 Providence · 466

Much love ❤️❤️ Thanks for the shoutout, I’m honored you liked my build!

Apr 24, 2023 Gnorung · 1

I really like the combo with Well-Maintained and Magnifying Glasses! I'd never realized Well-Maintained could be attached to Item assets and not just Weapons, so thanks for opening my eyes. Very flavourful deck as always, love it <3

Apr 25, 2023 Wittebaard · 319

Wow, having played TSK already once, this seems like a banger of a deck to go through it a second time. Any fighter investigator you advice to pair up with Carolyn?

Apr 28, 2023 david6680 · 64

Since you mentioned the deck running out of good upgrade options early, I think you should really consider stick to the plan. 2 dynamite blasts and an ever vigilant on it would be pretty strong.

Helps you setup quicker and thins your deck so you can find the critical combo pieces earlier.

Apr 28, 2023 Valentin1331 · 68567

@david6680 thanks for the suggestion!

I considered it, but unfortunately, Stick to the Plan mentions 3 different cards, so 2 Dynamite Blast is not an option...

And out of the rest, I couldn't see anything worth the inclusion and the 6xp just for Ever Vigilant basically.

Apr 29, 2023 captainfire · 237

Love it, and the write-up is really good on this one, great job ! ;) We allow Researched cards for independants on our group, it doesn't break the game so I'll just take out Observed and the Star I think to make it a 21xp deck :) (not legal though, I know, don't do this at home or Roland Banks will come for you !)

May 01, 2023 chirubime · 27197

Solid list. It's missing a key element to functionality though.

Core setup is:

  • 1 Ancient Stones
  • 1 Field Agent
  • 1 Empirical Hypothesis

You're missing the card draw to get to your 3 card combo. The 3 cards that draw you cards in this deck are Hypnotic Therapy, Empirical Hypothesis, and Perception.

Perception is solid. Empirical is the engine itself, and doesn't even come online until you draw Field Agent. Hypnotic Therapy has no tutors in the deck so you are at the whim of the card draw to find this.

It's an unfinished deck that needs card draw packages like Practice Makes Perfect + Plan of Action + Perception, Eureka!, Preposterous Sketches, Deep Knowledge, Astounding Revelation thinning via the searches of Backpack and the aformentioned PMP / Eurekas / Tetsuo for both setup as well as Ancient Stone payoff.

All in all, it's nothing new. Looks like a rehash of Big Ma'm on Campus with 2 TSK cards Empirical and Field Agent.

May 01, 2023 chirubime · 27197

@david6680 STTP + Ever-Vig is definitely the way to go on Carolyn. Completely agree.

  • Ever-Vig
  • Dynamite Blast
  • I've Got a Plan

has been tried and true.

May 05, 2023 Nessmk2 · 1

@Valentin1331 Hey, just wanted to say thanks for putting these guides out there! They've brought me countless hours of fun when my friends refuse to build their own decks and I want them to have a great, fun, colorful deck to play. The 20/30k series has been a lot of fun so far and I hope to see more! It's always a mental and emotional challenge to put something out there for people to see, enjoy, comment on, and criticize. Know that you're making at least one player very happy!

May 08, 2023 ScholarStones · 15

I want to find a way to include Practice Makes Perfect in a deck with this many skills -- and that would be the 3rd card for Stick to the Plan! I might try this as a clue-ver with those adjustments, it looks extremely powerful.

May 31, 2023 HolySorcerer · 1

For your standalone deck I don’t think Pathfinder fits. With Power Word you’re going to spend most of the game engaged with multiple enemies, shutting off Pathfinder.

Jun 03, 2023 Lord Phrank · 75

Hi @Valentin1331 and thanks for sharing this deck! I played a blind run of TSK and won the campaign on first trial (together with Akachi, who has been super reliable as she always is...). I have to say that the deck is really powerful, at times even too much! But in the final scenario I had a bad first hand and in fact I was lacking a bit of card draw. I am thinking of ways to fine-tune this... But for now I will enjoy the feeling of having saved mankind from the evil machinations of the red gloved man! (Btw I had 8 uses on my stone... Amazing!)

Nov 19, 2023 Wolf · 80

How do I make Shrewd Analysis work when upgrading my deck on ArkhamDB? I swear I have been here for like 1,5 hours trying to figure this stuff out...

Jan 18, 2024 Heliego · 89

Would you recommend including Foolishness together with weakness To Fight the Black Wind? Which card can I use instead of promise of power?