Agnes Baker: Blood Mage

The front of Parallel Agnes is a variant that brings our spell-slinging waitress much closer to her Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror 3e incarnations. An investigator’s health and.sanity pools are sometimes referred to as a resource and parallel Agnes takes this literally, allowing health to be spent to reduce the cost of spells and/or recycle them back into her deck. I’m a big fan of the risk-reward mechanic of using up your character’s health to empower them no matter what the game and the choices it brings during gameplay.

This is a multiplayer parallel Agnes deck designed to occupy a flex role but it could easily be adapted to be the primary damage dealer or primary clue gatherer if necessary.

The cards are based around fulfilling the following needs:

1. Finding key cards. Arcane Initiate and the Accessories are taken to keep the spell event train rolling. With 12 good spells in the deck there are good odds that the Initiate will find one each turn. The Heirloom of Hyperborea offers consistent card draw and apples to every single spell cast. However, there is only one in the deck so Crystal Pendulum is included, which offers more limited card draw but does comes with a nice boost. Scroll of Secrets can dig out spells or accessories that are stuck on the bottom of your deck, and the Taboo version doesn’t require an action to trigger.

2. Extra health. Leather Coat can also be used to power Agnes’s ability. Must be a very fresh Leather Coat if it can be used for blood magic! The Arcane Initiate can also be sacrificed when the Doom that she brings becomes a problem. Deny Existence is excellent for being a zero cost fast spell that bolsters either Agnes’s health or sanity.

3. Investigating. Read the Signs offers two clues testing at 7, Drawn to the Flame offers two testless clues for an encounter card, which with 5 willpower should usually be an excellent deal. Sixth Sense has no charges, is comparatively cheap, and has no drawback on a symbol token, so Agnes can always contribute to the investigation. If the team is going heavily into Curses then I’d seriously consider taking Eye of Chaos instead.

4. Fighting. The deck contains methods for dealing 1 damage (Wither), 2 damage (Storm of Spirits) and 3 damage (Spectral Razor). Fire Axe is an alternative to Wither: this deck can run cheap if Agnes is using her health to pay for most of her spells, but Wither gets the nod here for being a spell.

5. Encounter deck resilience. A Test of Will can potentially counter anyone’s encounter card if they are at your location. Since this version of the card never exiles it can be recurred using Resourceful if you don’t need two recover discarded Leather Coats.

6. Economy. Voice of Ra is economy, which probably isn’t needed in the level 0 deck but would be helpful if the deck upgrades into more expensive allies, such as Peter Sylvestre or Dayana Esperence, later. It being a spell means it is preferred to Emergency Cache.

7. Miscellaneous. Quantum Flux can recover spells that are in your discard pile if you have to play them normally because you are running low on health. Better yet, reshuffle all the Survivor cards back into your deck, although be cautious about using Quantum Flux if you have already discarded Dark Memory. "Not without a fight!" offers freedom to be used no matter if you are using Willpower spells, Spectral Razor (where it potentially becomes three icons with the free Engage) or just trying to Evade a dangerous enemy. Promise of Power offers four icons for a single Curse token, which I’d say is a great deal.

For upgrades, Charisma and replacing the Leather Coats with Dayana Esperences is where I would start. After that, I’d say there are many different routes this deck could go. The focus could be on upgrading or adding spell events such as Deny Existence level 5, Storm of Spirits level 3 or Ward of Protection level 2. Relic Hunter and Backpack level 2 might be worth considering for extra accessories. Peter Sylvestre level 2, even more Charisma and a Flare or two to find allies could be good. Finally, Fortune or Fate undoes the damage done by Dark Memory.

Good luck, and remember: the power was inside you all along. You just needed to let it out.