Harvey Walters, The Professor (Commit King) [lvl0]

This is a modified version of the official starter deck for Harvey Walters. it has been changed to have less of a focus on keeping an extremely large hand size, to mitigate the damage dealt from drawing his weakness. His main role will be to hoover up any available clues, regardless of Chaos Bag penalties and Shroud level, due to his high starting Intellect, Intellect boosting Assets, and number of Intellect icons on his playable cards he can commit to tests. He should also be able to reliable pass Will skill tests, and provide minor support in a few key areas to Investigators on the same Location as him.

The largest hand size would be 6-8 cards, so that he never takes more than 2 damage from Thrice-Damned Curiosity, though his hand size will likely be regularly smaller (5 would be best max) because his goal is to constantly commit and use cards, but still benefit from Higher Education. Hopefully with his resource gaining cards and the high amount of free and 1-2 cost cards, he will be able to regularly use Higher Education.

Because the goal is to make use of cards to play, it's also important that the cards he's drawing are just that--useful outside of drawing more cards or increasing hand size. Harvey should be able to mill his deck to get the cards he needs and use excess cards for regularly committing to skill tests. Changes will be made to remove some of the max hand size related cards, replacing them with more functional ones.

Another strength is that a decent amount of his cards (and his signature ability) allow him to give other players card draws, which can be very handy if he is sitting flush on cards and resources while another investigator near him is not. While Harvey should be able to survive going it alone once he has some Assets in place (like his Disc of Itzamna and assets in hand (such as Occult Invocation he might be particularly strong when he can pair up with investigators on locations. Encyclopedia will become more useful with another Investigator around, as since it only lasts for the Investigation Phase, Harvey probably doesn't have many planned skill tests he's not already going to win--outside of Evade actions--whereas another Investigator may also be regularly Fighting. It's worth noting the upgrade to this Tome doesn't have a limited number of uses, and would pair especially well with the Ally Abigail Foreman.

Useful cards will be ones that aid investigation, and give increased utility per action such as drawing or gaining resources on investigating, such as most of his Event cards, and a few Assets. His biggest weakness will be Treachery cards that require a Speed or Fight test, as he has very little cards he can commit to those skill tests, while he does have a couple ways to deal with fighting or evading enemies himself. Tooth of Eztli could be added to deal with Speed Treacheries, but takes up the Accessory slot which is already a competitive slot with the currently selected cards.

Tomes will be modified to be useful regardless of hand size, with a look to possibly expand them in the future. Whitton Greene will both buff his stats, provide some damage mitigation, as well as help him find his tomes (and Disc of Itzamna) early. Harvey can use either a Magnifying Glass and Tome, or two Tomes if he feels he does not need the bonus Intellect the glass gives.

Cards removed:

• Extensive Research
• Forbidden Tome
• Arcane Enlightenment
• Laboratory Assistant

Cards added:

• Perception
• Guts
• Seeking Answers
• Magnifying Glass

Future Upgrades and Purchases:

• Archaic Glyphs to Archaic Glyphs: Prophecy Foretold (3XP)
• Versatile(2XP)
• Grisly Totem to Grisly Totem (Seeker) (3XP)
• Relic Hunter (3XP)
• Old Book of Lore to Old Book of Lore (3XP)

Dr. Milan Christopher is almost too good to give up, and may be swapped in in the future. If Harvey could have 2 allies out (default is limited to 1), Abigail Foreman would be a very strong choice to double up effects of Tomes, such as Old Book of Lore.