Agnes Baker - Structure Deck Series ( Core Set )

Hello Fellow investigators

Welcome to my structure deck series!

Concept

Since the game contains a large pool of cards and this might seem a bit confusing for newer players I decided to create some deck ideas of old investigators in the game. With the new product of starter decks coming on the way, it gave me a reason to create some decklists through every cycle.

I 'm going to give you an upgrade list for everyone through every cycle. We continue our journey with Agnes Baker the Waitress. She knows how to bake those ghouls! :D

Let start with the show, shall we?

Agnes Pros and Cons

Agnes Baker's specialty is killing monsters and face any treachery with test with ease. Her ability to deal +1 damage is the bread and butter and almost every Agnes decks focus around it. You will find many cards dealing or healing horror to her manipulating that way her sanity (+ or -). Also, her elder sign synergizes pretty well with her ability.

Another important thing is her high (5). You can manage almost every willpower test the encounter deck has to offer you. What's best is that most spells use instead of other skills making other stats irrelevant in the next cycles. Her and are low but it doesn't actually matter so much since you have solutions in your deck. Your is actually decent and can be boosted from some cards too.

Her Guts is situational. Oh sorry! I meant her signature card Heirloom of Hyperborea :D.

Actually there are two reasons why actually with the current card pool Heirloom of Hyperborea is not that good and better use it for the test icons. The first reason is that you don't have many spells in your deck and if you don't play it in your first rounds while building your field with your spell assets you won't get any bonus if you play it in mid-game or even worse at late game. The second reason is Holy Rosary. It is cheaper than Heirloom of Hyperborea, boosts your main stat by 1 and your sanity by 2 making it your priority in the accessory slot.

Now let's move to one of the nastiest weaknesses, Dark Memory. This card works like Ancient Evils and becomes even worse if you don't have resources to play it. It will mess with your plan managing your sanity so better keep in mind to stack some resources unless you are willing to take that horror in order to deal +1 damage in that phase.

Last but not least you have a slow economy like Roland and as the game progress, you 'll get more expensive assets in your hand. There are a couple of cards that help with this problem and we'll mention them below.

Gameplay

First, I think that is important to mention two cards. Scrying keep it in solo since it's great to manipulate the encounter deck for your favor. Combined with Drawn to the Flame it can create a good combo and avoid an unwanted monster. If you 're playing multiplayer games better swap it with a skill card like Guts since it becomes irrelevant with 3-4 players.

Second, I don't use Blinding Light but its upgrade version. This card works more like a finisher move than an evade action. If you want to evade you have a decent stat of 3 and you can boost it with Unexpected Courage or Lucky! so you can evade almost any monster in the core set. As I mention you want to use it as a finisher but +1 damage is low and the drawback is big (lose an action). Avoid it until you got in your hand Grotesque Statue combined with its upgrade version Blinding Light dealing +2 damage and you can manipulate the chaos tokens in your favor with fewer chances of losing an action.

Now let's move on to our card choices.

Use Flashlight for the low shroud locations and "Look what I found!" / Drawn to the Flame on the high ones.

Baseball Bat is good for dealing with Rats and Ghouls since you want to keep Shrivelling and Agnes ability for high health monsters.

Holy Rosary and Arcane Initiate are there to protect your sanity besides their main purpose.

Forbidden Knowledge and Emergency Cache boosts your economy.

Finally, the cards that you play around with your main ability are Shrivelling, Forbidden Knowledge, Ward of Protection and you heal your sanity with Fearless. If you are dealing with an elite monster try to use each of these cards dealing the most damage from your ability. For example:

Mythos phase: treachery card Ward of Protection.

Investigation phase: Use Forbidden Knowledge(also in enemy phase) or hope for one of the tokens that Shrivelling asks for revealing in order to deal +1 damage (Grotesque Statue can help you with that).

Ideal First Hand: Flashlight, Shrivelling, Holy Rosary, Forbidden Knowledge and Emergency Cache

Upgrade Route

There is only one route and that is to get Grotesque Statue. You can manipulate the chaos bag in every test while it combos pretty well with Shrivelling for dealing +1 damage with Agnes ability and the upgraded Blinding Light for the sweet +2 damage.

2x Unexpected Courage 2x Grotesque Statue

2x Baseball Bat 2x Blinding Light

2x Lucky! 2x Lucky!

In multiplayer if you have XP to spare go and swap Arcane Initiate with Aquinnah to deal with multiple enemies.

Book of Shadows is too expensive and Mind Wipe is a specific scenario card upgrade especially in Dunwich so don't spent your XP on those.

Summary

You need to be patient with Agnes like every other investigator and try to mulligan hard your hand for your important cards. Once you play your core assets in the field you 'll be a force to reckon with. The manipulation of the chaos bag and the encounter deck makes Agnes Baker unique and fun to play with.

I hope you like this guide and we'll continue with her Dunwich deck build.

To be continued..