The Bad Doctor

Vincent Lee - The Bad Doctor

Introduction

I really like Vincent Lee as an investigator and we already saw a few interesting and powerful decks for him.

A lot of people already mentioned and created decks based on Geared Up and Studious, together with Backpack and Schoffner's Catalogue. Yes, this is a great combo and a great start for Vincent.

But... I would like something more for this character... I wanted like to create a strong deck that is at the same time extreamly thematic and fits in to Vincent Lee character...

Flavor

So, let me introduce you The Bad Doctor. Vincent is tired and overburdened with his work and what he sees. He tries to save life of as many patients as possible, but sees a lot of horror in his work. He also sees more and more strange cases of terrible wounds and sometimes even strange creatures he never thought could exist. He cannot function normally so he drinks Tennessee Sour Mash to help him sleep. He overdoses on Painkillers, which will bring him closer to nervous breakdown.

He finds some consolation in his younger friend Peter Sylvestre, who somehow understands Vincents burden.

He sometimes likes hikig in his Hiking Boots and uses his Pocket Multi Tool when out in the wild, just to let off some steam. Of course he takes his Backpack with him.

...But Vincent cannot live a normal life anymore, and the only thing that lets Vincent stay at least partly sane is his work, and taking action against the horrors he witnesses. Not only he wants to heal people when possible... he also wants to kill everything that brings evil to this world, regardles if it's a monster or a cultist...

So Vincent is Geared Up and straps on Bandolier, takes his Meat Cleaver and is ready to take a piece of anything that gets in his way of finding out the truth. Through Deduction or using some Dissection Tools on killed enemies, he will get to the bottom of this, through any means neccesary... or he will die trying - but there will be no half measures this time.

Mechanics and how to play

So, I hope I've given you a good take on how I see theme on this Vincent deck, so lets go to the mechanics and how to play this deck. As stated in the beginning, this deck abuses the combo of:

• Geared Up
• Backpack
• Schoffner's Catalogue
• Studious

The goal is to get maximum value out of items played in the first round. I wanted to have as many useful slotless items as possible, and be able to play as many as 11-13 (with 2 Studious later on) items on first round.

You start with In the Thick of It, so you get 3 XP as well as 2 phisical trauma. The trauma is actually good for you, since you want to have something to heal and draw On the Mend quickly.

Instead of getting a copy of Studious at the beggining I opted for taking two copies of Hiking Boots, and upgrading Pocket Multi Tool - more on this later.

The Sequence of playing the items is also important, you want to mulligan agressivly to find Backpack in your starting hand, and play Schoffner's Catalogue right at the beginning to be able to pay for all the items played. The last cards, you want to play are Bandolier (after you play all the items from the Backpack or two), and Meat Cleaver, especially if you played Dissection Tools and Pocket Multi Tool earlier.

Since 24 cards from your deck are items, you should be able to play about 5-10 items in the first round, depending on finding Backpack in your opening hand. Once you have your starting items out, the only asset you need to play as normal action is Peter Sylvestre.

The deck uses less obvious Dissection Tools instead of Hawk-Eye Folding Camera not only because it is much more thematic in Vincent Lee, but also because you want to have high value and actually matters.

With addition of Hiking Boots, Tooth of Eztli and Peter Sylvestre you are able to get to 5 for the sake of Trechery cards and easily pass test to draw more cards with Tooth of Eztli.

As far as tests, you may need some alcohol (Tennessee Sour Mash) to help you pass some of the harder ones, but in general you should be very well set to deal with any trecheries you may encounter. Also Pocket Multi Tool gives you +2 to any test on trechery cards.

Painkillers allow you to take On the Mend as quick action and taking some horror early actually helps you get unlimited +2 attacks on Meat Cleaver, which BTW is great thematic weapon for Vincent. You can achive +1 damage every attack by giving the horror to Peter Sylvestre, or by healing it for killing enemies. Since you are really good with encounter cards, you should be fine with keeping your sanity at 3 or 4 all the time.

Hiking Boots give you extra action whenever the last clue is discovered in a location.

For discovering clues, you can use Pocket Multi Tool once a turn to boost as well as On the Mend, Perception and Deduction. After upgrading your deck, you are getting a lot of uses of Soul Sanctification.

Upgrades

Essential upgrades are (16XP):

• 2x Studious (6XP)
• Soul Sanctification (6XP) - this will give you a lot of +2 to any tests!
• Backpack -> Backpack (4XP)

Secondary upgrades include (14XP):

• 2x Strange Solution (4XP - thanks to Shrewd Analysis and the fact, that this is the only version he can take)
• 2x Surgical Kit (6XP) - replace 2x Perception - you will get a lot of +2 from Soul Sanctification so this should be redundant
• 2x Deduction (4XP)
• Detachable upgrade for Pocket Multi Tool (1XP) - only for Multiplayer

Some optional upgrades:

• Higher Education (3XP or 6XP with taboo) - after a few turns you will have 5 cards in hand just to commit to stuff and some resources that you probably do not need
• Gray's Anatomy + 2x The Raven Quill with Living Quill, Spectral Binding and Supernatural Record upgrades (5XP+6XP=11XP) - this is just for fun, because replacing any other items in your deck wouldn't probably be worth it... but, you may have a slotless Gray's Anatomy that will not provoke attacks of opportunity and a lot of ways to increase your to pass the test by 3!

Summary and some weaknesses

So, this is it.

The deck may not be THE most powerfull version of Vincent Lee, but it should be super fun to play, especially if you like strong theme. It should perform well in Solo and Multiplayer (since you want a lot of targets to heal).

As far as some weakness of the deck goes, it is not great at pulling multiple clues at the same time, and it can only deal 2 damage per attack, which may be problematic for some enemies. It will be less of an issue in solo, and in Multiplayer you will be great support character, who can be very flexible depending on situation.

I hope you will enjoy the build!