Enemies hate them : Learn how the magician and his assistant make them disappear with a few simple tricks !

• I built this deck to act as a primary fighter to play alongside Seeker Agatha and Wendy in a 3-handed solo campaign.

• This was my first run trough RtTFA (after a handful of runs through the base campaign), replacing each set with their return-to replacement in their entirety.

• This deck was built during the spoiler season of The Drowned City, before people got their hands on the box and revealed the remainder of the cards.

• More notably, this was my first ever campaign played on Hard, having never even played standhard before.

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Other Cards

• Upgrade Path

• Campaign Rundown

• Conclusion

• The basic idea for this deck is fairly straightforward : nuke enemies with the new Mauser Tankgewehr M1918.

• I had also never tried Dayana Esperence before, and the opportunity to play multiple copies of Spectral Razor and Read the Signs felt really appealing to me given the higher difficulty.

• String of Curses made for another particularly interesting option given Agatha was going to be slinging two copies (up to 4 with her ability) as well. In the worst of cases, a testless evade + clue is still very valuable, as is fully reloading the Cat Mask. And in the best case, this is yet another way to erase enemies from existence.

• Scroll of Secrets: helps with card draw. It does compete for hand slots with my main weapon, but the upside of finding this card before the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 (Ideally both in the opening hand) outweighs the downside of finding it afterwards.
• Brand of Cthugha : Immensely helpful to deal with smaller ennemies, of which RtTFA has quite a few (Vengeful Serpent, Brotherhood Acolyte, Scholar from Yith). The stat boost and way of spending charges only on success make it even more useful on hard. It was a card I hadn't though of until then end of Threads of fate and quickly became one of the best performing cards in the deck.
• Living Ink : a good card to swap around with adaptable. +1 is generally useful and this asset works well with Dexter, but it is far from necessary. Feel free to swap it with whatever is necessary.
• Cat Mask : I expected it to be just okay, supplying a combat boost for the tougher ennemies or will boost for hard treacheries, reloading itself once per agenda, and a few more times with String of Curses. However, siding with Ichtaca made the campaign filled with outside sources of doom (adding Cultists to Boudary Beyond and Shattered Aeons, on top of the Forgotten Ruins set in DoE, HoTE-B and DoY), and the mask was absolutely terrific.
• Delve Too Deep : TFA is famous for being generous with experience, but I find this mostly applies to the back half of the campaign. Delve Too Deep is there to get the decks to where they need to be.
• Kicking the Hornet's Nest, "Where's the party?" : Gives additional things for Dexter to do on his downtime : The Tankgewehr is inherently vulnerable to swarms of enemies, and getting a few of them out of the way helps with avoiding this scenario. The testless clue from Kicking the Hornet's Nest is also welcome.
• Drawn to the Flame : Excellent card to help with the clue effort, avoiding the chaos bag in its entirety why grabbing 2 clues effortlessly. Dexter is generally not scared of whatever comes out of the encounter deck.
• Ward of Protection, Guts, Promise of Power : Just Mystic staples to round out the deck.

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Link to the 0xp deck

• The lvl 0 deck is fine for any campaign EXCEPT TFA, it has all sorts of combat options, but no means of evasion, which continues to be an issue in Doom of Etzli when dealing with the Vengeful Serpents from the Return-To.

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Link to the deck at the the end of the campaign

Supplies

• Wendy : Medicine x 2 , Provisions x 1

• Dexter : Provisions x 2, Rope

• Agatha : Compass, Binoculars, Pendant

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  Return to The Untamed Wilds

• I forgot to pack some evasion methods for Dexter : Talk about a blunder ! at level 0 too ! Dexter mostly felt like dead weight for the first two thirds of the scenario, being a dedicated fighter in a scenario that heavily punishes fighting. Dexter killed a pit viper, lead the way with his explore actions, got a pair of clues from Read the Signs, and helped with the third Ichtaca parley with Promise of Power. That's it.

• Dexter, the war veteran, had to be rescued from snakes by a mere child ! She could save others from poison, but alas, not herself. Wendy drew all the Snake Bites and took tare of evading the snakes, only for her to fail the test of Expedition into the Wild due to a really unfortunate set of token pulls and get poisoned anyway. Thus begins the unfortunate pattern of Wendy being bullied by the scenario.

