Agatha, the Bookworm | Deck Guide

Take care of your health, Mrs. Crane. Reading like this isn't good for you (especially books like The Necronomicon).

This deck builds around the combo The Necronomicon + Library Pass + Scroll of Secrets released in the latest TDC campaign.

Wait... everyone knows this combo. Can you do even more?

Yes, yes, of course. Since everyone gets excited about abusing The Necronomicon, what I really want to show you is the system built on top of this combo that answers the following questions:

• Can we gain even more from The Necronomicon? Yes. Simply discovering 2 clues or deal 3 damages every turn isn't satisfying. You will see how it performs even larger magic by discovering 6+ clues with Archaic Glyphs EVERY TURN. Even more, the magic is guaranteed to succeed with Ocula Obscura.
• How to guarantee drawing core assets at the early stage, as The Necronomicon is limit 1 per deck and for Agatha the deck size is 35? The answer is we can rely on the card searching engines. Check more details in the Main Strategy Section.
• How to make the upgrade path smoothly and make the deck playable before you get 13 xp to purchase The Necronomicon and Library Pass? The answer is playing Read the Signs 4 times, together with other consistent and boosts.

Finally, why it is Agatha?

• Because the superb Daisy Walker doesn't need this trick.
• Ocula Obscura can guarantee the skill test's results, which is quite suitable with Archaic Glyphs. Did you remember the last time you draw during the Archaic skill test? I did :).
• Agatha Crane's plays events twice. You will see how it is utilized to make the deck more sustainable, consistent and get more tempo.
• In most of time, you trigger Scroll of Secrets every turn to find The Necronomicon, which also helps you to discard Glimpse the Void, which is pretty annoying if you don't have such synergy.

Highlighted moments:

• Agatha discovers clues in a very simple and brute-force way - attach The Necronomicon to Library Pass, Archaic Glyphs, foresee the number of secrets you need to consume from The Necronomicon, consume them, win and clear that location (and to get the -1 token back to Ocula Obscura. Then, you Hiking Boots to move to the next location.
• You are able to do it EVERY TURN - at the end of your turn, Scroll of Secrets and get the The Necronomicon back.

This deck is tested: I used to to win Return to TCU campaign.

• It is A-tier level before purchasing The Necronomicon and Library Pass (13 exp).

Mulligan

Mulligan for Research Librarian, one of Scroll of Secrets and The Necronomicon, and also Dr. Milan Christopher.

• If you have both Scroll of Secrets and The Necronomicon, then you are done. The possibility is about 50% after you have Studious.
• If you only have The Necronomicon, consider using it to draw 4 to 6 cards to find Scroll of Secrets.
• If you only have Scroll of Secrets, Grim Memoir is here as the backup of The Necronomicon to combo with Library Pass.
• If you have nothing, the first priority is to find them by Captivating Discovery and Eureka!.

Investigation

Use The Necronomicon to boost the skill test on Archaic Glyphs and collect 3-6 clues in one action!

Make it Sustainable

Recharge Scroll of Secrets by Truth from Fiction and Correlate All Its Contents. You will have totally 3*2+1*2*2=10 extra secrets - completely enough for the entire game.

Recharge Archaic Glyphs by moving charges from Eyes of the Dreamer by The Raven Quill.

Eldritch Sophist is here when the bad luck happens - he can move secrets to Scroll of Secrets from himself or from The Necronomicon. He can also move charges too.

Survival

The target of survival for this deck is not being alive only, but also keeping terrible effects away from Archaic Glyphs's once-per-turn running.

Generally, a sealed -2 token on Ocula Obscura and Hawk-Eye Folding Camera's boost can guarantee you to pass (3). from Hiking Boots helps you to pass agility tests.

• You cannot rely on The Necronomicon in mythos phase - it can be put into play by Library Pass only when your turn begins.
• Resolving and re-sealing tokens during Mythos phase does not prevent you from using Ocula Obscura during the investigation phase.

Dr. William T. Maleson is here for help when the treachery card is testless but really annoying (Ancient Evils, Dissonant Voices, etc.)

String of Curses can evade the enemy without taking skill tests, so the enemy will not break your plan. The evaded enemy can be handled by your guardian in the next turn, or you can just kill them by triggering Agatha's and play it again from the discard pile.

The testless 3 damage and chance to have 15 from The Necronomicon guarantees your survival in most situations when you want to (or have to) go alone, though the usage of Archaic Glyphs will be affected.

Eyes of the Dreamer is the perfect fit in this deck - it is the most reliable chaos token canceller to trigger Agatha's when Ocula Obscura is not here or failed to seal a token with bad luck. After the core components are ready, it turns to be the charge supplier for Archaic Glyphs. When there is only one clue left on the location, it can be the one to get this clue. The only pity is it must use so Dr. Milan Christopher does not help here.

Hawk-Eye Folding Camera and Hiking Boots is here for boosting and at a safe level, so that you can have more chance to pass skill tests in Mythos phase. Failure to passing skill tests causes Ocula Obscura to lose the good token, so sometimes you still need to pass tests even though the consequence is completely trivial.

Grim Memoir is an excellent backup of The Necronomicon and it is also a nice target to trigger Library Pass. It gives you consistent ability to discover clues even without The Necronomicon. Though not 100% to trigger, its card-drawing effect is quite precious when the worst case happens.

Captivating Discovery is usually considered not worthwhile. But think like this: it can search for any cards in 6 cards without any condition, two times by triggering Agatha's . The cost of one clue is actually trivial when you really want to do it - you will get it back by Archaic Glyphs and The Necronomicon.

Higher Education does not play the main role in this deck, but only mitigate the absence of The Necronomicon in Mythos phase (note that you can only trigger Library Pass at the start of your turn). The reason is, I often find it very hard to have 5 cards in hand because this deck does not draw cards that hard. If you have even more experience, in the luxury update is here for passing skill tests.

Regarding team supports, Cosmic Revelation and Logical Reasoning are excellent cards. Note that you can play it twice because you are Agatha. If you have a guardian in your team following you all the times and kill all enemies, you can replace String of Curses for them.

• It is expected to be fully functional at the end of Scenario 4.
• The Great Work provides one additional exp per scenario.
• The Raven Quill provides 3 exp.
• Delve Too Deep provides 1 exp.
• Note: aggressively purchase The Necronomicon and upgrade to Library Pass (5) as early as possible.
• 0 exp deck TBD.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Honestly, this deck is the one I spent the most time on - at the beginning, I tried two different thoughts with Library Pass, the one is a fighter Daisy, and the other is Agatha with Abigail Foreman. Both of them failed eventually, and I realized that the Library Pass and The Necronomicon is not brainless as I had thought. Then I got this deck. In my real practice in the Return to TCU campaign, I would say this is absolutely an S-tier deck which grows from the failures. So no matter how many likes and stars it finally gets, I love this deck, and I tried my best, wrote many many paragraph trying, to make you love it, too :)