Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
TrevWard · 3
I figured I'd mess around with a few decks for Carcosa, and I wanted to see how much I could break Kymani...
Turns out the answer is lots. Kymani vacuums up clues and evade/kills enemies with impunity.
For some insane reason they gave Kymani 5xp to start off with, which means they can either start with a number of upgrades already in place, or, as in this case, hold on to it and get a leg up on their Underworld Market costs. If this thing wasn't taboo'd up to 6xp, Kymani'd already start with it. Never mind. Kymani will happily wait until after scenario 1 to add this nonsense; at which point you add: 2x Breaking and Entering, 2x Liquid Courage, 2x Prestidigitation, 2x Right Under Their Noses and 1x each of Fox Mask and Pickpocketing.
The additions aren't all illicit cards; Your actual market deck will be:
2x Thieves' Kit
Kymani gets huge bonuses from evading enemies, and can easily become a major remover of non-elite enemies using their absurdly powerful evasion skills. Their most interesting asset though is definitely the Microscope, which turns them from a decent evading/enemy remover into arguably the group's primary clue-getter. The base version of the 'scope isn't too special, but Kymani can also take the upgraded Microscope. Suddenly Kymani can add multiple evidence per turn to the 'scope, and gets enormous boosts and extra clues. Yeah! Microscope Science bitches!
Kymani really is the definition of the tool-kit deck as well; in their deck, that tool trait really matters. They're packing their own Grappling Hook, the Thieves' Kit, the Microscope from above, and our Customizable card, the Pocket Multi-Tool. We'll discuss the Pocket Multi-Tool later, but the issue of having asset cards stuck in our hand is neatly solved for Kymani by the Tool Belt, which lets us swap a tool in-out of Kymani's George Stobbart-esque pockets each round. Since Kymani'll probably want to keep a British Bull Dog in one hand, just in case any of Carcosa's Elite enemies show their ugly mugs anywhere, Kymani's left with just one hand for equipment use. Swapping in/out the Microscope, Pocket Multi-Tool, Thieves' Kit or Grappling Hook based on what Kymani happens to need that round is really useful. I shall henceforth rename it Acme Tool Belt!
Much of the rest of this deck is depressingly obvious, but still very effective. Leo De Luca provides Kymani with the extra action they might need to get rid of an enemy, or use the Grappling Hook.
Economy is provided by the usual Rogue money-makers; between Bank Job, Faustian Bargain, "Watch This!", the new Sticky Fingers and the good old Emergency Cache, you'll have more than enough cash available to pay for your trips to the Market.
That cash has to go somewhere, which is where another fun combo arrives: Lola Santiago and The Skeleton Key. Expensive in xp-terms, but effectively makes clue-grabbing a doddle. Not only are Lola's stat boosts incredibly helpful for Kymani, but with the Key on the location, she can exhaust for a clue each round for 1 resource.
Just as important it the draw engine. The Market functions as pseudo-draw anyway, but we also have Pickpocketing and the Lucky Cigarette Case refilling our hand.
Moving on to our campaign deck-building rules. Our decks needed to include:
Two copies of a 'Customizable' card which we must upgrade at least to Level 1 (2 boxes ticked) during the campaign (we can go to Level 5, which is 10 ticks). Each tick costs 1xp.
Two copies of a 'Specialist' card.
Which brings us to the Pocket Multi-Tool, which is most useful because of the Spring-Loaded ability, which effectively makes the tool into a littler Lucky! that can be used once each round. Several of the other add-ons bring the boost up to the +2 we all loved for Lucky!, and Signal Mirror and Magnifying Lens both seem particularly useful for Kymani's role in the team.
As a Criminal, Kymani gets access to a few 'Specialist' options: Double Down, Name Your Price and Nose to the Grindstone. That last one is the obvious pick here; Given how much use Kymani gets out of their Acme Tool Belt full of toys, gaining a +2 to tool-based tests is the easy winner.
Now let's talk upgrade paths:
For this deck, Underworld Market, Microscope, Nose to the Grindstone and at least 4xp for Spring-Loaded on Pocket Multi-Tool are all essential. That adds up to 24xp, but remember that Kymani started with 5 before they even set foot into the game, so we really just need to earn 19xp
Carcosa is reasonably generous with xp, and we should be able to get 30xp+ going into the finale. 19xp is well within that, and Kymani really doesn't need much more. An almost perfect run might provide upwards of 45xp, but Arkham Horror is unlikely to be so generous...
So Kymani's upgrade path is likely to be:
1x Underworld Market for 6xp
2x Microscope Microscope for 8xp
2x Breaking and Entering Nose to the Grindstone for 6xp
Pocket Multi-Tool upgrade:
Spring-Loaded for 4xp
Then we have our likely additions:
1x Matchbox 1x [The Skeleton Key] for 4xp
1x Fox Mask 1x Lola Santiago for 3xp
2x Faustian Bargain and 1x Emergency Cache 3x Easy Mark for 1xp
1x Emergency Cache 1x The Moon • XVIII for 1xp
2x Leo De Luca Leo De Luca for 2xp
1x Charisma for 3xp
That brings us to the 33xp we are likely to get to. And now for the 'luxury' additions that we would like to be able to add, but will probably be realistically unlikely to have the XP for:
One particularly nice 'luxury' upgrade is Bewitching, which gives us easier access to three of our trick cards. 6xp is expensive, but it pays off by effectively giving us access to a copy of each of Lightfooted, Prestidigitation and Right Under Their Noses whenever we engage an enemy. You could also keep a copy of Breaking and Entering and swap out a Right Under Their Noses instead to give Bewitching more versatile options. Easy Mark also qualifies as a trick, which you could dig for the extra copies of using Bewitching's search trigger.
1x Bewitching for 6xp
2x Thieves' Kit 2x Thieves' Kit for 4xp
2x British Bull Dog 2x British Bull Dog for 4xp
2x "Watch This!" 2x "Watch This!" for 6xp
2x Manual Dexterity 2x Manual Dexterity for 4xp
2x Lucky Cigarette Case 2x Lucky Cigarette Case for 6xp
1x Another Day, Another Dollar for 3xp
2x Pickpocketing 2x Pickpocketing for 4xp
2x Sticky Fingers 2x Sticky Fingers for 4xp
2x Thieves' Kit 2x Thieves' Kit for 6xp
1x Matchbox 1x Surgical Kit for 3xp
2x Liquid Courage 2x Liquid Courage for 2xp
And that'll bring us to a ridiculous level of XP, which is super-unlikely (it'd probably require a perfect run with many side scenarios - never happening). All we really need is 33xp, which is very achievable in Carcosa...
Obviously Kymani is a Rogue, so they have first call on all the Rogue cards. I've tried to pick tool cards that are unlikely to be used by too many other builds, so as to avoid conflicts; Matchbox is a card that I'm tempted to use in a Marion Tavares list I've been playing around with building, but it's swappable for a Lantern or its upgrade.