To Carcosa and Back - Solo Expert TPTC [Echoes of the Past]

~ Part 2: The Last King ~

Warning: Massive spoilers for The Path to Carcosa campaign follows

This commentary assumes that the player is familiar with all story elements of the campaign. This series of decks use 2 core sets, The Dunwich Legacy cycle, and The Path to Carcosa cycle.

This series of decks is designed for playing The Path to Carcosa campaign solo on Expert difficulty. This deck focuses on the third scenario, Echoes of the Past.

==================== [Introduction] ====================

If indeed any scenario on Expert can be considered a breather scenario, this would be it. This is a very low risk, high reward scenario that deals little damage and virtually no horror - and yet offers 5 possible XP. We aim to collect every single one.

The 5 XP available in this scenario are 2 from Hidden Library, 2 from Possessed Oathspeaker, and 1 from Agent of the King. To collect all of them, we must advance to Act 3, clear the Hidden Library, then circle around and complete the scenario by killing the Possessed Oathspeaker. Somewhere along the way, we also need to draw and kill Agent of the King - which we can search out with The Cult's Search and Mysterious Chanting whenever we feel prepared.

Compared to the previous scenario, this is yet again a change of pace. For this scenario, we will return to our strategy in Curtain Call - get into a position to easily respond to anything out of the encounter deck, and gradually build up the advantage required to advance the acts.

===================== [Upgrades] =====================

To recap, we should have at least 5xp from the last scenario, and up to 7. This is how we will spend them:

In:

1x Will to Survive (3xp): As this is arguably the most powerful card Wendy has access to, we will not hesitate picking up a second copy. In this scenario, it allows us to investigate most locations unaided and give us a surefire way to kill tough enemies like the Possessed Oathspeaker.

1x Backstab (0xp): Just as Adaptable let us remove our combat package in favor of evasive and parleying tools last scenario, it lets us put back some combat cards vital for countering the cult's progress in this one. Backstab is important as one of the easiest ways to remove a Seeker of Carcosa, and our main way of killing Possessed Oathspeaker at the end of the scenario.

1x Close Call (2xp): In addition to being useful throughout the campaign, Close Call does a good impression of Backstab when dealing with Seeker of Carcosa - which are by far the most annoying enemy in this scenario. It is also excellent against Wizard of the Order, and can remove Agent of the King if we draw him too early.

2x Fire Axe (0xp): Our best weapon against Acolytes. If we recall the first scenario, this deck has far more resources than it can spend in longer games - which is by design, having a large stockpile of resources is important when we are holding many expensive events. While this means we cannot reliably take advantage of the extra damage from Fire Axe, it lets us spend 3 resources to gain +6 with impunity, which gives us a decent chance to kill an Acolyte. Though there are only 3 copies of Acolytes in the encounter deck, we expect to encounter them far more frequently than other cultists because they will be our go-to when Mysterious Chanting or The Cult's Search demands us to search for a cultist and draw it.

1x Flashlight (0xp): Almost an afterthought. However, using Fire Axe instead of the more powerful but less reliable Baseball Bat leaves one of our hands free, and there are several locations with only 2 shroud in this scenario, which Flashlight makes trivial to investigate.

Out:

2x Fine Clothes: Easy first card to cut. We will very rarely make another parley check for the rest of the campaign, and it is certainly useless in this scenario.

2x Perception: While this is certainly an investigation heavy scenario, we are playing the long game. The ability to increase our by 2 for one check just doesn't mean much to us.

1x Guts: Perhaps surprisingly, this entire scenario has no check. Guts is blank here for all intents and purposes.

1x Survival Instinct: Though there are many enemies in this scenario, they are not enemies we'd like to run away from. Therefore, a card that only helps us run away from enemies is not needed.

Stretch:

If we have xp left over because we performed well in The Last King, we can consider the following additional upgrades:

1x Elusive 1x Close Call (2xp): Though Elusive is useful in Echoes of the Past for saving actions while getting to an enemy with several doom, such occasions occur rarely enough that one copy is usually sufficient. A second copy of Close Call is not only efficient for removing many doom-bearing enemies, but also useful later in the campaign.

