The Great and Cursed Direct-Damage Luke Robinson

This deck was designed on the release of the Devil Reef mythos pack from Innsmouth's Conspiracy.

Two player cards caught my eyes : Gaze of Ouraxsh and Manipulate Destiny. Two cards based on dealing direct damage to enemies thanks to curse tokens in the same card pack ? Yea, maybe the game designers are telling us someting. What if this strat was the future for some investigators ? What if dealing direct-damage would become a norm in the next years to come ?

Those two cards oriented me to a mystic/seeker investigator that relied on events. I immediatly thought about Luke Robinson and its fantastic door the the dreamlands. And I thought to myself : what if I didn't include a single copy of Shrivelling ? Yes, a mystic solo deck, that could manage monsters, but without any charge-based spell. Let's go !

• 1 : ABOUT DIRECT DAMAGE - a review

I realised that the player card pool already had a lot of options to deal direct damage (without any test required) to enemies, but that no investigator except Agnes Baker was built around that. Dealing damage without any Fight test is a very powerfull effect in this game considering that it will never fail (by getting an for exemple). Thus, it will never trigger some nasty effects such as Alert or Retaliate.

The class is to this day the richest in terms of direct-damage player cards. This little buddy and Beat Cop (+ its xp form Beat Cop) were the first allies with a printed effect dealing direct damage (it still required a condition, but no test). The fact that you could heal them during a scenario to keep their damage consistent was a nice option to finish smaller enemies. Brother Xavier could burst on nasty enemy once he died but that was only a 1 time effect. Later, the powerhouse Agency Backup would redefine what a 5 xp ally could do to the game, with potentially 4 damage delt without any test needed (but the problem is that you had to exaust them each time). Alice Luxley was also a nice way to convert some clue-gathering cards such as Scene of the Crime or Working a Hunch in direct-damage events.

As for events, Mano a Mano and its pugrade never really attracted anyone, maybe because some combat-focused investigators needed a "Fight" action to perform well and that other options existed. Ambush was part of a long-forgotten pile of trap cards that never saw plays. The various forms of Dynamite Blast you could find on the market also gave you great tools to deal with aloof enemies, cultists in The devourer bellow, or even Swarm enemies in the Dream-eaters campaign. Even if pricey, they still are fantastic ways to burst enemies out of your way without (alsmost any) risks. Heroic Rescue didn't seem to play any role in a specific deck, even in a Calvin-suicide route. The upgrade of Taunt could find a room in some decks for multiplayer, but its cost in experience made it difficult to justify.

Zoey Samaras was the first investigator that could instant-kill whippoorwills with her fantastic cross right after engaging them. This tool was one of my main reasons to love Zoey back in the day, it felt so powerfull - and it still is.

In , the Occult Lexicon provided 3 potential spells that could each deal up to 2 damage without any test (they asked for 2 ressources and 2 cards instead). When I tested this card the first time in a Mandy Thompson deck, I was surprised by how good those 2 damage were and how cool it was to deal with enemies like that. The recent release (and taboo) of the best asset for seekers also adds a very nice way to deal 3 damage to an enemy. Its too bad Luke Robinson can't take it for the purpose of this deck. This specific Ancient Stone was also a secret-based asset able kill some weaker enemies. And let's not forget our favorites relics in seeker Disc of Itzamna and its fantastic upgrade, even if situational and focused on non-elite enemies.

In , you could deal up to 2 damage to an enemy with Small Favor, a still valuable card to this day (for our favorite painter for exemple), but certainly not suited for every investigator and quite expensive for what it does. Coup de Grâce is even less popular right now and might never see any play soon because of it being situational. Delilah O'Rourke was proven to be a fantastic monster-killer, especially in an evasion-based investigator where she managed all the threats once they were exausted. To this day, she still is the best ally in terms of managing enemies I think. Its basically a recursive Sneak Attack that you can adapt for each situation.

In , Lantern and its Xp version where also some costy options. The nice thing was to replay them again and again with William Yorick, Scrounge for Supplies, Scavenging. Still an expensive and time-consuming way to deal direct damage, and mostly suited for small enemies. Aquinnah and her older sister were still forgotten, even if they could potentially hit hard on some nasty enemies. Oops! is also a niche card that never really found its place in any deck to this day.

