Ursula Downs: For Their Feet Run to Evil

I had run Ursula through The Forgotten Age, and liked her a lot. Later, accidentallysam and I played The Circle Undone with his awesome Rita deck and a Joe who had a few problems with weapons. Rita was great, Joe less so, and the campaign ended poorly (although not in the worst way). So I suggested we try a speed Ursula Deck with Rita and try to nimble our way through The Forgotten Age. It was great; the decks are such a blast together. Then we decided to take the team for a run through the Dreamlands side of The Dream Eaters. So. Much. Fun.

So with a slight tip of the hat to Scott's Dreamy Ursula, which helped me say goodby to the Ornate Bow, which is nice, but ultimately a drag to a fast play style, here's the current design. The goal of the deck is to get the basic setup quick, start investigating, and add to your assets as resources become available. The usual plan is to get down Dream Diary: Dreams of a Madman and Pathfinder down first turn (with Research Librarian as a backup if you do'nt daw the tome), then move and grab clues, relying on Pathfinder and Ursula's special ability for action compression. It makes Call of the Unknown fairly benign until you have to stay put for some reason (or get a bad chaos draw). If you have Hawk-Eye Folding Camera in your opening hand, that's great, add it in a turn or so. Do likewise with Fieldwork and so on. Evade enemies, grab clues, beat scenarios.

Assets

Dream Diary: This is the core of the deck's enemy management, once upgraded to Dream Diary: Dreams of a Madman, this lets you evade engaged enemies at an 8, leaves the option open for an attack (hey an effective 5 will take out a Swarm of Rats or an Acolyte). Once it's leveled up, it's a free Unexpected Courage every turn at the worst. It's cheap to play, too.

Hawk-Eye Folding Camera: This is a nice addition for the off hand; it's usually easy to charge up and the and bonuses are welcome. Plus it's also cheap.

Research Librarian: Gets out the diary and takes a hit.

Fieldwork: the bonus helps with Ursula's free investigate action in the "always be moving" style.

Strange Solution: It's there to be upgraded into Strange Solution: Acidic Ichor; in a duo with Rita, having an extra bit of damage is very useful. (Best use: taking out an inconvenient Liar with No Face and getting to say "How do like having no face, Mr. Liar?") If you are teamed up with a more combat-focused investigator, you can save your Experience.

Events

"I've got a plan!": Emergency enemy management is always nice.

Crack the Case: One is usually enough to get her complete rig out by turn 4-5 or replace a lost asset.

Preposterous Sketches: The deck has pretty weak card draw, so a bonus is nice, although the upgrade is better at 0 cost.

Skills

Eureka!: Just a little extra card drawn, plus versatile icons.

Upgrades

Here's my usual, in rough order of importance:

2 Dream Diary to Dream Diary:Dreams of a Madman

2 Unexpected Courage --> 2 Pathfinder

2 Strange Solution --> 2 Strange Solution: Acidic Ichor

After this, you can build up what needs building up, depending on the VP you're earning. I like:

Studious (because extra cards in your opening hand is awesome.

Tooth of Eztli --> Crystalline Elder Sign trades possible card draw for better stats. You could take Relic Hunter and play both! (That's a lot of Experience for a low-draw deck and singletons, though.)

Preposterous Sketches --> Feed the Mind for more card draw.

or just upgrade Deduction, Preposterous Sketches, or maybe Logical Reasoning. I keep thinking about Death • XIII, since Studious makes it likely to be in my opening hand, but I can never find the space....