Jim Culver, Luckiest Cat in Town

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Jim Culver [Dunwich solo] 2 1 0 2.0
Jim Culver, Luckiest Cat in Town 0 0 0 1.0

VermillionDe · 289

Gotta say, I've been waiting to make a Jim Culver deck since they announced him. What makes Jim such a powerhouse compared to the other stock of characters that are out there currently is his consistency. Check out his special ability: Treat tokens as 0. Firstly, this changes what the average token draw out of the bag compared to what other characters in the game can expect. Second, his signature card Jim's Trumpet reacts to skull tokens, letting you heal 1 sanity from you or another investigator when you or anyone else pulls one. This means that Jim is not just a strong stat line and Hard hitting Mystic character, he's also a walking support field for sanity. That's before even putting cards in his deck.

While I think there are a lot of viable builds for Culver, I thought I would start with a solid build that takes biggest advantage of his great stats and excellent effect on the dice bag. Let's for a moment assume that the chaos bag has the following: +1, 0, -1, -1, -1, -2, -2, -3, -4 , , , , , , . This would be very similar to the Normal difficulty for the Core Set campaign. If we assign average values to the chaos tokens generally 's are -2, 's are -1, and 's are around -3. (By no means solid definitions, just ballparks based on what we've seen). This means that out of 18 possible results, 15 of them will bring you below your current skill. That means you'll either have to be attempting a test below your skill level or find cards or abilities to boost them and hope it's enough. Even if you do discard a card for +1, it will only break you even or better on 6 of the total pool. That means 2/3rds of the time you'll be fighting the numbers, even with a skill symbol.

That's not necessarily the case for Jim though. For him only 13 of the cards are negative in value. Granted that means he's still looking at about 75% with negative modifiers, but that's why he's got Talent cards and especially Ritual Candles. If he draws a symbol for his token instead of a flat negative number, he boosts it by 1 per candle. 1 candle brings up to positive, breaks even on . Two change even and to minor nuisances. Two candles in play and 1 skill symbol changes the ratio on the chaos bag to breaking even 11/18, which means 2/3rds of the time you'll break even or better.

Using Jim's 5 extra card slots we can do even better than that. If you use Arcane Studies and Hard Knocks together then Jim can boost any stat by spending 1 or more resources. Using Burglary and Emergency Cache he can keep himself flush with resources to throw at any skill test. It should be that after being fully set up, just about the only skill test you'll fail will be if you draw the or a negative counter above 2 (and if you were really determined to pass it, you might still be in that ballpark). However that's only 4 out of 18 tokens, so you should be passing better than 75% of skill checks without much effort.

This largely means that using spells like Shriveling and Rite of Seeking are really just for when you're either not setup, or want the extra bonus (damage or extra clue). The rest of the time Jim should be able to handle just about anything himself. Throw Leo De Luca in the mix to increase his efficiency and Jim can run point on just about any problem while still supporting a full team with sanity maintenance with either Jim's Trumpet or Clarity of Mind. If your group needs more support then throw in Medical Texts and Jim can maintain health and sanity for a group.

Spending experience on him gets interesting as well. Personally I think Bind Monster was basically made for him. If it's an enemy that'll take more than two actions to deal with or is especially problematic, just bind it in place and walk away. You could potentially keep a monster bound that way indefinitely. Grotesque Statue is another card that was basically made for Jim. Since the only token that can really stop you is the , you'll be able to guarantee passing a test using Grotesque Statue and boosting a skill appropriately.

8 comments

Mar 10, 2017 zozo · 2912

Lovely write-up. Really intriguing deck!

Mar 10, 2017 Murse · 2

Love the write up! Expresses thoughts I had more susinctly then I would have been able to. This Jim deck is clearly meant for multiplayer. I feel he's a good choice for solo play as he can lessen the effect of drawing chaos tokens so well. Some of your picks are clearly aimed at multiple investigators. How would you adjust this deck for single player?

Mar 10, 2017 VermillionDe · 289

Honestly I wouldn't change much. Clarity of mind isn't as important when he's by himself, so id probably swap both of them out for a Scrying and a Fearless. Scrying is much more valuable solo as you can plan out your next few encounters in one action, letting Jim tailor what he needs to boost and when. Fearless is basically a free sanity back since there should be times you can virtually guarantee passing a test.

Mar 10, 2017 Murse · 2

I definitely agree with the Scrying and would likely go up to 2. I've never found Fearless to Warren the deck slot (especially with access to Jim's Trumpet), but that may be a playstyle thing.

Mar 10, 2017 VermillionDe · 289

Jim's trumpet is less reliable than Fearless in solo play. You're not pulling as many tokens so it happens less frequently. Not to mention with only 1 in the deck you'll be less likely to get it. Granted with the advent of Painkillers I'm more apt to leave in a Clarity of Mind so Jim can do some self healing with spells.

Apr 12, 2017 narsil0420 · 10

Why Burglary and Hard Knocks and Kukri? I was trying Jim solo and put "Look what I found!", Shortcut, and Guard Dog but I debated a lot about it. Appreciate your thoughts!

Apr 12, 2017 VermillionDe · 289

If you read the description, this deck is designed to maximize Jim's already impressive ability to pass tests. Pair hard knocks and arcane studies and you can boost any stat. Stock burglary to keep your credit pool flush so you can continue to do so.

Kukri is so Jim has a reliable weapon that doesn't need charges. He already has a pretty decent fight stat but with kukri he can opt to do 2 damage where applicable.

Jul 17, 2017 XehutL · 47

I like this deck and I will try something similar with my solo Jim for the Dunwich campaign.

But I'm curious - how it went out for you? Has it been played already?