Father Mateo Returns to TFA (Hard) - Deck Guide

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

Kal · 824

The Forgotten Age is my favourite campaign but even though I'd played it a bunch of times I'd never managed to get the best ending. It was high time to correct that, so for this latest expedition I decided to take a TFA investigator I hadn't played before, which meant either Calvin Wright or Father Mateo.

Father Mateo seemed like the most fitting choice since his weakness seems to indicate he's already had some kind of run-in with Yig's followers. He may not know exactly who Yig is, but before this adventure is over Yig is definitely going to know who he is.

This deck was designed for a two-handed solo run of Return to The Forgotten Age, on Hard, alongside Monterey Jack.

The partner deck can be found here.

If you want to skip ahead to see the final version of this deck, it can be found here.

The Untamed Wilds


It would be fair to say that the design of this deck was laser focused on tackling the challenges presented by the first scenario, because The Untamed Wilds is probably the most difficult scenario in the campaign (and one of the hardest pieces of content in the game as a whole).

The three key challenges here are:

So, ideally we would have a large amount of action compression in our card effects to maximize our overall efficiency, we wouldn't kill anything (at least anything that has vengeance) and we would have ways to handle tests and other effects that could poison us.

Not getting poisoned is particularly important because we only packed one box of medicine between us and we're saving it for the third scenario. This our supply list:

Father Mateo: map, canteen, compass.

Monterey Jack: provisions x 1, medicine, binoculars, chalk.

We didn't make room for blankets because they have no effect in The Untamed Wilds, and it isn't really a problem for Mateo to be Low on Provisions when the second scenario begins. The compass, binoculars, and chalk all provide useful effects when you investigate, and the canteen helps manage all the damage we'll take (some of which comes from our own cards).

I did a lot of test runs before I tried taking the map, and it really changed how I approached the whole scenario. As a Mystic with basically only purple card access to work with it was really hard to get up and running quickly (putting a real damper on that whole "efficiency" thing) but as the Map Guy, Mateo really came into his own.

The Deck


So, let's be real. Father Mateo effectively has no ability most of the time. Unlike most other Mystics you can't really get value from his ability every turn. You can try to build around his by including cards like Olive McBride and/or a full blessing suite, but what you end up with doesn't really accomplish much because your ability isn't that impactful most of the time.

The main benefit from triggering multiple effects is that it means you aren't losing tempo from failed tests, but we can succeed at tests without having to pull the blue token every time. Mateo can try to succeed at tests he wouldn't normally be able to pass, but that requires a lot of setup which we don't have time for here.

I can see how chain-pulling the token would be fun for the sheer novelty of it, but a deck based on that idea is just not a good fit for this scenario in a two player game.

What I learned about Mateo's ability from playing so many games with him is that it's really great for avoiding a very costly , like when you've committed a bunch of resources towards passing a test, and the earlier it happens in the game the more impactful it is (because snowballing is as relevant in individual scenarios as in the overall campaign). It even allows you to make deliberately greedy plays (like a double "Watch this!" from Monty) safe in the knowledge that nothing can go wrong.

It's a particularly good effect here when it saves you from a failed test that would have left you poisoned, and having that extra safety net is one of the reasons it was very rare for either investigator to get poisoned during the first scenario.

I do actually suspect that saving an important early game test from failure has a strong positive association with better outcomes at the end of the scenario but without getting a supercomputer to run a billion simulations it's hard to say exactly how much it helps.

Suffice it to say, Mateo's ability is useful but he's still noticeably less effective than other Mystics, and one of the other reasons for that is his base 4. If that had been 5 he'd be a tier higher without a doubt, but I can understand why the designers don't want to make 5-mainstat investigators all the time. His and are average, but having 3 is still a distinct advantage in TFA.

So, with his unremarkable stat line and one-shot ability, Mateo is kind of a vanilla investigator, at least mechanically. What can we make of this? Well, in a way, Chapter 2 reinvented the Mystic class, so with a healthy dose of new cards perhaps we can reinvent Mateo, too.

The Cards


I spent a lot of time trying to make use of Mateo's level 0-3 Blessed access to include some non-Mystic cards but in the end it was hard to beat purple cards for actually getting stuff done.

As mentioned earlier, we don't have time to build a support suite; we need our actions to progress the game as quickly as possible because there's a lot of VP up for grabs and Ancient Evils puts us on a clock.

With the starting token bag in The Untamed Wilds you have a 79% chance of passing any test at +3 and 86% at +4, and if you fail a test when you pull the -3 token you become poisoned. This means that whenever possible we don't want to test at less than +3, with +4 being the ideal commit (or +6 for the most important tests).

