Katarina Sojka Sings the Song of the Dead | Expert

I just finished Dunwich on Expert with 2 combo decks:

• Jim with Katarina Sojka + Song of the Dead
• Dexter with Seal of the Seventh Sign + Lucky Dice + Henry Wan

The whole idea was to make use of Katarina Sojka, so I chose Jim because his ability synergizes with her.

However, she also increases the odds of pulling a tentacle. This is where autofail-sealing Dexter comes to the rescue, tried and true deck that already won on Expert (you can read about it in detail here, but here’s a TLDR: seal the autofail, get 10 resources with each Henry Wan activation, use them with Well Connected and Lucky Dice to pass any test).

But what about symbol tokens other than skull? The answer is to play a campaign with a chaos bag light on symbols and then also seal one of those with The Chthonian Stone (which incidentally helps Dexter make more resources with Henry). Dunwich starts with 2 skulls and a cultist in the bag, and if you play some scenarios right, you don’t add any other symbol tokens.

Once Dexter seals the tentacle with Seal of the Seventh Sign and Jim plays Katarina Sojka + The Chthonian Stone, he can exhaust her to always pull a skull or elder sign to guarantee a 0 or +1, which allows him to pass any test (and makes good use of his statline).

Quick notes on some cards:

• Ascetic - to start with a combo-ready deck
• Nautical Charts - to find 2 clues per round when the combo is set up, can be - useful even before that
• Scroll of Prophecies - to find combo pieces (for Dexter, too)
• Eyes of the Dreamer - to find clues, reliable investigation spell
• Backpack - to find Chthonian Stone
• Arcane Initiate - to find Song of the Dead and Eyes of the Dreamer
• Calling in Favors - to find Katarina
• Correlate All Its Contents - to refill charges on the Seal of the Seventh Sign
• Eldritch Inspiration - to deal extra +2 damage with Song of the Dead
• Inspiring Presence - to ready Karatina for a bursty turn

But does this combo work in practice? After all, it takes quite a bit of setup, and in 2-handed solo you don’t have a lot of time and room for error. So I put it to the test in Dunwich on Expert and here’s how it went.

Extracurricular Activity:

• Camped at the starting location preparing to fight The Experiment so that I don't add a tablet token.
• Drew both copies of Light of Aforgomon that make all damage/horror direct so Jim had to find 6 clues to advance the act and discard the treachery.
• Jim dealt 11 damage in 1 turn (1+2+2 from Song of the Dead + Katarina Sojka + Eldritch Inspiration (1) + Inspiring Presence to ready Katarina, 1+2 from Song of the Dead + Katarina again, 1+2 from Dark Prophecy).

The House Always Wins:

• Resign skip since with Ascetic there’s nothing to gain.

The Miskatonic Museum:

• Resign skip to not risk adding a tablet token.

The Essex County Express:

• Clue events carried the early game.
• Dexter had Molly Maxwell in starting hand and found pieces of the combo pretty quick. However, right after I killed Molly by letting her soak horror, Dexter drew Pushed into the Beyond and had to shuffle Lucky Dice back into the deck (I should've played around that by keeping Molly in play). It was a punch in the gut but I did manage to assemble the combo eventually.
• Dexter evaded two enemies in the last Train Car thanks to Lucky Dice and clutch token pulls.
• Jim cleared the Engine Car with Eyes of the Dreamer.

Blood on the Altar:

• Resign skip to only have 2 broods in the next scenario.

Undimensioned and Unseen:

• This one can be skipped, the price for that is 2 extra doom in the next scenario. Assembled the combo and deleted both broods.

Where Doom Awaits:

• Drew some chunky enemies in the early game but was able to deal with them.
• Found all the pieces by turn 3 and was generally cruising afterwards.
• Had to cool down on using Katarina because the Seal of the Seventh Sign had only 2 charges left.
• Dexter played around Offer You Cannot Refuse so as to avoid being nuked by it in the finale and paid for it twice in this scenario.

Lost in Time and Space:

• Dark Prophecy found cultist token which spawned a location for free.
• Jim got the clues to advance the first agenda, then Dexter assembled the combo and proceeded to win the game right after spawning Yog-Sothoth.

In conclusion, while a lot of the scenarios gave me enough time to set up, The Essex County Express really put the decks to the test and showed that they have some teeth. Despite having the combo disrupted, the duo was able to match the tempo and clutch out a win.

Thank you for reading and until next time!