Apply Some Filter and Post It For Profit (Detailed Guide)

Intro

This is a Sefina deck which focuses on drawing a lot of cards. Which is a nonbo with her weakness unfortunately. But after some generous usage of filters on our paintings, believe me everything's gonna be OK.

This deck doesn't aim to be the most competitive deck out there, I believe you could transport its shell to Trish and have better results. I just wanted to (1) play Sefina and play lots of events (2) while drawing a lot of cards because that's how I like to roll.

However don't dismiss Sefina outright, she has her own advantages:

• 9 sanity and 4 willpower, amazing. You'll rarely worry about going insane, and you'll do just fine against treacheries.

• Mystic subclass means you can pack Ward of Protection or Time Warp, and playing Sefina you are encouraged to do that.

Core

Deck is themed around Scroll of Secrets, Arcane Initiate and my favorite rogue upgrade Lucky Cigarette Case (which is a priority upgrade). With the combination of these 3 assets, you can cycle your deck without much fear.

Supporting theme is Big Money. Sefina may not be the first investigator comes to mind when you think of Big Money, but you'll change your mind when you sell your paintings for five, seven or even fourteen resources.

Role

This is a flex deck but it's mainly a cluever. It will do its part when it comes to enemy management by evading mostly. You'll want to pair it with a monster killer investigator in 2p. Higher player counts will be more than fine.

Gameplay

Most rogues usually suffer from a weak early game but become a beast late game, and Sefina is not an exception. However, after a few iterations, I landed on this decklist and found it both effective and fun to play even in the first scenario of a campaign. You may fail to evade in the first scenario but we'll immediately patch that up in the next scenario with Suggestion and you'll never worry about that again. It will also be a supply for our LCC(3) procs.

You'll have lots of options for investigating in the first scenario: Flashlight for <=2 shroud locations, Drawn to the Flame and Intel Report for high shroud ones, Read the Signs for anything in between. In 2p you can easily carry more than your weight with the help of these, but in 3p or 4p you may need a little assistance. We will buy Lockpicks in the second scenario. Combined with events(and later stat upgrades), Sefina never runs out of Lockpick charges.

You'll have Spectral Razor for those occasions you need to kill something immediately, but this task should be left for others mostly.

Filtering

Playing an event based investigator means you need to draw cards. But Sefina punishes mindless drawing. So we need to be smart about that.

Arcane Initiate is amazing, 1/3 of your deck is spells. Most importantly, your signature are spells.

Scroll of Secrets are on double duty. While you have more than 10 cards in your deck, you'll just draw the bottom most card in your deck. If it happens to be your weakness, great, but don't depend on it. You are just using it for a draw without the fear of drawing a weakness in this phase.

However when you are down to 10 cards in your deck, you'll probably be putting those cards to the top of your deck to draw it in the upkeep. You'll have a higher and higher chance to find your weakness in the bottom of your deck, while slowly reaching the 5 card in your deck thresholds. After that, even if you draw your weakness, not a big deal. (Oh man, if only we could put Scroll of Secrets(3) in our deck...)

After you get LCC(3), it becomes very unlikely to draw your weakness while you are drawing all the cards you need. With a Relic Hunter and double LCC(3), you really do not need anything else actually.

Big Money

I played my Sefina in this way but you don't really need to. I myself couldn't look past behind power fantasy of Double, Double'ing Painted Hot Streaks to support your Well Connected's and Lola Santiago's though. You'll realize its a bit expensive XP-wise, but such is the rogue life. Don't worry, deck works fine in its base form. Just think of these like a never ending supply of luxury upgrades (which is also, rogue life).

Faustian Bargain is the MVP here, without this card you couldn't really postpone Hot Streaks for very long. If you are playing rogue, it is auto include IMO.

Other card commentaries

• Flashlight: You may put base Lockpicks in its stead but I find Flashlight more reliable.

• Leather Jacket: You have 5 health, you need this. Second one got stuck in my hand almost always so I only included one.

• Well Connected: Sometimes it takes a bit long to enable this one in the early game. You may want to pivot into this with Adaptable later, but I didn't have much issues. Use it generously in the Mythos phase. If Mythos was kind to you, use it to boost your LCC(3) range.

• Deny Existence: Mostly works as Leather Jacket #2 and 3. But it is very flexible as a Mythos protection. I usually don't put Deny Existence under my investigator card, along with Ward of Protection and Money Talks, if I have the chance. I'd rather have them in the hand and use Painted World proactively.

• Drawn to the Flame: Amazing card, you don't fear encounters very much.

• Emergency Cache: Upgrade this one to Hot Streak later. Hold on to your Faustian Bargains till the end.

• Ethereal Form: Upgrade it into Suggestion asap. You'll still have a lot of events, don't worry. Maybe I'm lucky but I never had less than 5 events in the opening hand with this deck.

• Faustian Bargain: MVP. Put it under Sefina and copy it 3 times. And act cool while your fellow investigators fail a test because of your curse tokens. Seriously it's worth it though.

• Intel Report: Stupidly flexible until the end of the game. You'll have money to support it.

• Money Talks: Probably the worst card in the beginning of the game. But I wanted another event to act like a skill card. It usually gets used towards the end of the game, where game requires you to test a specific thing (like Rita Chandler's parley, for example). Prime candidate to be replaced by Sure Gamble.

• Read the Signs: Gives you consistency, being a Spell Clue Gathering Event in the beginning of the game. Later you can ditch it for luxury upgrades.

• The Painted World: Use it proactively to amass lots of money. If the option is not there, you'll have to shape your gameplay for that specific scenario but it usually turns out ok.

• Ward of Protection: Doesn't need explanation IMO.

• Promise of Power: I don't want many skills in this deck, but this one is a really good "I need to pass this test and I've run out of options" card.

Upgrades

Core Packet
Charon's Obol (greed is good)
Flashlight => Lockpicks (1)
Ethereal Form => Suggestion (1)
Lucky Cigarette Case=> Lucky Cigarette Case
Relic Hunter

Optional
Streetwise
The Moon • XVIII (tarot's work really well with Sefina)

Big Money Packet
Emergency Cache => Hot Streak (4)
Arcane Initiate => Lola Santiago (after double lcc(3), your dependence on the initiates falls a bit)
Double, Double (mostly works for doubling money)

side deck has other luxury upgrade ideas.