Duet Decks

Hello again dear readers! After discussing all currently available investigators I figured out it might make sense to share some of my thoughts about successfully pairing them¹ in (well) functioning duets. Not only it’s an interesting topic, but also I have seen the question popping up on different forums.

Usually the dilemma concerns only the choice of investigators. Sometimes, however, on top of a perfect choice of investigators you must also accordingly fine tune their decks. Obviously, some investigators are more flexible, while others have more limited scope. 

Generally speaking, playing in a team encourages specialization. Instead of taking less efficient neutral cards (or filing out-of-the-class slots) to somehow mitigate the weak sides, it’s better to focus on your strengths and allow the fellow investigator to cover your weak spots. This is obviously only a general statement and full specialization might not always be the best idea (more about it in the appropriate sections).

So back to the original question – what duets work best at uncovering the terrible truths, preventing mankind’s demise and dealing will physical, mental and emotional threats? The answer is not straightforward (if it was, what a shame it would be, we love the game for the complexity, don’t we?²), we should consider multiple factors when matching the characters.

       1. Area of focus

In other words – what would the investigator do in the game? There are two main specializations – dealing with monsters and discovering the clues. You can divide these tasks in different ways. You can pair a specialized fighter (like Zoey, or Jenny with a “fighter build”) with an investigator focused on clue collecting (like Rex or appropriately customized Pete). You can also divide the tasks more evenly (60:40 or so) and match for example an investigating-heavy deck of Jim (with just a couple of cards for fighting) with a combat-oriented Roland (still throwing in Evidence, Deduction and such). You might consider a fair split as well, for instance – Agnes paired with Jenny (in this situation consider using all the non-Green slots for investigation-related cards).

A specialized approach makes it easier to use character’s full strength and enables you to take as few suboptimal cards as possible. On the other hand, it also strongly discourages splitting the team, which might lead to suboptimal in-game choices. The more balanced team might on the other hand suffer, when a particularly tough task is to be performed. A high-shroud location or a boss enemy might prove to be a difficult task and for sure will require full focus of both team members.

Even if you decide to go with a heavily specialized approach, please leave some space in the deck for the other area. There’s barely anything more annoying than walking around with nothing to do, just because no enemy showed up. Well, actually there is – being eliminated because too many enemies showed up and your team mate didn’t manage them all.

As of now it's the only asset rogues can take to investigate better.
That's why they don't make strong clue collectors and probably never will.

One or both of the investigators can (and even should) stock on some support cards – healing, card drawing etc. I recommend to bear in mind the specific needs of the team partner when deciding what support cards to take. Is their deck slow? Old Book of Lore will come in handy! Is he/she in need of Sanity healing? Liquid Courage might prove to be very useful! Sometimes taking a card that only our partner benefit of is a very reasonable choice.

        2. Luck/draw dependency

Some of the investigators just need the correct card to properly do their job. When left without them, they are powerless. The card engine is essential for them and the player can be easily doomed by not getting the right set of cards. Prime example might be Rex, heavily relying on abusing Scavenging or Agnes, who needs spells to get any job done.

Meanwhile, there are some who can handle work properly just getting any help – whenever Zoey gets a Beat Cop, a weapon or just even a Cross, she’s ready to inflict God’s wrath on the enemies.

Similar situation applies to the Chaos Bag. Some investigators (particularly specialized ones) will regularly attempt skill checks being much over the difficulty level, while others try to gamble and play the odds. As an example of the latter category, Jim comes to the mind, as well as pretty much every Survivor character. Jenny, with her rather balanced skill values is also slightly tilted towards odds-playing.

The ultimate push-your-luck card. And what an awesome graphic!

You should try to have at least one risk-averse investigator in the duet. Otherwise you are just asking gods of (un)fortune to punish you for your recklessness. On the other hand the conservative approach, while potentially safer, might not provide good enough of an edge against the toughest scenarios, so a bit of daring is always welcome (and if it fails you can always blame the bad luck!).

 

3      3. Tempo

Another important (and easily overlooked) aspect is tempo. Some characters/decks are naturally slow – they need to play assets, generate some sort of economy, gather resources etc. before they ARE ready to face the supernatural threats. Prime examples of such investigators are Agnes and Jenny. The first one needs to get the spells (or at least the alternative assets, like Fire Axe), the second one needs to get the costly assets and hopefully talents, as well as resources to spend on the talents.

On the other end of the spectrum there is Pete, who is basically ready to go turn 0, as well as Jim, who can just equip Grotesque Statue or Ritual Candles and can already test his luck. As Jim’s example shows, being a “rush” investigator does not mean not being luck dependent.

In the middle of the spectrum we can find Daisy or Zoey, who need to get an asset or two, but not an entire library/arsenal.

This is arguably the iconic "slow" card.
Starts paying off in 3rd action.

I strongly advise to balance this aspect as well. Using two slow decks might lead to being overrun in the beginning. You might have more chances with 2 “aggro” decks, but if they do not clear the scenario quickly enough, you might find your characters unable to cope with the challenges and knocked down/driven insane.  

The Amulet gives Wendy some options
to transition into a decent end-game character.

 .      4. Class

It might strike some controversy, but I don’t believe it is a necessary thing to avoid “overlapping” classes. Obviously forming a team of two investigators of the same class might lead to breaking one of the above mentioned rules (particularly the first one, but two Survivors might easily be too “aggro”, while two Mystics too luck dependent etc.). However, you shouldn’t be afraid of having some cards of the same class (unless you simply hit the physical limitation) nor strive to include as many classes as possible for the sake of variety. The only thing you should be conscious about is the unique assets. I strongly recommend not using the same unique card in two decks.

5      5. Development

This is not really a separate criterion, but more of a thing to keep in mind when pairing the investigators. During the course of a campaign you will get high level cards, which will further shape your deck. It may shift the focus of the investigator, change deck’s tempo etc. Please bear it in mind during both character selection and the initial deck creation.

You might start bit unbalanced in some of the aforementioned factors, planning to make adjustments on the way. Obviously you must still be able to cope with first scenario(s). 

Adding extra copies of Fight spells can turn your Mystic
into the main fighter.

Same principle applies to choice of support card. As an example consider Zoey paired with Daisy. Zoey should plan to take Brother Xavier (or at least heavily consider it) to cover for Daisy’s fragile physique. Therefore knowing her Will is about to be boosted, she should consider taking Rite of Seeking for the clue-gathering (instead of taking Flashlights, for instance). In other words – team needs that will be addressed by upgraded cards should already be taken into account during creation of the starting deck. 

All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com 

¹Same approach should also work with future investigators, unless they will be too different. However the points I’m raising are abstract and high-level enough to (hopefully) cover the topic for good. Obviously, I am only using currently published investigators to illustrate my points.

 

²AH:TCG is a fairly complex game. While it might lack the depth of so called “euro” games, it provides the player with lots of options. The number of options will significantly grow with future releases – both due to the growing card pool and possibly new mechanics. I believe we can expect new ideas to be introduced, based on FFG past approach.

Obviously more complex does not mean better. There is a sweet spot and it’s different for every player. By complexity, I mean what BGG describes as “weight” https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Weight).