Patrice Hathaway in FHV

This deck was created for a two-handed solo run of The Feast of Hemlock Vale, alongside Mark Harrigan, on Standard. I originally picked Wilson Richards as Patrice's partner but I wasn't able to get them both through the campaign together even after multiple attempts and optimizations.

This deck list is an updated version from an earlier one which can be found here. I'll revise some of the comments I made about various cards and I'll speculate on others which might be good too.

This deck has gone through a fair number of iterations so there are some cards I feel very confident in recommending, some I feel pretty good about, and some that I would probably drop if I was going to keep working on this deck.

Minor spoiler alert (skip this section if you don't want to know about a certain treachery and a weakness in FHV).

The treachery in question appears in two optional scenarios and the finale, and it sits in your threat area and deals five horror to you when your hand is empty. Since Patrice discards her whole hand every turn during the upkeep phase, you will probably want to have a plan for dealing with it.

You can choose to avoid the two optional scenarios, but if you decide to do them early, Talisman of Protection is a good way to mitigate the horror hit, since you will generally have time to get both of them into play before you really need them.

You can try taking more allies to soak the horror, and Ward of Protection is helpful but you need to have it in hand. For the run I did with this deck, I did one of the optional scenarios late in the game when I had two copies of Plucky to help absorb the horror hit. The other card which helped was Hunting Jacket, which I had planned on taking anyway.

There are a few other mechanics in FHV which Patrice can have trouble with, but she also has some distinct advantages, like with the campaign weakness you can potentially take.

It's a skill with one wild icon and it subtracts from your test score, and if you fail the test you have to discard your whole hand. Also, if it's in your hand at the end of your turn you have to discard a random card. But since Patrice can easily empty her hand of all cards except that one, you can simply discard it to its own effect.

Card commentary:

Drain Essence, String of Curses, Stall for Time: This is the deck's early-game enemy-handling package, and these are some of the first cards I replaced as the deck gained XP since they were mostly only needed before Mark got up to speed (ie. before he got his Shotgun).

They all work well against Aloof and/or Elusive enemies (you don't have to engage them) and Stall for Time is good for exhausting Elites since it uses , and early in the campaign it will probably be easier to boost that over your .

One copy of Eldritch Tongue complements these cards very well since they will often end up in your discard pile before you can use them. I kept Drain Essence for the entire campaign because of its pseudo-healing effect, and it's also handy for getting around some enemy abilities that trigger on taking damage. I took two physical trauma from In the Thick of It as well, so I could use Drain Essence right away.

Impromptu Barrier: I upgraded out of this card too early to get a good feel for it, but I suspect it would be very good later in the campaign when you can boost your evade value high enough to reliably evade two targets. The second target doesn't need to be engaged with you, so it should be another good tool for dealing with Aloof enemy abilities.

Lucky!, Live and Learn: I found Lucky's value dropped off markedly after I picked up Cornered, though it took me a while to realize I was never actually playing it so I kept it in the deck until late. I replaced Live and Learn pretty early because I took it mostly just to re-evalute it, and I still don't like it for Patrice. I think it's generally only worth taking if your deck is built to take advantage of failing tests and/or if you have assets that spend charges or ammo when you use them.

Earthly Serenity: I took this with the In the Thick of It XP instead of At a Crossroads because I thought Mark would make good use of it, and it did come in handy in that regard. It also turned out to be good for Patrice because I drew Panic as her basic weakness.

Moonstone, Miss Doyle, Sparrow Mask: Patrice generally wants to be light on assets because she needs to play them on the turn she draws them (or they get discarded) so these are the only other ones the deck starts with.

"Look what I found!": Since Patrice's is only two, when you investigate a 2-shroud location at parity you have a good chance of failing, so this card supplements her other investigation tools pretty well (and it has good icons). It has some synergy with Winging It too, such that if you lower a location's shroud to two and fail that test, you can still claim the clues.

