Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
jaguar · 269
Parallel Jim is interesting because he has sort of two separate, non-interacting mechanics. This deck attempts to exploit both of those mechanics for success independently of one another, rather than attempt to find (much) synergy between them.
Mechanic 1: and
Parallel Jim's innate ability is to recharge assets whenever a or is drawn. Additionally, with the use of his advanced trumpet, he can also heal when they're drawn. To make use of this mechanic, this deck provides Jim with a number of ways to put tokens in the bag, cards that synergize off of tokens, and some strong staple assets that he can target to refill with charges.
To that effect, Jim needs a way to put curses in the bag. Cards like Faustian Bargain, Promise of Power, and Deep Knowledge are great starts, and eventually cards like Priest of Two Faiths and Justify the Means will add even more curses too.
Once curses are in the bag, Jim needs a way to ensure that he's seeing them. Cards like Olive McBride and Dark Prophecy help ensure this, although XP can go towards upgrading Olive, Favor of the Moon, and possibly Grotesque Statue or Nkosi Mabati to make that even more guaranteed.
But once the bag has a nice crop of curses, we run into a problem - Jim's statline is... not that great. With Armageddon (0), Jim is swinging with a pretty pathetic 4 or 5 , and is hoping to draw a token that gives him a -2.
This leads us to the first and most important card for this mechanic, Blasphemous Covenant. The covenant, which is a permanent, turns a from a -2 to a +1 and puts it back in the bag to get pulled later. Now we're talking. Add on some extra gravy like Ritual Candles, Sparrow Mask and a Crystal Pendulum for some stat boosts and Jim is really starting to cook - supported initially by commits like Guts, Fearless and Promise of Power, and eventually upgrades like Fey and Justify the Means.
The easiest spell for this deck, which is meant to be a primary fighter alongside an Alessandra Zorzi, is Armageddon (4). This card gives him a respectable statline, damage compression, and an ability that synergizes well - if he draws a , he can either choose an additional damage or an additional charge returned (on top of that returned by his innate ability).
Mechanic 2: The Spirit Deck
Parallel Jim includes The Beyond, which allows him to stack 9 good spirits (and one bad one) into a wacky little side deck. This gives him access to 1-4 allies at any given time with no cost, cycling through periodically. The ideal is to get one or more of the boost (Granny Orne, David Renfield, Tristan Botley, Whitton Greene (2)) or otherwise passively useful (Leo De Luca) allies in play, then avoid triggering The Beyond by using allies that discard themselves (Mysterious Raven, Stray Cat, Beat Cop, Priest of Two Faiths). To fill in the gaps, other allies with card draw/search utility are filled in (Jeremiah Kirby, Laboratory Assistant, Mr. "Rook") to ensure that we get our precious Armageddon out.
That Pesky Shade The Vengeful Shade is the real problem with the spirit deck, showing up and just generally being a jerk. Fortunately, this Jim is built to fight, and the shade only has 2 health. Packing along a Binder's Jar makes it so that Jim can only have to deal with the shade once, making the spirit deck a random great thing.
Other Cards
Rod of Carnamagos is included here because it's a very good and cool card, but is not necessary if choosing to incorporate other upgrades or going for a cluefinding Jim. Deny Existence is in for mitigating Final Rhapsody.
Cluefinding
If you would like to use this Jim for cluefinding, or as a more flexible character, try the following changes:
Additionally, there are a great many allies in the seeker pool that increase and give bonuses for investigating - swapping out some allies for Dr. Milan Christopher and Whitton Greene are tempting, for example.
Upgrades
Armageddon Armageddon (4). Self-explanatory - this is your key card/main attack.
Spectral Razor Spectral Razor (2). What makes spectral razor better? Recursion, of course.
David Renfield Tristan Botley (2). Give us an additional stat boost and no doom risk.
Olive McBride Olive McBride (2) OR Nkosi Mabati (3). Upgrading Olive's efficacy, or for symbol-heavy campaigns. The argument can be made for both with Charisma. If adding Nkosi, I'd recommend dropping the extra copy of fearless and the rod of carnamagos, or deep knowledge.
Dark Prophecy Favor of the Moon (1). Upgrade the efficacy of this from a 1/5 chance to a guarantee.
Fearless Fey (1) . A second copy of Fey for the big stat boosts.
Mr. "Rook" Whitton Greene (2). Whitton gives us a way to search for the trumpet or rod of carnamagos, and gives a boost when either is out.
Laboratory Assistant Arcane Initiate (3). Arcane Initiate gives us more ways to ensure Armageddon, plus a convenient two horror for extra charges on the sparrow mask.
Mysterious Raven Priest of Two Faiths (1). The priest can discard without us taking horror, and this Jim is not designed for cluefinding.
Guts Binder's Jar (1) and Relic Hunter (3). Adds the ability to mitigate the vengeful spirit, but does require relic hunter given how key the stat boost from crystal pendulum is.
Rod of Carnamagos Rod of Carnamagos (2). Guarantee your choice of rot. Or instead choose to take a Grotesque Statue of either XP cost if you want more consistency instead of Rot effects.
Promise of Power Justify the Means (3). Why not guarantee success?
| 8 comments |
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Mar 18, 2024 |
Mar 21, 2024Hey thank for the deck, i've been playing it for a few scenarios now. What I'm confused about is how do I fit trumpet, candles and Rod of Carnamagos when i've only got 2 hands slots. is the deck supposed to have reliquary? |
Mar 21, 2024Hey Notter, glad you’re enjoying the deck - my intent was to not use the trumpet, though adding Occult Reliquary would indeed give you access to it. Also, if you haven’t seen it, see this post on r/arkhamhorrorlcg about a ruling on rod of carnamagos/armageddon - it makes this deck even more ridiculous. |
Mar 21, 2024Oh wow, that's pretty crazy, i wasn't aware! It does bring up many questions for me since i am confused about the rules. I wrote up my questions in that <a href="www.reddit.com target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">post if you feel like shedding some light :) |
Mar 21, 2024(RIP formatting) |
Apr 05, 2024Some things i noticed about spirit deck:
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Apr 05, 2024Interesting! The deckbuilding calls for 9 different allies, so I’m assuming you mean doubling up on ones that are also in your deck (or that a different player is using). That’s not a bad idea, I could see throwing an extra Olive McBride in there or something. She can get discarded if I already have my copy out, or give me early access to her if the card draw doesn’t get her out. |
Oct 28, 2024This is simply a note from my own attempt to build a Parallel Jim build and analyzing the possible Allies: Arcane Initiate is sadly not an option for the Spirit Deck, as it only allows 0-2 XP Allies. ArkhamDB does not mark it as a forbidden card as it falls within the scope of Jim's own Deckbuilding options. Nonetheless, great deck - I will play something close to it focused on clues - an easy transition. |
After sitting with it a few days, I think there are two other cards worth including. Summoned Hound is a very interesting addition to the spirit deck given that it does not trigger the additional cost to play (it is "put into play" and not played).
I also like Sacrifice as a way to mill cards out of the active spirits, but this deck is admittedly low on allies. It can mitigate the doom risk of David Renfield, but may be worth including late-campaign if your spirit deck includes multiple allies (like David Renfield, Summoned Hound and Arcane Initiate). Sacrifice also would make me feel comfortable including Arcane Initiate in the first place.