Minh Thi Phan - Wild Scavenging Power

This is the upgraded version of the deck I used for The Circle Undone campaign on standard mode, as the main seeker pairing with Diana Stanley as the fighter. It worked so well that I wanted to keep a record of it.

Main strategy - committing cards

Wild icons

There are a lot of wild icons in that deck so you can commit on any test and use your special ability once per round. Other team members in the same location can also use that ability for their test, you may need to remember them once in a while.

The Dream Diary isn't very useful on the first scenario, but after upgrade it's golden. Thanks to Shrewd Analysis you only need 3XP to get both upgraded diaries in your deck, but you'll have to choose them randomly. I got Dreams of an Explorer twice, which is nice to investigate high shroud locations, but any of them are good. Research and upgrade the Dream Diary as soon as you can to get the 2-4 wild icons from Essence of the Dream every turn.

Other cards with wild icons: 1 x True Understanding, 2 x Inquiring Mind, 3 x A Glimmer of Hope, 3 x Segment of Onyx.

Ancestral Knowledge

It costs 6XP, but it's worth it. Make sure you choose your skill cards carefully so you're happy with any combination of them ending under Ancestral Knowledge.

Free drawing power

To be able to commit a lot of cards, you need to draw a lot of them every round:

• Dream Diary gets you Essence of the Dream
• Scroll of Secrets gets you 1 card from under your deck
• Scavenging gets you one object from the discard pile if you investigate
• you can get one card from under Ancestral Knowledge five times
• Analytical Mind is unique so difficult to find, but then it's very easy to draw one card while helping your teammates

Getting clues

Before upgrade you'll use Deduction, Winging It and True Understanding to get additional clues. After upgrade you'll have access to Sharp Vision (1XP) and Deduction (2XP). Use Resourceful to get Sharp Vision back from the discard pile.

With the bonus from Dr. Milan Christopher and some wild icon cards for difficult shroud locations, it was enough for me for the whole campaign (standard mode).

Getting resources

Dr. Milan Christopher is the most expensive card in the deck, followed by Pathfinder, "I've got a plan!" and Analytical Mind. All the other assets are pretty cheap, and playing events quite rare, so Dr. Milan Christopher is enough even when playing him taboo.

Fight / Escape / Soak

For the first scenarios I used Improvised Weapon as a emergency plan, but I didn't use it much because Diana Stanley was efficient enough as a fighter, plus it doesn't have any icons. I only kept "I've got a plan!" to help here and there.

Survival Instinct committed with a few wild icons let you escape any number of enemies at once. If you're lucky there's one waiting to be used under Ancestral Knowledge.

Cherished Keepsake and Leather Coat soak 2 horrors/damages before ending in the discard pile. Their upgraded versions can soak more, but they're banished when discarded so you can't scavenge them.

Handling the King in Yellow

During the first scenarios, getting rid of The King in Yellow can be a little bit challenging. The 3 Glimmers of Hope are in this deck just to be called from the discard pile and used against the King in Yellow when there's no other option, but that's not enough to match the 6 needed icons. You'll also have to use Minh's ability and maybe wait until you draw a magic card like Inquiring Mind.

Later in the campaign you may be able to discard The King in Yellow when searching the bottom of your deck with Scroll of Secrets, but even if you draw it you'll have much more options to get rid of it.

Special strategies for special cards

Scavenging

If you have 2 Scavenging in play and you investigate twice a turn you could get 2 objects from your discard pile.. so you need objects in your discard pile.

The priority targets for scavenging are Scroll of Secrets when you exhausted the one in play, and Cherished Keepsake or Leather Coat if you suffered damage/horror. Scavenging (2XP) let you put them back into play without spending an action, which is sweet.

When you have Scroll of Secrets, Cherished Keepsake, and Leather Coat covered, you can get a Segment of Onyx or two.

Scroll of Secrets

Scroll of Secrets is used every turn, and then discarded and replaced by the other one from the discard pile through Scavenging.

Cards to put in the discard pile:

• obviously The King in Yellow and any weakness, but also Winging It
• if you already chose a card for you hand and there's an object amongst the other two, discard the object so that you can scavenge it latter
• especially after the upgrade to Scavenging (2XP), because playing an object from your discard pile will be actionless

Segment of Onyx / Pendant of the Queen

I didn't put the Segments of Onyx in this deck with the purpose of assembling the Pendant of the Queen, I used them as scavengeable objects with a wild icon.

During the whole campaign I had the occasion to assemble the Pendant only twice. Of course I did it each time with a loud victory shout, but during most of the scenarios I got 2 segments cycling from my hand to the discard pile, and the last one still hidden in my deck. In order to get the Pendant more often, the deck would need a complete redesign. Note that if you're playing the taboo version of these cards, once you've assemble the Pendant you won't get the Segments again.