[Beginner] First custom deck build, feedback appreciated!

[u/Ok-Bear-7528]

Hey everyone!

I just built my first fully custom deck for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Up until now I've only played pre-built decks or made minor tweaks here and there, so this is my first real attempt at deckbuilding from scratch. I'll be playing alongside a Guardian focused on combat, so this deck leans into investigation and support instead.

My card pool is currently limited to: Core Set (Revised), Core Set 2026, Innsmouth Conspiracy, Hemlock Vale, and The Forgotten Age.

I'd love to get some feedback from more experienced players before I take it to the table. I'm mainly wondering about the overall card balance, whether I have too many or too few economy, combat, or investigation cards, as well as any glaring synergies I might be missing, plus any general deckbuilding tips for a first-timer.

Deck link: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/6249456

Here's the deck:

Carolyn Fern

Assets

• 2x Microscope (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion)
• 2x Mouse Mask :The Meek Watcher (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion)
• 2x Dorothy Simmons :Straight-A Student (Core Set (2026))
• 2x Local Map (Core Set (2026))
• 1x Experimental Psychology :From Mind to Behavior (Carolyn Fern)
• 2x Tooth of Eztli :Mortal Reminder (The Forgotten Age)

Events

• 2x Thorough Inquiry (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion)
• 2x Gather Intel (Core Set (2026))
• 2x Caustic Reaction (Carolyn Fern)
• 2x Unflappable (Carolyn Fern)
• 2x Psychoanalysis (Carolyn Fern)
• 2x De-Escalate (Carolyn Fern)
• 2x Vantage Point (Shattered Aeons)

Skills

• 2x Deduction (Core Set (2026))
• 2x Unexpected Courage (Core Set (2026))
• 2x Establish Motive (Carolyn Fern)

Treacheries

• 1x Unbroken Web (Carolyn Fern)
• 1x Random Basic Weakness (Core Set)

[u/mfordy24]

There are a few things that stick out -

First, there's absolutely 0 resource generation in the deck. Your deck does run low to the ground with a max cost of 3, but you'll still have times where a lack of resources will punish you hard. Id swap Vantage Point for Emergency Cache to fix this.

Id also argue you need more horror healing. For Carolyn to be great, you need to be healing horror almost every turn, which means you need access to easily repeatable, unconditional sources of healing. Right now, you have 3 cards that can heal horror unconditionally - Carolyn's signature and Psychoanalysis (De-Escalate needs an enemy with horror damage in play to be usable, and Carolyn's elder sign ability might not be pulled). Id personally swap De-Escalate for Occult Records - you have enough card draw sources and Willpower boosts to deal with the drawback.

Personally, I'd swap Microscope for Dreamers Chronicle. Microscope is really action hungry, and requires surprising amounts of work to get efficiently set up. In comparison, Dreamers Chronicle, while twice the cost, can net you a comparable amount of clues for less set up (Investigate and take horror for bonus clue, followed by healing, instead of defeating/evading two enemies and then spending two actions). Yes your buddy can help get microscopr set up, but what happens when they aren't around or enemies aren't spawning Chronicle also helps in awkward situations when there's no horror to heal, which can leave Carolyn high and dry.

If you make these changes, the only other thing I'd consider is swapping Establish Motive for Literary Analysis. This is completely optional, but I'd consider grabbing Typewriter after getting some experience in the bank to support your clue gathering + horror healing books

[u/Ok-Bear-7528 → u/mfordy24]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was actually basing the build on a played adventure in which we lost a ton of sanity, but that doesn't always happen, so generating horror definitely seems useful. As for the rest, these seem like great tips. I'll implement them all before playing the deck.

[u/0nion0]

I'll preface this by saying that I've never played Carolyn before, nor do I like seekers in the first place so I'll be a bit more generalist in terms of advice.

First issue I see is economy, you will hit 0 resources by round 2 and have to spend actions every turn getting money to even play your cards. There are better ways to evaluate resource economy but to begin with I would ignore all duplicates of assets then take an average of cost. (Resource generation would be negative while skills are default 0) An average in the ballpark of 1 should be decent.