Our highest mulligan priority here is Arcane Initiate so that we can find both copies of Ward of Protection in a timely manner. The next highest is Shadowmeld, because before the first agenda advances we will almost certainly have to deal with some snakes and we don't want to kill them.

Most of the cards here were chosen with The Untamed Wilds in mind, but that doesn't mean the deck has nothing else going on. Before I found out how good the map was I kept trying to get Mateo to do the sorts of things Monty was doing, and that was an impossible act to follow.

But once I realized that activating the map one or more times per turn was more impactful than literally anything else he could do (apart from blasting an Ancient Evils) it allowed me to reassign a bunch of slots and lay the foundation for a deck based on spell events, soaking, and delivering divine retribution with a capital R.

Arcane Research, In the Thick of It: Let's load up with four mental trauma right out of the gate. One of the nice things (maybe the only nice thing) about The Untamed Wilds is that it has barely any horror effects, so we don't have to worry too much about going insane.

The Chthonian Stone: I found this one when I was working on the second scenario. The problem there was that the token introduced a huge amount of variance to the outcome of every game because when you pull it you have to place doom onto your location, and doom doesn't get cleared from locations when the agenda advances.

So, if you get The Chthonian Stone out early and seal the token the rest of that scenario becomes much easier. And it turns out the Stone is good in The Untamed Wilds, too. Sealing the token here means we can't get poisoned by failing a test to it, and if we're already poisoned then it removes the second auto-fail from the bag.

The Stone is also good in the rest of the campaign because some of the other scenarios also have very nasty token effects, and there will be three such tokens in the bag before our journey ends.

Arcane Initiate: We want to find both copies of Ward of Protection in every game, and this card offers the best way to accomplish that. It's also one of the few good options Mystics have for card draw in general, and it provides some useful horror soak.

If the agenda is sitting on three doom and you don't have a Ward in hand you should probably dispose of the Initiate before the end of the round, because if you pull an Ancient Evils you'll lose an additional six actions. It happens more often than you'd think.

Jim Culver: Jim is an expensive ally but he is very good. He provides a passive boost, which Mateo desperately needs, and some additional card draw, which is good in any deck but especially in any Mystic deck since they have so few good sources of it.

To make the most of Jim's ability we want to be taking damage or horror on every turn. The Mythos phase will often oblige in that regard, but not always, so it helps if we have ways to take damage and horror on demand.

Fortunately, Chapter 2 introduced a new suite of Mystic cards with the theme of deliberately inflicting damage or horror on yourself to gain some benefit, and Jim offers an additional reward for using such cards.

Since we don't have Charisma yet we can only have one ally in play at a time, but the Arcane Initiate often has a short lifespan even in the best of circumstances, and the deep jungle is decidedly not the best of circumstances.

Having an ally in play is one of the main ways we can avoid becoming poisoned from Snake Bite, so having four in the deck means we should be able to have one in play most of the time.

Ward of Protection: One advantage Mateo has over all the other Mystics is that he can run two copies of the level two Ward of Protection at the start of the campaign. For the longest time, I resisted spending XP on this card, but it really does make a pretty huge difference here for countering Ancient Evils. Each copy essentially becomes "gain six actions."

I took the level zero version out of the deck pretty early on because it was too inconsistent (either you would never have it in your hand, or Monty would be the one who drew Ancient Evils). I then played a heap of games without it while tuning both decks for more action efficiency but there's really no getting around how impactful it is if even a single copy of it lands.

With a small encounter deck and two reshuffle effects you will always see at least one copy of Ancient Evils. I started tallying them up and once I'd refined the decks and worked out my strategy I was seeing 3-4 copies pulled in each game. Occasionally two or five, and never zero or six.

You still need to have Ward of Protection in your hand for its inclusion to pay off so you can never eliminate all the variance, but, all things considered, having it in the deck is better than not having it.

Shadowmeld: This is the best evade asset for this campaign because the token doesn't exist in the first scenario and after the third scenario it doesn't appear for the rest of the campaign, so you won't ever lose extra charges.

This card has a high mulligan priority because we don't want to fight any of the vengeance enemies. Its move effect offers some much-needed action compression, too.

Second Sight: Similarly to Shadowmeld, there's only one token in the bag in the first scenario and only after advancing to the final act. And it also doesn't appear in any future scenario after the third.

Cosmic Flame: Unfortunately, the damage dealing spell asset from Chapter 2 isn't quite as resilient as the other two since it triggers on the token, but it's still worth taking over the older assets because its upgraded version is excellent. It's also quite good if you only need to deal one damage since you can do that indefinitely as long as you don't pull a token.

Monty is running Correlate All Its Contents so he can replenish a charge or two for us in most games, which really helps.

