I sometimes find Mystics annoying to play because you often spend a lot of time generating resources and playing assets, especially when playing with spells that run out of charges. Dexter is one of the best mystics because he fixes most of those problems with his ability, so you have more time doing the things you are supposed to do.

And because Mystics have spells for everything, you can easily adapt your spell suite to what your party needs: getting clues, killing enemies, evading, healing.

This deck shows the spell suite I played through Innsmouth in a 3 player party and it worked really well for collecting a lot of clues efficiently. I choose 22 XP with In the Thick of It for Standalones. For campaigns just start with Down the Rabbit Hole and 2x Arcane Research. You can also go with In the Thick of It to start with 2 of the multiclass spells, but that might get problematic on the trauma.

Dexter is probably the best user of spells and items that run out of charges or secrets after a short time, because you can essentially replace for free with his ability. Those assets are usually really efficient, once you get them into play, so this deck aims to get your important into play fast so you can start doing stuff.

The Spell Suite

Of course, Mystics don't really do anything without some way to use their . Because this deck has a lot of ways to find your spells, I found that 6 spell-assets are enough to always have something going: 4 spells for your main role (in this case getting clues) and 2 slots for other stuff you may want to do. You should definitely choose a main role and slot in at least 4 assets for that role and not try to do a little bit of everything. That would probably lead to not having the correct assets when you need them or running out of charges at some point.

Generally the Edge of the Earth multiclass spells are really good, because they are cheap and flexible. They run out of charges pretty fast, but the deck is built for replacing them. The spells for the different roles:

• Getting Clues: Divination works for all player counts because it is so flexible. For Clairvoyance the level you want depends a bit on the player count. For 2 players level 3 is probably enough because locations often only have 2 clues. For 3 players the level 5 is really good. I don't like Rite of Seeking, but if you are looking for a 5th asset for getting clues, one copy of this might be fine.
• Killing Enemies: Both Shrivelling and Brand of Cthugha are efficient at handling enemies. You also have Sword Cane for dealing with single points of hp. If you really want more killing power, probably add Spectral Razor before any more assets.
• Evading: If Sword Cane is not enough and you want to evade more stuff Blur, Ineffable Truth and Mists of R'lyeh are all good, depending oh what extra effect you like and how often you need to evade. There is also Suggestion, but you won't be able to upgrade this if you're running Down the Rabbit Hole or Arcane Research in a campaign.
• Healing: There is only Earthly Serenity, but this spell is really good if you quickly want to heal up your party and then get back to getting clues. Consider this also for Standalones, because someone is most likely to get a weakness like Stupor.

How to get your stuff into play:

You need to get these cards into your hand and you need resources to play them. So a lot of the deck is built for that:

• Card "Draw": Mystics don't really have card draw, but Dexter has access to a lot of nice effects that are like drawing cards. Scroll of Secrets is perfect for Dexter and most of the time you want to use it on yourself, because you always need to find new assets. Arcane Initiate should also find you some new spells if you keep it out for a few rounds. Almost 1/3 of the deck is spells. This deck runs Molly Maxwell and she is just a cheat code for finding 4 things you really need. Except for Brand and Clairvoyance, every asset in this deck has a unique trait that you can name with Molly.
• Resources: David Renfield is extremely important for this deck and you should try to get at least 6 resources out of him. Often 9 is possible and sometimes even more than that. Just be aware of the Doom thresold and if your scenario is using Ancient Evils so you might need to toss him away a round earlier. Don't make your party lose 3 rounds because you got greedy. This deck also runs "Watch this!" because I like the efficient, action-less economy it provides. But if you want to play it save, just replace it with Faustian Bargain. If you want a little bit more consistency you can also run both instead of Fearless. Voice of Ra is also a possibility here, because it is a spell for Arcane Initiate.

Other Stuff

• Sword Cane: This handy weapon is of course made for Dexter. With his ability you can get a action-less evade or one-damage attack for Acolytes or Rats. Really efficient and next round you just transform it into something else.
• Holy Rosary: Cheap stat boost and soaks a horror, when you nuke yourself with Clairvoyance or Shrivelling
• Blood Pact: Another stat boost. If you get this into play, you can use it in a future round 3 times and then throw it away with Dexter's ability. Nice for when a high combat enemy shows up or you need to clear a high shroud location.
• Mythos Protection: You are a 5 Mystic, which alone prevents a lot of bad stuff from happening, but you also have Ward of Protection for testless stuff and Deny Existence for those Grasping Hands or treacheries that make you loose actions. Also saves from Beyond the Veil and some basic weaknesses (like Amnesia).
• Promise of Power: I think every Mystic should run this card, because it basically just lets you or a teammate pass one important test. Be it on a treachery or something the scenario wants you to do.

If you expect a lot of damage in a scenario, Leather Jacket is also really good soak.

In general, every asset is expendable for Dexter. If need to throw away a Holy Rosary because there is an Acolyte you really need to kill with your Sword Cane: Do it. Try not to kill your allies and rosaries with damage, because you want assets in play to replace them with your ability. Put 1 damage or horror on them and then conjure something else in their place.

Cycle through your allies aggressively. If you only get 2 rounds out of your Arcane Initiate it is mostly likely worth it. Chances are, you will have a David Renfield or Molly Maxwell in your hand to replace them. Even if Molly Maxwell has 3 horror and her, you can still use her abiltiy. She dies in the process, but can just use that to find a David Renfield.

Why no Showmanship?

While Showmanship is a really good card, I don't run it here because I don't want to clog up the deck with another weakness that will essentially eat up Dexter's ability for 2 rounds (Occult Scraps). The reward just isn't worth it imho.

For a lvl 0 version of this deck, just run it with the lvl 0 versions of the spells and try to upgrade those ASAP. A usual, upgrading decks is pretty boring for Mystics. To save on upgrade costs:

• Down the Rabbit Hole. You have at least 16 cards in this deck that can be upgraded to better versions.
• Arcane Research getting to your lvl 4/5 spell-assets is the most important thing and later you can also upgrade your Deny Existence and Ward of Protection
• In the Thick of It is still nice to start with Brand of Cthugha and Divination in your deck, so you don't have to pay the Rabbit-Hole tax later on. But that also gives you 4 trauma (probably 1 physical, 3 mental).
• if you want other stuff, getting rid of Guts later on is fine, because your spells give you enough stat boost to succeed.

Here is the version that I finished Innsmouth with (of course with way more XP than needed, because Innsmouth) : https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/4288800