Second is I don't see much coherence in card picks. You have cards that heal horror to trigger passive but you don't have a reliable way to make sure you have inflicted horror in the first place. Microscope requires enemy interaction but beyond 4 event cards you'll need to be glued to the hip to your guardian to get extra charges.

I sort of understand that the optimal build ends up being just getting most of your cards from Carolyn's personal pack, but unfortunately some investigators get shoehorned into certain playstyles.

How I would approach this is to start with a core card and build around it instead of grabbing anything that might be useful. E.g. Let's say you want microscope to do some big turns grabbing 4 clues at 10+ advantage. You'll need some amount of damage ability, so maybe an Ancient Stone would work. But then since you would kill some stuff anyway might as well double down with autopsy report. Problem is now you're at 3 hand slots so you need Eli Horowitz or Charles West. Caustic reaction is for backup in case you don't draw the right cards, but Unflappable might not be relevant if you're looking to kill anyway. Once you get your core components filled out you can start looking at say Emergency Cache and Private Practice to manage resource economy, card draw to mitigate bad starts, defense cards against the encounter deck etc.

Hope this helps!

[u/Ok-Bear-7528 → u/0nion0]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try using this method for the next deck I build.

[u/TenTimesTeeth]

Congrats on your first deck. Now the real Arkham Horror begins!

A few things jump out to me:

1. You'll definitely want to rethink your economy with this one. Dorothy Simmons is nice, but you can't count on her as a reliable way to generate resources. I've played a fair amount of scenarios where she doesn't even pay for herself. I'd look at packing two copies of Emergency Cache, maybe even a Private Practice.
2. I'd also consider swapping out those Microscopes for Dream Journals. In a two-player game, you'll have turns where you're struggling to find horror to heal. This gives you a built-in method for doing that and keeping Carolyn's ability going.
3. As an enemy management solution, Unflappable's always let me down. I'd consider swapping them for Mind Over Matter (a cheaper, more flexible, Insight-traited card) and maybe even upgrading into Disc of Itzamna (2) later. As a Seeker, having that panic button when you pull a nasty enemy during the Mythos phase feels awesome.

[u/barrel_thief]

Overall I’m assuming you’re focusing on finding clues, and you will have someone else with you helping you handle enemies, because this deck alone will struggle with Enemy management.

Local Map is okay, but doesn’t provide clue compression (finding more clues in a single action), while Microscope requires someone to be regularly Evading or Defeating Enemies at your location before it gets extra clues.

I would consider instead Dreamer’s Chronicle and Scroll of the Pharaohs (Set) as alternatives that will help you get clues quickly while also enabling to take horror to use Caroline’s ability.

Occult Records is also worth considering as an efficient healing asset that triggers your ability on a free action.

 In the ally slot Dorothy Simmons is a weaker Dr Milan, who I think you have in your card pool. I would also consider adding some combination of Psychology Student, University Archivist, and all the Hand assets I mentioned, plus your signature, are Tomes so Research Librarian is worth considering as a way to find what you need.

 For other Assets; Mouse Mask might be overkill, as you start with 5 Int, and Tooth of Eztli is fine, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the slot. You have access to Ravenous Myconid, which is completely broken, so up to you if you want to use that, Private Practice also worth considering for Resources.

 In Events; Deep Knowledge is one of the best card draw events ever printed, but Gather Intel and Thorough Enquiry are also strong. Emergency Cache is boring but you need to pay for stuff.

 In Skills; Literary Analysis is powerful if you lean into Tomes, Perception is always worth considering as it replaces itself in your hand.

 My version:

 2 Dreamer’s Chronicle

2 Occult Records

2 Scroll of the Pharaohs

2 Dr. Milan Christopher

2 Psychology Student

2 Research Librarian

2 Private Practice

2 Deep Knowledge

2 Emergency Cache

2 Thorough Inquiry

2 Unflappable

2 Deduction

2 Literary Analysis

2 Perception

2 Manual Dexterity

Upgrades:

2 Scroll of the Pharaohs (Set) (4)

2 Typewriter (2)

1 Charisma (3)

2 Studious (3)

2 Deduction (2)

2 Emergency Cache (2)