Offering Bowl: This is the starting deck's only resource generator and it might seem like a lot of damage to handle since The Untamed Wilds also throws out a lot of damage effects, but we have the canteen so we can clear three damage by visiting the River Canyon, and that goes a long way towards allowing us to last the full scenario.

This card also provides the most reliable way to get rid of an Arcane Initiate.

Bloodstone: The Chapter 2 counterpart to the classic Holy Rosary. We need more damage soak than horror, and the boost is invaluable.

Spectral Razor: This is a silver bullet for our weakness but also still one of the best combat events in the Mystic card pool. It's incredibly efficient and it will make short work of the Brood of Yig enemies after the agenda advances since we rarely ever have any stacks of Vengeance.

Storm of Spirits: Being able to hit multiple targets with one attack is going to be very useful in this campaign as some of the scenarios contain a lot of enemies. Monty will be also be evading a lot so there will be plenty of opportunities to line up a satisfying multi-kill.

You can use this card to hit an aloof enemy without having to engage it, or you can use it to avoid attacking another enemy directly, avoiding any nasty effects which might trigger when they're attacked (including retaliate). And you can also use it to attack the enemy with the lowest fight value and still hit the one with the highest. It's really versatile.

Deny Existence: This card is here primarily to extend the lives of our allies. If you pull a Snake Bite you can choose the option to deal five damage to an ally, then you can use Deny Existence to ignore the damage. It doesn't work on the second option though because the damage isn't tied to the poison effect.

You can also use it on Best-Laid Plans if you choose to lose actions, and it's generally good in an emergency for preventing damage or horror. Note that Arrows from the Trees deals its damage in one hit so you can prevent it all with this card, too.

Torrent of Power: When the agenda advances, each investigator has to pass a 3 test to avoid becoming poisoned, and Monty has no chance without our help. This is the primary way in which we prevent him from becoming poisoned but it's also good for tests in general, letting us save our other skill cards for non- tests if we need them.

It's good here because Shadowmeld comes with four charges and it still works perfectly well if it has none left. The other spells do, too, but their charges are better spent on their primary function most of the time.

Blood Curse: Four is a lot of icons. Try to save it for Snake Bite, or for another test you absolutely must pass.

Soul Link: Three is almost as good as four. Both this card and Blood Curse have the Spell trait so they can be grabbed by the Arcane Initiate, which is a nice bonus.

Guts: No surprises here.

Cat Mask: This is a really valuable source of stat boosting because it often lets you reach the +3 or +4 threshold without having to use a skill card. I actually think it's worth including even if you only get two uses out of it, but if you don't have any player cards that apply doom it can still get refreshed by the agenda once or twice a game.

In the second and third scenarios you can use it liberally as it gets refreshed frequently due to all the doom effects in the encounter deck (note that unlike the other masks, it replenishes two uses at a time).

As a minor but relevant point, you can also use its boost with Spectral Razor.

Serpents of Yig: This is a pretty bad weakness, and if Spectral Razor didn't exist it would be a terrible one since it would take two actions to handle instead of one. Removing the from the bag has a modest effect on your test scores (and it doesn't stop your ability from working) but when poison is in play every advantage counts.

The other effect of this weakness, like most enemy weaknesses, is that you need to play around it by not using your last action to draw a card. Whenever possible, you should also keep a copy of Spectral Razor in hand until it shows up.

The Codex of Ages: As far as signature cards go, this one is... not great. In solo play, having a 1 boost on most of your actions might make up for having the token sealed, but in multiplayer games it's too detrimental an effect to leave in play for any length of time.

It's best used when you can afford to play it and use it right away, so it can be good for important scenario card tests, of which this campaign has a lot.

Overconfident: This was the basic weakness I pulled and it wasn't too bad to deal with since the deck was built around soak. I tended to leave it in play for at least two turns whenever it appeared but it couldn't be ignored forever.

And now for a few cards that didn't make the cut:

Drain Essence: I tried this for a while to help offset some of the damage we take but since it always needs a boost of some kind to do anything it was kind of hard to use in practice (one of the reasons Spectral Razor is so good is because it comes with a built-in boost). One nice thing about it is that since it's a parley effect you don't have to engage your target to use it, saving you an action against aloof enemies, and it also gets around retaliate.

Read the Signs: The Razor's investigate counterpart is also great, and its ability to ignore location effects is relevant throughout the campaign. It was hard to find a balance between combat and clue grabbing for Mateo because in the first scenario it was crucial to be able to get clues quickly before the agenda advanced and then kill enemies afterwards, but in the end I dropped this card because he's plenty useful when he uses the map, and by the third scenario he'll be a clue-grabbing powerhouse via other means.

