Summer Sorceress: Agnes Baker visits Cairo

The Rite Begins (introduction):

I was off to Cairo for another stab at taking on Guardians of the Abyss. After Silas and Marie had wound up being pounded in The Night's Usurper, my buddy and I decided we'd try to get our own back with the power pairing of Carolyn Fern and Agnes Baker. I dusted off everyone's favourite core set mystic: this was the perfect opportunity to revisit Agnes four cycles on.

Mysterious Chanting (the core of the deck):

The core of the deck is what one might loosely call a 'good stuff' Agnes deck, with some tweaks for player count and scenario. So we have some classic Shrivelling + Fire Axe as the combat package, the latter combining neatly with Forbidden Knowledge which also allows for Agnes' ability on tap. Into the mix goes Mists of R'lyeh for when running away seems a better option. Throw in that clue card I can never remember the name of, a dash of luck and you've got a decent enough frame to build Agnes around. And since we're running pretty spell-heavy, Arcane Initiate wins out for the much-coveted Ally slot.

But then there have been some changes here too to the classic Agnes decks of old. I've included Four of Cups to lean into getting Agnes' to obscene scores, and both Deny Existence and Premonition earn their places. The former is excellent to combat one of Agnes' weaknesses - her limited health pool - while the latter is just... how does one say? kisses fingers. For optimal use, play it right after the mythos phase on turns when both players (or more if you have more players) have tests approaching and anyone could go first. It shakes things up so neatly. It's probably provoked more discussion that most other cards in this deck purely for the opportunities it affords when one knows the next token pull. Obviously don't play it before someone has to test Slumber!

Warping Reality (tech cards):

I made a couple of choices based on the fact we were tackling Guardians of the Abyss in standalone. The first was including Crystalline Elder Sign; I would normally plump for a simple Holy Rosary in the accessory slot and be done with it, but since I was popping in Four of Cups, I figured I could be a little bit more adventurous. Both Eternal Slumber and Night's Usurper can provide a range of tests so relying overly on a single statistic isn't an ideal strategy. Plus, the standalone bag has TWO +1s, so plenty spare to seal. It's quite easy to argue things the other way around (cut Cups and Elder Sign for Rosary) and I think that's legit; on the day, I got both in play without any hassle, and sitting on 7/3/3/4 without much effort felt a strong start.

Then there's the more specific enemy tech in Storm of Spirits and Banish. The former is great for mobs of sometimes-aloof weenies and there are choke points in both scenarios; the latter is a terrific choice for when the maps broaden out and for conditional hunters, like the Thing in the Sarcophagus. Massive shout-out to Ben who first suggested it; it's a really nifty choice to create space or one-and-done deal with a nasty enemy. I never had it in hand burning up; there were always possibilities for this card.

Unintelligible Babbling (notable omissions):

Uncage the Soul and Rite of Seeking aren't here. That's because Carolyn was doing the heavy lifting for clues and resource generation. She also had bagsied BMoC, which fed neatly into the above discussion around Rosary/Cups/Elder Sign/Initiate. With no Big Man or horror healing, I was going a slightly different route...

Why not 2 x Ward of Protection? Well, I was playing standalone and aiming for 19xp. But, if I were to make a cut below, that would be an easy change-up...

Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog (flex slots):

Fearless, Unexpected Courage and Fire Axe are all potential cuts if you have something juicier you'd like included. I could see this deck shifting to Sign Magick, Wither and maybe even Sixth Sense if you wanted to round out Agnes doing everything reliably. I somewhat went with what I knew but I'd happily concede there's room for changes and improvement. Once Agnes' is so high, Wither becomes a cheaper axe if you're just using the axe for single points of damage anyway...

The xp expenditure on Fearless, as well as that on Shrivelling, could definitely be changed up, too. Paired with Carolyn, I rarely wanted for horror healing (although Fearless did pull its weight). I hedged my bests on wanting my Shrivelling attacks to be as reliable as possible, so wanted the baked-in boost, but in the event, Cups and Sign kept me powered up. Towards the end of Night's Usurper, depending on path chosen, reliable damage might be not just favourable but paramount - I think I'm fond of Shrivelling III here as a result. I'd definitely be tempted to sneak a Recharge or even a Sacrifice into the deck to power through late game.

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I hope you enjoy this write-up!