Ursula Downs: I'll Be Gone In The Dark

Card draw simulator

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alandwarinasia · 22

ARKHAM.CARDS PRESENTS

Ursula Downs: The Explorer

Jill Of All Trades, Master Of None

Ursula's base intellect stat of 4 means she lacks some of the raw investigate power of some of the other seekers, but she makes up for it in other ways: namely, survivability and resilience to most treacheries. With a single committed Eureka! or a Tooth of Eztli on the board, she can test anything but combat at 4 or higher and should generally have a pretty good time of things. Her base agility of 4 also means she should be able to evade most enemies without assistance and get back to what seekers do best: investigating!

Speaking of which, Ursula's investigator ability gives her a free investigate after she enters a location once per turn, essentially giving her four useful actions per turn, so long as one of those actions is 'move to a location that has at least one clue'. Even better, since it says 'take an investigate action' rather than 'investigate', you can use it to trigger abilities on assets like Fingerprint Kit or Pocket Telescope or play events like Burning the Midnight Oil or even Unearth the Ancients if there's no clues to be had. It's free real estate!

It is important to recognize that just because this action is 'free' doesn't mean its fast. If you're engaged with an enemy when/after you move, you won't be able to take advantage of the investigate action without provoking attacks of opportunity. Remember: evade, then move!

Dealing With Enemies: To Bow Or Not To Bow?

Given her base combat stat of 1 and her inability to access most cards that allow you to substitute willpower or agility for combat while fighting, it's safe to say Ursula isn't going to be doing a ton of fighting no matter what build you use. Fortunately, her high base agility of 4 means she'll have a pretty easy time evading most enemies and getting back to work. Mind over Matter and/or "I've got a plan!" are well worth looking at as emergency coverage for when you encounter the odd low-health-but-high-evade enemy and your damage dealers are too busy tangling with other enemies to come rescue you.

It is possible to turn Ursula into a halfway decent archer with Ornate Bow if you're willing to sacrifice some experience and both of her hand slots. Now, Ursula doesn't have a ton of exciting things to do with her hand slots besides hold a Magnifying Glass or a Fingerprint Kit unless you want to take one of the side quest items, so this isn't as big a setback as you might initially think, especially after she's already accrued some experience and has access to other ways of buffing her Intellect.

It is possible to 'cheat' the bow's hand requirement by attaching the bow to Dr. Elli Horowitz but given that Seeker Ally is already a highly completive slot and Ursula's is unusually cramped to start off with thanks to Jake Williams, it's hard to recommend including her at level zero unless you're running a bunch of other relics that increase Elli's chances to hit, and especially when we have another way to search out the bow that uses a slot that's much less competitive for Seekers: good old Backpack.

I personally enjoy the increased flexibility/challenge that comes with the bows, so I will typically dump my hand slot assets and take two copies of the bow as Ursula unless she's in a party with at least one dedicated fighter that's going to be her bodyguard, but make no mistake: going down this path does hurt her overall investigating power in order to make her a little safer on her own, though offloading her clue getting power into some of her other slots via cards like Divination or Death • XIII can help mitigate this effect. Going wide with a ton of allies that give bonuses can also be useful here, if you can come up with the economy and experience to support it.

Signatures

Let's face it, Jake Williams is kind of a himbo. I'm not sure what Ursula sees in him if I'm being honest. With him on the board you're guaranteed one unhassled move or investigate action, but that's kind of useless since you're going to have to figure out some way to deal with that enemy and were probably going to have to use an action to evade it anyway. You can use Jake to pull an enemy to another location, evade it, and move back, which is occasionally a useful maneuver and it also means you can get away from Massive enemies pretty much scot free.

Since Ursula's going to be always on the move, Jake's card draw effect will likely trigger a few times if you get him out early, but since it only triggers on revealing a new location, that does mean there are a finite number of opportunities to benefit from it in each scenario; if he's near the bottom of your deck, it may be too late to get any uses out of it by the time he turns up. The soak is nice, and Jake can tank an entire Call of the Unknown for you in a pinch, but all in all its hard to imagine including Jake in the deck if we weren't forced to.

Speaking of which, boy is Call of the Unknown a real pain in the ass. Once this is on the board you're playing a whole new game called 'waste half your turn going backwards'. The spirit of the card encourages you to 'call your shot' by picking a location you haven't revealed yet, rolling in and using Ursula's investigator ability to grab a clue and fulfill your calling at the same time, but this can very easily backfire since you won't know what you're walking into and her weakness is only appeased by a successful investigation. Not even Working a Hunch or Seeking Answers can save you now.

There are a couple of tools you can bring to help make this obligation a little less onerous and perhaps save you from the 'move, move back' trap, such as Shortcut and In the Know. Pocket Telescope can also help you scout out a nearby low shroud and/or clue laden location and make the unknown a little more known before you commit, as well as allow you to investigate neighboring locations without actually having to be there. In general, you will find it wise to leave a few clues on some of the central locations before you move on, so that you always have a known clue-laden location close by when the need arises,

The price for whiffing the investigate, or simply being too held up by enemies and/or treacheries at your current location to move is two horror. Ouch. Since this shuffles back into your deck instead of being discarded, you're likely going to be seeing it several times over the course of a scenario, so there's really no respite from its siren song and you'll want to make sure you stave off taking the hit for as long as possible. Taking more allies that grant you additional soak or some other means of healing the inevitable horror are not terrible ideas.

Upgrades

Miskatonic Archaeology Funding is a great Charisma alternative that allows you to accommodate Jake's non-negotiable presence while still including some more useful allies. If you were thinking about including such seeker staples as Dr. Milan Christopher or Jeremiah Kirby already, you can get to 3 ally slots quicker than if you tried to double up on Charisma. Or, take all of the above and invite Whitton Greene and/or Gené Beauregard to the party as well. The choice is yours!

Level 2 Unearth the Ancients becomes increasingly crucial as your deck gets more and more asset dense. Crack the Case and Dr. Milan Christopher are not Seekers' only economy cards!

Regardless of whether you get the bows or not, level 2 Backpack is essential for digging for Ursula's assets. If you decide to skimp on the Charismas and forgo Level 2 Whitton Greene, then bump this up in priority.

If you ever end up with one left over experience, grab Death • XIII. One experience is also a small price to pay for a single In the Know in your back pocket for when you draw Ursula's weakness.

Upgrade Paths

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