Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
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| None yet |
ElseWhere · 4944
For a thematic breakdown of the deck, as well as a primer on the concept of a Command Center deck more generally, check out the companion article here: https://strengthinnumbersarkham.wordpress.com/2025/02/01/character-concept-mash-minh-plus-command-center-primer/
Intro
Have you ever wanted to set up a field hospital during an Arkham scenario, treating your teammates as they rush in wounded from the front lines, patching them up to head out once more and fight the good fight to save reality?
If you have, this deck is for you! FHV's Survival Technique was a revolutionary card for Command Center decks for two big reasons. Firstly, it enabled CC decks to pick up their location upgrades and reposition them onto another location, turning a stationary supporter into a mobile operations HQ. And secondly, it allowed a Seeker CC deck like Minh to raise and lower Barricade without having to be forced to discard it if an ally should enter and leave the command center itself.
These two concepts are at the heart of MASH Minh, whose mobile command center is responsible for providing healing, economy, and remote skill commits to her teammates throughout each scenario. When a scenario (or simple convenience) demands it, she can pack up her mobile hospital (over the course of at most two turns) and travel to a new location to set it up again and resume her vital services.
The Deck
So, what does your specific play pattern generally look like? Well, your first priority will be to locate a good location to set up your field hospital in. Then, once you're there, play out Barricade to make yourself utterly impervious to non-Elite enemies, and Map the Area to make all your tests easier. Shortcut can also be used, either on your location or on neighboring ones, in order to speed up delivery of allied casualties to you (or their redeployment).
That's the field part done, what about hospital? As your teammates come in to the HQ, they can receive treatment from your advanced medical techniques. Distillation is an absolutely workhorse support card with a ton of different modes, two of which you'll generally be trying to trigger on any given test. You can provide teammates with draw, resources, healing for health or sanity, charges/secrets for their less mundane equipment, and even an expedited return to the front. Whatever they need, Minh can deliver!
Speaking of moving out of the hospital, Barricade doesn't stop allies from entering your location, so people can always rush in to take refuge at the base. But if they want to leave, you need to use Survival Technique to return the Barricade to hand, and then play it again on your turn to reactivate your defenses. Survival Tech can also be used as mentioned above to pick up and redeploy the entire hospital somewhere else, whether because a new location has become more practical, or because you've run out of clues in your immediate area.
I say immediate area, not just location, because thanks to her Pocket Telescope and her nurse William Webb Minh can investigate adjacent locations to the hospital just as easily as she can the hospital itself–as long as she doesn't have a patient to attend to. And for even longer ranges, there's always In the Know, which she can keep supplied indefinitely with Distillation. These investigates then enable her Scavenging, which refills her Distillations and the cycle continues. Plus, while investigating remotely you can play out Shortcut fast and at range to provide additional map mobility!
The final aspect of gameplay I should cover is Minh's own signature, which is one of the reasons she's such an incredible CC deck. Her commit suite (in this case headed up chiefly by the ever-reliable Persistence) lets her provide an icon or three (or seven!) to anybody taking a test around the map, meaning your helpful presence is being felt at all times even when the recipients aren't on the operating table.
Clues, commits, healing, econ support, and a highly defensible mobile redoubt from which she provides all those goodies to every visitor–what's not to love?
Variants
Command Center Seeker is an extremely diverse strategy, and you can take this deck in a ton of different directions to specialize the kind of medical or logistical support Minh is providing. I'll just shout out a few major build-arounds you might want to consider if you're personalizing the deck.
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The Big Hand archetype is obviously a powerful one for Minh generally, but here it comes with an unusually significant bonus. Farsight is a major payoff card for the archetype that lets you play events fast–including, for example, during the fast window of a test you're taking. Including a test on In the Know; activating Farsight during one of that test's fast windows allows you to play events as if you were at the targeted location, making all of Minh's events infinite-range.
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A more heavily-defended hospital might branch out into Makeshift Trap, which can be played up to a location away using the Remote Configuration upgrade (or even further, if you combine it with the Farsight build above!) to lay mines all around your base and keep enemies out (and the path to safety clear for your allies).
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Ah, Ravenous Myconid, the eternally-controversial. If it's not too strong for your sensibilities, you could absolutely work it into the deck. The Sentient Strain is the more powerful option for a Command Center deck, but Minh lacks shroud reduction tools to make it truly broken; on the other hand, you could lean even further into her questionable medical methods via the Nurturing Strain, increasing your healing potential for each visitor considerably.
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Not strictly a variant, but Cosmic Revelation from the upcoming Drowned City set would be absolutely amazing in this deck, airdropping gear and supplies in on your allies no matter where they are on the map.
