Jacqueline looking for the golden skull 2.0

Jacqueline looking for the golden skull

Jaqueline has been hanging out with bad companies and now is plundering the chaos bag looking for the golden skull. She is the real queen of the cementery!

This is a deck built for a multiplayer event, so it is expected to be player in a four players game and looking for having a support role. Note also that you will have to add 2 extra weaknesses (29xp) as required by the stand alone scenarios rules.

Jacqueline Fine has a huge potential for chaos bag fishing with her unique ability, so I decided to create a "flex" deck for multiplayer that works around it.

The deck is built around the new ally appearing in EoE: Nkosi Mabati, which allows to name a "sigil" that will replace one of the nasty tokens , , , into the sigil (note that it can be used for others investigators also!).

The most important advantage of this strategy is that the nasty modifications and effects of the others tokens are cancelled and taken to the usual safe ground that provides (from 0 to -3) and that you will know in advance.

The idea is to choose the and fish in the chaos bag for it with Jacqueline Fine special ability and signature card. Depending on the scenario, this will allow you to have around 5 tokens over around 15 that will be a skull or could become a skull. And you are drawing three, so you have a good chance of getting one.

Unleashing the power of death

So which cards can take advantage of the golden skull?

Song of the Dead is the most evident and powerful. A cheap spell with five charges that deliver three damage when a skull is drawn. Add an eldritch inspiration and you will make five damage in one action...

Crystal Pendulum will allow you to draw extra cards easily, as you will be able to calculate the success of drawing a symbol token. Note that the skull modification match usually with a couple of numeric tokens, so a bit less of half the bag will let you draw a card.

Sixth Sense is another evident choice, more even in multiplayer. Let your friends reveal locations and you can gather these clues from safe place and low veil without worrying about nasty effects.

Wither is another card where it can be helpful, more in multiplayer, as you will be able to choose that nasty token, replace it by a skull (allowing you to succeed the attack) and weaken the monster for your friends.

Ritual Candles can allow you to reduce the impact of negative modifier delivered by the skull token. Still, I prefer keep the hand slots available for Sign Magick.

Prescient is much more powerful with this strategy. Fish for that symbol without failing the test and get the spell you need.

Azure Flame is another card that have some synergy with the golden skull, as you can bypass the damage provided by the 0, +1 an .

Dark Prophecy is a card that complements the strategy, commit it and you are almost sure of getting that skull.

Recall the Future becomes ridiculous good with this strategy. You can use it for making sure that you are going to succeed an extra difficult test (even one that involves agility or force) or you can just name one of the negative tokens that will make you fail. And suddenly, without committing cards, you have and almost auto-pass test.

The multiplayer choices

Logically, I have done some concessions for the team!

With the 2xp Ward of Protection I expect to help time to time my fellow investigators from nasty treachery cards. The Earthly Serenity could be useful in these multiplayer event scenarios that are very long.

Premonition is a card that I do not like too much, the timing for using this card is too limiting. However, in multiplayer could be very useful as you have a window to use it before investigation phase starts, allowing you to decide who starts depending on what do you get from the bag. I see myself using it in order to see if I am lucky and I fish one of that nasty tokens that are annoying for my friends but wonderfully good for me.

Finally, Parallel Fates is a card that I feel it is not very strong, however in some situations could be really helpful, at least for Jacqueline that have more probabilities of not getting that special symbol. Still, I finally decided not to include it.

Sign Magick

A card too good to not include it. The upgraded Sign Magick allow action compression, something that I realized this deck needs desperately. The reason also why I have 6 different spells.

The perfect combat combo, would be to deliver 1+2+2 damage through drawing the golden skull while playing Song of the Dead with Eldritch Inspiration, then deliver 2 additional damage with Wither or Azure Flame. Repeating the same in the second action, which it will be possible by having Arbiter of Fates in play and recurring Eldritch Inspiration through Prescient) and finish your third action by another 2 attack for a total 16 damage. This is feasible as only a couple of tokens (the auto-fail and high negative modifiers) can get in your way... or failing the search for the golden skull. Probably it will be more in the order of 10 damage in one round, which is still extremely good.

Weaknesses

The deck is expensive and slow to set-up. Reason why you have these two copies of Voice of Ra there. You will have to be supported by the rest of the table the first turns until you will be the one supporting them.

How to play this deck

You will have to mulligan heavily to get early Crystal Pendulum, so you can get start your drawing engine and look for the cards that provide resources.

Nkosi Mabati is the key of the deck, but it is expensive. Be careful, played early get you dry of resources for the rest of your set-up, so consider if you have something to replenish them before taking him on the table, as otherwise you will just playing a pure support role until you gather some resources.

So look for drawing Voice of Ra, recover it through prescient once used if you need more resources, or Uncage the Soul before playing Nkosi Mabati. And play first one of the spells depending if it is needed clue gathering or combat, and only once you have two spells in the table, consider to play Sign Magick.

In the mid-late game, having a third spell on the table usually is not necessary. At this point is better to have Arbiter of Fates or even Recall the Future as difficulty of the tests increases. Replace the spells that have charges for new ones as they are consumed.

Good luck with your search for the golden skull!!

Edit: so in order to avoid the slow and costy set-up in the deck, I added Uncage the Soul which can be used on the different spells and rituals (10 cards in the deck) and improve also the tempo (saving the action). I also added Divination, replacing on earthly serenity, so it can support more consistently on clue gathering ,while taking advantage of sign magick. With these changes, the deck, without being broken, has worked very well in my tests...

I also told myself that if I was going to play this solo, probably I would have taken out Storm of Spirits for some spell allowing me to evade or for another Ward of Protection. I would also replace #premonition for something else, maybe some additional skills to be more robust against agility tests