And in , our famous waitress was the early queen of direct damage, being able to deal 1 damage (per phage !!) to an enemy at her location as long as she received horrors. It became very clear in the early days of the Core set that Agnes was very good at finishing/killing the first boss of this game, avoiding its retaliate keyword. Hypnotic Gaze was not eazy to trigger, especially if you were not playing the chaos manipulator

• 2 : ABOUT THE STATEGY Let's curse ourselves

Cursetokens came out in the Innsmouth's Conspiracy and provided a new strategy that solidified upon the release of the various Covenants (In Too deep). The Blasphemous one really intringued me : so now curse tokens are basically +1(limite once per turn) ? The +1 token you always want to see (with the of course). That covenant would also put back in the bag one revealed curse token per turn, providing a potentially endless source of +1 ? Seemed too good to be true. So I needed to test a deck around that covenant.

This deck is quite similar to other mystic builds. Your main goal in the first turns is to put your best assets in play (St. Hubert's Key, Dr. Milan Christopher, David Renfield or Dayana Esperence. That way, you can soak some damage and/or horror, and collect the early clues of the scenario. At the begining of the game, you can also heal some damage on yourself if you had trauma by casting Manipulate Destiny before adding the curse tokens.

But you have an other mission. This deck will onky perform well if you fill the bag with those nasty Curse tokens. So you want to play as much Deep Knowledge, Stirring Up Trouble and Promise of Power as possible. I did not include Tempt Fate since it also added blessed tokens that we kind of not want to reveal when we cast a Gaze of Ouraxsh. I also avoided the Cryptic Grimoire because we still don't know what its upgrades are - but I'm sure it could find a place later in this build. Occult Lexicon was an obvious choice in this deck since it could deal 2 damage without too much risks several times.

Dayana Esperence was chosen for her great abiility to replay the Manipulates,Gazes or even Stirring Up Trouble again and again. She was also perfect to soak the damage since our dreamer is very fragile.

The classic mystic events such as Ethereal Form,Read the Signs and Spectral Razor are auto-include in a Luke Robinson deck, they really have nice interactions with his ability. Working a Hunch is a nice way to collect clues at higher-shroud locations without taking too many actions.

St. Hubert's Key was chosen for its consistent boost in and . Robes of Endless Night is here to mitigate the price of all those events and also soak some damage if needed.

Enraptured main goal was to add more secrets on Gate Box and/or Dayana Esperence.

Once you have around 5 or 6 curse tokens, your events are ready to deal damage. Gaze of Ouraxsh will improve each time a curse token will be added to the deck. The Blasphemous Covenant is required to avoid emptying the bag of curse tokens along the way.

• 3 : Deck performances

And it actually works. Luke Robinson was able to beat the Dunwich Legacy campaign in solo (standard difficulty) without much effort in the mid-campaign. He performed really well in all scenarios except for the Essex County Express (where his gate box is not that usefull) and he received 2 physical traumas due to a failed test on the back of the agenda deck and an Emergent Monstrosity. This deck asks some time to build the main strategy, but once you have the basics, it really shines at both enemy managment and clue-gathering.

Luke was able to kill several annoying Whippoorwillin its location, one-shot Seth Bishop and deal 5 damage in 1 action to Silas Bishop thanks to the great gaze. Occult Invocation were perfect to kill the 3-HP enemies such as Wizard of Yog-Sothoth. He was also able to rescue Peter Clover in The House always wins, just after killing a nasty 5 Hp enemy. That's something I never had the time to do with the other investigators before. His gate box is very nice to teleport back in some key places, like The Edge of the Universe in Lost in time and space.

• 4 : Conclusion

Overall, this deck felt really fun and engaging to play. It had lots of decisions (when to trigger gate box, when to cast your damage-spells, when to add more curse tokens knowing you could draw them all in a single test later.) It felt fresh and not that difficult. Luke Robinson is perharps one of the best investigators that can play Gaze of Ouraxsh and Manipulate Destiny, but I'll test those cards in other investigators for sure.