Dexter Still Magicks the Old-Fashioned Way

As your turn begins, you inspect the board. The treacheries have gone poorly for your fellow investigators. One location away, Mandy has been attacked by an eldritch monster. And even worse, two locations away, your buddy Tony Morgan should have been able to handle the elite starspawn that landed on him, but one tentacle token and one retaliation attack has left him at 2 sanity, while the enemy still has 2 hp left.

"This might be it for me... can you help out with your Azure flame Dexter?"

You sigh, sorcerously.

"I begin my turn by investigating with Clairvoyance." Your friends stare at you, shocked and betrayed.

"Hey, I'm about to die over here!!!" Tony shouts, but you simply adjust your gloves and draw a token from the bag. Success. You pick up three clues from your location.

Next, you spend the last charge on your Close the Circle, moving to Mandy's location as a free action.

"For my next trick...." you mutter as you pay a charge from Azure Flame and draw another token. You're swinging with 10 Willpower thanks to your Four of Cups and your David Renfield. Another hit and the eldritch spawn attacking Mandy is slain.

But the show isn't over, as you activate Sign Magick to get a fast action cast of your Clairvoyance. You pass this check as well, picking up an additional 3 clues.

Tony is now more than a little annoyed. "Okay, you have one action left and I'm still dead. Fair enough, good luck you-"

You interrupt Tony with a dismissive gesture. Your turn is not yet over.

As a fast action using your signature ability, you play your second copy of Close the Circle from hand, replacing the one you previously exhausted. It comes in with 4 charges: one from your mystic assets, two thanks to your copy of Perception, and one from your Charon's Obol. You activate it to move to Tony's location.

Another Azure flame, and Tony's assailant is no more.

"Holy shit." Tony says, but you raise your hand, interrupting him again. Your turn is still not done.

Your second Sign Magick now activates, allowing you to trigger your fourth spell, Earthly Serenity, as a free action. You commit your Memories of Another Life to the test, another success provides Tony a nice chunk of sanity healing to ensure that he survives the mythos phase.

"With my Memories, I play Leo De Luca" you say aloud, placing a copy of Leo into the ally slot formerly occupied by David (sorry David, Doom was about to tick over!). "And with my last action, I investigate." You pull another token from the bag - another 3 clues, spending your last charge of clairvoyance.

You take stock of the situation. Two monsters slain, in 2 separate locations, and a total of 9 clues fetched. With some healing on the side.

"My turn is now complete. Please excuse me" you say Copperfieldishly as you rise from your chair at the table and head to the bathroom. Once inside, you reach into your pocket and remove a tin of McGregor's Beard and Moustache oil. You apply a thick sheen to the pointed mustache that has been growing in since the start of your campaign. As you place the tin back in your vest, you fingers brush against a strange warmth. You pull back in alarm, lifting a live rabbit out of your pocket. You don't know how this keeps happening, or why. You only know that it's going to continue.

In the mirror, you adjust your black top hat and check the fastenings on your cape. "The show must go on" you say aloud, for reasons you no longer understand.

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Deck Overview

I wanted to share this deck after it successfully navigated a very challenging campaign (Ages Unwound with a Wilson Richards ally who got a lot of unlucky draws). This deck begins with what I think is the staple of a strong Dexter Deck (Arcane Initiate, David Renfield, and some good Rogue cards) but rather than spending Dexter's copious XP on the usual suspects like Haste and Cyclopean Hammer I wanted to see how far I could push my action economy using Sign Magick, Close the Circle and Leo De Luca (fetched via Memories of Another Life). This led to some amazing turns and very memorable sequences. It was a lot of fun!

The goal of this deck is to build up to the point where you are taking 4 bonus actions per turn - 2 from Sign Magick, 1 from Close the Circle and 1 from Leo de Luca. You're then using these actions on spell assets that also offer action compression, leading to turns that can even give Amanda Sharpe a run for her money.

1. The large XP cost of this deck may seem daunting, but note that you are earning five extra XP from every session thanks to your permanents. If you wish you can even push this further with some Delve Too Deep plays during early scenarios. You can unlock the core pieces of this deck early, and its spell assets scale up very naturally from scenario 1 onwards.

2. Close the Circle is a very helpful card that is usually kept in check by its Arcane slot requirement and its need for cross-class cards. Combining it with Sign Magick and Prophetic solves all those problems while Dexter's Base 5 Willpower further enhances the card's value. Using it for movement is often the ideal play, but the flexibility does matter: Willpower-based evades and 1 damage pings will come up more than you think. Dexter even likes the fact that it sticks around with 0 charges - more grist for the discard mill!

3. 2x Prophetic is the critical resource engine that allows this deck to afford the absurd pace at which it chews through spell assets thanks to Sign Magick. It also enables close the circle thanks to its Guardian and Survivor types. Your mulligans should look for Prophetic and Molly Maxwell as a top priority, though David Renfield also works if you see that the first Agenda has a high Doom threshold. Alongside resources, card draw flows reliably from Lucky Cigarette Case and Arcane Initiate. In emergencies you can also use Memories of Another life to patch a hole in your draw/resource economy.

4. 2x Eyes of the Dreamer may seem a bit out of place in this otherwise juiced-up deck but it serves a critical function: it allows you to investigate using willpower even when it has no charges on it. This ensures that your free actions from Sign Magick will never go to waste so long as you have a nearby clue to grab. As a sideboard option you might also consider the often overlooked Witherfor the same reason, or Sixth Sense if you have more XP to spend.

5. As a bonus, the spell assets of this deck are easily customizable and should be tailored to your campaign threats and team lineup. You can bring more healing, more fightan or more cluing depending on what your team needs.

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Questions/Considerations

"Why don't you run Haste in this bonus action deck?"

Haste is a solid card, and I would likely consider it for a 4P game. But in 2P I found it pretty rare that I needed to perform the same action 3 times in a row. This build simply has too much efficiency in its spell assets to need that much repetition (you also need to keep in mind that fast actions triggered by Sign Magick and Close the Circle do not count as "performed actions" capable of triggering Haste).

"Do you really use Memories of Another Life to fetch Leo de Luca? Can't Dexter just.... play Leo in his deck?"

This deck runs a very thin margin on its resource economy. You will regularly have just enough money to pay for the assets you need, and Leo will easily break the camel's back if you have to pay for him.

"Doesn't the deck run out of juice once you blow through your spell charges with all those actions?"

The key to avoiding this is to use eyes of the dreamer effectively and also to not skimp on your card draw assets. You should expect to run through your deck at least once in late-game scenarios, allowing a second draw of your discarded spell assets. You can also take steps to make sure your 2nd run through your deck is primarily stocked with spell assets, for example by holding onto extra copies of Allies instead of committing them to skill checks.

"Do you recommend this deck over more reliable Cyclopean Hammer versions?"

I've played both and I personally find this version to be a bit more fun, (especially if you enjoy piloting turns with more complicated sequences) while still being capable of over-performing in a standard difficulty game.

"Starter deck?" The core of this deck is based on Rather Incoherent's excellent youtube guide to Dexter, which I then corrupted with my anti-hammer propaganda. I'd suggest checking that guide out for a starter version.