Parallel Jim culver cursed build with Olive Mcbride + Fey

I ran a similar build with Parallel Wendy (minus the previewed cards), Blasphemous Covenant (2) really helps as you're still resolving the token unlike False Covenant (2) - important for triggering Jim's ability, Armageddon (4) and Eye of Chaos (4)

What I've found is that even with all investigators buying into Curse, it's still not consistent enough - though that is likely to change with Olive (2) and other upcoming cards in Hemlock Vale.

@unremb Oh wow I did consider False Covenant but completely didn't realise it doesn't work with Jim's ability and the curse token spells.

Yeah even from just deckbuilding it feels like you need to keep a lot of cards in just because there aren't any consistent ways to add cursed tokens to the bag. I hope this improves with Hemlock though, it probably would have been smarter to wait till then before trying out a cursed build.

Fey and Olive McBride in a curse heavy deck sounds like a lot of fun, I like the core idea.

Not convinced using sacrifice is worth it. Might be good to cut something like Jeremiah Kirby for beat cop etc. and just try and keep the super op allies around a bit longer.

So far in the 3 scenarios I've played with parallel jim, it's far more important to have a high density of allies you actually want rather than allies that have a minor impact but discard themselves. Kirby seems great as a way of getting you the pieces you're missing and you're going to be pretty happy to see him at any time. Laboratory Assistant is similarly nice for keeping the cards flowing.

For sacrifice, what if arcane initiate and david renfield are on the bottom of the beyond deck? You don't have any assets in your maindeck that you want to sacrifice. If you want more economy, Jewel of Aureolus will trigger every round and can fulfill a similar role assuming you're playing with the most recent taboo.

Let me know if there is anything that could be improved this is my first time trying a cursed build.

The grotesque statues seem like they could just be a second favor of the moon if you're that desperate for curses (I don't think you are, I think you'll find them often enough with olive and a single favor). Also for hand slots I think Ritual Candles will be more effective assuming you're playing with the most recent taboo.

St. Hubert's Key seems like an expensive Holy Rosary in this deck since you're not making use of the , although if you find that you're flush with cash it's not an issue.

A question for you: How is Spirit of Humanity? I was looking at it, but found that I never ran out of charges on my spells and was worried that it'd just be stuck in my hand since both arcane slots are spoken for.

A rules note: Astral Travel doesn't actually let you discard any of the Geists from The Beyond since they lose the ally trait.

Thanks for the feedback. Still have only played a couple of scenarios with this deck but I think what I have felt lines up with the points you have made quite a lot.

For sacrifice, what if arcane initiate and david renfield are on the bottom of the beyond deck? You don't have any assets in your maindeck that you want to sacrifice. If you want more economy, Jewel of Aureolus will trigger every round and can fulfill a similar role assuming you're playing with the most recent taboo.

Yeah from what I have played so far Arcane initiate has felt more of a liability than something worth including, if you don't have sacrifice the doom can be detrimental and the density of spells in the deck already isn't that high so in the few times I did draw her she probably drew less than 1 card on average. Sacrifice is definitely nice for David or even summoned hound if it lets you keep 2 other strong allies around another turn but could easily see just something like voice of ra + replace arcane initiate with lab assistant doing better whilst also saving yourself 2XP.

The grotesque statues seem like they could just be a second favor of the moon if you're that desperate for curses (I don't think you are, I think you'll find them often enough with olive and a single favor). Also for hand slots I think Ritual Candles will be more effective assuming you're playing with the most recent taboo.

Yeah, it just seemed like it would have a lot of synergy with Jim's ability since especially late with Olive Mcbride the spells should be able to self sustain themselves without any additional charges. Ritual candles did seem super insane if had the hand space for it though. Maybe it's better to go original Jim front and cut the grotesque statues.

St. Hubert's Key seems like an expensive Holy Rosary in this deck since you're not making use of the , although if you find that you're flush with cash it's not an issue.

The idea was to lean in a bit into intellect to make use of summoned hound better, and to help with the initial scenarios where the spells aren't as reliable. (I also started with Alyssa and upgraded into olive Mcbride lvl2)

A question for you: How is Spirit of Humanity? I was looking at it, but found that I never ran out of charges on my spells and was worried that it'd just be stuck in my hand since both arcane slots are spoken for.

I was originally planning on using it but as you say it felt like I always wanted to keep Armageddon and eye of chaos in my arcane slots, and since Wendy was leaning into curse tokens aswell the additional generation felt unnecessary. Currently using leather coat to keep me from dying instead (https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/3356197)

Did you play with the Advanced signatures? The Trumpet seems like a nice upgrade, but I'm not sure it's good enough to handle the much worse weakness?

I have been, and I have to say the upgraded trumpet has been an absolute beast. When you have it up you feel practically immune to sanity damage, being able to heal up to 4 horror with 1 skull/curse if you and your partner have an ally with horror is very satisfying. But as you say pretty much every scenario so far I have been one or two away from dying to damage (granted in Innsmouth so quite high amounts of unavoidable damage), and if you draw your weakness without deny existence you can just die out of nowhere which is a small inconvenience. Although I don't have it in this version I'd definitely add in 2 leather coats to help with that.

Cool! I played one scenario with my version of the deck last night, it was great. I didn't see the signature weakness, though I was careful to make sure I wasn't within death range (I did include leather coats), but I got an early Renfield and a Voice of Ra with all 3 hits so I had like 15 resources on turn 3 lol