Cornucopia

Because you'd rather play someone other than Agnes.

No, seriously, though: Akachi is probably between Agnes and Jim in terms of effectiveness as a Mystic in my opinion. What makes her strictly 'worse' than Agnes is the simple fact that Spirit-Speaker is not in play to start. If it were, Akachi would probably be the best Mystic in the game. What, completely reset your spells? Sure. Thanks.

This build is intended to be well-rounded, with tools for any situation. It does seek to eventually use Blood Pact for boosts, which is why it starts with 2x Moonlight Ritual. When it comes to monsters, I opted for combat over evasion due to the fact that evasion as a primary means of dealing with monsters really isn't well supported as a tactic within the game's mechanics. Evasion tends to be more expensive, and is more intended as a quick stop-gap so you can finish something more important, I feel.

Like my other decks, I'll go through my card choices, and separate them between 'core' and 'flex' slots. As a rule, all basic skill cards are 'flex slots.' If you can fit something in there that shares the same icons for dual-use (and you're not playing with Minh,) feel free to replace them with whatever you'd like. The exception is Unexpected Courage. Always keep that.

Probable FAQ

Where the fuck is Delve Too Deep?

It's in your binder/box, silly. Use it if you want. I personally don't because I'm a big baby, and in Hard+, it can get you killed.

Why Akachi, though?

Because, with Spirit-Speaker out, she has essentially infinite spell usage. Her doubled up spells can much more flexibly serve as skill fodder once she gets one copy out and has Spirit-Speaker out, and she actually has 'alright' combat stats to make evasion and fighting without Shrivelling possible if not probable.

The things that keep her from being an auto pick are her deckbuilding restrictions, horrible , and the fact the best part of her is stuck in her deck.

Core Cards

Note that all card choices assume Standard difficulty. Suggested tweaks for Hard+ will be noted as necessary.

Shrivelling: The quintessential Mystic 'make it dead' spell. It's objectively better than Song of the Dead, especially for anyone that isn't Jim.

Drawn to the Flame: I think this is important for the start of any campaign regardless of who you're playing with. You may want to replace these if you have a dedicated clue scooper with you, but it's still a very strong card. Having the can help with spellcasting, plus the actual effect is good - especially at the beginning of a scenario.

Fearless: You're going to be generating horror, so having a Guts-lite that also removes some is nice. I have this in replace of Guts, and personally think it should stay that way.

Rite of Seeking: Like Drawn to the Flame, this is important for the start of any campaign regardless of who you're playing with. Unlike Drawn, though, I think this is less replaceable. There are going to be situations that, even with a dedicated clue-scooper, you'll want some way to grab them. Multiple people sharing the load makes the Act deck go by much faster. If you're going to replace either this or Drawn, replace Drawn first.

Alchemical Transmutation: This card is #value... on Standard. This is a core card because, as I mentioned, this deck is assuming you're playing on Standard. On Hard+, the chaos bag starts getting brutal and ruins the value of this card. You'll want to use Forbidden Knowledge instead. Always run one or the other, though; Akachi goes through money quick cycling out her spells.

Astral Travel: You don't have access to Shortcut or Elusive, so you'll have to settle for this. Thankfully, you'll only end up with one item, and this can actually serve as potential tool of removing the doom from Alyssa Graham - if a heavy-handed one.

Hypnotic Gaze: Mystic Dodge. You should always pack this, regardless of what you're doing and why you're doing it.

Alyssa Graham: The Arcane Initiate won't help you find your Spirit-Speaker any faster, so you're better off with Alyssa in this slot. Having another form of encounter deck control besides Scrying and Ward of Protection is also nice.

Moonlight Ritual: The intended upgrade path is to use Blood Pact as your talent, so getting these early will save you experience. If you are not getting Blood Pact, replace these with whatever you'd like. This is considered a 'core' card because of my intentions with this deck, though.

Other Picks

Holy Rosary: You're eventually going to replace this with either Grotesque Statue or Spirit Athame, depending on what difficulty you're playing on. This can, really, be whatever you want it to be, but I chose the rosary for a little bit of extra early-game and horror soak.

Scrying: It's slow to use, so I wouldn't blame you for swapping to something else, but I find it more useful here than anything else. Being able to dig for your Spirit-Speaker is always welcome; especially if you don't have a Seeker to help you.

Ward of Protection: This is borderline. Its upgrade is phenomenal, but it's also phenomenally expensive. Considering how many ways you can mitigate encounter deck garbage as a Mystic, this can be a bit excessive. Replace it with whatever you'd like if you don't want it.

Painkillers: Mystics don't really have good ways of dealing with damage, and Bulletproof Vest costs XP. You can replace this with Bulletproof Vest later, or you can replace it with pet cards of your choice, but plan to upgrade into something that will help you soak damage - even if it's a second ally with Charisma

Upgrades

Upgrading Mystics tends to be fairly straightforward, but have a lot of branching possibilities. Rather than give you a completely linear path, I'm going to go through a rough 'priority' to follow:

• Blood Pact

This deck is intended to run this talent. It's not as good out of other mystics as it would be, say, Marie Lambeau, but Arcane Studies is actually not as useful to Akachi due to her wanting to save her resources to keep recurring her spells.

A small note on this: if your agenda is one doom away from flipping, feel free to use this freely. If a card doesn't specifically say so, the agenda deck doesn't advance until the second stage of the Mythos phase, and once the Agenda flips, all doom is removed from the board.

• Spirit Athame OR Grotesque Statue

This is a choice that depends on the difficulty you're playing. Grotesque Statue is very good on Easy and Standard difficulties where the nastier tokens are less common. Spirit Athame is better on Hard and Expert due to its consistency, and also a good all-around pick. You can never go wrong with the athame, but the statue is especially good with Akachi due to it working with her ID ability and Spirit-Speaker.

• Rite of Seeking OR Shrivelling

This choice depends on your current team composition. If you're soloing, lean more toward Shrivelling and keep Drawn to the Flame. You may want to upgrade Seeking later on.

At this point, your upgrade choices are open ended.

• If you haven't taken one of Spirit Athame or Grotesque Statue yet, this is a good opportunity to grab the other.

• Book of Shadows lets you double-down on Akachi's ID ability; especially if you're having trouble finding Spirit-Speaker.

• Bulletproof Vest and Elder Sign Amulet are great considerations for survivability as well. While you can opt to get Charisma instead depending on what kind of campaign Allies you end up getting, both of the neutral soak cards can never do you wrong.

• The third Shrivelling upgrade is always a possibility to keep in mind. It can do an absurd amount of damage, but the failure penalty is much greater. I wouldn't get this without some way to soak the potential backlash, but as a late-campaign pick up, it's a great option.

• Fearless isn't a terrible upgrade. It basically turns it into Guts+.

• Emergency Cache, if you still have it, is a good way to bleed some xp at the end of a campaign if you're comfortable with your build.

As always, feedback and suggestions are welcome. Check out my Mark and Yorick decks if you want to see more of me making terrible decisions with cardboard.