Extracurricular Activities with Daisy (DttF theme contest)

Daisy and The Academics

This is my entry into Drawn to the Flame's thematic deck competition. "Choose a scenario and build the most thematically linked deck you can."

This deck is to be played with Extracurricular Activities.

Chapter 1: The Night Before

Rain was pouring down at Miskatonic University. In the Orne Library staff room, librarian Daisy Walker was talking to colleagues. Known for her charisma, she was using her powers of persuasion to get her colleagues to save the university.

"Dr. Henry Armitage is worried: Dr. Francis Morgan and Professor Warren Rice are missing, and Armitage thinks the university is under threat, too. While reading The Necronomicon last night, I could feel something too. The very future of higher education is under threat,” she pleaded.

“The good news? I've got a plan! For it to work, I have to call in favors from all of you. The Academics can save the day!"

Dr. William T. Maleson is first to speak. "I've been working on something big, mixing scientific theory and cryptic research.

"I can bring my laboratory assistant: her medical texts and anatomical diagrams will help us figure out what we're up against. With some quick study we'll be forewarned and able to expose the weakness of anything we encounter."

Charles Ross, Esq. was next to speak. "I have loads of items I can bring."

"What about you, Dr. Milan Christopher?" asked Daisy.

“I've been working a hunch, too. In prepration, I've an emergency cache so we have all the resources we need," he said.

"Eureka!" quipped Daisy.

"Thank you, everyone" she continued. "My own fieldwork will help, too. And our research librarian has been looking at the Old Book of Lore; that and her encyclopedia will help."

A quiet voice interrupted from outside the group. It was the art student. "I'll help, but surely we'll need some weapons? A gun or even a knife?"

"Oh don't be silly," snapped Daisy. "If you just stopped working on those preposterous sketches you'd realise nobody has better logical reasoning, inquiring minds, or deduction skills than us. With our true understanding we can find our colleagues, and save the university."

“It’s going to be hard, but putting mind over matter we can put an end to these problems. C'mon, it's not like we'll all suddenly get Amnesia or something silly like that."

"Let's do it. We'll meet at the Miskatonic Quad tomorrow morning."

Chapter 2: The Night After

The group had no idea what had happened. They didn't dare talk about the horrors they had seen the night before.

"Why did we always have to stick together? It would have been much better to split up." asked Dr. Milan Christopher.

"Told you we needed a gun," said the art student, as she continued frantically drawing the sign over and over again.

Playtesting

I achieved all resolutions with this deck on Standard (but then, it does have >20XP). RescuingWarren Rice (R1) and the students (R2) was easy.

Defeating The Experiment meanwhile was hard, and fun, and required everything to fall into place: success hinged on having both copies of "I've got a plan!" in hand, along with Mind over Matter and a couple of spare clues to maximize damage. Getting the spare clues quickly required a bit of luck finding "Jazz" Mulligan on the first attempt (thus only wasting one clue). Once set up, you can deal 6x damage in 2 actions.

After that you need to boost Daisy's hopeless 2 Fight value. Quick Study puts the clue on a location for +3, and that opens up Inquiring Mind for +3. Expose Weakness can weaken The Experiment. And then you just need all your Allies to soak up the damage to account for failed tests on the way.

It took several run-throughs to beat The Experiment but this gang of academics were up to it! Barely.

Build notes

What's the theme? It's Brain over Brawn

Basically: how closely could I build a deck that consists of academics and their equipment. In thinking about the theme, I considered the following:

• Could Daisy round up some of her colleagues and rely solely on their intelligence, education and wits?
• Could they do this using just the equipment found in their offices?
• Could I assume their knowledge of the mythos was minimal, and thus do it with minimum of cards?

Cards that were borderline for inclusion/exclusion

• True Understanding was a thematic fit, but EC doesn't have any Scenario Cards with tests we need to pass. Out
• Scientific Theory isn't particularly useful in deck but it is super-thematic so it stayed in; it might give you the +1 fight you need. In
• For the theme, there really should be a magnifying glass in this deck, but Daisy's just too good at finding clues to need it. Out
• 2x Charisma and Calling in Favors? The idea is to get lots of Allies out, but in practice, they get killed pretty quickly. However, I did need all 3 slots to soak up damage while defeating The Experiment

Duplicated Cards

I wanted to minimize duplications of cards to create as immersive a deck as possible. The only duplicated cards are ones which can help Daisy fight and inflict damage.