Will of the Cosmos: This one worked pretty well for saving actions. There are a number of four clue VP locations in the first scenario, and Monty can grab three of them with Pilfer. Normally, he'd have to spend an extra action to grab that last clue but if you have Will of the Cosmos in your hand he can leave, then you can grab that clue remotely later. It feels good when you use it to clear two VP locations at once before advancing the final act, and while it may stay in your hand for a while it's usually worth the delayed value it offers.

The Campaign


After developing a pair of decks I like to do an ironman run through the campaign, which is why I value consistency so much. And ironman in this context just means no taking back moves or anything unless I've made a mistake that prevents the game from continuing properly.

For each scenario, I'll make some notes about important or interesting things to look out for, then I'll cover the upgrades.

Scenario One: The Untamed Wilds

I've talked a lot about this scenario already, so suffice it to say we want to get set up and begin exploring as soon as possible. As mentioned already, Mateo's main duty here is to use the map before anyone takes an explore action so that we avoid wasting our time dealing with treacheries.

Before I started using the map I was averaging 7-8XP from this scenario, but afterwards 9-10XP was much more common. It makes a huge difference!

  • The key here is to advance the act the round before the agenda advances. Each advancement shuffles the encounter discard pile into the deck, so by advancing the act first we can ensure the discard pile is empty when the agenda advances, which means there's no chance for any copies of Ancient Evils to get shuffled into the deck twice.

    In practice, this means we need to discover six clues before the agenda advances. Ideally, we would get all six clues from the two VP locations, but it's possible that both of them will only have two clues each so it's safest to grab two clues from an early location to hedge against that outcome.

    Given the variance with the other early locations and the kind of surprises you can pull from the exploration deck, getting clues at the earliest opportunity is generally the best strategy anyway (one exception would be if you happen to stumble into a 4-clue VP location early in the game).

    If you happen to get six clues before any copy of Ancient Evils has appeared then it's safe to advance the act early, and in fact it's better because it means the encounter deck will be slightly larger so there's less chance for any individual copy to appear in future.

  • Until you get a Shadowmeld into play you're vulnerable to enemies and will probably need rescuing. And until you get an ally into play or Blood Curse or Soul Link in hand you're vulnerable to Snake Bite.

  • If you decide to do a blind explore then don't do it with your last action, since if you draw a Pit Viper you're guaranteed to get poisoned. Also, if you draw a Best-Laid Plans you won't be able to choose the "lose 2 actions" option if you don't have any actions left, and it's generally the preferred choice since a lot of encounter cards take at least one action plus some resources to deal with.

  • Be mindful of where you end your turn, since pulling an Overgrowth or enemy during the next Mythos phase can soft lock your location and prevent you from exploring or investigating. Don't go out of your way to always end your turn at the most favourable location, though, or you'll end up wasting too many actions.

  • If the Boa Constrictor shows up early, well, that sucks. It takes an inordinate amount of effort to kill it, but Monty has some tech for it so it's usually alright to just ignore it.

  • When the act advances and Ichtaca appears you can help Monty pass her parley tests with your skills. Parleying is better than attacking her because it reduces the damage you take in future and it prevents Arrows from the Trees from gaining surge, so it reduces the chance of more Ancient Evils being drawn.

  • Before the agenda advances you should evade or ignore all enemies, but afterwards you should be ready to kill the odd Brood of Yig or two that shows up. This means you'll want to have a Cosmic Flame in play and/or Spectral Razor in hand.

  • When the agenda advances, make sure you're at the same location as Monty so you can help him pass the test with Torrent of Power.

  • It's worth spending heavily to pass any poison test because the opportunity costs of being poisoned really do add up over the course of the game.

  • After advancing to the final act it's a race to find and clear all three of the new VP locations. Chances are some exploration paths will be blocked off by enemies or treacheries but there are multiple routes to all three locations so you can often find a way around by discovering the first one and going through it.

  • At some point, the Serpent from Yoth will probably appear. Since it's unlikely there will be more than two vengeance in the display it won't be too dangerous, and between your spells and Monty's whip it should be possible to bring it down in short order.

  • The two best uses for The Codex of Ages are for the agenda test or a parley test on Ichtaca. Both are entirely predictable so you don't have to leave the token sealed for too long, and both require extra resources to pass normally.

  • When you trigger your effect it's almost always better to take the action (if possible), but it's doubly important in this scenario when actions are at a premium.

The Untamed Wilds: 10XP gained (+2XP for Arcane Research).

We suffered one point of physical trauma for not having a blanket. Talk about a rough night!

Upgrades

Added:

1 x Second Sight: This is a huge upgrade, turning it into possibly the most powerful spell asset for investigating in the game. The +2 boost is crucial for Mateo, and being able to continue using it after its charges has run out gives it a lot of staying power.

