Daisy Walker, Amateur Alchemist

Intro:

This is a version of a solo Daisy deck I’ve run through The Dunwich Legacy. You can see my abbreviated notes from the campaign at the bottom of this description. Long story short: She survived (and saved the universe, which is also important I guess). I’ve run an even earlier version through Night of the Zealot, but I didn’t win that one. Came very close to killing Umôrdhoth though.

Besides making it a viable solo deck, I wanted to try something different from the usual “well-educated version of Agnes” you get by combining Higher Education with Shrivelling. Instead I focused on the subtler side of the mystic deck and used seeker cards to provide for my monster slaying needs, which seemed more in character for Daisy.

This deck is not for the faint of heart. Especially in the early stages, you can easily get swarmed by monsters. You have some ability to deal with them, but you have to actually draw the necessary cards, and they require time and resources you might not have. You also have no less than four “dead” cards (Delve Too Deep and Strange Solution) at the onset, which can hurt you. Once the deck is set up though, it becomes a beast.

The goal:

The card that makes this deck possible is Strange Solution Acidic Ichor. You need to identify the strange solution within the first two scenarios (preferably the very first) and get eight experience so you can upgrade to it. Everything after that is just gravy.

As long as you can avoid taking physical trauma, I wouldn’t mind “losing” an early scenario. Just make sure you identify the solution and gather as much experience as possible. Delve Too Deep is your friend there.

The deck:

I’ve divided the cards in the deck into three groups according to their main function: not dying, finding clues and facilitating.

Not dying:

The main players here are "I've got a plan!" and Mind over Matter, which initially represent you main ways of killing stuff. Really weeny things like rats and cultists can be taken out by chucking a couple of cards for their icons, but other than that you only get four shots at actually killing stuff, so make them count.

Otherwise you rely on Scrying, Hypnotic Gaze and the single Blinding Light to keep the beasties away from you. Ward of Protection will save you from some of the other really nasty encounter cards (especially Beyond the Veil).

I personally prefer Hypnotic Gaze to Blinding Light in Daisy (at least until you get Higher Education) since it’s fast and doesn’t require taking a willpower-test. It has the added benefit of working against some of the stuff you can’t dodge. Also, you sometimes get to see Umôrdhoth punch itself in the face, which is absolutely liberating.

Finding clues:

Daisy is naturally well-equipped to do this. Especially in solo play, where you’ll rarely see more than two clues per location, she really doesn’t need much help. Dr. Milan Christopher will help with high-shroud locations, as will Inquiring Mind. I’ve also included a single copy of Deduction for the tempo-boost.

Facilitating:

The rest of the cards. The MVP here is Old Book of Lore. In any other card game, getting such an effect for free every turn would be absolutely game-breaking. Here it’s just very, very good. It helps you find the answers to whatever problems you are facing and it keeps Higher Education online once you get it.

Shortcut gives you a nice tempo-boost, which can be necessary if you spend a lot of actions scrying.

I don’t actually use Medical Texts very often, but the icon can be quite helpful.

You could argue for switching Guts for Manual Dexterity or even Overpower.

Upgrading:

Your first priority is Strange Solution Acidic Ichor. After you get two copies of that, you should get Higher Education as well as two of each Disc of Itzamna and Pathfinder. I’ll leave the exact order up to you, but once you get those, the deck is essentially “complete”. What you do from there is pretty much up to you.

What to cut:

Inquiring Mind, Deduction and Shortcut are some of the first to go. If you don’t have any physical trauma, you could then consider cutting Medical Texts.

Cut the two Delve Too Deep before the last scenario (obviously), or maybe before Where Doom Awaits in Dunwich.

My Dunwich campaign:

Scenario 1, The House Always Wins: The solution was identified, resigned.

Scenario 2, Extracurricular Activity: Defeated the experiment.

Scenario 3, Miskatonic Museum: Fairly easy. Found and kept Necronomicon.

Scenario 4, Essex County Express: Absolutely crushed it. Done before agenda 4.

Scenario 5, Blood on the Alter: Restored Silas. Zebulon and Earl sacrificed.

Scenario 6, Undimentioned and Unseen: Defeated all spawn (barely).

Scenario 7, Where doom awaits: Absolutely crushed it.

Scenario 8, Lost in Time and Space: Won and survived. Yay!