1x Flashlight 1x Lockpicks (1xp): I do not recommend this, yet it deserves mention as Lockpicks is considered an extremely powerful card for Wendy. It does much the same thing as Flashlight, but provides effectively +2 and potentially extra uses over it. For this +2 and extra uses, we are paying +1xp, +1 resource, losing ability to use it multiple times per turn (which is useful on a Will to Survive turn), and being nullified by some locations. As well, it does not reduce shroud, which means 2 shroud locations are no longer guaranteed successes (unlike Flashlight, notwithstanding), "Look what I found!" is harder to use, and Double or Nothing works poorly. Finally, it reduces the versatility of Adaptable, which can swap Flashlight in and out at will.

================== [Echoes of the Past] ==================

Echoes of the Past is a unique scenario that allows us to halt the agenda's advance entirely provided we can deal with the many cultists it offers, and that is exactly what we will do. Since cultists can start showing up as early as turn 2, we will mulligan for tools that let us deal with early cultists effectively.

The most common cultist we will encounter is the humble Acolyte, not only because there are 3 copies of him in the encounter deck, but also because we will likely search for him if we draw The Cult's Search or Mysterious Chanting. The Seeker of Carcosa and Fanatic are the second most common with Seeker of Carcosa being by far the most annoying. With that in mind, we will be looking for the following cards in our opening hand:

Close Call will easily deal with any cultist we draw early. All cultists save for the Fanatic have a of 2, which is no match for Wendy's 4 .

Backstab is a cost and action efficient way of killing Seeker of Carcosa.

Waylay is a less efficient way to kill Seeker of Carcosa, but is effective against Agent of the King and Wizard of the Order - both of which demand immediate answers when drawn.

Fire Axe is our main tool for killing Acolyte.

Leo De Luca and Lone Wolf sustain our economy and are best played early.

If we have one or two ways to kill an early Seeker of Carcosa in our opening hand, we are in good shape. We can then sit tight and draw cards until we have all the tools we need to finish the scenario. A few tricks and tips in this stage of the game are:

If a cultist is not accumulating doom (i.e. Acolyte and Fanatic), it is usually preferable to leave him be as long as you stay close enough to kill him if he gets more doom. This is because having a cultist makes Mysterious Chanting and Led Astray easier to deal with.

Fanatic spawns on a revealed location with the most clues, and then sucks up one of those clues as a doom. This means, if you have cleared all revealed locations of clues, he will just sit on his hands not doing much. So if you reveal a location, try to clear it quickly.

Do not completely ignore clues during this stage of the game. Having a clue or two makes encounters like Hunting Shadow easier to handle. It also lets us avoid adding doom to the agenda with Led Astray if we have a cultist alive. Recall the previous part about leaving a cultist be.

At some point during the game, we should find ourselves with a Waylay in hand, or some other way of killing Agent of the King. At this point, we should search him up the next time we draw Mysterious Chanting and The Cult's Search and claim his 1 xp.

As this is a low pressure scenario, we should also take this chance to defeat The Man in the Pallid Mask if it is ever reasonably convenient.

Before we advance to act 3, we should make sure we have all the tools we need to clear the Hidden Library and kill Possessed Oathspeaker. This usually means Flashlight and "Look what I found!" for the Hidden Library and Will to Survive, Double or Nothing, and Backstab for Possessed Oathspeaker. Once we do, advance the act (preferably from a passageway location), enter the Hidden Library, and clear it as quickly as possible. Then, leave as quickly as possible, lest False Lead ruins our Victory 2. Stroll over to the Entry Hall and wait for the Possessed Oathspeaker to show up and kill him with Will to Survive + Backstab + Double or Nothing with 3 of commits to taste.

===================== [The Future] =====================

As we are finishing the scenario by killing the Possessed Oathspeaker, there are no story choices to be made at the end of the scenario. The Tattered Cloak is not a very useful card in our deck, and we can leave it.

In my tests at the time of writing, the last 3 games with this build finished the scenario with 5 xp (7 with Charon's Obol) all 3 times with a significant margin of victory. Therefore, we will move forward with the assumption that we have 7xp to spend in the next scenario.

~ Part 4: The Unspeakable Oath ~