The Butcher

Things have finally come together for Agnes. Meat Cleaver has been tempting since its release, but Agnes is just too weak to use it ordinarily. Now with the addition of Trial by Fire, she has two ways to fuel the Cleaver for the whole turn (along with Fight or Flight). Read below to see how this decklist came together.

Here’s my list of the most valuable level 0 cards for Agnes (not in order):

Shrivelling Sixth Sense Holy Rosary Peter Sylvestre Painkillers

One important observation when looking at Agnes' top cards is that her agility goes up to 4 once Peter is in play. Why let that go to waste?! If we add several more passive agility boosts with Track Shoes and Trench Coat, she can have up to 6 agility-- enough to consistently evade most enemies. Evading enemies sometimes causes them to swarm, making Storm of Spirits more valuable.

The second major consideration is what to do to backup her standard Shrivelling and activated investigator power. Here are some of her options (leaving out some worse choices):

1. Fire Axe
2. Baseball Bat
3. Gravedigger's Shovel
4. Meat Cleaver
5. Wither
6. Enchanted Blade

None of these options stand clearly above the others, but right now I think Meat Cleaver has the edge. It can give the same +2 bonus as the bat, shovel and blade, doesn't break or run out of uses, is much less expensive to use than the axe, and does more damage than wither. At first glance, the meat cleaver looks perfect for Agnes Baker since it can activate her power at will, doing 3 damage for one action and healing horror. But only vermin like Swarm of Rats are going to fall to a paltry 4 (or even 3!) combat strength, so just like most of the options above, the Cleaver needs some support. The ideal support is Fight or Flight and Trial by Fire, each of which can turn on the Cleaver for the whole turn and bring her up to at least 6 and as much as 11 combat (with 2 base + 7 from Fight or Flight + 2 from the Cleaver)! Trial by Fire also doubles as a way to get a few clues if you don't have Sixth sense in play. I think these two cards are a much better way to go than other strategies that are too small (like Dark Horse) or too brief (like skill cards).

After deciding to support both agility and the cleaver, the deck pretty much makes itself! It doesn't use many skill cards because Agnes is good at dealing with treachery effects and the combination of being able to evade or fight should help ensure she has high enough stats to deal with enemies up to hard difficulty. Forbidden Knowledge, Drawn to the Flame, Lucky!, Uncage the Soul and Survival Instinct are to boost her tempo, which can otherwise be a bit slow with all of the expensive assets and events.

Piloting notes:

Hard mulligan for Peter and Sixth Sense. Getting other combat cards is nice but these two have no replacements for their function. The cleaver tends to be better later after you can collect the combo pieces and take a few horror.

Only play cards if and when you need them. This is key to winning this game since every action and every resource count. Unfortunately for Agnes, she really needs Sixth Sense to do any real investigating.

Choice upgrades:

1. Shrivelling.
2. Sixth Sense.
3. Clarity of Mind. For Drawn to the Flame once you have super Sixth Sense.
4. Peter Sylvestre. For Peter level 0.