Rex studies the Markings of Isis

Overview

Hey guys! This is a deck idea I had about Rex Murphy and I'd like to share! This deck is mostly made for fun rather than for efficiency, but I think it's going to perform fairly well on Standard.

So, first things first:

Archaic Glyphs: Prophecy Foretold = Archaic Glyphs: Markings of Isis

ArkhamDB has this card flagged as unreleased at the time of writing this description.

Yes, you read right: It's Markings of Isis. That card, which is generally pretty bad. But I 've found a way to make good use of it. Here's how:

This card has some synergy with Rex Murphy's special ability. Rex generally wants to oversucceed in order to get the extra clue and this card rewards him for doing so. In particular, Rex wants to succeed by 2 or more once per turn. If he uses Markings of Isis during an investigate test and succeeds by 2 or more, he can put into play an asset that costs 2 or higher. So, the baseline of the deck is to use assets that cost 2 or higher in order to take advantage of this situation. In particular, I have given some emphasis on assets that cost exactly 2, which is the baseline of what Rex wants to do in order to get the extra clue. Moreover, I have given these assets recursion, so that they can be used again. The recursion, of course, doesn't target only those assets, but that's the baseline of the deck. The rest of the assets can also be played via Markings of Isis either by getting a lucky draw from the chaos bag or by using Daring Maneuver, especially that Fingerprint Kit which has a steep price.

So, to display the cost curve of the assets, we have:

Assets that cost exactly 2:

• Flashlight
• Lucky Cigarette Case
• Art Student

Assets that cost 3 or more:

• Mr. "Rook"
• Death • XIII
• Fingerprint Kit

Most of these assets have recursion either via Scavenging or via Calling in Favors.

Out of those assets the ones that cost exactly 2 should mostly be played via Markings of Isis. In praticular, it's never worth it to play Art Student from your hand unless you 're facing a particularly tough location. Flashlight can sometimes be played from your hand, but it's best to put it in play via the Markings. Lucky Cigarette Case makes for an interesting case. Even though it's generally more beneficial to already be in play when making Markings plays to get the card draw, if you play it via the Markings you still get the card draw during the same test you put it into play (unless I'm mistaken).

The assets that cost 3 or more can also be played via Markings, but you generally want them in play asap, with Fingerprint Kit being the exception. Fingerprint Kit, actually, is a really juicy target for Daring Maneuver.

Piloting Tips

You generally want to mulligan for Mr. "Rook", Magnifying Glass, Death • XIII, Lucky Cigarette Case and Emergency Cache. Prioritize your plays. Play Mr. "Rook" first and search your deck for key components. Get Death • XIII and Magnifying Glass as soon as you can. The passive boosts we get from them are critical. Markings of Isis is the prime target after you get your economy is in place. Prioritize your Markings targets. You want Lucky Cigarette Case in play as early as you can. Flashlight and Art Student come second. You have 4 econ cards in the deck. Using Higher Education during Markings plays is crucial and we can support it. Do it.

A word on Flashlight: I 've given this card some thought as I wasn't sure if it was worth it. I decided to include it as the absence of pre-taboo Dr. Milan Christopher will not allow you to accumulate a lot of resources for Higher Education, so oversucceeding for the extra clue may become a problem during mid-late game. Flashlight can solve that problem as you get 3 "injections" of boosts, which can be translated into 6 clues.

Conclusion

Overall, I think this deck is unique and fun to play. I'm not sure about its effectiveness, but I think that a deck that plays around Markings of Isis gets good tempo boosts in regards of both action economy and resource economy. You can make plays like getting 3 clues in one action (with Markings + Art Student), or getting 2 clues in one action, play a Fingerprint Kit for free as a fast action (with Markings + Daring Maneuver), then get another 2 clues in one action using the Kit.

The rest of the cards are mostly staples. A word on Inquiring Mind: it's mostly in the deck to save you a few resources when trying to make a big Markings play.

And, that's all folks! Thanks for reading and I hope you liked the idea!