Kymani chases the Taino's relics|Deck Guide

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Crafty Kymani Jones 4 3 2 1.0
Ky-Money-Money-Money Jones (thank you Valentin1331!) 10 4 2 1.0
Pedro. Era Olvidada. Normal. 2 jugadores. Flex. 0 0 0 1.0
Kymani Forgotten Age 4p 0 0 0 1.0
Kymani Forgotten Age 4p 0 0 0 2.0
Kymoney in Actions 0 0 0 1.0
Kymani Forgotten Age 4p 0 0 0 3.0
Kymani Forgotten Age 4p 0 0 0 4.0

Valentin1331 · 55083

Kymani goes rogue, using Underworld Methods to chase their ancestor's heritage

Kymani-2.png

Credit: Fantasy Flight Games

Kymani couldn't stand seeing their family and community being segregated, living in misery, while the Miskatonic Musem was making tremendous profits exhibiting the artworks once stolen from their ancestors, at the same time as their people were deported and used as slaves for centuries. These relics are not simply exotic shiny pieces that can be shown to ignorant tourists. No, they are artefacts that have been used by the Tainos to worship Zemis since the beginning of time. And since the people were exploited and their relics are gone, the Tainos lived in incommensurable suffering, between famine, climate catastrophes and diseases, all related to the country that robbed them, and without any compensation for it. It was time for this to change.

Kymani grew up in the poorer neighbourhoods of Arkham, and despite the lack of school, they quickly demonstrated extreme dexterity, which led them to be spotted by a woman named Delilah (though they would always call her Missus O'Rourke), who helped them build their skills as well as an extensive network in the underworld of Arkham. And once they learned about their origins and the history of their islands, their determination grew bigger to bring justice back to the Tainos. Their objective rapidly became clear: get hired by the Miskatonic Musem, use their knowledge of the underworld to prepare for a heist, capture all the stolen relics, and get out of there, neutralising anyone that would stand between them and their objective. They had never killed before, but since this was a matter of life or death for thousands of native Caribbeans, they were ready to sacrifice a few lives for the greater good.

1/7

Introduction:

Now that the Scarlet Keys - Investigator Expansion has hit the table, it's time for some deck guides with the new investigators! This deck is meant for multiplayer, with at least one other investigator dedicated to discovering clues.

Here are my other decks of this series:
Zidane Headbutts the Doom
Darrell Snoop ' Tog

This will be my last deck of this series. After a main clue getter and a main fighter, here is a flex deck, starring the amazing Kymani Jones!

I really had a blast playing this deck. It goes fast and achieves a lot. Every turn feels unique thanks to the diversity of actions that you can take, whether it's collecting resources, investigating, evading, discarding or even defeating enemies based on what your team needs most.

Disclaimer: This deck guide was created before the Campaign Expansion was released. Some cards and assumptions in this guide may be made irrelevant later on. I will keep it updated with a changelog if that is the case.


Table of Contents:

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Reach Objective

• Stay Unnoticed

• Eliminate the Evidence

• Other Cards

• Upgrade Path

• Make Your Own Deck!


Overview:

 
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Enemy Management: ★★★★☆
Clue-getting: ★★★★☆
Encounter protection: ★★★★☆
Survivability: ★★★☆☆
Economy: ★★★★☆
Card Drawing: ★★★☆☆

Main Strategy:

Finance Your Heist:

This type of heist is not their everyday job, which usually consists in finding an Easy Mark, preferably a wealthy family that built their empire exploiting slavery, Breaking and Entering their mansion or using a Disguise and a Trench Coat to Sneak By and Take that shiny thing to claim their Pay Day once out.

Here, it requires much more preparation. The first step is to take out a Faustian Bargain to hire a reliable Fence that can provide them with all sorts of Underworld goods. Their list includes a Thieves' Kit, higher quality Lockpicks and special gloves for Pickpocketing. Kymani even considered a small gun that they would hide in a Hidden Pocket of their Trench Coat in case things go wrong and they have to Kick the Hornet's Nest by yelling "Watch this!" before engaging in a Dirty Fight.

2/7

Raise funds to prepare your heist

To detail, the money generated is coming from 2 types of sources:


Use these resources to execute your plan:

Money is key(mani) for multiple reasons:

  • You have 11 cards that cost 3 or more in this deck, and you will want to play all of them.