5XP spent, 8XP left.

We're leaving 8XP on the table to ensure we can purchase a key upgrade after the next scenario even if we get a really bad result.

Scenario Two: The Doom of Eztli

As mentioned earlier, The Chthonian Stone is a real silver bullet here because it eliminates the most random source of doom (the token). If you find it early it makes the game much, much easier, so it will be our primary mulligan target.

Since we didn't take any provisions we begin this scenario with only two resources, but hey, that's enough to play The Chthonian Stone.

  • Our first objective is to find the Ancient Hall because it's basically a safe zone that both investigators can hang out at while they build up their kits.

    The reason for that is because we have a compass so we can flip one doom per turn for free. We'll need to sit here for a while in most games anyway, but it's useful for someone to sit here for as long as possible because it effectively neutralizes Ill Omen and Ancestral Fear. Those cards are your main targets for Ward of Protection if you're not at the Ancient Hall.

  • When you're ready to venture out, use your map on the Grand Chamber, which Monty should have cleared, and try not to end your turn at the Throne Room so there's no chance it can get doom on it during the next Mythos phase.

  • Monty has Gené Beauregard now, so he'll be able to move clues and enemies around to make investigating or claiming VP easier.

  • You'll most likely pull more than one Vengeful Serpent. Monty will delay them with Disguise or Transmogrify but if a group of them get together then Storm of Spirits is an efficient way to deal with them.

  • There's one copy of Wrath of Yig in the encounter deck but getting poisoned here isn't much of an issue so don't go overboard trying to pass the test. You can clear your poison at the end of the third scenario pretty easily.

  • When the Harbinger of Valusia appears Monty will start bashing it with the Polished Cane, which is a pretty efficient way to deal with it. We aren't too interested in piling up damage on it, so single point attacks with Cosmic Flame are fine if you can boost them.

  • Monty will do most of the work here, and when you advance to the final act you should find yourself pretty close to the entrance (he'll handle the Chamber of Time himself and use a Scout Ahead to run over the Snake Pit).

  • The Codex of Ages is best used against the Harbinger here, or on Entombed if Monty can't break you out.

The Doom of Eztli: 5XP gained (+2XP for Arcane Research).

Upgrades

Removed:

1 x Shadowmeld: From this point on basically every enemy we come across needs to die, so evading becomes less of a priority. If we ever need rescuing then Monty can do so pretty easily with Gené Beauregard, Polished Cane, or Trusty Bullwhip.

Added:

1 x Eldritch Brand: The next scenario has six locations with four clues each, and being able to start the game with Second Sight in play is ridiculously good there. In fact, it's incredible in every game and it almost makes Mateo a more effective clue grabber than Monty by itself.

1 x Enraptured: We'll run out of charges on Second Sight (and Cosmic Flame at some point in every game, so being able to replenish them is very useful. We could have bought Charisma here instead, but being able to investigate efficiently is more important in the next scenario.

1 x Spectral Razor: We'll spend our Arcane Research XP upgrading one copy of this. We won't be adding any token manipulation tech to our deck during this campaign but we'll still occasionally pull a symbol token naturally, and there's always the possibility of using The Codex of Ages with it.

1 x Relic of Ages: This will turn into a pretty good card later on.

14XP spent, 1XP left.

Scenario Three: Threads of Fate

During the interlude we gave the relic to Harlan, so we're forging our own path. This means we'll get more tokens from now on, which is really quite bad in some scenarios, but it's the only way to go if you want to turn back time.

We also chose to get to the root of the problem because Veda Whitsley is a really powerful ally who we'll definitely want to recruit.

  • Apart from discovering clues, our main task is to handle the parley tests for Harlan Earnstone and Clinton Freeman (if he appears).

  • Having The Codex of Ages in play before you do Harlan's second parley test is good because if the enemy version of Harlan appears (Harlan's Curse) you can immediately add him to the victory display with an evade test, since any test that automatically succeeds is considered to have had a difficulty of zero.

  • We also need to kill any cultists that appear, including some aloof ones. Depending upon the situation at hand, you might be able to kill more than one with a single Storm of Spirits, and that card is also good for avoiding a direct attack on a Brotherhood Cultist.

  • Try to clear the Curiositie Shoppe before you talk to Harlan since it'll be a bit easier if the relic happens to be there, and you want to clear it anyway for the VP.

  • It's good to have multiple act decks in progress at the same time rather than finish them too early because it makes The Secret Must Be Kept much more dangerous. Try to hold onto Ward of Protection for that card later in the game, since it can appear several times with the agenda deck reshuffles.

