Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jim "Willpower" Culver | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Jim "the Axeman" Culver Encore. (Beginner friendly demo set) | 35 | 31 | 1 | 1.0 |
| Jim Culver - 4p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
StartWithTheName · 64275
I wanted to build a fairly thematic Jim deck that played differently to Agnes. I doubt if it's especially strong. I'm just hoping for fun though it should be fairly consistent.
This Jim is more of a reluctant sorcerer with mysticism thrown upon him than someone delving into the dark arts enticed by power. He is still rather wary of the implications of this new world. It has dangers that he had never even considered. He's still quite comfortable taking a physical approach to self defense and hes packing plenty of protection. Perhaps over time as he becomes more accustomed to these new skills he'll get the confidence to delve deeper...
Disclaimer: This is an as yet untested Jim melee/spell hybrid deck. All feedback is welcomed. I plan to give it a bit of testing and revision when I get the chance, though it could be a while before I do. Once I have though i`ll try to post the tweaked deck and crosslink.
EMBRACING THE HORROR:
If you can get Jim's Trumpet into play it provides a very steady supply of horror healing triggering not only on symbols you draw (reveal), but any revealed at any time. Unfortunately there's only one of it so its not guaranteed to turn up. Liquid Courage seemed like a good choice as horror repair card 2. Its cheaper, has more charges and should usually heal one more horror than its rivals as well as being thematically satisfying.
With base 8 sanity and knowledge that one of these is likely to turn up in due course, sanity then becomes a resource. You can (within reason) be comfortable taking horror from spell effects or attacks of opportunity from monsters, letting Guard Dog do damage. Holy Rosary can also soak 1 point if needed.
DAMAGE DEALING:
Between Fire Axe and Shrivelling you have 4 reusable attack cards in the deck. if these don't turn up early Blinding Light, Guard Dog and (at a push) Overpower can be used as stop gaps.
Fire Axe's cheap pumping ability means you should be able to attack at 5 reliably. I suggest keeping Emergency Cache in hand until you need to use it to play an expensive asset rather than stock piling if you expect to need the + damage. Note that Forbidden Knowledge lets you restock resources (action free) between attacks to re-pump to 5 for the next attack without loosing the damage bonus. Of course with Guard Dog out you might well want to use the action to take a resource to encourage an attack of opportunity. Finally if you didnt spend your Overpowers earlier, they can be spent while on zero resources to attack with 5 possibly for attack 3.
Shrivelling is a solid card in any purple deck really. It arguably needs Holy Rosary or Guts to be consistent in Jim even with his extremely nice innate ability, though 4 is fine on targets who are easy to hit (test of 2 or lower).
CLUE HUNTING:
No surprises here. Drawn to the Flame, Flashlight and Rite of Seeking are all solid options in Jim until you need the handslot back from the Flashlight (see upgrading). Obv keep Drawn to the Flame for those awkward cases that i wont spoil here. Remember base 3 isnt terrible in its own right on 1 shroud areas.
ENCOUNTER PROTECTION:
Ward of Protection is an easy include when you plan to heal back the horror. Especially with Drawn to the Flame. Ignoring an awkward encounter can save a lot of time in the long run. Manual Dexterity covers the main stat you might get caught short on.
GETTING STARTED:
Mulligan for Holy Rosary. It is the only passive boost available to Jim just now and it massively improves skill check consistency on spells brining you on par with Agnes. Sadly you can only have 2 which will be fairly inconsistent to draw. If you don't find it don't fret though. The alternative axe/dog/flashlight set up keeps your options open. With 6 clue cards and 4/8 ish damage options, you shouldnt need to worry about finding one of each early even if you mulliganned them away. Same with cash. Other than Guard Dog, Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking this is a fairly cheap deck. You start with 5 anyway, that should be enough to get what you need down and start rolling. That all said I'd be tempted to keep an axe if I saw one.
VARIANTS:
As i say this deck is a work in progress. An alternative approach would swap Liquid Courage for First Aid, and the Guard Dogs for Luckys. This makes the deck cheaper and removes the ability to simply "walk off" the small mobs using the dogs. In exchange you get a couple of nice "oh shoggoth buttons". Im 50/50 on either approach but the dogs basically looked much more fun. Happy to hear thoughts.
