Lone Wolf: Agnes Baker, the Waitress
Present since the release of the Core Set, Agnes Baker is printed with a 5W 2I2F 3A statline and a 6/8 health/sanity split.
Elder sign: +1. for each horror on Agnes Baker.
Agnes is likely to have horror on her, but this elder sign offers nothing more than passing the test.
Ability: Once per phase, if horror is dealt to Agnes, she can deal one damage to an enemy at her location.
Testless damage is quite good, and I value it quite highly in the resource trade model (3.5R). The value is there, but the more difficult part is to reliably trigger it. Agnes can play some cards that deal horror to her, but most of them are either reactional (Ward of Protection) or janky (Meat Cleaver, Forbidden Knowledge). Since the horror have to be place on Agnes and not on soak, you are also limited in how much you can use it, unless playing some healing as well. Overall, it is a good ability, but not exceptional.
Deckbuilding: Mystic 0-5 / Survivor 0-2
This deckbuilding is fantastic for Agnes. Having full mystic access is always great for a 5 willpower investigator, as it is the class that was initially designed as “use willpower to do everything”. The class also offers the best XP acceleration in the game, and is quite good at dealing with the encounter deck. The only drawback of the class in True Solo is that the traditional set up of mystics is quite expensive. Having to pay for an investigate and a fight asset has a heavy cost in actions, resources and slots.
The survivor minor access is quite a good supplement for Agnes. Pete Sylvestre(2) is the perfect ally for her, boosting the two stats she cares about and offering some buffer protection to play with a lot of horror on her. The Sparrow Mask is also fantastic, as it will recharge whenever you use her ability. Finally, survivor has the best cards to cheese or recover from failed tests, which is important in Solo.
Signature Kit
Heirloom of Hyperborea is a fairly weak signature, unfortunately. The play cost of 3 resources, an action an a card is a net -7R, and you need to draw at least 5 cards to get some value out of it.
Yes, Agnes want to play spells. But she wants to play her spell assets right away, which she will struggle to do if she has to pay for the heirloom first.
The card also suffers from the competition with Holy Rosary/Crystal Pendulum, which cost one less resource and both give +1 willpower and something Agnes wants (horror soak/card draw).
The card does not exhaust, so one could try to create an “event spell slinging” Agnes. But other than Backpack(2), there is no reliable way to get the Heirloom early. Most of the time, the card is just a commit.
I just said that Agnes had no reliable way to take horror. Here is one. The only issue is, it will probably defeat you at some point.
Dark Memory is a well designed and punishing weakness. Paying for it is awful, as you pay one action, two resources and a card for what Ancient Evils gives for free. Ignoring it, especially if you have Pete Sylvestre in play, is quite tempting, and probably the right choice should you be close to the end of the scenario.
But two horrors per round will ultimately likely overcome your soaking capability, and it is even worse to have to pay for Dark Memory while being on the brink of being defeated.
Tough on both end. I enjoy cards that initiate difficult decisions, and this one does. It also helps to balance Agnes.
Preformance review for True Solo tasks
Clue Gathering
Agnes has base 2 intellect, which makes using other solutions than her intellect to gather clues desirable.
Using willpower spell assets to investigate is the obvious solution, but is expensive, and compete for her valuable arcane slots. Rite of Seeking and Clairvoyance are also not so great in True Solo, as using a charge on a 1-Clue location is inefficient. In Solo, the most likely spell assets used to investigate are either Sixth Sense as it does not use charges, or Divination to get some action compression on 2+ Clues locations.
Both Mystic and Survivor pool have good clue gathering events (Drawn to the Flame, Read the Signs, “Look What I Found”) but they also are poorly suited to 1-Clue locations, as they aim to gather two clues at once.
In the end, Agnes will have no trouble gathering clues once set-up, but will have to dedicate a fair number of cards/resources to do so reliably.
Enemy Management
Just as for intellect, 2 fight is not an incentive to use traditional weapons to defeat enemies.
Unlike investigating though, the spell assets to fight are much more suitable for True Solo. Most enemies have the same health in Solo and Multiplayer. They are just less numerous, which means the spells won’t deplete as fast.
Agnes has also a nice ability to supplement fighting, as she can “round up” her attacks to both save a spell charge and an action if she can inflict herself an horror.
The access to the survivor pool offers interesting fighting support options, in the form of Long Shot for an extra damage, or Sparrow Mask, which can be used both to fight with a spell asset, or to add to her decent 3 agility to evade.
Overall, Agnes is a very capable fighter, just held back by the fact that Mystics are still mostly reliant on limited use cards (spell assets or events) to deal damage.
Mythos Defense - Survivability
Until we see an investigator with more than 8 points in willpower+agility, I would argue that 5W/3A is the best split for the campaigns printed up to today, as they still majority test willpower over agility.
To supplement this, Agnes has access to the Mystic Pool, which is the strongest class to defuse the encounter deck, and to the Survivor Class, which is the best at succeeding test you were not meant to pass, at bouncing back from a failed test, and one of the best at soaking.
The only thing that prevents Agnes to be amongst the toughest investigators in Arkham LCG is that both her ability and weakness are pushing her into taking a lot of horror, which can turn dicey on an unfortunate streak.
