Ursula Downs: For Their Feet Run to Evil (Faster)

An update of my previous Ursula deck with additions from the Harvey Walters starter deck. After a great run-through of TDE, I found I wasn't using the Strange Solution enough, and swapping a quest out for some quick and dirty Event damage seemed wise.

The goal of this is still 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 don't draw 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. By the end of a scenario, she often has a surprising number of Assets out with very little strain. Optimally, you never want to fight; just evade and stay ahead of hunters, saving the event damage for persistent problems or immediate threats. Evade enemies, grab clues, so much fun.

She works OK in solo, although she can get bogged down by bad enemy draws or cramped maps, so she's probably best with a partner who is strong in enemy management (she is a total boss with Rita.

Assets

Dream Diary: This is the core of the deck's enemy management, once upgraded to 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. If it's not down by the middle of the scenario, it often isn't worth the action to play, since clues are thin on the ground.

Feed the Mind: It's like 3 Preposterous Sketches for the price of 1.5, and it fills the unused Arcane slot. Without some card draw, Ursula tends to run a little low on gas.

Events

"I've got a plan!": Sometimes you need to kill, rather than dodge.

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

Occult Invocation: A little more Enemy Management, with a different set of costs than "I've got a plan!".

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 2 Dreams of a Madman

2 Unexpected Courage --> 2 Pathfinder

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

2 Tooth of Eztli --> 2 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 singletons, though.)

2 "I've got a plan!" --> 2 "I've got a plan!" the +2 is definitely useful.

2 Feed the Mind --> 2 Feed the Mind you might skip this in a low-XP campaign.

After that, whatever you'd like to upgrade, if there's any XP left.