Apocalypse Gatekeeper

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Atlatch-Nachanna Work Here Anymore (Web of Dreams, Winner) 4 2 0 1.0
Gloria Goldberg in 'Return to The Circle Undone' [True Solo] 0 0 0 1.0

Ghost Meat · 946

Inspired by @bricklebrite's very compelling entry on the Gloria Goldberg page, and having felt recently discouraged by having failed The Unspeakable Oath solo for the millionth time, I needed some solo hope. I've played the first two waking world scenarios of Dream Eaters on Standard with this deck, and it's cruising, with 11xp on scenario one and 7xp on scenario two.

Why Gloria for True Solo

The most compelling reason to play Gloria solo, as @bricklebrite articulates, is her ability to potentially never draw an enemy, gatekeeping the portal to Armageddon. If you have Alyssa Graham and/or Scroll of Secrets (and ideally both) down on the table, Gloria can look at the top two cards of the encounter deck each turn with Alyssa, and throw an enemy in the garbage. If both cards are enemies, throw one in the garbage and then use the Scroll to add a non-enemy from the bottom of the deck to the top, and draw that in the mythos phase. Then throw the enemy you previously saw in the garbage next round. And repeat, all for no actions. Draw the Elder Sign, get even more encounter filtration.

Not having to deal with basic enemies from the encounter deck gives you all the time in the world to sashay around the map hoovering clues with Gloria's excellent mental stats, usually skip the enemy phase, cause there are none, and laugh at the encounter deck with her base 5 willpower stat all the way through to the next investigation phase.

Mystic Cards

St. Hubert's Key is a great card here, boosting both stats you'll be using, and Alyssa Graham even gives you another intellect icon, so I've found no reason to take any clue assets here, like the usual Sixth Sense or Rite of Seeking, freeing up extra deck slots. Read the Signs is good for clue acceleration on those rare occasions where there are multiple clues on a location in solo, getting two for one action.

Emergency Cache is boring, and not always the best option these days, but can really help in your opening hand to get the expensive assets down. For example, in A Thousand Shapes of Horror, I had Randolph Carter, Alyssa Graham, and Emergency Cache in my opening hand, allowing me to get both assets down on turn one (I'd just bought Charisma), putting Gloria at base 6 willpower, and base 6 intellect. She did not fail a single willpower or intellect test all scenario after that.

Promise of Power is a good backup for the rare agility or strength test you might have to take from things like Locked Door or various encounter cards, but I've almost never had to use either stat. Ward of Protection helps deal with cards that have unfavorable treacheries for her as well, or really bad tempo-hitting treacheries without willpower tests, like Ancient Evils. Deny Existence is always good, and my random weakness ended up being Amnesia so it's perfect tech for that.

Seeker Sub-Class

Choosing as Gloria's sub-class gives more clue, movement, and econ tempo to the things you already want her to do, which is get all the clues, location xp, and advance the acts to victory. Crack the Case is actionless econ, and she'll be clearing clues with ease. Shortcut is actionless movement, Working a Hunch and True Understanding are actionless clues, and Inquiring Mind is also a good safety for those non-willpower and intellect tests you might have to face, or for getting high-shroud clues if your key assets haven't arrived yet.

Other potential cards to consider might be the new The Truth Beckons, Burning the Midnight Oil, Cryptic Writings, Deduction, and Eureka!.

Fighting

You obviously want some fight cards, since there are boss/story enemies in each campaign that are unavoidable, and sometimes you will see two enemies off the top and may be not be able to dump both, so Shrivelling, Spectral Razor, and Sword Cane are there for you.

Signatures

If you never put cards under Gloria with her ability, Liber Omnium Finium does nothing bad to you, except shuffle back into your deck. I have not drawn Ruth Westmacott yet in either scenario, but if I do, she's there for soak or a crucial investigate skill test with her icons.

Upgrade Path

With 18xp, I've so far bought two copies of Seal of the Seventh Sign, since the auto fail is the main threat against Gloria once she's set up and firing all cylinders; the aforementioned Charisma; two copies of [Stargazing] (which synergizes super well with her ability, as she'll find The Stars Are Right twice as fast as other investigators if she's binning an encounter card each turn; two copies of Sacrifice for extra draw once the Scrolls or spells are empty; and a Four of Cups for that sweet extra willpower boost.

I've honestly felt hard pressed to spend much XP for her, as not a ton feels needed. Maybe Deny Existence next time, for added invincibility, or Seal of the Elder Sign for extra encounter deck filtration if the Scroll is empty and Alyssa hasn't shown up yet. The level 1 cards for her are not really desirable, unfortunately, but hopefully some good ones drop in the future.

You can follow her adventures on Arkham in the Aether on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkham_in_the_aether/?hl=en

14 comments

Feb 12, 2021 bricklebrite · 467

Awesome write-up!

Isn't Gloria great? I feel like she is the only investigator that the game itself truly fears. It's hilarious that you reference Unspeakable Oath as your primary pain point, because the way I build my Gloria decks, it's still a nasty scenario for her since I stubbornly refuse quality-of-life includes like Shortcut and Working a Hunch. Regardless, she is the investigator who really got me into playing true solo!