• Experience and upgrades : 7 experience gained (Ichtaca, Circuitous Trail, Ruins of Eztli, Overgrown Ruins, Serpent from Yoth) (7 total), 5 experience spent

  -1 Ritual Candles , +1 Mauser Tankgewehr M1918

  I'm hoping to get the remaining 3 experience for the second copy of the Tankgewehr from Doom of Etzli, since I know Threads of Fate is a target rich environment for it.

  By the time I return to the jungle, Dexter will have adaptable, and thus be a lot better prepared for those damned snakes. I'll be back !

Return to The Doom of Eztli

• Without his one copy of Tankgewehr, Shrivelling and Armageddon were Dexter's main ways of dealing with the Broods of Yig, and also killed the Vengeful Serpents that Wendy couldn't evade (Thankfully, the third one wound up stuck in the Exploration deck).

• Dexter also spent quite a few on the Ancient Hall during his downtime, helping to counteract the doom from the Forgotten Ruins set and the (Agatha's compass also proved very helpful here).

• However, by far his most heroic moment was his rescue of Agatha : Using his rope on the Tomb of the Ancients, he allowed Agatha, who went off on her own to grab the Relic of Ages, to escape that much faster and jump over the Snake Pit that would have spelled her doom otherwise.

• Meanwhile, Wendy Dies to the Harbinger of Valusia after a really unfortunate set of token pulls ( -> Wendy redraw -> ), taking a second physical trauma (on top of the one she took from her lack of blanket). She truly is the martyr of these first two scenarios, who died for Dexter's sins !

• Experience and upgrades : 3 experience gained (Serpent from Yoth, Throne Room, Delve Too Deep) (5 total), 5 experience spent

  -1 Ritual Candles , +1 Mauser Tankgewehr M1918

  Got it ! Time to nuke some Cultists !

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  Return to Threads of Fate

• So anyway, I started blasting ... in agenda 2. It took Dexter a while to find the Tankgewehr, but thankfully few enemies where drawn during agenda 1. In the meanwhile, two Read the Signs and a Drawn to the Flame single-handedly cleared the Miskatonic University even when Nobody was Home.

• After lending Wendy a hand against the Harbinger of Valusia using Armageddon, Dexter helped bring Harlan back to his senses while keeping the Cultists and Nightgaunts in check.

• He ended the scenario using String of Curses to help clear Northside despite its Locked Door alongside Agatha, before playing Delve Too Deep as Wendy took care of Alejandro's captor with Waylay.

• Experience and upgrades : 6 experience gained (Miskatonic University, Northside, Curiositie Shoppe, Arkham Police Station, The Hastings Estates, Delve Too Deep) (6 Total), 6 experience spent

  +1 Adaptable, +1 Veda Whitsley, +1 Relic of Ages

  -1 Arcane Initiate, +1 Dayana Esperence

  -1 Shrivelling, -1 Armageddon, +2 Brand of Cthugha

  -2 Living Ink, +1 Drawn to the Flame, +1 Kicking the Hornet's Nest

  I could have grabbed both copies of Dayana now, but Brand of Cthugha was just too good of a complement for the Tankgewehr to pass up, especially heading into a scenario crawling under cultists. Living Ink was also underperforming, and I replace both copies with cards that I knew would be useful.

  I never realised how great of a card Relic of Ages is for Dexter, and Veda Whitsley is just a great card in general.

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Resupply Point

• Wendy : 1 trauma healed, Medicine x 1 , Gasoline x 1, Canteen, Pickaxe

• Agatha : 1 trauma healed, Provision x 3, Medicine x 1, Chalk

• Dexter : 1 trauma healed, Provision x 2, Medicine x 1 , Gasoline x 1, Pocketknife

Return to The Boundary Beyond

• Dexter found both the Tankgewehr and the newly added Brand of Cthugha, which was great in handling pesky Acolytes and Cultists.

• After a great performance in Threads of Fate when it came to gathering clues, Dexter was unimpressive in this one. He did take care of the exploring for both Xochimilco and Zócalo, discarding the second Tankgewehr and a Scroll of Secrets for the latter. However, by warding off 2 Windows to Another Time and successfully harnessing the power of the Relic of Ages, Dexter bought a whopping 3 whole rounds for Agatha to take care of the clues for him.

