Blood Shaman Akachi

Overview:

A combat focused deck which tries to get the most of Akachi´s unique ability to get more charges on assets she controls. Best played as the main fighter in a team with at least one dedicated clue gathering partner. Great with Carolyn Fern as a partner.

Theme - "Born in Blood"

"As Akachi used her blade to open a wound in her hand, blood seeped down on the empty pages of the book slowly revealing a row of strange symbols. ´Blood magic´, Akachi uttered. She hesitantly traced down the symbols in order to invite the bloodthirsty spirits into her body. For a moment there was silence. Then suddenly the blood of the symbols began rushing back to her wound and inflicted pain which she has never felt before. Akachi opened her mouth in a muffled scream as the blood branded words on the skin of her arm: ´Born in blood, paid in blood´. As the pain subsided, Akachi felt immense power rising from her and the blade. A power hopefully strong enough to vanquish the evils threatening her village and the world."

Combat Mage Akachi:

As the dedicated fighter of the team, your main job is to engage and deal with enemies. This deck gives you a lot of options for that:

Shrivelling

This true and tested damage spell for mystics is your primary weapon. With the help of Holy Rosary and commited cards it is very likely to hit its target.

Enchanted Blade

Your secondary weapon of your choice. Great to deal with 1-3 strength enemies such as rats without the need to waste Shrivelling charges on them. Moreover, the blade can still be used once its charges run out or be recured with the help of Spirit-Speaker .

Occult Lexicon

Blood Rite is a great spell event because it provides you with a source of testless (!) damage while it also thins down your deck. As you dont need to engage the enemies to deal damage to them, Blood Rite is especially great against low health Aloof enemies.

Storm of Spirits

A situational card which will usually be commited to a skill test. It really shines in situations in which you encounter groups of 1-2 health enemies. Here Storm of Spirits will save you charges and actions.

Mists of R'lyeh

You don´t always need to kill enemies in order to deal with them. It is often enough to exhaust enemies to give your teammates the breathing room to escape. Mists of R'lyeh allows you to do exactly that and comes with 5 (!) charges which can always be fed to Angered Spirits if necessary. This and the low cost of the spell make it a great fit for this deck.

How to fill Arcane slots:

Shrivelling > Enchanted Blade > Mist

This deck has three assets competing for two Arcane slots. You should prioritize as illustrated above. Keep in mind that you cannot feed the charges on Enchanted Blade to Angered Spirits! As a result you should always keep some spell asset in hand. Do not discard them on purpose. It will come back to bite you!

If you really need the third arcane slot later on in the campaign, replace the two copies of Overpower with Sign Magic.

Mulligan Guide:

You are looking for at least one asset which helps you to fight. These are the key cards you want to have in hand: Shrivelling , Enchanted Blade and Arcane Initiate. If you draw Shrivelling also keep Uncage the Soul for the initial ressource boost.

If you have neither a copy of Shrivelling nor Enchanted Blade in your starting hand, mulligan every card besides Occult Lexicon , Arcane Initiate and Mists of R'lyeh.

If you still haven´t found your key spells, start with Arcane Initiate and search for a spell before you play another asset.

Essential Upgrades (8 XP):

1. 2 x Shrivelling => Shrivelling (3)
2. 2 x Enchanted Blade => Enchanted Blade (3)

To make use of the full discount of Arcane Research you should upgrade one copy of Shrivelling after each of the first two scenarios. The left over XP are used to upgrade the Enchanted Blades into their Mystic variant . These upgrades turn Akachi into a combat powerhouse because they allow her to dish out 2-3 damage in a single action while testing combat with a skill value of 7 or more.

Preparing for the Lategame (6 XP):

1. 2 x Shrivelling (3) => Shrieveling (5)
2. 2 × Guts => Fearless (2)

After upgrading the essential combat cards, upgrade one copy of Shrivelling (3) to its level 5 version at the end of the third and fourth scenario. While these upgrades increase your combat proficiency even further, they also increase the risk that Akachi goes insane. In order to compensate for the additional strain on her sanity, upgrade into two copies of Fearless (2) .

Optional: [ 2 x Overpower => Sacrifice (1) ]

Get rid of the two copies of Overpower in favor of two copies of Sacrifice (1) . While it might seem strange to use this card with Akachi who can recycle spells, I love Sacrifice for its flexibility. If you dont have Spirit Speaker in play, use Sacrifice on chargeless assets in order to agressively draw for Spirit Speaker. Otherwise keep Sacrifice in hand and use it either for its icon or as reaction to encounter cards and weaknesses such as Amnesia and Paranoia.

Lategame:

At this point of the campaign you have a lot of interesting options so feel free to spend XP as you see fit. Here are some recommended options:

Deny Existence => Deny Existence (5)

Immensly powerful defense. Allows Akachi to heal damage or horror and is therefore a great addition to her deck.

Mists of R'lyeh => Suggestion (4)

For the loss of the mobility Mists of R'lyeh provides this upgrade makes Akachi incredibly tanky against enemy attacks.

Ward of Protection => Ward of Protection (2)

If you want to lean into the role of a pseudo guardian, this supportive spell allows you to take one for the team.

Storm of Spirits => Storm of Spirits (3)

The boost to willpower decreases the risk that the spell misses while the boost in damage makes sure that more enemies are killed in one shot. Moreover, the additional fist icon makes the spell a great replacement for Overpower .

Unexpected Courage => Seal of the Elder Seal (5)

Incredible powerful with Akachi's elder sign ability as it guarantees a powerful hit on an enemy and gives you a charge back.

Variations to the build:

-2 x Sacrifice => + 2 x Grotesque Statue

Great card to increase your chances on higher difficulties and helps to avoid drawing special tokens from the bag. It can also be recured by Spirit-Speaker .

Enchanted Blade => Enchanted Blade (3)

While I think the mystic version is the better choice for Akachi, the guardian version provides you with additional horror healing to offset horror from your high level spells. The card draw is also neat as it allows you to dig faster for your key assets.

-2 x Overpower => Delve to Deep

Accelerates you and your team´s XP gain for two deck slots. This allows for faster upgrades and increases your total XP earned. As a result you can go crazy with upgrades. Its downside can sometimes even be an upside as Delve to Deep can draw you an enemy if you have nothing to do.

-2 x Overpower => Bloodpact + 2 x Moonlight Ritual

If you enjoy permanents and like it really bloody, you can also rush Bloodpact to reach crazy amount of skill values. This version also allows you to delay the upgraded blades and focus your XP elsewhere.

Thanks for reading! Special thanks to all the people helping to improve this deck!