Why no Ritual Candles? - Jim already treats s as zero. Unless for some reason you are trying skill checks with one skill lower than the test, (ie it probably came from the encounter deck) you were going to pass if you draw a zero anyway. Going to +1 sounds great but does nothing the zero didnt already do. That leaves at most 3 token types in the bag that candles can help on (its literally just 1 token at the start of Dunwich with standard set). They're terrible in Jim. They even block a hand slot.
UPGRADES:
Grotesque Statue really is always a strong include in mystic. I aim to swap out at least one Flashlight early for this since they compete on hand slots. Note that if you don't select a revealed you don't get the horror healing from Jim's Trumpet though.
The thematically pleasing Song of the Dead gets you up to 6 reusable attack cards which will give much more draw consistency. It has a built in +1 compensating for the need for an early rosary and as such is possibly the first upgrade even before Grotesque Statue tho they combo together very nicely. Its an easy upgrade over Blinding Light since both are there for crowd control. Unexpected Courage is another easy target for cutting.
| 8 comments |
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Feb 18, 2017 |
Feb 18, 2017And on a quick once-over comparing mine to yours, yours looks better. Guard Dog is an excellent include since Jim isn't getting Agnes's free damage and I think 2 copies is the right choice. I also don't mind dropping Scrying to get second copies of Forbidden Knowledge and Drawn to the Flame. I think that Delve Too Deep may be a fun include and also be a good card to remove for Song of the Dead and Grotesque Statue. The deck is pretty lean though, and I wouldn't know what to take out for it. |
Feb 19, 2017Thank you very much Looking at the two decks, yours looks closer to having a much stronger healer aspect. Ive not put enough of it in this one to be relied upon really. Its really available as a catch up later in the game and im not sure if it might be a little under reperesented at 2 cards. 3 Cards might be better given that i would actively plan to take 1-3 points of horror voluntarily even if i didnt know if one would turn up. I think Delve Too Deep is a good call here. It even fits well narratively with an inexperienced mystic still finding his feet. Unexpected Courage was very much an after thought to fill the deck up when i made it and could easily be swapped for anything you fancy. It might be flexible, but ive tried to balance the deck in other ways to keep options open. I think a 1 of Scrying is a perfectly good choice to replace Unexpected Courage too. Im personally not a huge fan of Scrying as i often play with 4 players. With it costing 1 of your 3 actions to use (and ofc time and resources to get it into play) thats quite a lot of investment for something that you dont know upfront whether it will make a big difference or not. Ofc i note your deck was written for solo where there are additional benefits, burying a card etc. Unfortunately ive still not had the chance to give this a whirl yet. might find time next week if im lucky. A few thoughts with Guard Dog though is that you could possibly get the out of faction slot back by adding in 1 more horror healing and subbing in Painkillers, but ive never heard of a musician taking drugs |
Feb 20, 2017I really like your deck, especially the axe. It's a good option to deal with 1/3/5 HP Monsters, while saving charges on Shrivelling. What are your experiences with Song of the Dead? I think it's a good alternative to Fire Axe, but competes with Shrivelling and Scrying for your 2 arcane slots. I think i'm going to go crazy with Delve Too Deep on my next 4 player game... |
Feb 20, 2017Thanks When i wrote the deck I actually saw Fire Axe as a long term feature. This is because it should be able to reliably attack at 5 with options to boost damage from a single card, and never needs its charges refreshing (which also requires a specific card to be drawn). Thing is if you wanted a damage dealing caster you`d have taken Agnes. Shes more accurate on spell skill checks with her base 5 (even after youve taken into account jims special ability in most cases) and gets built in auto damage. I essentially wanted to build this deck to give a different play experience to Agnes and make use of the things that she cant do. On first impressions that meant healing, using those two middle stats, and playing with out of faction options. The decision whether to go to 6 attack assets or 4 probably depends on your party composition, but its an option Agnes doesnt have (yet) at least. At some level i was a little disappointed to see Song of the Dead as i wrote this just before the spoilers came out and the going from 2 cards to 4 would have arguably have been a valid reason to take jim over Agnes if you wanted draw consistency. The move from 4 to 6 isnt as large of a gain really, though