• What about Wendy, you ask ? A disaster game from start to finish, with a third of her deck getting Thanos-snapped (Sacred Woods -> Crossing the Threshold -> fail with Take Heart -> draw Abandoned and Alone and the just shuffled Nihilism) on turn 1, before losing both Flashlights to Merging Timelines on her first mythos phase. The less said about that game, the better.

• He had his Tankgewehr locked and loaded to blast Padma Amrita, but a Backstab straight from Wendy's discard and a pair of Whispers of Doom from Agatha took care of her before he could even move a muscle. Talk about getting upstaged !

• Experience and upgrades : 6 experience gained (Chapultepec Hill, Sacred Woods, Canals of Tenochtitlán, Lake Xochimilco, Padma Amrita) (6 total), 6 experience spent

  -1 Relic of Ages , +1 Relic of Ages

  -2 Ward of Protection, +2 Ward of Protection

  -1 Guts, +1 Guts

  -2 Armageddon, +2 Mists of R'lyeh

  I was fortunate enough to have Dexter be the one to draw Window to Another Time this time and cancel them, and I'm upgrading Ward of Protection, not leaving these things to chance any longer. I also upgrade a copy of guts with the remaining 2xp. Oh, and this time, I pack a pair of evade spells for those snakes.

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  Return to Heart of the Elders-A

• Breaking news ! Mists of R'lyeh is good at dealing with Pit Vipers ! More at Eleven ! In all seriousness, the difference between the second visit to the jungle and the first is night and day, and is pretty much entirely due to this card. If only I had thought about it heading into Untamed Wilds...

• Dexter didn't contribute much to clues beyond one Read the Signs, but evading snakes and exploring ahead for Agatha to follow with Forbidden Tome was useful enough, especially with only 4 clues to get. The upgraded Ward of Protection also pays off big time and saves Agatha from a Snake Bite.

Return to Heart of the Elders-B

• With part A going so well (no vengeance or poison), Chalk, Dexter finding his Tankgewehr early, the scenario goes very smoothly, save for a handful of Traps threatening Agatha's health, and a Entombed + Poisonous Spores combo that threatened to poison Dexter while Wendy was engaged with a Vengeful Serpent.

• Thankfully, her redraw allows her to successfully free Dexter after evading the snake, saving both of them from the poison while Agatha had already left them behind to investigate Treacherous Descent and Descent to Yoth, with Whispers of Doom keeping her safe from any enemy spawning on top of her.

• Experience and upgrades : 11 experience gained (Apex Strangleweed, Overgrown Ruins, Circuitous Trail, Serpent from Yoth, Treacherous Descent, Ruins of K'n-yan, Descent to Yoth, Delve Too Deep * 2 ) (11 total), 10 experience spent

  -1 Arcane Initiate, +1 Dayana Esperence

  -1 Guts, +1 Guts

  -2 Mists of R'lyeh, +1 Memories of Another Life, +1 Savant

  -1 Read the Signs, -1 Spectral Razor, +2 Holy Rosary

  I grab the second copy of Dayana Esperence and Guts. Read the Signs and Spectral Razor are not so useful as a Yithian (Don't worry, they'll be back), and are replaced with Holy Rosary for the many horror and checks in City of Archives.

  Mists of R'lyeh is swapped for Memories of Another Life and Savant, the former is pure value, and the latter is 3 with no strings attached, which is just good in a vacuum and great for the next scenario.

Return to The City of Archives

• After cooperating with the Yithians, Drawn to the Flame helped clear the Interview Room paired with Wendy's True Awakening. The team then got to work on the Northern wing where the Custodian landed. Along the way, a Promise of Power helped "dissect an organ"without needing to clear the Deconstruction Room .

• Past the first agenda, It was just business as usual for Dexter. the main implication of his Out of Body Experience was simply losing 1 when blasting yithians. Not being able to get rid of Occult Scraps was also annoying until a Captive Mind discarded Dexter's whole hand anyway (Is that how that works ?). To play to the deck's strengths, the team stayed clear of the added Southern Wing and its Captive Subjects who are bulky enough to survive a hit from Dexter.

