Doom Curious? Ask Pete.

Have you always wanted to try doom but felt some combination of intimidated and underwhelmed by investigators like Marie and Amina?

Are you worried about bringing a doom-focused deck to a multi-player session, whether due to the ire of your fellow investigators or your own analysis paralysis?

Is purple just not your thing? And would you like to try a red deck that isn't centered around Scavenging or difficulty reduction?

Do you roll your eyes when you scroll through dozens of 49xp optimized decks?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, consider this solo deck that lets you dip your toes into the doom pool with minimal risk.

In solo, there are many one- or two-clue locations and the health total of bosses is usually scaled down to a manageable level, making doom on Ceremonial Sickle and Dowsing Rod relatively easy to add and reliably remove.

This Pete dick is a great starting point on the doom mechanic for the following reasons:

--From turn to turn, you can rely on Duke as either a complement or an alternative to the Sickle and the Rod, depending on your board state and agenda progress.

--Schoffner's Catalogue makes the featured assets easier to afford.

--Geared Up and Backpack help you get set up quickly and cheaply.

--You'll probably rely on Willpower for Sickle and Rod tests, so Moonstone takes you to 5. From there, you have lots of skill cards with wild boosts to help on tougher or critical checks. A Glimmer of Hope is simple but effective in this regard.

--With Pete's ability, you can use the Sickle or the Rod twice in one turn and you have a variety of cards that you won't cringe at discarding to make this happen.

--You're really only relying on four assets to be fully set up, with maybe Madame Labranche being the only one you'll need a duplicate of. After you have those four in play, the deck runs essentially for free, with recurring A Glimmer of Hope being your only ongoing expense.

--If doom on the Sickle or Rod somehow does get out of control, you can yeet that card with Act of Desperation and generate enough resources to replace it.

--The deck is light on draw, so make use of your basic skill boosters. Don't be bashful about discarding your last card in hand to ready an asset and then fire up Madame Labranche.

This deck is light on soak and devoid of healing, so it's probably not going to prevail in long, grinding scenarios. But, since it is above all an introduction to doom, I found it had enough stamina for Night of the Zealot. (But beware of Ancient Evils when you play ANY doom-dependent deck!)

Upgrades:

--Add traits to #grizzled based on your campaign's encounter cards. But I also love Always Prepared (5xp), especially because this build isn't particularly XP hungry.

--Granny Orne and/or Peter Sylvestre. Either would bring you to willpower and plus another static boost. Pero por que no los dos?

--Backpack to improve reliability in your opening (i.e., Geared Up) hand.

--Unfortunately, Pete can't upgrade either of these doom assets. I think the upgraded Dowsing Rod is especially nice, and I'll be working towards that in my next "Doom Curious" build.

--I didn't get much "bonus" experience with this deck. I didn't build it to be a powerhouse, though. It's a lot of fun at level zero but I think it has a fairly low (i.e., weak) power ceiling.

Other cards to consider:

--Dark Horse would work really well. If you can effectively manage multiple deck mechanics, then go for it!

--The Short Supply suite in place of Geared Up and Backpack, but for this particular deck I prefer the simplicity of an initial setup turn followed by as steady flow of skill boosts.

--St. Hubert's Key instead of Moonstone. I like the latter because it's fast and a little cheaper, and I like 4 Agility a whole lot more than 3. That said, the horror healing on CES is nice, and Duke would appreciate the Knowledge boost.

--One Moonlight Ritual. I wouldn't waste a precious Dunwich slot on it, but I can't say I NEVER wished I had one in hand!

Please let me know what you think about this deck and how you might improve it.