its not to be sniffed at. Comparing Fire Axe to the spells, Shrivelling has the damage built in, but needs support (Holy Rosary or Guts) to be consistent against enemies with 3 or higher which arnt that uncommon. Fire Axe should be up and running much quicker relying only on you having a resource (or indeed a Forbidden Knowledge or an Overpower). It can also be leaned on to go to 7 if you need it. Song of the Dead has the opposite problem. Its more accurate with the +1, but its damage is unreliable requiring a skull to be drawn. Thats why i see it as an upgrade over Blinding Light here. Both would test will to deal 1 damage. Song of the Dead is reusable, more accurate, skips the icon drawback and has a potential to "crit". Perhaps crucially however it doesn't evade. There is some compensation in the fact this deck should be able to soak a few hits with the Dogs and sanity healing but there will be circumstances where you actually want the evade and once youve taken out the Blinding Lights this deck looses that ability almost entirely. Anyway all this is speculation until i can take it out for a spin! |
Mar 23, 2017Finally got around to testing and refining this deck. It roughly works as intended, though was a little cash shy. Version 2, including some commentary on the changes can be found here. Briefly: -2x Rite of Seeking This was proving too expensive and usually meant compromises on being able to play other more important high cost assets (Guard Dog/Shrivelling. of course if you want a more cluey, less fighty Jim, drop Shrivelling instead. -2x Blinding Light & +2x Hypnotic Gaze Hypnotic Gaze is less reliant on drawing Holy Rosary to function and has a mnor synergy with Jims ability, though i worry it is over priced. I should say this is the one change ive not yet tested. This was a hidden gem it turned out. Replaces whatever failed to turn up early enough. +1 Fearless Extra horror healing into the package, plus can be used in place of Holy Rosary for one shot. |
Mar 25, 2017Why won't u just use a machete instead of an axe?? Big monsters can be managed by shrivelling anyway... And instead of guard dog, why not Dr Milan? |
Mar 26, 2017Thanks Machete is not a bad call at all by any means. Despite lacking the pun (which arguably is more important to me than it should be) it offers a more reliable damage boost than the axe but is less accurate (ie cant be boosted high). Given that most skill voluntary checks are best taken at +2 you risk limiting yourself to 1 or 2 enemies or taking an extra action or two to make a second attack etc. My opinion on the two is that arguably Machete is better in high (4+) chars and Fire Axe is better in low (<2). Given that jim is basically medium (3) , i think he can go either way. Feel free to try him out as "machete man". i suspect it would work really well and i`d love to hear how it felt. Not sure if base level Shrivelling is the answer to high enemies in jim. I realise it does extra damage, but without Holy Rosary in play, or committing cards to boost (Guts etc), it has the same odds as Machete with effectively 4 base, except with the risk of self harm and restriction of using charges. If your going to rely on a second card for these high enemies (3 or higher), why not Overpower or Fire Axe's innate pay to boost. Later on in the campaign, the new upgraded Shrivelling that wasnt known about until after this deck was published, is a bit of a game changer on this front of course with its built in +. ive tried to build considerartion of this into the upgrading section of the write up of the next version of this deck at least. I think the Dr. Milan Christopher vs Guard Dog argument is taking the deck in a differnt direction. Dr. Milan Christopher is always a strong card simply for the free cash even if not for the boost. Though i would always leave him available for a seeker or at a push a rogue who would get a much stronger synergy from him. Magnifying Glass might be a better option if not? though that hand slot is quite a premium in this deck. Ofc if your party isnt using him and you arnt planning on taking damage, you might want to take him. The thing that guard dog gives you though is HP protection and reactive damage. This deck is tanking/healing focused. The high horror healing compensating for sanity hits, the dogs for HP hits. Given that the deck is a little cash poor and that ive ended up dropping Rite of Seeking due to cash issues there might well be an investigation based Jim out there. That all said, im not sure what a seeker esk mystic cant do better than a Daisy with Drawn to the Flame? it might be able to capitalise on the bonus clue from Rite of Seeking though if its got cash - certainly worth exploring. |
Hey cool man! I published a fairly similar deck a while back with the same Axeman reference. I'll definitely be following this because it seemed like a good idea at the time but I also didn't test it and haven't yet had time to :(