It's all Greek to Daisy

Whether you're stumbling across this deck on ArkhamDB or you've come here from my guide to Orphic Theory, welcome! Between the theory of Orpheus and the twine of Ariadne, Daisy's apparently been categorising the Greek Mythology section of the library this week...

Deck concept

This deck is designed to showcase the new card Orphic Theory. In brief, it packs an array of search options to find Orphic Theory and other key cards, Astounding Revelation and other cards to keep Orphic Theory topped up with Secrets, extra card draw to keep moving forward, and a solid array of investigation bonuses to excel at the primary Seeker job of finding clues.

This build uses In the Thick of It in order to have Orphic Theory online from the first scenario of the campaign, but this might not be worth it - read my guide to Orphic Theory to see whether you actually want to start with it, or whether it would be better to wait. Daisy has nine sanity, but her Necronomicon weakness hits her in the sanity so mental trauma is still a substantial liability.

That's also the reason for starting with Scientific Theory - the level 1 Composures are generally unimpressive cards, but it's primarily here to be 1 horror soak, fast, at 1 resource, in order to make up for the horror that the deck will be taking due to all the card draw and reshuffling (though bear in mind that you only take the reshuffle horror after you've finished the draw that emptied your deck, so if you use it to soak up that horror specifically it will go to discard only after reshuffling, and thus only appear every other time you cycle through the deck). Otherwise, a copy of Scientific Theory (3) is an early priority for the deck so think of it as an investment towards its more potent upgrade.

Orphic Theory helps suppress persistent treacheries, many of which are obstacles to investigating, so this deck is designed with a number of tools for getting clues in as short a timescale as possible - if you can use the extra investigation from Grim Memoir and Daisy's ability, coupled with Deduction (maybe twice, if you find it with Practice Makes Perfect) and even an extra clue from Empirical Hypothesis, you can suppress a Locked Door for a round and potentially clear off the location in that one round, and avoid ever having to waste time breaking down the door.

Orphic Theory is more useful in larger player counts where it will have more targets and there's a greater chance that it can help a player out with a treachery that hits them in their vulnerabilities, particular since it isn't limited by range - as such, this deck is primarily intended for multiplayer, but it can be tweaked for lower player counts or solo.

Mulligan Priority

In brief, keep any assets other than Scientific Theory - Orphic Theory is a key card for the deck, and everything else provides plenty of card economy and as such is good to have early so you can search and draw through the rest of your deck and get the ball rolling. Feel free to mulligan everything else away unless you have a specific reason to want it (and obviously always mulligan away Astounding Revelation), but if you have a decent starting hand, be sparing with your mulligans - you'll draw what you need soon enough, and you don't want to draw into Astounding Revelation instead of finding it in your many search effects.

Piloting

This deck is more or less a standard Seeker deck. With Whitton Greene, we have a static intellect of 6. Investigating with Grim Memoir brings that up to 8, and we have plenty of skills and icons to commit. Investigate locations to gain clues and progress quickly through the scenario - a standard Daisy approach. The deck is notably weak in terms of self-defense, and assumes that the rest of the team has enemies covered - prioritise Occult Invocation or Occult Lexicon/Blood-Rite with your search effects if you need a bit of combat ability, but overall if you scratch your Guardian's back with Orphic Theory support, they should be happy to scratch the monsters' backs with their machete. In an emergency, you could use Scientific Theory to boost a basic Fight action, but it's really not ideal.

Upgrade Priority

If starting without In The Thick of It, replace Orphic Theory with Deny Existence and an extra copy of Shortcut - in this case, Orphic Theory should be the first priority, replacing those Deny Existence copies.

After that, priority upgrades are Scientific Theory (3), Word of Command and Ariadne's Twine, replacing Scientific Theory (1)/Shortcut, Burning the Midnight Oil and Truth from Fiction, respectively.

Ancestral Knowledge is a good pickup once the core cards are in place - there's plenty of solid level 0 Skills between Neutral, Seeker and Mystic for the last 2 to add to your deck, with Curiosity as my suggestion - get rid of Practice Makes Perfect and add in Ward of Protection at this point, to defend against treacheries that can't be solved with Orphic Theory, and otherwise fill the remaining slots with your preferred classic Seeker cards like those previously removed or Crack the Case, alongside maybe a second copy of Scientific Theory (3).

After that, the rest of the upgrades are pretty straightforward - Pathfinder replaces the remaining Shortcut, and everything else is simply higher level versions of existing cards.

Variations on a Theme

This deck is designed to cycle cards in and out of hand very quickly and emphasise Orphic Theory, but it has the potential to lean into other ideas alongside its core concept. With its massive card draw, a Big Hand approach is certainly very viable - take Laboratory Assistant as your ally, take Celaeno Fragments in place of Occult Lexicon, and pick up Extensive Research. Dream-Enhancing Serum and Farsight are harder to fit in since Orphic Theory takes up an arcane slot, but you could squeeze one of them in, too.

The Research/skill theme can be more heavily emphasised, with Surprising Find and Old Book of Lore instead of Grim Memoir - it's a bit more chaotic and could end up feeling superfluous, but it's a fun way to play Seeker. Surprising Find doesn't always play nicely with Ancestral Knowledge, but it's not the end of the world if copies end up under Ancestral Knowledge - they're still 1 wild icon at the very least.

For solo, or groups lacking combat ability, more fighting ability could be necessary. I'd add in and maybe Spectral Razor, and consider replacing them with Abyssal Tome and/or Brand of Cthugha down the line.

Final Thoughts

As the "ambassador" for Orphic Theory, I've been putting a lot of thought into decks that can use it. Daisy seems like the most ideal place for it - she has access to more effects that can recharge it, and Word of Command to find it, without suffering the slot pressure that Luke might have to deal with. However, there's plenty of other places to use Orphic Theory - it doesn't really need any support to be useful, so anyone with access to level 1 Seeker assets can use it. Whether you try out this deck or use it elsewhere, I hope it ends up being a fun and interesting card.

And once again, I'll plug my guide to Orphic Theory, which contains analysis of its interactions, rules quirks and every treachery card that it can affect - broken down by encounter set as well as campaign-by-campaign and scenario-by-scenario, so you can see exactly whether you want to use it in your campaign, and when it's best to choose.