Jenny Barnes - A resilient heavy cluever

This is a deck I designed for Jenny Barnes which is meant to be played in a 3-4 player group and is meant to fulfill the role of the primary clue-gather of the group. The advantage this build has over other cluevers is that it is also very resilient to enemies and treacheries, but it relies on certain cards to work well.

The initial version is totally different from the version you are going to be playing once you get enough XP, as with accumulating XP our clue-gathering and defense mechanics change drastically. This means you 'll be playing a different deck. That of course can be achieved with the help of Adaptable.

Since this deck is meant to be played in a 3-4 player group, the level 0 version of the deck has as many tools as possible for clue gathering. Things might get tough, you might need some help from your teammates, but I believe, with the right actions, you can get the job done. I have to say this version of the deck is untested and I don't know how it will perform, but it includes standard clue gathering cards, as well as tools for a good defense from treacheries and enemies and I expect it to perform well. What I have tested is a 29 XP standalone version of it that includes all the important XP cards you need and it performed admirably well. I tested it in a 2-player game though, but I had enough clue-power to keep gathering clues like forever, which is why I suggest this deck to be played in a 3 or 4 player group.

The key cards of the deck are missing from the initial version. Like I said, with the help of Adaptable we will bring the deck to the right spot and get the right cards into action. The key cards of this deck are Scroll of Prophecies, Lola Santiago, Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3) and Scavenging. There are of course more cards we need to bring with Adaptable, but these 4 cards form the backbone of the deck. Let's see the upgrades and how the deck is shifted into its final form before we talk about it any further:

• 2x Manual Dexterity --> 2x Lockpicks

• Adaptable. Swap 2x Read the Signs for 2x Scroll of Prophecies

• Charisma. With Adaptable Swap 1x Drawn to the Flame for 1x Scavenging.

• 2x Trench Coat --> 2x Lola Santiago. With Adaptable swap 2x St. Hubert's Key for 2x Moonstone.

• 2x Leo De Luca --> 2x Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3)

• 2x Emergency Cache, 1x Intel Report --> 3x Easy Mark

• 2x "Watch this!" --> 2x Hot Streak (2)

• 2x Decoy --> 2x Momentum

• 1x Intel Report --> 1x Elusive

• 2x Hot Streak (2) --> 2x Hot Streak (4)

(and with more XP:)

• Relic Hunter

• 2x Think on Your Feet --> 2x Think on Your Feet (2)

This is how a fully upgraded deck will look like: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/642088

As you can see, it's totally different from the initial version, but with work and patience we can get there.

So, let's talk about the upgraded deck:

Scroll of Prophecies is the key to everything. It will draw you all the cards you need and it will discard Moonstone for you (so that you can play it). I won't suggest hard-mulliganing for it, but it's very important that you have it in your initial hand.

How the deck works:

You need to get your key cards. Lola Santiago, Lockpicks, Flashlight, Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3) and Scavenging are the main cards you are going to be working with. Scroll of Prophecies is meant to draw these cards and while drawing, it can discard Moonstones in the process for more static boosts.

The deck is fairly complex, but the concept is simple. Use Scroll of Prophecies to draw cards and after you 're done with it discard it with Joey for 2 resources. Meanwhile you can play Lockpicks and get some clues and after you 're done with the Scroll you can also play Flashlight, which is where the real game begins. I'll have to remind you that thanks to Joey "The Rat" Vigil, all these items cost no actions to play.

Finding your single copy of Scavenging plays a big role in your clue-gathering ability. You will need to use the Scroll often until you get it. If it happens to get stuck at the bottom of your deck it's not the end of the world, but it can severely hit your clue-gathering capabilities. If you need more reliability you can go 2x Scavenging and 1x Moonstone as your out of faction cards, but believe me, even without Scavenging, the resource-gaining ability of Jenny Barnes pretty much makes up for the loss. You will get a lot of milleage out of Lola Santiago.

So, what we do during the game:

We use Scroll of Prophecies to fetch our cards. Meanwhile we collect clues with Lockpicks and Lola Santiago. After we 're done with the Scroll we ditch it for 2 resources and play our Flashlight. Then after that, our turn should be: Investigate with Lockpicks, investigate with Flashlight and activate Lola Santiago in the window to get the discount, plus one more action, which could be another investigate with Flashlight or move, or whatever else you might think. That's 3 clues per turn, at least. After the Flashlight runs out of supplies, we ditch it for 2 resources and get it back with Scavenging; we play it again and repeat. Don't tell me now that you don't think this is not enough cluepower for a 3-4 player game. Repeated Flashlights with Lola Santiago can get you like a ton of clues. And remember, all those items can be played without using any actions thanks to Joey "The Rat" Vigil.

Of course there's more than just investigating. What are the Moonstones for? WIth Lola and Moonstone you can evade reliably and you are resilient to treacheries thanks to and boosts and the skill cards. We also have a few enemy management cards. Namely, Slip Away, Elusive and Think on Your Feet will keep you safe from harm and combined with simple evade actions your enemy managemnt will be strong. For this sole reason, I considered running Lone Wolf, but I decided against it thanks to the difficulty of activating it in large player groups.

There's also some hidden utility this deck has. With Scavenging you are free to fetch whatever item you want from your discard, so if you want to reuse the Scroll of Prophecies for other purposes, like drawing more cards or supporting your teammates, you can do it of course. Since it costs no actions to retrieve and play the items from your discard you are free to do whatever you want with them, as long as you have enough resources.

One issue you will have with playing this deck is dealing with Searching for Izzie. You are drawing a lot so you are going to see it a lot. I have included some tools to specifically be able to deal with it. To begin with, you want to see it early (or not see it at all if possible) so that it goes on a location you plan to go anyway. But you have your ways of dealing with it. Perception, Intel Report (for the icons), Momentum and Elusive are good ways of dealing with it. Just hope it doesn't land on a 5-shroud location and you 're good.

To conclude, I firmly believe this one of the best Jenny Barnes clue gatherer decks, for the sole reason that it cannot only collect clues at a pace which would challenge that of a seeker, but because it also has the added benefit that it can deal very effectively with the encounter deck, something which a seeker has trouble doing well. I strongly suggest that you try this out, as I believe you will wreck scenarios with it and it will be a good and (most importantly) fun experience.