  • There is some randomness with the final act of each deck, with the outliers being if you get ambushed by the Harbinger of Valusia or have to kill enemies for Ichtaca's quest, but after adding the Second Sight/Eldritch Brand combo to the deck I was able to consistently clear all four acts.

The Threads of Fate: 10XP gained (+2XP for Arcane Research).

Upgrades

Added:

1 x Charisma: Now we can have two allies in play at the same time.

2 x Jim Culver: It's time to boost our economy. Big Jim is a big upgrade, giving us more soak and a resource when we take damage or horror.

1 x Spectral Razor: As before, this is what we'll spend our Arcane Research XP on.

1 x Veda Whitsley: This is an extremely powerful ally. Cheap, huge soak, and a great ability that has synergy with Jim Culver.

13XP spent, 0XP left.

Resupply

Monterey Jack: Removed poison, blanket, medicine, pocketknife, pickaxe.

Father Mateo: Removed physical trauma, provisions x 4, gasoline x 2, medicine, blanket, pickaxe.

Scenario Four: The Boundary Beyond

The Return To version of this scenario is a huge improvement on the original but there's still a lot of randomness here, and the interaction between certain treacheries and location effects can create some amusingly awful situations.

The main offender here, though, is that we now have two tokens in the bag, and every time you draw one it puts a clue onto the nearest Ancient location, setting your progress back since you need to clear six such locations to advance the act. I had at least two games where I somehow pulled seven tokens within the span of three rounds, at which point you just have to shake your head.

I managed to clear six locations once or twice but with the final version of each deck it was more common to clear four or five locations, which is still a good result.

  • You should begin the game at Coyoacán (or Coyoacán) since both versions of it are well suited for you, and Monty will begin at Zócalo (or Zócalo) so that we have two locations revealed right away.

  • You should explore here first because it advances the act and forces you to do a test, and because it's the safest Ancient location to have in play. Both versions of it only have two clues and the Present-Day versions are also the easiest locations to repeatedly explore, so if you draw a Window to Another Time early in the game it's definitely worth flipping back instead of taking a doom.

  • Note that most of the Ancient locations have different connections to the Present-Day ones, which can be handy for dealing with hunter enemies.

  • If you haven't revealed the bottom location and you pull a Hand of the Brotherhood it's worth spawning him there in case it's Xochimilco.

  • When the agenda is close to advancing, wait around at Templo Mayor for Padma Amrita to spawn. Since it will be late in the game, you should have the right cards in hand to be able to dispatch her in one turn, but Monty can always help out with his Trusty Bullwhip or Polished Cane.

The Boundary Beyond: 8XP gained (five locations cleared) (+2XP for Arcane Research).

Upgrades

The next scenario is very easy so we don't need any specific tech for it. Instead, we'll look ahead and begin preparing for a fight. A boss fight.

Removed:

1 x Shadowmeld: The other copy.

2 x Torrent of Power: This card has lost a lot of value because we've removed the main source of charges for it (Shadowmeld).

Added:

1 x Storm of Spirits: Raising the damage by one point here is a significant upgrade because quite a few enemies have 3HP. The increased self damage is slightly concerning but we still have Deny Existence and we won't typically cast this spell more than twice a game.

1 x Enraptured: The second copy.

2 x Emergency Cache: We need more resource generators and most of the remaining purple options aren't great. Fortunately, the upgraded Emergency Cache is an excellent card.

10XP spent, 1XP left.

Scenario Five: Heart of the Elders

If you clear six locations in The Boundary Beyond you skip part one of this scenario, which is actually kind of bad since you miss the opportunity to farm a bit more XP.

  • We're back in the jungle and everything that applied in the first scenario applies here, more or less, except that the consequences of being poisoned aren't as serious.

  • As always, don't explore with your last action because this time, in addition to all the other reasons, you might pull a Poisonous Spores.

  • It should be pretty trivial to grab the clues you need to get to six pillars, so most of the first part of the scenario will be exploring to find and clear all the VP locations.

  • The second part is also a VP hunt. Not much else to say.

Heart of the Elders: 14XP gained (+2XP for Arcane Research).

Upgrades

Added:

2 x Arcane Initiate: Going from one to zero cost is a lot more significant than going from two to one (or any other value above zero), and the extra point of sanity will come in handy.

We've cut enough spells now to make a noticeable increase in the amount of dead draws we get from the Initiate, but it hardly matters. This is still an excellent card that offers a huge amount of value, and we'll cycle our deck in most games so it'll get restocked at least once.

Unfortunately, this card doesn't have synergy with Jim Culver because it places horror instead of taking it.

1 x Storm of Spirits: The second copy.

2 x Blood Curse: A great upgrade that's hard to prioritize in most decks. We can now place one point of damage on an enemy at our location.

