“I’ll show you real magic.”

After finding scraps of the dangerous and mysterious Necronomicon while fighting in the Great War, Dexter Drake wasted no small effort in hunting down and translating more pages. At first, his goal was to keep its evil contained. However, Dexter’s curiosity drove him to delve deeper into the profane text, tempted by the promise of “true” magic. Dexter is sure he has what it takes to decode the text: he proved his courage in the war and his resourcefulness on stage as a magician. But true magic comes at a cost. Will Dexter prove his mastery over the arcane, or will the arcane overpower him?

Back in October, we revealed the new core set for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, which heralds the beginning of an era we’re referring to as “Chapter Two.” With that new core set comes a new set of five core investigators, and the last (but not least) of those five is Dexter Drake (Core Set, 10)!

Returning to the stage as the new core’s Mystic investigator, Dexter’s new approach to investigation has echoes of his original asset-discarding playstyle but takes a fresh and versatile spin. His innate ability triggers after you play an asset of any type, allowing you to either “bounce” another asset back into your hand, or play a second asset as part of the same action. Right off the bat, this grants Dexter some handy flexibility, allowing him to get two cards out at once or “refresh” a depleted asset (by returning it to his hand and then playing it again). Any asset with limited uses—such as Cosmic Flame (Core Set, 59) with its 3 charges or the Cloak of Resonance (Core Set, 58) with its 3 sanity—can suddenly have a lot more staying power when Dexter can refresh it on a whim, and it can allow you to pull off some pretty impressive sequences, especially when you take the discount from Dexter’s signature event, “For my next trick…” (Core Set, 11) into account.

For example, say you have Jim Culver (Core Set, 60) and a Lucky Charm (Core Set, 61) in play to help you soak some hits. With the ability on Lucky Charm, you can spend some charges to move a damage and a horror off of Dexter and onto Jim. Then, you can use “For my next trick…” to search for and play Second Sight (Core Set, 62) for just 2 resources, allowing you to “bounce” Jim Culver back into your hand, which removes the damage and horror from him. Then, on your next action (if you have the resources), you can play Jim Culver again, fully healed and ready to soak more hits for you. Or, alternatively, you could have chosen to bounce the Lucky Charm instead, which would let you replay it to refresh its charges, or you could bounce an asset with doom on it—such as the asset you targeted for Will of the Cosmos (Core Set, 66)—to clear that doom without losing the card.

By now, it should be clear just how versatile Dexter’s innate ability is, but the fact remains that he can only trigger it once per round. Not only that, but constantly bouncing your assets back to your hand can get expensive fast. Fortunately, Dexter has some other cards in his pre-built deck to help him navigate the dangers of the Mythos. The event Premonition (Core Set, 64), for example, tells you the exact next token that will be revealed from the chaos bag, which can help Dexter decide what abilities are worth using (and what resources are worth expending) for a test he’s about to make. Even if you know the outcome of a specific test, sometimes a treachery is just too nasty to deal with, in which case the classic Ward of Protection (Core Set, 65) is an invaluable tool in an investigator’s belt, trading a bit of horror for a moment of safety. In similar fashion, the skill card Soul Link (Core Set, 67) can grant a powerful boost to any skill test at the cost of a horror (which, remember, you can later heal up with Dexter’s asset-bouncing shenanigans). Finally, if Soul Link is unavailable (or somehow not enough) and you have a few extra resources to spend, Spiritual Intuition (Core Set, 63) can power up Dexter’s Willpower or his Combat skill as much as you need—which combos supremely well with Premonition!

As you can see, the sky’s the limit for this magician’s tricks, and his performance will only be grander over time. And speaking of tricks, veterans of Arkham Horror: The Card Game may recall that the original version of Dexter Drake could include Rogue cards in his deck, and this new version is no different. If you’re curious about what sort of Rogue cards you can find in Dexter’s pre-built deck, be sure to check out our preview of Trish Scarborough and the Rogue class from a few weeks back!

Dexter Drake is a versatile investigator who can pull off some pretty impressive—dare we say magical—feats, but there’s one not-so-little snag that he will eventually have to deal with: The Necronomicon (Core Set, 12). The source of Dexter’s power is also the biggest thorn in his side, as the book pops up now and again to remind him that every gift comes at a price. By forcing itself into play and preventing you from playing or using any other assets until you deal with it (and you can’t bounce it with Dexter’s ability), this cursed tome demands your undying attention whenever it appears in your hands. The book’s price is something Dexter can’t ignore if he wants to continue his work, and it will just keep coming back until he succeeds its test. Thankfully, with enough tools in his deck—and enough friends at his side—Dexter can pull off the greatest trick of all: victory from the jaws of certain defeat!

Mystical Magic

With his versatile tricks and his dazzling magic, Dexter Drake is the shining example of what the Mystic class has to offer in Chapter Two of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

With that, we’ve previewed all five classes and all five investigators from the new core set. Look forward to seeing more of what Chapter Two has to offer as we count down to the new core set’s release!

Written by Peter Schumacher