21 Clues in a Turn | HC 7.5k Guide

21 Clues in a Turn

I'm starting a new series, with a deck each Sunday using the new Drowned City cards. I started drafting these decks when I was around 7.5k rating, so I'll stick with calling this my 7.5K series! Here Amanda uses the new and improved Enraptured to supercharge two Eon Charts, allowing for 5 investigate actions where you can commit Deduction to each one...

Overview

• Upgraded Enraptured allows you to recharge (and re-secret?) assets like never before, and naturally Amanda can use her ability to commit it to every investigation test in a turn. Two Eon Charts with Relic Hunter is a natural pairing, giving two additional investigate (or move/evade) actions. Committing Deduction •• to 5 investigate actions gives up to 15 clues, and then you can use Practice Makes Perfect to commit a second Deduction •• twice for a further 4 clues. Then, you can also use Working a Hunch twice for an additional 2 clues. Step aside, Archaic Glyphs!

• Other outlets for Enraptured are Scroll of Secrets and Arcane Insight (or even eligible assets of fellow investigators). Arcane Insight allows you to more easily trivialize high shroud locations, while Scroll of Secrets gives insane card draw that can discard weaknesses alongside the ability to manipulate the encounter deck.

• Speaking of card draw, and in addition to Amanda's ability and Scroll of Secrets, there's Unrelenting - which you can use across multiple actions in a tried and tested combo that can draw up 10 cards in a turn (assuming 5 actions with tests). Cryptic Research also chucks cards at you, as does Perception. Laboratory Assistant is more card draw and horror soak for when you inevitably cycle. In terms of resources, this deck is relatively cheap so despite Cryptic Writings being your only resource card it's enough to get by.

• Enemy management is Vicious Blow •• and Mind over Matter, which works well enough given you're primarily a clue finder. Stunning Blow is useful to exhaust enemies where you're not going to kill them in a single turn. As with all cards under Amanda, you can use Obscure Studies to recapture Vicious Blow •• for a second turn of fighting.

• Did I mention this is also a bless deck? Signum Crucis (which is 0 XP with the taboo) allows you to flood the bag with blesses from time to time, especially if commit it to repeat tests with Amanda's ability. These can then be sealed on Unrelenting for card draw and to keep them in the bag longer. Bless tokens help with treacheries, as does Mouse Mask and Curiosity. Higher Education was forgone for this reason, as there's enough coverage for and you don't really need boosts.

Campaign starter and planned progression

In the Thick of It makes this a 29 XP deck. In terms of side deck one Promise of Power could replace a Plan of Action, but I'm not a huge fan of tokens - especially with Amanda's iffy statline. Long Shot can be used for more damage on a Vicious Blow turn (or to commit to every Mind over Matter action), but in practice the lack of symbols hurts it quite a bit. You could keep Vicious Blow un-upgraded and instead have two copies of Death • XIII (likely kicking out Working a Hunch for space), but I think there's already enough symbols in the deck (paired to the ridiculous card draw) that this unnecessary.

0 XP deck is as follows (and link here):

A recommended order of purchases/upgrades is (you can move Vicious Blow •• up to after Deduction •• if you need more combat flex early):

• 1 x Stunning Blow → 1 x Eon Chart •

• Enraptured → Enraptured ••

• 1 x Scroll of Secrets → 1 x Scroll of Secrets •••

• Deduction → Deduction ••

• 1 x Vicious Blow → 1 x Arcane Insight

• Relic Hunter (19 XP here for standalones)

• 1 x Vicious Blow → 1 x Vicious Blow ••

• Overpower → Cryptic Research

Final thoughts

This deck is stupidly good! As soon as you get an Eon Chart out then Enraptured •• works exactly as intended, supercharging both the Chart and you're other assets and making you benefit massively from Deduction ••. While the situations where you'll actually need 21 clues in one turn are vanishingly slim, the raw power to hoover up so many clues rapidly is never going to not be useful.

Give it a try, you'll like it! For the series itself, I've drafted 10 decks total all using the new cards (one with one of the new investigators - which I'll post a bit further down the line). Hope you enjoy!