15XP spent, 2XP left.

I would have dropped Deny Existence or Soul Link here but they're both really useful in the next scenario, so they get to hang around for a bit longer.

Scenario Six: The City of Archives

We've been turned into Yithians! And transported through time and space! This scenario is always fun and it rewards teching more than most. It's very different to all the others in this campaign, most notably for how much horror it deals out.

It's also packed with tests, but that's not really a problem for us. Monty now has Logical Reasoning to help him handle all the horror (and Frozen in Fear) and he can sometimes afford to clear some of ours as well if we need it.

  • We resisted captivity during setup so we begin play in the Interview Room and we get a free Yithian Observer in the victory display.

  • The Return To version of this scenario added two more tasks but you still only need to complete six to get the best resolution. Those six are at these locations:

  • We can use Blood Curse or Soul Link to pass any of the location tests but we can't do them all, so Monty will help with the and ones.

  • The Ichor-Filled Chamber has a nasty test on it (Interview Room) so we should reveal the Interview Rooms instead of Monty.

  • I find this to be one of the most complex and brain taxing scenarios in the entire game (at least prior to Edge of the Earth) because of how many locations there are, but with careful play it should be possible to get all six tasks done and clear all the VP locations every time.

  • To escape, make sure you're at the Yithian Orrery so you can hold onto six cards at the end of your turn. On your next turn, use the act ability to draw cards by spending clues to get to ten cards. Monty also has Cryptic Research to help out if needed.

The City of Archives: 13XP gained (+2XP for Arcane Research).

Upgrades

Removed:

2 x Soul Link: We need to make room somewhere and this is one of the last places to find it.

1 x Deny Existence: And this is the absolute last place. We'll hang onto one copy because it still offers some good utility (and because there wasn't enough XP left over for another 5XP card).

Added:

1 x Cosmic Flame: A very powerful and flexible upgrade. This gives us a strong baseline attack to complement our events.

1 x Guts: Spending as much XP as we can while still grabbing our key upgrades.

2 x Retribution: Fast, testless damage. What's not to like? Whether you're a 2HP snake or an 18HP Ancient One, it makes no difference to Mateo.

Well, it makes some difference, but as long as we have at least one of Jim Culver or Veda Whitsley in play we should be alright.

1 x Bend Blood: More AoE damage and a powerful effect which effectively lets us tank an army for a turn. And an army might just be on the cards...

16XP spent, 1XP left.

Scenario Seven: The Depths of Yoth

We've been preparing for a boss fight for a long time and the moment of truth has finally arrived. We'll be doing most of the actual fighting but Monty will help us out with cards like Bank Job and No Stone Unturned, and he can also clear our trauma horror with Logical Reasoning.

  • Of course, we still need to explore and grab clues to make our way through the tunnels. The main obstacle to these tasks is the sheer number of enemies in the encounter deck.

  • Evading enemies is still the name of the game, because each time we go down a level any enemies in play get sent to the pursuit zone. We also don't want to kill anything that has vengeance because if our vengeance level gets to three or above, the token becomes an auto-fail and there are three of them in the bag.

  • Monty will herd the enemies around with Olivier Bishop and Gené Beauregard, using Transmogrify on any Pit Warden that shows up. At some point it should be possible to play a high value Storm of Spirits.

  • When Yig appears he will try to keep any regular enemies exhausted but he won't always want to evade Yig himself otherwise we won't be able to use Retribution. That card offers one of the few ways Mystics can break the 3-damage per action limit, and while taking three damage and three horror is no joke, it is manageable with our suite of assets.

In my final run I had 14 Yig's Fury so I started this scenario at Agenda 3. I also didn't manage to reach level five (I got defeated at level four so at least there weren't any additional consequences beyond an extra point of trauma for each investigator). I did manage to bag Yig though, with a double Retribution from Mateo (one for Yig's attack on him and one for Monty).

The Depths of Yoth: 6XP gained (+2XP for Arcane Research).

Upgrades

Removed:

1 x Deny Existence: We need to free up one last slot.

Added:

1 x Bend Blood: We'll grab the other copy of this because there's another boss fight in the finale.

1 x Guts: Putting that last bit of XP to work.

7XP spent, 0XP left (no Arcane Research XP used).

Scenario Eight: Shattered Aeons

Due to our narrative choices so far there is one more big fight left in the game and in some ways it's harder to handle than Yig.

  • Our first task is to find four clues so we can advance the act and shuffle A Pocket in Time into the exploration deck. This should come pretty quickly, but depending upon how well you're doing it might be best to wait for the second agenda to advance before playing the Relic of Ages since it will spawn two boss enemies, and you don't really want to have to deal with the Formless Spawn at the same time as them.