Conclusion
I'm a huge sucker for Command Center strategies. There's something so compelling to me about defying the game's normal play patterns and creating your own unique gameplay loop. When that defensive, static playstyle also facilitates a cool (and richly thematic) support build, AND references one of my favorite TV shows of all time in the process, well...I just hope some of y'all out there have as much fun with this deck as I had making it.
As always, thanks for reading, and...hang on...sounds like you might want to get your field hospital decks built quickly! I hear choppers!
| 10 comments |
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Feb 02, 2025 |
Feb 02, 2025
I didn't have any particular reason not to include Shotcaster–it's an amazing card, and an absolutely ridiculous one in CC decks (especially cluevers). But Alchemical Distillation was one of the first cards I added and that just sort of locked in my hand slots pretty quickly lol. Telescope came later for basic ranged investigates and Strength in Numbers boosting, but you could absolutely swap that second hand slot for a Shotcaster if you have the xp and it'll be a pretty serious power spike. As for Persistence, I am an ENORMOUS fan of the card, and I just keep finding crazy new uses for it. Even if you're not doing wacky stuff like fueling Minh's ability or preventing your deck from looping so you can repeatedly shuffle/bottom powerful cards in and draw them again (maybe with the new Gift of Nodens? eh?), it's a really reliable 1 wild icon for 2 different tests each time you draw it, and I've learned to absolutely not underestimate that. |
Feb 02, 2025Interesting deck! Immediate reactions:
I'll toast you when I have my next gin martini! |
Feb 02, 2025
I'm full of ideas for Survival Tech–it's definitely niche, but there are a few very powerful cards that work with it (Barricade, Breach the Door, Shrine of the Moirai) and which you can handily construct an entire deck around using it. I'm very pleased to have given you a new way to look at a card that hasn't previously inspired you! Persistence, on the other hand, I guess I still have some work to do to convince you XD I generally wouldn't want to take it in a deck where I'm not already going to draw through the entire thing, so the slow-down effect is somewhat less noticeable. But even then I probably wouldn't include it unless I specifically didn't want to reshuffle the deck once I'd drawn all the way through it; whether that's a sig-reshuffling Mandy or a Scavenging survivor whose entire discard pile is essentially an extension of their hand. As for the xp cost, it's admittedly one higher than other cards of similar roles (the improv suite, especially Winging It) but in exchange it's fast, free, flexible, and stacks with other tests you might want to be taking. I really think for the (admittedly niche) category of reshuffle prevention, it stacks up beautifully and makes a great case for being worth the price of admission. Thanks for your kind words! Nothing is more gratifying when deckbuilding than inspiring people to look at familiar cards in new, unexpected ways. That's what it's all about, for me! |
Feb 02, 2025
How about I commit to thinking about Persistence some more? I think you're right that it's deck-lengthener (I'm glad autocorrect didn't change that to something very unintended!) similarly to the Improvised suite of cards. I could see that being valuable, and I could also see having two "oh crap" commits being interesting. Or helping with Minh's The King in Yellow. Or a few other things. There are definitely a few uses where I can see the value more than I did before reading through this comment. :-) |
Feb 04, 2025Awesome list! I have played a similar Minh before but that was pre Hemlock Vale. Survival Technique looks awesome! I never picked up SK as I don’t like customizable cards. Do you have any suggestions for replacing the Alchemical Distillation? |
Feb 06, 2025Hi! I’m getting back into the game and have a fairly large collection of cards. What is the upgrade path for this deck? It’s an insane amount of experience, but I’ve only played a few of the campaigns and I don’t remember how much experience you gain on average. Or, do you just play this deck as is for fun without starting with a zero experience deck and upgrading to it? As I said, I may be missing some campaign rules, and I obviously need to read up on everything again, but I like the idea of this deck. I’m just fuzzy on which rules allow you to play a deck like this. Thanks. |
Feb 07, 2025
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Feb 12, 2025
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Feb 20, 2025With so many combo pieces, is it not difficult to draw them all when Alchemical Distillation is the only card draw? Love the deck idea anyway, gonna try it out! |
Looks fantastic. I honestly saw this and considered whether I want to run something like it in my next campaign (I just finished a campaign with friends last night. We are taking on path to carcosa next, 4 players, and one of the players has never played PtC before)
I love the idea of persistence in Minh. That's bonkers, I've not played Minh since the release of Hemlock Vale so I've never seen that particular combo before.
I guess it's the MAS*H theming, but I'm surprised to see a command center Minh that doesn't mention the Hyperphysical Shotcaster... maybe you consider that overdone?
Also, nice vignette in the article <3