Action efficiency - Economy
Agnes is a extremely solid all-rounder, once set-up properly. However, she does struggle a bit with action efficiency.
Mystics and Survivor are both classes with not that much card draw or resource generation. They are also not really efficient at accelerating the set-up phase, nor are they specially good at generating extra actions.
Her ability is a nice tempo boost in fights, but will usually require an asset to be played upfront to generate horrors.
And, of course, her weakness, if it arrives early enough for you not to be able to soak the horror, is an extra Ancient Evils you have to pay for, which is a massive tempo loss.
Deckbuilding ideas
Agnes goes to Wonderland
This is the most consistent of the builds that I will present today.
Because of the initial trauma (4 total), this build is not meant to capitalize too much on Agnes ability (though you can still dish a bit of damage through the scenario). What you get in exchange is a deck that will upgrade crazy fast with an additional 4XP per scenario.
The deck use Azure Flame and Shrivelling to fight, Divination and Sixth Sense to investigate. At level 0, Pete Sylvestre and Fearless are there to ensure you don’t die from horror. The deck economy is funded by Uncage the Soul and Forbidden Knowledge, which is the only “on demand” horror dealing card in the deck. Card draw is provided by the Scrolls of Secrets and At a Crossroad.
Holy Rosary is there to both soak and boost willpower, and Sparrow Mask is a nice supplement to it, as Agnes will take a lot of horror. Sign Magic is mostly waiting to be upgraded, as having a third arcane slot is nice to have but not mandatory in the build. Finally, the deck is completed by generically potent mystic cards such as Ward of Protection (useful to defuse some treacheries and to deal damage in the mythos phase), or Deny Existence (the later could be substituted by Promise of Power for campaigns that feature in-scenario tests of Intellect / Fight, which you cannot boost otherwise).
Agnes is Hatchetwoman
While the previous deck almost ignored Agnes ability, this one aims to make use of it to support fighting with the Hatchet.
The star of the deck is of course Hatchet, with which Agnes can fight at a comfortable 5, 6 with Pete Sylvestre, 8 by expending a charge from Sparrow Mask. Its main drawbacks is that you don’t want the Hatchet to kill the enemy.
The strategy is the following: 1 and 2 HP enemies are dealt with Forbidden Knowledge and Painkillers. Since there is a player window after drawing the encounter card and at the start of the investigation phase, this can be done before Agnes has to take any action. 3/4 HP enemies are killed with one swing of the hatchet, completed by Agnes ability and/or Long Shot. To deal with more chunky enemies, Agnes can rely on either Spectral Razor or Stunning Blow to finish the fight or carry it to the next round.
Not having to use her arcane slots for fighting leaves more latitude to Agnes to slot in two different investigations asset should she want to, Divination being prioritized for 2+ Clues locations while Sixth Sense is reserved for 1 Clue locations.
The deck is completed by Scroll of Secrets, for card draw, Uncage the Soul for economy, Promise of Power to pass selective Intellect or Fight tests, and Ward of Protection for testless treachery protection.
Agnes is a blursed k-healer
Now, this deck is dipping its toes into Jank – use with caution – . The idea is to go all-in on Agnes ability. The deck main enabler is Spirit of Humanity.
On turns where Agnes draws an enemy, the can use Spirit of Humanity, Mysterious Raven, Forbidden Knowledge and Painkillers to deal damage while taking horror. On turns where she draws a treachery, she heals with Spirit of Humanity. Spectral Razor/Promise of power are there to help bringing down chuncky enemies, while Sixth Sens/Drawn to the Flame/“Look what I found” are there to secure clue gathering.
The deck will gradually turn into a blurse deck, as Spirit of Humanity will put a lot of bless and curses into the bag. The only pay-off at level 0 is Rod of Carnamagos, which can soften enemies, while Ritual Candles are there to ensure curses are not too much of an inconvenience. Holy Rosary and Fearless are there to ensure Agnes will not die from horror. Oh, speaking of, this deck really wants physical rather than mental traumas for In the Thick of It.
First, it will fill the bag with bless and cursed tokens in no time. This can be exploited with , and to almost guaranty an autosucess every round. To make room for more tokens, the can eat-up some tokens for extra healing and resources.
Secondly, since Spirit of Humanity heals one damage and horror, and Painkillers heal damage while dealing horror, Agnes will most likely over-heal damage quite a lot. Soul Sanctification can turn all that extra healing into a stream of +2s.
While this deck may not be the most reliable or the strongest deck out there, it looks functional enough and a fun deck to try if you want to experience Agnes differently.
My evaluation of Agnes True Solo power level
Agnes is undoubtedly strong. Once set-up, she can face all the challenges of Arkham with great reliability. Her deckbuilding is very, very potent and allows for a great variety of builds, which I tried to illustrate in this article. Being a mystic, she can also access the XP acceleration cards of the class should she want to.
Yet, she falls short of being one of the very bests. Her card pool doesn’t offer a lot for card draw or action compression, her ability, while potent, trades for her sanity, and her weakness is brutal.
Ultimately, she is certainly good enough to hold her own in True Solo, and it is always a pleasure to play her unique mechanic. My ranking for Agnes in True Solo is: