Daniela + Jim = Success!

This deck is connected with this deck: Jim + Daniela = Success!: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2247980

Introduction:

I played this deck in campaign “Edge of the Earth” on EXPERT level and I’ve achieved very good results. My main target of this campaign approach was gaining achievement: “In your head” – (finish fatal mirage with nine story cards in victory display) and I did it ! Inspiration for Jim deck was very high negative skull values in fatal mirage scenarios and desire to play with curse cards. I think these are very interesting and simultaneously strong decks and I had a lot of fun playing them.

General assumptions:

Decks are using both bless and curse tokens (blurse strategy). Jim is main cluever and Daniela is fighter, on beginning campaign main blesses and curses generator ( after Jim gets Rite of Equilibrium he can also generate a lot of tokens with it) and later doom remover with exile cards. She also can help a little in clue gaining. Automatic successes ( in case of Ancient Covenant is not formally automatic success, but in practice, it is) are wonderful not only for gaining clues and fighting but also in all other tests that scenario puts in front of us ( especially in which our stats are low) .

Generating bless and curse tokens:

On beginning bless tokens can generate only Daniela with following cards:

• Keep Faith – 4 blesses, fast action
• Tempt Fate – great card – fast, generate 3 blesses and 3 curses and you can draw 1 card
• Spirit of Humanity – main engine of generating blesses and curses. You can every turn generate 2 blesses or 2 curses as free triggered ability. If you have 2 in game you can generate both for free ! (you take damage,horror and then heal them). If you already have a lot of blesses and a little curses you generate only curses and you heal yourself by the way !

Jim on beginning can only generate some curses with cards:

• Deep Knowledge – 2 curses and drawing 3 cards for any investigator in your location
• Faustian Bargain – 2 curses and 5 resources for any investigator in your location
• Promise of Power – 1 curse and 4 wild skill icons However later he has access to Rite of Equilibrium – specially good when you draw it in your starter hand and you immediately can get 10 bless and 10 curse tokens !

Gaining clues:

I ) Jim is cluever and his main tool to this is Eye of Chaos. Jim has plenty options to achieve success in gaining clues using it:

1) Paradoxical Covenant + Olive McBride – using this combo you have very high probality to gain both: bless and curse token and automatically pass the test. If you don’t pull you have a chance to passing the test anyway

2) Nkosi Mabati – he is specially good in Jim, because you can choose skull token as your sigil and skull means 0 for tests ! You could also choose bless or curse token as your sigil, but I think skull is the best option, because using paradoxical covenant is limited to one use per turn, so pulling skull helps you to pass tests in other ways

3) Curse of Aeons – very good in Jim, because pulling curse twice in row makes that you can change second curse token for skull and that means almost always success! Ofcourse don’t remove second curse token from the bag.

4) Favor of the Moon – when you pull bless token you can resolve token sealed on it and then use paradoxical covenant – success! This card is also good, when you have last charge on eye of chaos and you don’t want to risk that you won’t pull curse token – you don’t want to lose your all charges on your spell – you should place charges on eye of chaos from its ability and when you pull many of curses in one test – you can commit excess to discover clues from connected locations.

5) Live and Learn – you can make great combo with this card. In one test is a chance that you would pull a lot of curses, you would lose it, but you restore charge and discover many clues from connected locations. Then with live and learn you can make this test again with 2 skill bonus and you could pass him and get additional 2 clues from your locations. That means many clues from one action and you restore charge !

6) Daniela’s Ancient Covenant – When Jim is in the same location in which is Daniela, and in this round Daniela doesn’t need use the covenant, after Jim pulls bless token, Daniela can exhaust it, to ensure him guaranteed success.

7) Increasing your will value – for permanent growth of your will use Holy Rosary and Four of Cups ( wonderful when it is in your opening hand) , for one using to tests you can use Promise of Power, Jim's Trumpet ( I don't like play this signature card, I only commit it to test. For consolation Jim has very mild weakness -Final Rhapsody – specially in this deck. Usually this weakness doesn’t hurt me at all, at most only 1 damage/1 horror). You can commit also uncage the soul when you have enough resources.

II) Additional toll for getting clues by Jim is Sixth Sense. It is used mostly in unique situations, when:

• you have bad luck and you don’t draw eye of chaos
• you don’t have curses in bag or have them little, and no one token is sealed on favour of the moon
• on your location is only one clue and more profitable is using it than Eye of Chaos You will play in more often on the beginning of campaign, but later during a scenario frequently you won’t have to play it at all.

III) Daniela has also some testless cards to help with clues. These are: Scene of the Crime (especially on the beginning) and Burn After Reading.

Fighting with Enemies:

Fighting with enemies is Daniela’s job. To deal damage she can use:

1) her ability

2) allies: Aquinnah and Guard Dog – they can be healed by hallowed mirror and have more health/sanity by trusted. They can be putted in play using flare ( specially Aquinnah is valuable)

3) weapon: Timeworn Brand – one per game you can use her special ability and using Ancient Covenant + favor of the sun to be sure of success and deal 4 damage. It is worth using especially on elite enemy to draw 3 cards after defeating him.

4) event: Toe to Toe – wonderful event for Daniela. Specially worth using if you have in play one of your ally. Daniela with this card deals testless damage and for example: You have Aquinnah in play and use this event on enemy that deals 2 damages. Total sum of damage which you deal is 5 ! ( 2 from event + 2 from Aquinnah + 1 from Daniela’s ability.

