"The best way to have a good idea..."|Feed the Mind Kate 9xp

"... is to have lots of ideas." - Linus Pauling

As I was building this deck, I began my PhD in Chemistry and received (second-hand) Pauling's sage advice that became the name for this deck. It seemed apt both for Kate, as a scientist herself, and for a draw-heavy deck that uses card advantage to solve problems. Also rather fittingly, my main motivation for making this write-up was to increase my allowed deck slots after years of maximum capacity... so feel free to leave a like to help me out!

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• What's the point?

• Feed your Mind

• Other Cards

• Alternative Options

• Upgrade Path

• Use Higher Education and Kate Winthrop to boost and over-draw with Feed the Mind, cancelling the horror with Delay the Inevitable.

• Deck cycling gives access to highly efficient movement and clue-getting in Shortcut and Practice Makes Perfect/Deduction, enemy management in Aetheric Current, and high-tempo resource generation.

• Lock down your weaknesses with "Fool me once..." and protect against with Analysis for stress-free Mind Feeding.

• Alongside In the Thick of It, the deck only uses 9 xp to minimise weaknesses in standalone mode (and makes it easy to get up to speed in a campaign.)

If you're not familiar with the power of draw-heavy decks I wanted to give some context as to why all this effort is actually worth it.

• Aside from being inherently fun, drawing through your deck is a powerful strategy to maximise the value of events and skills with small but highly efficient effects.

  • For example, using Practice Makes Perfect to find Deduction turns from a neat one-off trick to a reliable clue acceleration engine if used every couple of turns.

• You can rely on drawing Shortcuts or Kate's signatures at any time to get you out of sticky situations.

• Each pass through your deck also generates resources actionlessly with Cryptic Writings, and as you investigate with Burning the Midnight Oil and Crack the Case.

• To draw your deck, it really is as simple as using a Feed the Mind in play with a Delay the Inevitable in hand.

  • Play Delay the Inevitable, fast.

  • Increase skill value by spending resources on Higher Education, placing clues on Science and Tool assets with Kate Winthrop, and/or committing cards with or without Practice Makes Perfect.

  • Analysis can give you protection for ambitious tests.

  • Succeed by a lot, draw lots of cards, and cancel lots of horror with Delay the Inevitable.

• If you haven't already, save some resources to play "Fool me once..." after resolving Failed Experiment to remove it from future deck loops.

  • The second copy should be used on a Treachery basic weakness if possible.

  • The experience bracket for standalone is essential to prevent additional weaknesses that can't be removed.

• You can hold a lot of cards with Dream-Enhancing Serum, but lots of your events are fast and can be played on the turn they are drawn to avoid discarding to hand size.

• It's not always necessary to go as big as you can; a firing a smaller Feed the Mind to help get set up can go a long way.

• You might not need to loop your deck very many times in a scenario either, but Astounding Revelation gives some cheeky extra secrets at very little cost when searching with Practice Makes Perfect or Eureka!.

  • If in your hand, it can be useful to commit Astounding Revelation to the Feed the Mind test so it isn't immediately redrawn.

• The second Delay the Inevitable can protect from deck-looping horror in the late game if you're really rolling in resources.

• This deck can take up a lot of table time and pushes the limit of what might be acceptable for some groups - so be warned!

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Tools and Sciences

• This deck has a lean set of assets that can host clues for Kate's ability - we want to minimise set-up time and they provide more than enough skill boosting when recycling clues with Aetheric Current.

• Magnifying Glass is a staple, and Dream-Enhancing Serum helps hold cards drawn with Feed the Mind.

• Empirical Hypothesis can help you draw into combo pieces if played early on, and with Peer Review, provides support for teammates when you no longer need it yourself.

• Medical Student is a bit of a pet card of mine, but it can help mitigate the horror from deck looping, as well as Kate's low health.

  • With other assets in play, you can avoid placing clues on Medical Student to use its soak.

  • Take one physical and one mental trauma with In the Thick of It to easily heal with Medical Student.

  • Along with Empirical Hypothesis, this can also be used to support your team and win back some of their favour after taking a long time on your turn...

Resources make the deck go round

• Gain resources without even trying each deck cycle to fuel Higher Education and smash and tests.

  • This shores up Kate's low and provides encounter protection.

• Burning the Midnight Oil is great since you'll only be taking basic investigate actions, and Cryptic Writings is easy to trigger actionlessly.

• Firing a double Crack the Case on a 3 or 4 shroud location after drawing your deck is likely to set you up for resources for the rest of the game.

  • Don't forget you can give the resources to your team once you've got enough!

Cards to find cards

• Perception and Eureka! provide added efficiency and keep the deck ticking over without burst draw.

• Thorough Inquiry is particularly useful on the first pass through your deck to find the cards you need, and can also support the team later on.

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Deck slots and xp are both tight so there are plenty of other cards that could fit well.

• Laboratory Assistant seems like an obvious Science asset to include, but I found the soak difficult to use while relying on the extra hand size, and it leaves Kate more susceptible to damage compared to Medical Student. Easy to swap these for personal preference though!

• Working a Hunch is great in deck cyclers with lots of resources and can be played many times, but I found the clue power of Deduction was mostly sufficient.

• Knowledge is Power is another clear fit that could maybe even make the deck go infinite by using Feed the Mind at speed, but this wasn't something I was interested in pursuing (and would make this pretty unplayable around an actual table...)

• Unearth the Ancients facilitates more deck looping by playing Medical Student as you investigate, and would greatly increase Kate's longevity.

• Existential Riddle instead of the second "Fool me once..." provides a means to remove enemy weaknesses from your deck if you end up with one in campaign mode, although passive effects from the likes of Accursed Follower are still a problem.

• Steady-Handed is another Science asset to play and can passively heal some horror from deck-cycling, but isn't particularly tempo-positive and clashes a little with Empirical Hypothesis's succeed by 3.

• Upgrading to Cryptic Writings, Perception or another Deduction using the xp from Peer Review is an option if you dislike your friends around the table...

I've only tested this deck in standalone mode but I imagine in campaigns that don't add too many weaknesses to your deck, you could far surpass the power of the 9 xp version. 29 xp worth of upgrades are suggested here.

Link to the 0 xp deck

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Thank you for reading! I hope I've convinced you of the power of insatiable curiosity. Let me know your own ideas in the comments!

Thank you to Valentin1331 for the guide. To create your own guides, find the template here.