Darrell Simmons: Academic Photographer | Beginner's Guide

Collect and spend evidence to discover clues. Help out defeating enemies. Heal your Veteran partner who has a tendency to hurt himself and his allies while protecting you.

Introduction

This is a refined version of a deck that I've been taking through The Scarlet Keys campaign. It's designed to work alongside Mark Harrigan: Mage Knight, and while there is some interaction between these decks, it should work well as a dedicated clue gatherer with any investigator composition. The cardpool used is Revised Core Set, Edge, Dunwich, Carcosa, Scarlet Keys and the Investigator Starter Packs. At the end of this guide are some tips to improve this deck with a full cardpool.

Key cards

• Darrell's Kodak, Empirical Hypothesis, Dissection Tools: The evidence package. Trigger these cards to collect evidence, then spend them with your ability to lower the difficulty of any test using your character ability. Empirical Hypothesis is especially easy to trigger (go for the +3!) and vital to the gameplan, so mulligan aggressively for it.

• Short Supply, Scavenging, Resourceful: The recursion package. Mulligan aggressively for Scavenging as it gets you Old Keyring, Flashlight and Bandages. Use Resourceful to grab Lucky!, Exploit Weakness or Shed a Light, the latter two especially if you're setup to get them off.

• Old Keyring, Flashlight, Deduction: The investigation package. Using these alongside your 5 intellect means getting clues will be easy.

• Exploit Weakness, Shed a Light: These two events reward testing versus 0, usually achieved through some combination of spending evidence, Old Keyring or Flashlight (and later Gumption). It can take some investment to pull off but is almost always worth it.

• Bandages: Mark, as well as his Guard Dogs and Beat Cops will be taking damage regularly. Use Bandages on them whenever you can to keep them alive.

• Peter Sylvestre, Cherished Keepsake: Ruined Film is a dangerous weakness as you could draw it turn 1 and take 4 horror without recourse. Mid game you could simply save the evidence you've gathered but that doesn't make sense as spending it is what makes the deck tick. This means that you have to be prepared to take a large hit to your sanity eventually (unless it's in your discard pile as a result of Short Supply). Peter Sylvestre and Cherished Keepsake should keep you sane even if this happens.

• In the Thick of It: Your partner running Refine will eventually outpace you on experience which is no fun. This gives you a bit of a headstart to compensate. Take 1 physical and 1 mental trauma as 2 mental trauma is too risky with Ruined Film.

Upgrade Path

• Old Keyring x2 --> Old Keyring (3) x2 | XP: 6 | Total: 6
  Very strong card. Using this while spending an evidence means getting 2 clues of a 4-shroud location.

• Unexpected Courage x2 --> Gumption x2 | XP: 2 | Total: 8
  Further helps with lowering test difficulty. Makes it easier to trigger Shed a Light and especially Exploit Weakness, potentially together with spending an evidence.

• Dissection Tools, Cherished Keepsake --> True Survivor x2 | XP: 6 | Total: 14
  Great card to get back Resourceful, Gumption and Eureka. Then use Resourceful to get True Survivor back and keep the loop going.

• Flashlight x2 --> Flashlight (3) x2 | XP: 6 | Total: 20
  An extra charge, the potential to use it as an evade, and being able to use it together with Old Keyring and Burning the Midnight Oil make this a very solid upgrade. Also makes it easier to trigger Exploit Weakness.

• Peter Sylvestre x2 --> Peter Sylvestre (2) x2 | XP: 4 | Total: 24
  Another solid upgrade. More soak and the willpower boost is welcome as well.

• Lucky! x2 --> Lucky! (3) x2 | XP: 6 | Total: 30
  A cost reduction, draw effect, larger margin and being able to help out your partner. This upgrade basically has it all.

• Deduction x2 --> Deduction (2) x2 | XP: 4 | Total: 34
  A luxury upgrade. An extra icon and the possibility of even more clues.

Link to the full 34XP version

Full collection improvements

With the caveat that I haven't tested any of this, these are some safe recommendations for improving the deck with a full collection.

• Burning the Midnight Oil x2 --> Crack the Case x2
  Burning can't be used alongside Old Keyring and Flashlight, so this provides a bit more flexibility.

• Dissection Tools --> Hawk-Eye Folding Camera
  Easier to trigger for a clue gatherer and more relevant stat bonuses.

• Scavenging x2 --> Scavenging (2) x2
  Probably a good idea to upgrade into this somewhere around the 15-20XP mark.

Any questions or comments are welcome.