• The Read the Signs singleton was invaluable in getting the final clues needed to return to humanity. I thankfully drew it towards the end of the game, after it may have been discarded or the clues lost to the nightmarish and tokens.

• Experience and upgrades : 8 experience gained (Yithian Observer *2, Towers of Pnakotus, Yithian Orrery,Interview Room, +2 for a successful process ) (8 total), 8 experience spent

  -1 Delve Too Deep , +1 Memories of Another Life

  -1 Brand of Cthugha, +1 Brand of Cthugha

  -2 Holy Rosary, +1 Read the Signs, +1 Spectral Razor

  In hindsight, I really should have removed Delve Too Deep as opposed to Read the Signs after Heart of the Elders. I was never going to play it during such a high stakes scenario, and I don't need the extra experience at this point.

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  Return to The Depths of Yoth

• The Tankgewehr and Brand of Cthugha once again combined to handle most of the threats, while Agatha took care of the big boys with her powerhouse events and Wendy stalled the Vengeful Serpents for them to land in the pursuit area.

• I consider myself very lucky for never pulling a on my Tankgewehr shots. Nor on the Storm of Spirits I pulled out of my a... collection to annihilate the third round of Vengeful Serpents using Memories of Another Life.

• Dayana made her first appearance and helped with the clue gathering effort with Read the Signs. However, the team was still too slow, getting significantly slowed down by the presence of both Crumbling Precipice and Broken Passage on depth 4, leading to a climactic showdown with both Harbinger of Valusia and eventually, Yig himself.

• Thankfully, Dexter was rescued by Agatha evading the big boss as Dexter caused his henchman to vanish with 3 small hits of Brand of Cthugha before heading Agatha's advice and running away to Descent to Yoth one final time.

• Experience and upgrades : 8 experience gained (Eater of the Depths, Serpent from Yoth, +5 for the final depth level) (8 total), 8 experience spent

  -1 Brand of Cthugha, +1 Brand of Cthugha

  -1 Kicking the Hornet's Nest, +1 Deny Existence

  Not much to say here. Deny Existence is possibly the best defensive card in the game, and upgrading Brand of Cthugha is a no brainer.

  Kicking the Hornet's Nest is generally better than "Where's the party?", but in Shattered Aeons, the latter has one designated goal : fetch and eliminate Stolen Mind before it spawns somewhere annoying !

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  Return to Shattered Aeons

• Cat Mask has been a stellar card throughout the campaign, and in this scenario in particular. Kicking the Hornet's Nest unfortunately misses public enemy n°1, who instead lands on the Shores of R'lyeh and forces Dexter to take a huge chunk of horror to deal with it before clearing the location using Read the Signs.

• The Boss fight thankfully goes well, with both Agatha and Wendy helping out with Whispers of Doom and Exploit Weakness respectively, after Brand of Cthugha and Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 hit Alejandro for half his health.

• From here, it's just standard bodyguard duty for Dexter, who notably has to rescue Wendy from the Ruins of New York. Thankfully, Agatha's Guidance helped her evade one of the Polyps before using Matchbox + Shed a Light, saving both Wendy and Dexter a lot of health in the process.

• The investigators win the campaign ! (R1)

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• The deck was a literal blast. The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 has received mixed reviews when revealed, given the low damage output per action of the weapon or its poor comparison to broken cards like Cyclopean Hammer. One thing it has in its favour is a lower amount of skill tests needed to defeat enemies (and it's huge bonus), which paid off big time throughout the campaign against the harder difficulty.

• However, The Dayana package didn't quite work in the way I had hope. I think the main reason behind that is the deck's poor card draw and resource generation. This is something that becomes easier with experience as Memories of Another Life can turn into Thorough Inquiry or Bank Job, but it can also be used for lots of other valuable things as well. Maybe something like 3*Easy Mark in the place of Scroll of Secrets and some other third card would have been better.

• A final note is that the deck does not make particularly good use of Dexter's ability. Almost all the cards have uses, but they can only be replaced by the second copies of themselves, which makes the ability's use cases very narrow. I still think Dexter pulls off this build better than Father Mateo due to his higher and Rogue access.