The Akachi Onyele Sign Magick Upgrade Path

Built based on a request by /u/ArkhamDex from a comment on reddit

Background

The intent is a 3 Player Akachi deck that leverages Sign-Magick, assuming 7 upgrade points (will show math below) the final version of the deck costs 34 XP in the configuration shown. a few upgrades are luxury / options - core upgrades only will cost 24 XP (+12 arcane research), and should be achievable by the end of Scenario 6 in most campaigns, assuming you land the delve too deeps before you upgrade out of them.

Mulligan

dig for: a combat spell, Spirit-Speaker. (sign magick (3) later on).

consider keeping: Sword Cane, Arcane Initiate, Guts &/or St. Hubert's Key (Sixth Sense &/or Decorated Skull, later on)

Ditch: Skills other than Guts, all the events.

Sign Magick and Rabbit Hole

In general I find that Sign Magick (0) is so inefficient, that I don't value Down the Rabbit Hole in a Sign Magick Deck. This lets us leave some useful tech for later in the upgrade path. Edits to make the deck work with Down the Rabbit Hole will be mentioned below.

How to Play Sign Magick Akachi

This build is a Core Fighter - as a core fighter you generally want at least 6 - we get there with St. Hubert's Key; you can equally use David Renfield or Holy Rosary if you prefer their effects instead. If using David, Replace Arcane Initiate with David, and The key with Azure Flame or Spectral Razor since you will lose some draw power.

In the XP 0 version of the deck, we want to shepherd the Charges on Shrivelling until we have Spirit-Speaker, so in general prefer fighting with Wither and/or Sword Cane - in 3 Players the dedicated fighter will often have the opportunity to deal 1 damage per action in the first scenario, other than the occasional (usually optional) elite monster, it is rare for monsters to have more than 2-3 health.

Similarly, the deck runs enough Clue Events to help peel up to 8 clues off of high shroud locations, which should assist the primary cluer in scenario 1, we'll upgrade out of them later in the campaign. Spectral Razor is an option here instead as well.

Once we have Sign Magick (3), we will generally use it to compress fight actions - either to deal more damage per or to do other things at the same time (later on). In general we want to use Wither to save charges when possible. If we get a spooky token the wither upgrade will also do a virtual +1 damage provided you can finish the monster off in the same round.

Upgrade Path

Priority upgrades by the end of the second scenario are:

• 2x Shrivelling (0) 2x Shrivelling (3)
• 1 Fearless (or 1 guts or 1 Drawn to the Flame) and 1 Ritual Candles 2x Sign Magick (3)
• 2x Wither (0) 2x Wither (4)

This will cost 14 XP (18 including the arcane research XP), assuming you average one delve per scenario, you'll need ~12 XP between the first two scenarios.

Priority Upgrades after that are:

• 2x Shrivelling (3) 2x Shrivelling (5)
• 1x Relic Hunter
• 1x Delve too Deep 1x Decorated Skull
• 1x Sword Cane & 1x Delve too deep 2x Ineffable Truth (0)*
• 2x Ineffable Truth (0) 2x Ineffable Truth (3)

Upgrade into Ineffable Truth (0) no later than the end of Scenario 4, you can do it sooner if you want to delay shrivelling 5.

Assuming we're at the end of Scenario 6 at this point, the above path will cost us a total of 10 additional XP. (18 with the arcane research XP). At this point we'll have earned a total of 24 Scenario XP, and are basically 'done' upgrading core cards.

Luxury Upgrades:

• 2x Read the signs 2x Sixth Sense (4) or Azure Flame(3)
• 2x Defiance 2x Defiance (2)
• 2x Guts 2x Guts(2)
• Ward of Protection (2) or (5), Fearless (2) etc.

Depending on timing and scenarios, you may want to do Sixth Sense (0) or Azure Flame (0) first, this will save 1xp on the upgrade at the cost of spreading it over two scenarios.

Going Down the Rabbit Hole

If one really wanted a Down the Rabbit Hole Deck, the configuration would be thus at level 0:

Replace the Hand items with: 2x Sign Magick (0) Replace 1-2x St. Hubert's Key with 1-2x Decorated Skull Replace 2x Arcane initiate with 2x David Renfield Replace 2x Delve Too Deep or 2x Read the Signs with 1x Sixth Sense (0) and 1x Ineffable Truth (0) (or Mists of R'lyeh (0) ) take Down the Rabbit Hole

This brings the asset count to 13 which is higher than I generally prefer. the upgrade path now is to leverage Arcane Research and Rabbit Hole every upgrade point, done correctly this will get you 4 extra XP per scenario. (up from 2 with just the arcane researches).

Priorities for Upgrade are generally the same, get Wither (4) and Shrivelling (3) and Sign Magick (3) asap, in whatever configuration most efficiently expends your earned+bonus xp. This should be doable after 2 scenarios for 12xp, or after 3 scenarios for 'just' 8xp.

After that, overpay for Relic Hunter (will cost 4) if you retained a st. hubert's key, and then upgrade all your other spells and skills in whatever order feels prudent and is most efficient. Assuming you upgrade eventually everything you're looking at about 66 XP, which will require earning about 38XP from the first seven scenarios.