5) Mechanic's Wrench linked with her ability and allies: great tool to defeat enemies without test and without using single action. If enemy is still alive then you can finish off them with this wrench. Sometimes especially when enemy is not hunter , better to use the tool with Daniela’s ability to automatically evade him .

6) Flare – more often is used for summoning allies, but sometimes it may be useful to fighting

Generally Daniela to deal with enemies uses testless damage or makes test without pulling tokens from bag ( favor of the sun + Ancient Covenant ). This is very good for Jim because of Curses tokens in the bag. You want save them for Jim!

Economy:

1) Uncage the Soul – reduce resource cost of Jim’s Eye of Chaos/ Sixth Sense by 3

2) Faustian Bargain – investigators in your location can gain total of 5 resources

3) Rite of Sanctification – if you seal 5 blesses on it you can save 10 resources on playing cards ! And used blesses returns to bag !

4) Unscrupulous Loan – Daniela can get immediately 10 resources ! Specially good when drawing early to help her with setting assets.

Drawing Cards:

1) Deep Knowledge – Investigators at your location can draw total amount of 3 cards

2) Word of Command – can help Jim draw Eye of Chaos or Rite of Equilibrium

3) Glory – after defeating enemy Daniela can draw 2 cards

4) Tempt Fate – free draw + generating blesses and curses

5) Flare – summons aliies for Daniela

6) Hallowed Mirror – after healing Daniela draws 1 card

Dealing with treacheries / methots of healing:

1) Ward of Protection -best thing to deal with treacheries is cancel them ! Jim can use it more times using prescient – with favour of the moon is guaranteed that you will pull symbol and restore ward of protection. You can upgrade lvl 2 ward of protection to lvl 5 in later campaign , but it is not necessary (both have pros – lvl 2 can cancel treacheries both for Jim and Daniela, and lvl 5 can discard enemies)

2) Jim have soaks in the forms of allies, Holy Rosary

3) Deny Existence – on beginning for Jim's protection, later – optional

4) A Test of Will – with it Daniela can also cancel treacheries in her location

5) Daniela could heal damage/horror by Hallowed Mirror, Spirit of Humanity. Health and horror of allies better save for enemies ( use as soaks for treacheries only in danger to life !)

6) Jim can also use Rite of Equilibrium to heal a lot of horror from cards in your location, but this card is rarely used in that way ( use only in emergency or if you have second Rite of Equilibtium in hand to immediately restore your precious bless and curse tokens . In my campaign I used this only once in final but this card saved my investigators's mind in that moment ! )

Doom removing:

In later campaign Daniela is also doom remover. Priority for her is buying cards for bless/curses generating and for dealing with enemies but later she could have enough experience to afford for exile cards to remove doom like: Burn After Reading, Fortune or Fate ( max using once per game so second is good target for burn after reading). You could buy Déjà Vu to reduce costs of experience. Doom removing is especially valuable in scenarios in which you have to hurry and you want max it out.

Upgrade Path:

On beginning campaign Jim isn't strong and needs Daniela's help with clues and this is why she has so many cards to gain clues ( Flashlight, "Look what I found!", Scene of the Crime) . Jim has Drawn to the Flame to get clues without test. Jim needs experience to become stronger so he has 2 X Delve Too Deep and 2 x Arcane Research. With these cards you will fast quickly feel Jim's power growing and growing and from weak investigator evolves in mighty magician which can pass the most difficult tests and gets tons of clues ! On the other hand Daniela doesn't need much experience to be effective (typical for survior class) and from beginning she does well . However I like put to her deck In the thick of it to get on the start Ancient Covenant and 1 x Favor of the Sun to be sure of passing some the most imortant tests of scenarios.

I )Jim:

1) Priorities:

• Paradoxical Covenant
• 2 X Eye of Chaos
• 2 X Favor of the Moon
• Four of Cups – ( not so important, but it cost only 1 xp so I it buy fast)

2) Charisma + 2x Nkosi Mabati

3) 2x Rite of Equilibrium

4) Word of Command

5) 2 x Curse of Aeons

Targets for Arcane Research:

1) 2 x The Eye of Chaos

2) 2 x Sixth Sense

3) 2 x Ward of Protection

4) optional: 2 x Ward of Protection

II )Daniela:

1) Priorities:

• Favor of the Sun
• 2x Spirit of Humanity
• 2x Aquinnah
• 1 x Timeworn Brand [ second can be bought later ]

2) 2 x Flare

3) Charisma

4): 2x Déjà Vu and your other exile cards (choose any combination of them):

• Unscrupulous Loan
• Burn After Reading
• A Test of Will
• Fortune or Fate

Links to:

-Jim's starter deck: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2247972

-Daniela's starter deck: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2247956

Other good cards that fit in these decks:

I) Jim's deck:

• Grotesque Statue / Grotesque Statue
• Deny Existence
• Recharge / Recharge – with this you could restore charges on Eye of Chaos and more focus on getting clues from ability of Eye

II) Daniela's deck: You can change some exile cards on these cards:

• need more fight ? – you can buy Brute Force – with favour of the sun this skill deals certain 3 damages !
• need more healing ? - you can buy Earthly Serenity / Earthly Serenity – with lvl 4 and favour of the sun you can use all 6 charges with one action and heal total of 6 damage/horror from investigators at your locations !
• Backpack – searching is always useful and with this card you can search your deck to find mechanic’s wrench, timeworn brand or hallowed mirror
• Third Time's a Charm – with this card Daniela can help Jim or sometimes yourself find curse/bless token, activate abilities from their cards and pass the tests!