Amanda Sharpe: Much Study is a Weariness of the Flesh

Introduction

A relatively flex Amanda for a 2-investigator Standard difficulty campaign. Tested on the Waking side of TDE, might use in RttCU, if it's ever released in the US. Despite the flexing, Amanda is more of a clue-getter who can get a couple of good licks in when necessary than equal parts clue and enemy management. As always, comments and suggestions welcome.

Notable Cards

Assets

• Occult Lexicon -- Amanda loves card draw and often is sitting on a fair pile of cash, so this works to get more cards and possibly kill a small enemy or inconvenience a big one
• Scroll of Secrets -- helps with card draw, and, if you can fish out a weakness, that's a bonus
• Whitton Greene -- very useful in this deck, especially after upgrading. Whitton increases useful stats and helps dig for parts of the the rig that might be missing, plus you get a shot at Astounding Revelation

Events

• Crack the Case -- this mostly gets used early on for a boost to resources to get the rig set up or to fuel a "pay to pass" card, if you want to go that way.
• Practice Makes Perfect -- gets a critical card just in time and, if you can pass the test, a second use of that card. However, you need to keep in mind which cards are still available for drawing; especially just before you cycle your deck, this can be dead space in your hand (although it has OK icons)

Skills

• Eureka! -- if you have other cards to back up tests, this can really up Amanda's draw for a turn
• Promise of Power -- hilarious to put under Amanda, assuming your partner(s) like curses

Piloting

The trick with Amanda seems to be that you want to keep your hand full of cards so you have a lot of options at the start of every turn. When her hand gets too low, she struggles a lot. On the upside, she has a lot of ways to get cards, and her signature weakness is pretty mild, so she can draw with impunity (unless you drew Doomed or something, in which case, may Arkham have mercy on your soul). Her rig is very small (12 resources and 4 actions for the whole thing), so she gets going very fast. Keep in mind that it is highly likely that Amanda will deck herself at least 1-2 times per scenario, and plan your horror soak appropriately.

Mulligan It's nice to have at least 2 of her assets in the opening hand, with Whitton Greene being the most useful. Practice Makes Perfect is nice. Otherwise, aim for a range of skills to put under Amanda, which ones depend a bit on the scenario.

Other Cards

• Grisly Totem for Disc of Itzamna -- a nice way to boost tests (and draw cards with the upgrade). It's not a relic, however, so Whitton won't help you get it.
• Hyperawareness -- Because her rig is so cheap, Amanda amasses resources, so it's nice to have a way to put them to use, and it helps with her relatively low number of icons. You might replace Crack the Case or Disc of Itzamna

Upgrades

In no particular order, although Whitton should be a priority

• Whitton Greene --> Whitton Greene (2)
• Deduction --> Deduction (2)
• Overpower --> Overpower (2)
• Perception --> Perception (2)
• Vicious Blow --> Vicious Blow (2)
• Scroll of Secrets --> Scroll of Secrets (3)
• Disc of Itzamna --> Disc of Itzamna, Crystalline Elder Sign, or Hemispheric Map as suits your fancy

Alternates

• Higher Education (6)
• Any skill --> Momentum
• Any tome --> Esoteric Atlas (2)
• Three Aces --> not sure what I'd drop for this; maybe Crack the Case or Astounding Revelation (especially if I was getting rid of Scroll of Secrets)