Marie Lambeau | By Thoth’s Blood, By Yoth’s Blade (28xp)

Eyes of Valusia is the most controversial piece in this deck, so it’s worth addressing up front: this deck isn’t primarily built around it and instead leans toward a cluever/support role. However, when the conditions align and Blade of Yoth enters play, it can turn Marie into a remarkably competent fighter without compromising her primary role.

You’re not a fighter… until suddenly, you are. And when that happens, you don’t give the role back.

Primary role: Cluever & Team support

I won’t dwell too much here, as this is the more straightforward (and admittedly less flashy) part of the deck.

Clueving

• Grim Memoir leverages Marie’s 4 and provides valuable card draw in a class that often struggles with it.
• Eyes of the Dreamer leverages Marie's 4 and offers potential clue compression.
• Read the Signs handles high-shroud locations while also providing clue compression.

Team support

• Blood of Thoth provides additional actions for your more focused teammates.
• Enchant Weapon significantly increases your main fighter’s damage output.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the fun part of the deck: how to stop supporting the team and start taking care of everything yourself.

By Thoth’s blood

The Taboo list significantly boosted Blood of Thoth. Combined with Blood Pact(3) and Sin-Eater, it effectively grants an additional action each turn -provided you can trigger a test which is enabled by Eyes of the Dreamer.

Because Eyes of the Dreamer is a Spell, it also activates Marie’s ability for an extra action, resulting in five-action turns with minimal upkeep aside from the occasional action to cleanse Sin-Eater.

With consistent five-action turns, spending actions to parley with Eyes of Valusia is no longer a tempo loss. It’s an investment.

By Yoth’s blade

Notably, Eyes of Valusia and its counterpart Blade of Yoth do not share the same traits, leading to different synergies:

• Eyes of Valusia (Spell):
  • Works with Marie’s ability
  • Can be tutored with Arcane Initiate
  • Can be played using Uncage the Soul
• Blade of Yoth (Weapon):
  • No longer works with Marie’s ability
  • Becomes a valid target for Enchant Weapon

As a singleton, Eyes of Valusia isn’t easy to find, but Arcane Initiate does a reliable job of digging for it.

Once it’s in play, the main question becomes: when is the right time to swap it, and how many parley actions are you willing to invest before transitioning into Blade of Yoth? Ideally, you don’t want to swap back. The answer depends on the board state, how well your main fighter is handling enemies and whether you’re falling behind on clues.

As a rule of thumb, switch at ~3 charges, then use the deck’s tools to empower and sustain Blade of Yoth:

• Enchant Weapon allows the blade to deal 3 damage per attack while spending only one charge, effectively saving a charge each turn against enemies with 3 or more health.
• Enraptured(2) adds 3 charges to the blade and can be reused multiple times per game with Practice Makes Perfect.

Familiar Spirit is included to provide the additional arcane slot required for Enchant Weapon. The deck runs only one copy of Charisma, meaning that if Baron Samedi is in play, you may have to discard Arcane Initiate. This is generally acceptable, as by the time Familiar Spirit becomes relevant, your setup is already complete.

Other cards / Side combos

• Cat Mask is a repeatable boost engine, easily replenished with Blood Pact(3) and Sin-Eater.
• Ghastly Possession is highly versatile: a skill that also “banks” half an action and adds a charge to the tested asset, or a skill that can replenish Grim Memoir (2 secrets) and Eyes of the Dreamer (4 charges).
• Arcane Initiate can be used twice on the turn it enters play and is non-unique. Playing both copies lets you double your digging speed for the 12 Spell cards in the deck.

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Weaknesses / Things to Watch For

Soak is somewhat limited in this deck, especially given the lack of a dedicated plan for Baron Samedi beyond running a single copy of Charisma. You rely heavily on your allies for protection (a total of 3/5 soak across three allies) and on your ability to deal with Baron Samedi the conventional way as quickly as possible.

Final Thoughts

Originally, I built this deck to pair with Quick Learner Yorick | Fight, Clue, Repeat (29 xp). The synergies below illustrate how Marie can complement a team composition and provide balance:

• Eyes of Valusia helps Yorick navigate his first action at +2 difficulty from Quick Learner.
• Blood of Thoth grants Yorick an additional action at -2 difficulty from Quick Learner.
• Enchant Weapon allows Yorick to deal 3 damage per attack instead of 2.
• Blade of Yoth supports late-game combat when Yorick starts to run out of steam (ammo/charges).

I also really enjoy the thematic and mechanical symmetry between the two decks. Both can reach five-action turns, but through different means: Yorick through combat (defeating enemies to recycle Police Badge), and Marie through investigation (leveraging her ability alongside Blood of Thoth).

Hope you enjoyed!