Forgive me Father, I'm a paradoxically selfish egomaniac.

So this is basically AussieKSU's Mateo-Paradoxical covenant deck, which I played during the scarlet keys campaign with my group, except I found the intention of the deck a little too helpful for the team and less fun for me so I did what any self respecting priest of the christian faith would do, I made it more selfish and self serving. Isn't that great?

So basically, what we're trying to do is set up Paradoxical Covenant. Olive McBride and a whole array of cursed and blessed enablers are the key to that and they're what you're going to be mulliganing for in the beginning. Favor of the Sun and Moon are also crucial because they make the combo more reliable but also enable other combos like ensuring Beloved works consistently and, once you get your key upgrades online, enable Blessing of Isis, Εye of the Djinn, make Nkosi Mabati's life a bit easier.... they're just so powerful and omnipresent throughout the deck's machinations, it simply couldn't work without them. Plus favor of the Moon gives you resources which, BELIEVE ME are key. Unlike regular priests Mateo is penniless and has to practically beg his congregation for resources (i.e. the deck's economy is really poor. Lets just say the upkeep phase will be your new favorite thing about the game).

Most changes I made from Aussie's deck are quality of life. I found Sign Magick expensive and unhelpful. I was always more annoyed by drawing it rather than relieved. So I turned one into an emergency cache and can't say I'm not pondering retiring the other too. I mean, how often will you have need of all 3 arcane slots? From my experience, not that often. You'll have spirit of humanity and one of your pay-offs (Armageddon and Eye of Chaos). But you hardly ever need both or can afford them for that matter since they're so expensive. But, alas, I left in one Sign Magick just in case.

The rest of the changes are to be found in the upgrade route. No hallow, no harmony restored, none of that helpful, team supporting nonsense. No way, no sir. Let them figure it out on their own, I hope they survive and wish them the best, but this deck is for kicking ass. I have left 2 ward of radiance in the starter deck because they're a mystic must have and that's as far as my team support goes. And since we're playing Mateo, you can later upgrade them to Watchful Peace (or just add them on top if you're that determined to be altruistic, but I'd advise against that).

Speaking of upgrades, here's how I'm picturing them.

Emergency upgrades: second spirit of humanity, 2x priest of two faiths, Blessing of Isis.

Moving forward, you'll definitely want Eye of the Djinn, Nkosi Mabati (and Charisma of course. Don't worry about a second charisma, priest of two faiths is only there for the blessing tokens and then to die from spirit of humanity activations). This is also a time to consider the possibility of a second Blessing of Isis, as well as adding Watchful Peace to your deck to prevent disaster for a turn or two, before moving on to quality upgrades.

Speaking of which, Holy Rosary is probably the first to consider because it adds blessed tokens, which is the name of the game with this deck. Another good upgrade would be uncage the soul because it allows you to essentially rebuy your power spells (armageddon and chaos). You'll be surprised how fast 3 charges can be spent (and to think they can even recharge themselves potentially. But it's one less thing to worry about). After that, if you have experience left (which I doubt) you can start upgrading those power spells but that is hardly a priority so I wouldn't worry about it. Also, I seriously doubt you'll have the opportunity, unless the campaign takes AGES....

Notable omissions:

-The tides of fate, hallow package. Like I said, too team supporting. I need the slots to do my thing.

-Harmony Restored too clunky. Plus it already costs 3 so how many resources are you really getting? It's mostly to balance out the curse tokens but I don't find it necessary.

-Rite of Equilibrium. 5 exp are you kidding me? That's way too expensive and having had it as my earliest upgrade in previous games I can't say I was impressed. This deck is more about tactical manipulation of the chaos bag. Simply dumping all the cursed and blessed tokens in the bag is as useless as it is inelegant. It's a fine combo with harmony restored but you have to draw both cards and good luck with that.

So that's my 2 cents. I'd like to thank AussieKSU for the inspiration. I really loved playing this investigator and this archetype and can't wait to do it again.