The Greatest Work (29+ XP) | HC 7.5k Guide

The Greatest Work

I'm continuing my series with a deck each Sunday (or, you know, occasionally on the 1st April...) using the new Drowned City cards. Have you other thought what happens if a deck just has, like, more XP? Well here is that idea made flesh, or should I say cards... fleshy cards...

Overview

• XP is good, XP is nice - it buys things. What if I told you that you could bypass the penalty of The Great Work by just straight dying with Charon's Obol - all the while earning truckloads of XP?! Throw in Arcane Research, and you get even more. Throw in In the Thick of It and - nah, it's too much trauma...

• This deck uses staples (Easy Mark, Gregory Gry and Faustian Bargain) to afford costly fast replacement of spell assets. Enraptured •• is a psuedo-economy card too, recharging a spell that you would ordinarily replace with cash-money. Leo De Luca and Sign Magick give more actions, and the latter also gives more arcane slots. You can replace any asset once per round, and Easy Mark, Arcane Initiate and Lucky Cigarette Case all help you draw cards to find said assets. Two copies of Cigarette Case are included in particular to help with milling your deck (and you can replace them fast when they stop being useful).

• Boosts to are Eye of Ghatanothoa, Holy Rosary (which you can use both of with Relic Hunter) and if needed David Renfield. Of course your spells are all wicked-sweet because of the extra XP, so you don't really need Willpower boosts.

• Dimensional Vortex and "I'm outta here!" are your panic buttons to stop you from dying horribly (but if you do die, then a certain Kymani deck has your back). Your various allies can soak horror coming off your spells, as can Holy Rosary. Additionally Fearless •• heals horror while Eye of Ghatanothoa is physical soak (and reveals the top of the Encounter deck, allowing you to plan for it). You will burn through Holy Rosaries and sub-out Cigarette Cases for the other accessories, so despite these slots looking crowded it works.

• [More notes to go here - think of something witty so everyone realises what a handsome, cool and GENIUS deck-builder you are. IMPORTANT - REPLACE before posting!!!]

Campaign starter and planned progression

This is a 29 XP deck... no really! Assuming 8 scenarios in a campaign with 7 upgrade points, then two Arcane Research save 14 XP while The Great Work saves 7 XP. Assuming you also buy Charon's Obol after your first scenario, then it is in place for 6 of the 7 upgrade points, providing 12 XP. Complex math tells me that 62 - 14 - 12 - 7 = 29 XP. 0 XP deck is as follows (and link here):

Candidate spells for Arcane Research upgrades are below, and should be upgraded whenever is convenient (you won't have enough upgrade points for all of these, so use XP for some of them at your discretion):

• Ward of Protection → Ward of Protection ••

• 1 x Brand of Cthugha • → 1 x Brand of Cthugha ••••

• Shrivelling → Shrivelling ••• → Shrivelling •••••

• Clairvoyance → Clairvoyance ••• → Clairvoyance •••••

• 1 x Sixth Sense → 1 x Sixth Sense ••••

A recommended order of purchases/upgrades for remaining cards is (remembering some of the above will also need purchasing outside of Arcane Research):

• Charon's Obol

• Emergency Cache, 1 x Voice of Ra → Easy Mark

• 1 x Wither → 1 x Brand of Cthugha •

• Charisma

• Relic Hunter

• Guts → Enraptured ••

• 1 x Fearless → 1 x Fearless ••

• 1 x Sign Magick → 1 x Sign Magick •••

• 1 x Fearless → 1 x Dimensional Vortex

• 1 x Sign Magick → 1 x Sign Magick •••

• 1 x Leather Jacket → Eye of Ghatanothoa

• 1 x Sixth Sense → 1 x Sixth Sense •••• (a good candidate for a full XP upgrade)

Final thoughts

So I want to unravel the complex thought process that went into this deck; I thought to myself The Great Work provides extra XP, and you know what? So does Charon's Obol and Arcane Research. Then I thought in the words of the inimitable Joey Tribbiani, "Put your hands together." Some may accuse this deck of being basic, obvious nonsense - and to those people I'd like to say, "Yeah, probably." To cap it all, I'm not even the first person to pair Charon's Obol and the Great Work on here - shameful, I know!

I guess my excuse for this deck is that it's good, and it's fun to play. Sometimes more XP is more good. I know some of you will also aspire to this level of deck-building brilliance, but my advice is: don't be Icarus, don't fly too close to the sun. Not everyone is cut out to design decks this ground-breaking.