Agnes Baker - Good Stuff, No Waiting

This is my attempt at a straight up high draw consistency "good stuff" Agnes deck. Im still to take this version of it for a test run (previous version (unpublished) had a Leather Coat and a Rabbit's Foot in place of the Painkillers), but I thought I would post it in case anyone has any comments.

Why Pete and No Rosary? I didnt include Holy Rosary as a friend once pointed out that 5 should be enough for most instances. Guts, Lucky!, Unexpected Courage, and on Rite of Seeking uses, "Look what I found!" all give you options to effectively go to 7 on expectional tests (even retrospectively in the cases of Lucky! and "Look what I found!"). Ritual Candles also add a reasonable amount of consistency here. Note that your main interest in the Candles is in taking tokens that would be a -3, up to a -2. So they may be campaign and difficulty level dependent.

Peter Sylvestre on the other hand boosts evasion, gives small passive bonuses to a lot of problematic encounter cards and gives you somewhere to dump excess horror if you cant (or dont want to) trigger your ability from it - saving them for better times. Note that this can also include hits from Painkillers if necessary.

If im honest i do see the argument for rosary in his place ofc. Though both would be upgraded to Peter Sylvestre v2 in the very near term anyway so it might only matter for your first game of a campaign.

DAMAGE:

Shrivelling is a solid include in any mystic deck, unfortunately with just 2 in the deck it cant be relied upon to be drawn. Forbidden Knowledge and Painkillers give you alternative means to deal damage via her ability. Blinding Light is another. Grabbing Song of the Dead once you have a little xp will go a long way to giving you consistent access to some sort of based combat option, though granted not one with reliable bonus damage.

CLUE HUNTING:

No surpirses here either. Rite of Seeking, Drawn to the Flame and "Look what I found!" all give strong options and double clues. Unfortunately you might need them with base 2.

EVASION:

Blinding Light, and at a push, Manual Dexterity, Unexpected Courage or Lucky! could be used as one shot evade buttons. Dont forget that Peter Sylvestre takes you to 4, which isnt awful in its own right on a lot of stuff (if you didnt plink it dead with your ability).

ENCOUNTER MITIGATION:

Aside from Ward of Protection doing what it says on the tin. Most non enemy encounter cards that you can do anything about test or . Natural base 5 covers the former, Peter Sylvestre, Manual Dexterity cover the latter, again the usual Unexpected Courage or Lucky! can back up. Painkillers and Peter Sylvestre can replace/mitigate damage and horror if you take it.

I didnt include Scrying as I personally find it too slow and im not too keen on the fact you never know if it will be helpful or not upfront. Too often i burn an action when the draw could have been delt with by other means. A friend pointed out this is a card you use for left over actions that are better than taking a resource/card, but i think for this deck theres enough support cards to be played that should to soak those actions up (Pete, Painkillers, Cache and Candles). If you wanted it in i would possibly swap a Painkillers out for a one of.

FIRST UPGRADES:

Peter Sylvestre v2 and Song of the Dead as mentioned above. I would possibly put the Song over 1 Painkillers and 1 Unexpected Courage.

After that: Grotesque Statue over Ritual Candles. I know they go well together, but these are supports for other stronger actions here rather than for use in their own right. Another option might be to put the Statue over Unexpected Courage if you arnt happy with that.

Eventually: Lucky! v2 and Blinding Light v2 are straight upgrades if you end up with spare xp and an upgraded Rite of Seeking has been spoiled by FFG later in the cycle.