Double Core Daisy - Hit The Books

As others have mentioned, the Core Experience can be a little precarious for Daisy. The Seeker pool isn't quite big enough for Daisy to comfortably fill her entire deck with yellow cards, and the framework to allow her to truly leverage her Mystic offclass isn't here yet either. Lastly given you're playing two handed, playing her as a pure support isn't an overly appealing option either. For Core it's mostly a matter of making the best out of what you have, which can look a little ramshackle until the card pool expands.

Daisy has two main things going for her in the Core Set. First, there's her action advantage in the form of her Tome ability. Fortunately for Daisy, some of the best Tomes are in the Core Set, namely Old Book of Lore, and Encyclopedia. This is hugely beneficial as Old Book Of Lore allows you to filter for your power cards and past your filler, and Encyclopedia can allow Daisy to force herself through her other poor Skills. Incidentally this makes Research Librarian helpful, since he gets to play the role of your bonus copies Old Book Of Lore and some not inconsequential soak given his expendability.

Second is her monstrous Intellect of 5. Given that most locations have 1-4 Shroud in the Core Set, Daisy is already starting at a big advantage, and once you throw Milan into the mix, she actually needs very little support to her Intellect. This combined with her affinity towards Tomes might actually make otherwise appealing options like Magnifying Glass less critical if she needs to defend herself. Mind Over Matter plays the get out of jail free card, allowing her to leverage her Intellect in bursts. Despite her high Intellect, I would not discount Working A Hunch since it can save you Actions and tests, with Deduction following a similar logic. What I think is counterintuitive in Core Set on low player counts is that Daisy might prefer to simply lean on her Intellect for the bulk of her clue gathering so she can round herself out in other areas, rather than building on her strength. This mindset definitely changes in higher player counts and with more cards available.

To support her Mystic side, Daisy needs access to Willpower, which is where some deck warping is necessary. The easiest first step is to take Guts and Unexpected Courage, both good cards in their own right in Core regardless, but you might need them for their normal usage of dealing with treacheries or surprise tests. The next option would be to pick up a Holy Rosary-- you don't have any accessories and it offers some Sanity soak, so it's mostly a free roll. The last option is slightly more controversial and that's to take Arcane Studies. Normally I'm not a fan of this talent cycle, but I think it's a necessary evil for Daisy in Core. You have Milan and Emergency Cache to try and help you out, but this is mostly a luxury option. Remember at worst you can always just commit Arcane Studies itself, there's not many cards that give more than one icon when committed anyways. All of this set up makes you more treachery resistant (alongside the highly recommended Ward of Protection), and also enables both Shriveling and Blinding Light as enemy management options.

That leaves you with just a few slots left, and we're at the point of filler. I'd use this final slot to mess around with cards you want to test to give yourself a chance to see what works for you. I think it's not unreasonable to take something like Knife if you're still paranoid about enemies. Don't think that's necessary? You can always essentially thin your deck by just taking Perception.

Recommended XP Spending? Replace your filler card with Encyclopedias. Then look into Cryptic Research, dropping a Research Librarian given their similar goals. End up too short to upgrade it? Can improve your Blinding Light to put that XP to use before the finale.