  • So, after killing the Formless Spawn it's then time to deal with Alejandro Vela and Ichtaca once and for all. We'll sit at the Nexus of N'kai and Monty will wait at the Pocket of Time and use Olivier Bishop to move into the Nexus with Alejandro, then he'll either evade him or Ichtaca, or both.

  • This battle can go off the rails sometimes and it usually takes a few turns to resolve. During this time, cultists might spawn at other locations, but Monty should be able to handle them or drag them back to the pile-up.

  • With so many treacheries it's usually best if we do the exploration, and Veda Whitsley is invaluable here for pruning the exploration deck since it fills up with lots of hexes from various effects.

Once Alejandro and Ichtaca have been slain, the rest of the scenario should be very easy to wrap up. I had Monty die at the end of the boss fight one of my test games and Mateo was able to finish the whole back half by himself (Second Sight is a really strong card).

Shattered Aeons: 4XP gained (+2XP for Arcane Research).

Upgrades

I think we're good on upgrades now but another Charisma couldn't hurt.

Scenario Nine: Turn Back Time

Finally, I made it to the bonus scenario! I had never read the act cards for this one in my other runs through this campaign so boy was I surprised when I advanced to the final act. I had been speed running what I thought was a Doom of Eztli rerun (only with 80 more XP) and then I ran into Yig again.

Neither investigator was prepared for that but Monty did have his whip, so he sat there whipping Yig for five or six turns while Mateo scrounged up what he needed to put the big snake down for a second time.

The investigators win the campaign!

Final Thoughts


Father Mateo is kind of a blank slate if you're not taking advantage of his Blessed access. I knew from the start that building a support suite for tokens wouldn't work very well in a two player game, but I did try a few other Blessed cards.

The first version of this deck featured Grisly Totem and A Glimmer of Hope, the idea being that in a campaign heavy on tests he would have lots of commit fodder, and that it would also help him pass all of his tests.

In practice though, it feels bad playing A Glimmer of Hope to only recover two copies so it tended to just sit in the discard pile most of the game, and it also proved hard to find a spare action to even play it a lot of the time because The Untamed Wilds puts so much pressure on your action economy. The other problem is that by itself it doesn't do anything to advance the game state, and having three copies means you're less likely to draw your fight and investigate cards.

The next version of the deck dropped Glimmer and the Totem and switched over to Good Weather, which is a really strong card. I stuck with this for a while because it worked pretty well with a few predictable scenario events (the test when you advance the agenda, and the Ichtaca parley test) and it also made it easy to reach the +3 threshold for performing tests (important for not becoming poisoned when you pull the token and fail).

I eventually dropped it for the same reason as the other cards, which is that it wasn't doing enough to actually get anything done. If Mateo had a reliable way to recur it, though, it probably would've been a keeper. It's also possible that if I had discovered the map sooner I might've kept some of these Blessed cards, but there's a good chance they would've proved their lack of value in future scenarios anyway.

So I wiped the slate clean again and built an all-purple deck. The Chapter 2 pool features some of the best Mystic cards ever printed, and building a large soak capacity and using the self damage effects ending up working well. Blood Curse and Soul Link in particular were real workhorses.

After going heavy on events I tried some support tech like Ritual Dagger and Dayana Esperence, which both showed a lot of promise but were slightly too awkward to fit into this deck. One card that avoided being cut every time was Cat Mask because it simply offered too much value with its boosts, and there were a lot of scenarios which played with doom, usually by having you place it on locations.

Mateo probably works a lot better as a focused cluever rather than a combat specialist, but having Monty as a partner meant he would have to shoulder most of the burden of actually killing stuff.

The constraints of The Untamed Wilds also conflicted with some of the deck ideas I had. I wanted to spend his starting XP on different cards, but Ward of Protection being so impactful meant it had to take up 4XP in every deck, and it wasn't possible to include Cosmic Flame from the jump and start blasting everything because killing vengeance enemies makes everything harder.

In the end, I made a deck that worked well but doesn't really take advantage of Father Mateo's abilities, because doing so would've made the campaign harder. Most other Mystics would probably fare better with the same bunch of cards, but it was still fun trying out all the Chapter 2 cards and teching for all the many challenges in this campaign.

The Forgotten Age is my favourite campaign largely because of its theme. I love going on an expedition into the unknown and exploring ruins and all that stuff. It feels like much more of an adventure than most other campaigns, and it's why I like Edge of the Earth a lot, too. I also love how difficult it is at the start, and I really appreciate it when a campaign maintains a high level of difficulty the whole way through, which this one fares better at than most.

Here's hoping we go on another expedition in Chapter 2 sooner rather than later.

Father Mateo Returns to TFA (89XP)

0 comments