Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
Sagesse · 829
Huge shout out to my playgroup, without whom this silliness would have never manifested itself.
In order to celebrate fresh starts and Chapter 2, let's send off Chapter 1 with some nonsense and create a team that removes every token from the token bag (except the Elder Sign... maybe.)
As we'll see, sealing all the regular symbol tokens ((S)kull, (C)ultist, (T)ablet, (ET)Elder Thing) is not an issue. The 0s and +1s are trivial as well. The hardest tokens to remove are the vanilla negative modifiers (-1, -2, etc) Because of this, sealing the entire chaos bag will be much easier in lower difficulty with more 0s and +1s, and harder in higher difficulties with more vanilla negative numbers, and practically impossible in a campaign such as Edge of the Earth with it's token mechanics.
For the record, here is each campaign and the number of vanilla negatives that begin in their standard difficulty chaos bags:
NotZ: 7
TDL: 7
TPtC: 7
TFA: 5
TCU: 6
TDE (a): 6
TDE (b): 7
TIC: 7
EotE: 7 (but strongly advise against)
TSK: 7
TFoHV: 8
TDC: 7
Since 7 vanilla negatives seems to be the most frequent, let's look at a typical 7 vanilla bag. Night of the Zealot standard contains:
{+1, 0, 0, -1, -1 ,-1, -2, -2, -3, -4, S, S, C, T, A, E}
Misdirection will seal +1, 0, and 0. Instead of Misdirection, a combination of Obscure, Shards of the Void, Crystalline Elder Sign, and/or Bulwark can seal all of the 0s and +1s. With whichever method, that leaves us with:
{-1, -1 ,-1, -2, -2, -3, -4, S, S, C, T, A, E}
The Chthonian Stone and/or multiple Sign of Xelotaph can remove as many as 13 symbols, depending on player count, but realistically more like 4-6 in total, leaving us with:
{-1, -1 ,-1, -2, -2, -3, -4, A, E}
Seal of the Seventh Sign will, of course, now take away the Auto fail for a very long time:
{-1, -1 ,-1, -2, -2, -3, -4, E}
Two copies of Protective Incantation can lock up 2 of the annoying negative modifiers:
{-1, -1 ,-1, -2, -2, E}
Ocula Obscura and Dial of Ancients can take away at least two more (sustainably, anyway):
{-1, -1 ,-1, E}
Lastly, we have a team member commit Unrelenting and seal the remaining pesky modifiers:
{E}
Amusingly, if a Day of Reckoning effect is in play, the bag becomes empty. An exhaustive list of these effects that are not busy elsewhere include: Crystalline Elder Sign, Day of Reckoning, Serpents of Yig, and both versions of The Codex of Ages. That leaves us with:
{}
Now that we have a plan, we just need to parcel out the necessary components to a team of brave investigators and create a support/sustain structure until everything is in place.
Here is our checklist:
[ ] Misdirection
[ ] Dial of Ancients
[ ] Ocula Obscura
[ ] Sign of Xelotaph maximum amount
[ ] Protective Incantation x 2
[ ] Unrelenting
Agatha Crane can take her signature, the dial, the stone, misdirection, and Xelotaphs.
The Dial is an absolute nightmare to translate and gives zero reward, so we'll cheat it using Enraptured, Correlate All Its Contents, and Eldritch Sophist. All of which will assist us later in sustaining the various seal components.
It's worth noting that if we run The Raven Quill, we can ready the Dial to use it another time on the same turn in order to seal multiple tokens before the round ends. Sealing 1 token is sustainable, but if we wish to explore the possibility, with The Raven Quill and a charge refill at the right moment, after three rounds of use, the Dial could be sealing a theoretical 1, then 3 with a refill, then 5. There may be a case where sealing 1, then 2, then 3 makes sense if there's a pop off turn incoming, otherwise sealing 1 and sustaining the charges should be sufficient. The Dial won't discard itself when empty, so we can slowly refill it.
Ideally, Agatha will be holding the The Chthonian Stone and Sign Magick, with Misdirection, Eyes of the Dreamer, and a Sign of Xelotaph in her 3 arcane slots, then use Occult Reliquary to hold her Dial of Ancients and Ocula Obscura. We want at least one Eldritch Sophist moving charges around, maybe both with Charisma.
Prismatic Spectacles is cheeky since we are always drawing the Elder Sign or a Curse then the Elder Sign. It can also force a Dial discard in case we want to Salvage or Professor William Webb the Dial and replay it.
This is where we are at:
[x] Misdirection
[x] Dial of Ancients
[x] Ocula Obscura
[*] Sign of Xelotaph maximum amount
[ ] Protective Incantation x 2
[ ] Unrelenting
One thing to note is that Protective Incantation is blessed and so Occult Reliquary provides a slot for it. This seems best done with two separate teammates who can use these cards. One teammate must be able to take Seal of the Seventh Sign. Using two teammates with Occult Reliquary/Protective Incantation means they have at least 2 arcane slots to fill with extra copies of Sign of Xelotaph. Between those 4 spells and Agatha's Stone/Xelo contribution, we have sealed a total of 6 symbol tokens. We can seal more with extra arcane slots or an extra player. Without symbol tokens in the bag, we don't worry about Seal of the Seventh Sign running out of charges and can move them to sustain the noose.
With one primary mystic able to use Seal of the Seventh Sign and any one extra mystic able to take Protective Incantation, this is where we stand:
[x] Misdirection
[x] Dial of Ancients
[x] Ocula Obscura
[x] Sign of Xelotaph maximum amount
[x] Protective Incantation x 2
[ ] Unrelenting
That just leaves Unrelenting to any fourth player or to one of the previous mystics. If you do have a fourth player, I recommend Silas Marsh. In his hands, the Unrelentings will chain endlessly.
Given that the negative modifiers are the hardest to squirrel away, the task of sealing or avoiding all of them, even with Unrelenting, may still require some finesse to pull the Elder Sign. That's where a token selection suite can be plugged into the strategy. Olive McBride and Katarina Sojka come immediately to mind.
Have a great day!