Does Sister Mary dream of Mechanic Dogs?

• I have struggled to build a deck for Sister Mary that I found interesting. Her appeal as THE investigator has decreased with the release of || Father Mateo and Kōhaku Narukami, and I find it harder and harder to find things she can do that others cannot do better than her.

• I was hoping to use the new Memories of Another Life and do something cool, but the level 0 cards were all underwhelming, and I couldn't find anything here either. In the end, the only thing I found for Mary was as obvious as it was disappointing : use Transfiguration and be Not-Mary.

• This is a Main fighter Sister Mary deck, who aims to use Transfiguration to become Daniela Reyes and use the guardian cards that reward the user for getting attacked, ones that Daniela cannot otherwise use (Survival Knife (2), Guard Dog (2), Thornmail).

• The Book of War is a new favorite of mine, and Daniela with Toe to Toe was one of my first ideas for it. However, she couldn't take Stick to the Plan or Research Librarian to make the combo more consistent. Thankfully, Sister Mary can take the former for her !

• This deck is tested : I ran this deck through The Feast of Hemlock Vale on Standard to victory (R3 Conclusion), alongside Frankenstein Sagatha - A Thought Experiment and Alessandra : Friends Everywhere.

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• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Nun by Day ...

• ... Mechanic by Night

• Other Cards

• Upgrade Path

• Conclusion

• Transfigure into Daniela Reyes and live your best life with the toys she's been eyeing for years : Survival Knife, Guard Dog and Thornmail.

• The Book of War lets you use Toe to Toe or Counterpunch multiple times and defeat stronger enemies.

The goal of the deck is to Transfigure as soon as possible. However, even with a hard mulligan and the slightly reduced deck size from Stick to the Plan, this isn't something you can guarantee. And since the deck's job is to act as a main fighter, it needs ways to deal with enemies as early as turn two, with or without Transfiguration.

• Overpower allows you to use Survival Knife and Enchanted Blade with a skill value of 7, and draw more cards in your search for Transfiguration if you succeed.

• Spectral Razor achieves the same skill value and higher damage output, and is even more useful as Sister Mary for its significant skill boost than it is for Daniela Reyes, who doesn't really care for it and treats it mostly like a 3rd/ 4th vicious blow.

• Even without either, Sister Mary can use Survival Knife and Enchanted Blade with a base skill of 5, which, when paired with her early tokens, still gives her good odds of success against most foes.

• is also useful here, specifically with Toe to Toe. Mary does not get rewarded for getting attacked like Daniela Reyes, but Guard Dog and Armor of Thorns still work. Ultimately, the real appel is the ability to Automatically succeed, and therefore sidestep the issue of Mary's lower altogether.

• As a final benefit to the Transfiguration, you will stop to generate tokens, making your Crisis of Faith a very mild weakness unless drawn very early.

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So, you've successfully used Transfiguration. Now what ?

• The Doggos replace your missing Mechanic's Wrench, and also give you a engage action on top of the attack trigger, which ensures that the target enemy, if it is still alive, attacks you during the Enemy phase...

• ... Which is, of course, what you want, since it lets you cheat a free attack using Survival Knife. Ideally, you'll be able to whittle away at the enemy during your turn using the knife or Enchanted Blade, such that the bonus attack knocks out the enemy before it hits you.

• If the enemy hits quite hard, you may not want to actually tank a hit from it. Survival Knife + Counterpunch (which starts the game under The Plan, and can be used many times thanks to The Book of War) can deal up to 4 damage (or more with Vicious Blow) before that can happen, and all of that at an impressive skill value of 7. As a last resort, your one Dodge can save you from the attack altogether.

• Daniela Reyes, Guard Dog and Hunter's Armor can combine for up to 3 damage without needing to take a skill test or do anything at all. Note the Symmetry between Guard Dog and Hunter's Armor : As Sister Mary, you'll likely need more health soak, while Daniela's weakness lies more in the Sanity department. This pair of cards offers a nice balance of both to operate well regardless of whether or not you've transfigured.

• Related to the above, a Toe to Toe used with full setup (Guard Dog + Transfiguration + Hunter's Armor) does 5 testless damage for 1 action, the same as a successful use of One-Two Punch or a Gang Up with 4 classes. And with The Book of War, you can have many of those !

• Down the Rabbit Hole : With the unfortunate exceptions of Stick to the Plan and Transfiguration, all of the deck's most important xp cards are upgrades, meaning you should be able to make use of the 2 bonus xp easily every scenario from start to finish.

• Emergency Cache, Stand Together : The deck needs some extra resource generation to afford its soaks and weapons. The Cache upgrade will obviously be stuck under Stick to the Plan for turn 1, where the draw will also help to find Transfiguration as early as possible.

• Drawn to the Flame, True Awakening : Cards to help gather clues during downtime. Drawn to the Flame can even draw into an enemy for you to spend the rest of your turn, and is just an all around insane card. As for True Awakening, the Clue + Draw options are the ones you will usually go for, but don't forget the option to heal. As a tank that will often take enemy attacks, this may just come in handy late in the scenario to take that one extra hit that gets you across the finish line.

• Guts, Take the Initiative : Just some staple defensive skill cards to round out the deck. Guts can even be upgraded (at a discount or course) for better card draw, which is very much important early on to find Transfiguration.

Link to the 0xp deck

• The level 0 deck attempts to replace Transfiguration with Wolf Mask, which bumps her from 3 to 5. That's kind of like being Daniela...

• The deck does not run In the Thick of It. Taking 2 mental trauma is a death sentence for Daniela Reyes, in the same way that 2 physical trauma is horrible for Sister Mary. And even the middle ground of one trauma each leaves you with less health to tank hits with Toe to Toe (or enemy attacks in general).

• Worth noting that, thanks to Down the Rabbit Hole, the XP spent does not reflect the costs highlighted in the upgrade path below, which therefore acts more like a guideline. You should aim to make the most out of your 2 upgrade discounts after every scenario.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

• I don't know how to feel about the fact that the only Mary deck I have felt proud of is the one where she is actually a different investigator 80 % of the time ...

• I was extremely happy with how the deck performed. I think the measure of any fighter deck in Hemlock Vale has to be The Longest Night : During the scenario, she spawned on top of Ajax and quickly found Transfiguration, Survival Knife and Guard Dog.

• Unfortunately, both Hunter's Armor were at the bottom of the deck, limiting the ability for Daniela to deal damage and tank horror the point where her sanity was becoming a big concern towards the end of the scenario. Aside from that, She did extremely well, with the free engages (Guard Dog), damage (Daniela Reyes) and attacks (Survival Knife) all being immensely useful.

To create similar guides, find Valentin1331's template, which I used for this guide, here.