Core Game Archetypes (for now!)

Detective Who? is a genre-bending collectible card game. Traditional archetypes like "Aggro", "Midrange", and "Control" don't really exist in Time and Space with its fixed 6 round format, lack of a deck, and other unique gameplay aspects! As such, the game features new ways to play and bold strategies which have never existed - and maybe you'll create an all new archetype!

To help new players with deck building and to get you thinking four-dimensionally, I've compiled a list of my thoughts on the Core Set archetypes while designing the game. I also recommend this article from leriohub on deck construction in Gwent, which covers many of the features that are important for successful decks in Detective Who?

-Aditya Jain

The Nameless: "To cure a cancer, one must be brave enough to wield the knife"

Lore: The Nameless are an apocalyptic cult in the Time and Space universe. They believe that the only way to heal the damage done to spacetime due to the invention of time travel is to end time itself. Bring on the Doomsday!

Playstyle/Strategy/Feel: Enact Cult Rituals, collect Sacred Runes, and trigger Paradoxes. Reduce Clues to the negatives to bring down your opponent, as you faithfully accelerate the Doomsday Clock.

Key Cards: Nameless Prophet, Nameless Priest, Nameless Harbinger, Nameless Acolyte, Nameless Clara

The Timeless: "You see, but you do not observe!"

Lore: Timeless cards range from homages to historical figures, to beings in the Detective Who? universe who have mastered time and space. Back the project to become immortalized as a Timeless card!

Playstyle/Strategy/Feel: Energized abilities that don't exhaust, mastery of Flux, using Clue counts to punish your opponent, and Reliving Legacies. Easily change between the Past, Present, and Future forms of cards, aim to stay ahead of your opponent with high Clue counts to control their strategy, and create savepoints in Time with Legacies that you later Relive.

Key Cards: Oppenheimer, Schrödinger, Marsey, Jackson, ThinkLink, Doyle

The Swarm: "To assimilate is to survive."

Lore: The Swarm are an anomalous alien species originating on the planet of Agolborsia, where silicon became integrated into life itself. These nano-robotic insects learned that assimilating other life was the key to evolutionary dominance, and aim to bring all of life into its collective hivemind.

Playstyle/Strategy/Feel: Amplify the effect of ally abilities as you repeat them over and over and over. Create the perfect card by assimilating other allies into the Swarm.

Key Cards: Swarm Queen, Swarm Assimilator, Swarm Worker