Premonition: I was really impressed by how good this card is for Patrice. Typically, you want to make use of every card in her hand each turn, so knowing whether or not you need to commit cards or discard them to Cornered for any particular test really helps when assigning your limited resources. It's good against the Watcher from Another Dimension since it usually takes a heavy commit to deal with it (if you don't have Hope or Zeal) and it's good against certain weaknesses.

It's a card that will always provide value on the turn you draw it, which can't be said for every card in Patrice's deck. Since it stays in play until it's consumed, if you don't need it during your turn you can leave it on the table for the next player to make use of, or for the Mythos phase on the following round. You can also play it during the player window after the Investigation phase begins to help you decide which player should go first.

Promise of Power: I cut this after getting Cornered because at that point it felt superfluous for most tests on Standard.

Unexpected Courage: This was originally Perception but I changed it because Patrice really does test every skill (even , with Spectral Razor) and it was useful for helping Wilson, who also tests every skill. Mark didn't need much help to pass tests but I kept it anyway because its flexibility really did feel valuable.

Here are the upgrades I purchased, roughly in order of acquisition and/or importance:

Cornered: This card opens up Patrice's ability to pass any test, no matter the difficulty. Suddenly, all those cards without icons or with conditions you can't meet on the turn you draw them now have a use, and also enables cards like Winging It or Impromptu Barrier by getting them into your discard pile.

Sharp Vision: I replaced Drawn to the Flame with these, as they perform a similar job. It's not hard to get two clues once you have Cornered, and as I mentioned in my original article, the 3 boost never goes to waste. You can also recover this with Resourceful.

Hunting Jacket: This card lets you hold onto other cards (especially assets) you might not be able to afford to play on the turn you draw them, and it generates six resources over three turns. It also provides some valuable soak, but its main downside is that you can't defeat it whenever you want to (Spirit of Humanity is probably the best way to solve that problem, but I didn't want to make a Bless/Curse deck). It also provides some valuable soak.

I replaced Emergency Cache here, thinking that the jacket fulfilled a similar role, but when you don't have Patrice's Violin it's easy to get resource-locked, so this was a mistake. I probably could have dropped one, and maybe upgraded the other to Emergency Cache.

At a Crossroads: This one felt less important without Wilson around to benefit from the card draw (Mark didn't need any help in that department) but it's still a good way for Patrice to take an extra action. You can definitely feel the impact of discarding a card (since you only have five to work with each turn) but it's still generally a net gain in effectiveness. Still, I'm not sold on it when she's the main beneficiary, so this is definitely a flex slot.

Plucky: Patrice likes Fast assets, and this is a good one that boosts her two primary stats. It's a valuable source of horror soak, and it will generally stick around for a while since the Hunting Jacket and her allies can protect it. It might be the best of the upgraded Composures, particularly since Survivor can more easily afford the 3XP cost.

Persistence: This is a great skill for Patrice, as you can discard it to Cornered and then commit it from your discard pile for +3 test score. I replaced the Unexpected Courages with this.

Enchanted Bow, Occult Reliquary: I added the bow right before a particular scenario (you'll know it if you do it) and it proved effective for the rest of the campaign for dealing with Aloof/Elusive enemies and for helping Mark conserve his ammo. The Reliquary is there so that Patrice can still hold her violin.

Charisma: I purchased this so that Patrice could keep Miss Doyle out alongside a story asset ally. In hindsight it might not have been worth it, but it did allow her to maintain more horror soak.

Fortune or Fate: I usually add one copy of this to my Survivor decks for the final scenario, as I did here. Unfortunately, I didn't have the resources I needed to play it each time it showed up.

Rise to the Occasion: I purchased this heading into the final scenario, for a specific reason which I won't go into here.

And that's it. Patrice is a lot of fun to play and I enjoyed tailoring this deck for The Feast of Hemlock Vale. If I was going through it again I would make a few more refinements, but for now I'm going to set my sights on a new investigator.