Minh Thi Phan Investigates the Carnevale

Ran this list through Carnevale of Horrors on Standard with Mark and Jenny. The goal was for me to be the primary clue gatherer in the group, a goal with which this deck definitely succeeded.

Thoughts on the Deck:

• Magnifying Glasses were very solid. There's a big difference between 4 and 5 intellect on this scenario.

• Feed the Mind. The jury is still out. I only used it once to reload my hand after my weakness forced me to dump my hand. I could see it being useful if I had my signature asset out and was contributing a lot of skills to tests. But that didn't happen and I was left wishing this game that it just had been Cryptic Research.

• Tooth of Eztli was amazing in this scenario since it allowed me to abuse one of the major problem treacheries that exists in this scenario. As Minh is someone that constantly wants to be drawing cards, this more than payed for itself both by drawing me cards and by making it so I didn't have to commit cards to Willpower tests.

• Fine Clothes were really good in this scenario. This might look a bit like we're gaming the scenario, but in reality, our group of 3 just always has someone running these in every scenario now. I happened to be the one that did it this time. Parley is just that common now and I don't hate having a cheap asset to quickly play.

• Dr. Will was a great little soak as per usual. I didn't use his ability, but have in the past, so no surprise there. Would run him again without question.

• In the Know. It did it's job. I was pretty okay with having it. I ran into a few moments with nothing to do, it gave me something to do. A nice, 1-of.

• Cunning Distraction. Essentially just a 2 Willpower icon card. That's what it was used for. I'd consider running it again for that reason.

• Lucky! As amazing as usual.

• Truth from Fiction. Never used it for it's ability. I would run it again in Minh as long as I had a single target for it. Just having double intellect icons is nice in Minh as it's your primary was to handle your weakness.

• Deduction. Amazing as usual.

• Eureka! Solid card. Nothing exciting to see here.

• Inquiring Mind. Very crucial to battling Minh's weakness. It allowed me to commit it with Perception and Take Heart. A skill test I lost to the Auto-fail token.

• Perception. Solid, would play again.

• Take Heart. Very good, but frequently missed playing it at the right time. It takes a bit to get your mind wrapped around the idea of paying attention to tests people are obviously going to fail. It's tricky enough that next time, I'm going to remind my team to say out loud, "I'm going to fail this test" as a verbal queue to consider playing this card. This card is so strong when properly used that it may be better than Lucky! in Survivor which is saying a lot.

• True Understanding. Worked out well in Minh. I'm not sure it would be as potent in other Seekers.

• Unexpected Courage. Expectedly good as usual.

What would I change?

Just Feed the Mind. Which as mentioned would become Cryptic Researches ideally. Likely, they'd be Preposterous Sketches until I had the experience to afford Cryptic Research.

What would the level 0 version look like?

• Level 0 Magnifying Glasses
• Preposterous Sketches instead of Feed the Mind
• Another Tooth of Eztli instead of In the Know

What about X? Why didn't you play it?

No Milan. No Higher Education. Really the only purpose to Milan in a deck list this is if you have Higher Education. Otherwise, it runs really light outside of Cunning Distraction and Milan is just a glorified passive Intellect bonus. I think Dr Will suits the deck better as a cheap soak that occasionally has a relevant ability.

Higher Education wasn't played because I think it's too strong and trivialises the game in many ways. It is a card you should play in every Seeker deck if you're min-maxing. I wasn't looking to do that this time so I didn't use it. Had I played Higher Education, I'd have probably cut Cunning Distraction for Guts or Mind over Matter since reasonably I wouldn't have the money ever to play Cunning Distraction then.

Who should play Minh?

Anyone who enjoys Seekers, committing lots of cards to skill tests and generally just like chilling with their friends at locations. Minh is always an experience that leads to everyone loving you due to that free Wild icon. Her ability is so powerful, that it'll slightly warp your fellow investigators decks in favour of a few more skill cards. A great investigator for all skill levels imo.