I think it's good that you've committed to a full ten off-class cards for her as well. One of my big gripes about these multiple-secondary-class investigators is that you don't have to take the off-class cards if you don't want to. I feel like the designers should have made taking the full ten a requirement, since you have so much flexibility otherwise. Anyway, enough about that.

Your deck is solid, and I'm sure it is crushing TDE as you mentioned. But for a solo run, the only card I'm not sold on is Read the Signs, since there are so many 1 clue locations. You've got a lot of extra clue cards, but don't count out using Perception, Guts, and especially Guts to help you find them.

And finally, when you've had enough of keeping your hands clean, try) swapping out your yellow cards for green.

Feb 12, 2021 bricklebrite · 467

Hmm...that link wasn't broken when I previewed it. Oh well: arkhamdb.com

Feb 12, 2021 Ghost Meat · 946

@bricklebrite Thanks for your kind words and the great insights about Gloria that inspired me to build and try her! Yeah, she's super fun. I love the climatic moment each turn where you look at the top two cards and hope only one or neither is an enemy. Yeah, fair point about the ten off-class cards being required. I've found that I've replaced a fair few with upgrades. Totally, Read the Signs could be another card here. Maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of locations in solo have more than one clue, so I do find them useful enough to make them worth it, but still, they really just save you one action. Very good for Circle Undone though with Haunted locations. I think that The Truth Beckons is an amazing tech card for Unspeakable Oath, which is the great nemesis scenario of solo play in my experience. Could save you 4-5 actions in movement getting out of the basement cells back to the upper levels. Rogue sub-class would be super fun. I will try that next time I play her (which will probably be very soon)!

Feb 23, 2021 Chew · 332

I know who I'm gonna finally pass solo Where the Gods Dwell. Thanks for the great write-up!

Feb 23, 2021 Ghost Meat · 946

@Chew Awesome; my pleasure! I have yet to try Gloria in any other campaign, but trying the other side of Dream-Eaters with her sounds like great fun. Let me know how she goes!

Mar 15, 2021 evoker · 1

What would you change for multiplayer? I love this deck but since you marked it solo and I am not that experienced, I would like to know what you'd change to make it more MP friendly. I play in a 3man group and the others will play Yorick and undecided.

Mar 15, 2021 evoker · 1

Also, would you replace Scroll of Secrets if you weren't playing with the Taboo list? Cause my group is playing without it.

Mar 15, 2021 Ghost Meat · 946

@evoker Thanks! For multiplayer, I think I'd add two Scrying to help fix the encounter deck for your team. Obviously, if you have Yorick on your team, who's generally a dedicated fighter, you don't mind drawing enemies as much, so I wouldn't change a ton else in your case, except also adding two Deduction, as there are more multi-clue locations in multiplayer. Read the Signs will shine here in multiplayer as well.

You could probably cut True Understanding and some of the fighting cards like Shrivelling or Spectral Razor if Yorick is going to be around, so Gloria can focus on clues and the encounter deck. Scroll of Secrets is a functional errata rather than a Taboo, so you should play it with the fast trigger rather than the action. I'm not sure it's worth playing as it's printed, and again, less crucial in multiplayer, where enemies aren't as big an issue. Hope that helps!

Mar 15, 2021 evoker · 1

@Ghost Meat Thanks for much for your reply, I really appreciate it! Looks like our Yorick became Rita and the undecided became Mark. So all in all, I guess we didn't change much. Sorry for being a pain, but you think think new setup would change your reply at all? Thanks again for your help!

Mar 16, 2021 Ghost Meat · 946

@evoker Of course; you're super welcome! Mark is even better than Yorick at fighting, and Rita is half decent at it between her ability and once she gets Ornate Bow (which is always my first XP pickup for her), so I think your Gloria here is the dedicated clue-getter. You should be fine to cut a couple fighting cards here in favour of more clue and encounter manipulation tech. Let me know how it goes!

Apr 03, 2021 evoker · 1

@Ghost Meat Hey! I used the deck for the first 3 scenarios of the circle undone and I find myself really low on resources and unable to really effectively get any assets down. Did you notice any economy issues? I feel like unless I get an Emergency Cache, I am a sitting duck.

Apr 06, 2021 Ghost Meat · 946

@evoker Huh, interesting. If I recall correctly, between Emergency Cache and Crack the Case, I think I found resources quite plentiful here, and really only super needed for the main expensive setup pieces of Alyssa Graham and St. Hubert's Key. After that, most events are quite affordable, and the upkeep money floats the cost curve just fine. If you were feeling really strapped though, perhaps swapping in some Burning the Midnight Oils for the True Understandings could be a solution. :)

Jun 23, 2021 Kalarian · 1

What difficulty do you play on? You say that you don't take seeking or sixth sense because you have 5 intellect. On hard and higher, 5 is an absolutely terrible base number for consistent testing. You want 6 minimum. I'd be surprised if you could investigate well enough on hard or expert.

Jun 23, 2021 Ghost Meat · 946

@Kalarian Almost always Standard. Did Carcosa with a team on Hard once and we were not successful, but that was it. :)