  • The Underworld Market is amazing at tutoring but comes with a major downside: it makes your cards even more expensive. To empty your market, you will need to pay 10 resources...

    • Not only does the market makes your cards more expensive, but it also changes the way you should consider resource generation. You will want to take your key cards out of your deck as early as possible and then play them. This means that you need to prioritise burst over drip when it comes to resource generation. We will prefer Faustian Bargain and Easy Mark compared to Lone Wolf or the new Stylish Coat that only delay the moment you will be able to get enough resources to pull your cards out of the market.

    • Taking Stylish Coat as an example, it takes 5 turns after playing it to generate as many resources as Emergency Cache, and it slowed your set-up during these 5 turns because you could have allocated these resources somewhere else.

    • Because this deck is very asset-heavy, the priority for the market will be to pull out Fence as fast as possible. Otherwise, you are literally using 2 out of 3 actions on setting up each turn for the first half of the scenario: one to get resources and one to play your asset, eventually crippling your tempo.

    • Here is the composition and priority for the market: Fence x1 >> Thieves' Kit x1 or Lockpicks x1, whichever comes first >> Fence x1 >> Pickpocketing x2 >> Dirty Fighting x1 >> Hidden Pocket x2 >> Thieves' Kit or Lockpicks x1 >> Lockpicks x1

    • Before you purchase the Pickpocketing (2), you can add Disguise and Embezzled Treasure in the market.

    • If you have Thieves' Kit and Lockpicks at the same time, you need to assess your situation. If you already have a lot of resource-generating cards, Lockpicks investigates with a higher skill value, which is better for finding your key cards with Lucky Cigarette Case (3). If your Lucky Cigarette Case (3) is not in play yet, or you need resources, then Thieves' Kit is better.

    • When we have better cards to put in the market, we take out the Embezzled Treasure because it would gain 1 resource from the market and since its cost is 0, Fence cannot compensate for that resource. It is the same reasoning for "I'll take that!" and Pay Day.

  • Resources are also used with Delilah O'Rourke and Moxie (3) to help you during the game. Once you are fully set up, you can sink your extra money to protect yourself from the encounter deck, pump your investigations, kill elite enemies, and help your future self with saving on the Embezzled Treasure. The latter is really strong for the reasons explained above on the importance of upfront resources with the Underworld Market.


Reach Objective:

Now that they have been hired as a security consultant for the Miskatonic Museum, Kymani knows the place like the back of their hand, but they are still too junior to be trusted with the Old Keyring that opens all the higher security doors. So they decided to use their night shifts to inspect all the doors so that they could prepare the perfect Thieves' Kit, allowing them to enter anywhere. The door of the treasure room, though, had an extra layer of security, requiring the highest quality of Lockpicks in the Market. Fortunately, they found out in advance and informed their Fence about this specific need.

3/7

As a good flex deck, you need reliable ways to move the game forward when there is no enemy to handle.

  • Thieves' Kit uses your highest stat to bring clues and resources. They are particularly good because they can investigate multiple times per turn.

  • As a backup solution, the Lockpicks are investigating with 7 which is better but not enough to prevent them from breaking at some point. While it is not nearly as much of a staple as for other investigators, we still like them to investigate 4 or 5-shroud locations as long as they last.

    • As the campaign evolves and more high-shroud locations appear, we add a second copy to secure your investigation capacity.

    • To increase their longevity, you can commit Quick Thinking and Opportunist (2) to the test or add a few supplies with Emergency Cache (3).

  • Another small clue-gathering tech is Kicking the Hornet's Nest, preferably used on a high-shroud location. More on why we like this card in the next section.

Kymani does not have the investigation capacity of the main clue-getter and is really aimed at having a flex role, with a slight inclination towards enemy management.


Stay Unnoticed:

If no one could be killed, that would make everything easier for Kymani once the heist is done. The museum would probably not hire the best sleuth and most likely let it go. Thankfully, Stealth has always been Kymani's strength, using the shape of a room and its dark areas to Blur their movements as they navigate from one hall to another. If some guards turned out to be particularly slow, they would even dare Pickpocketing them out of their badge or a time schedule of the watch rounds.

4/7

Managing enemies is centered around evasion. You will actually want enemies as they will allow you to use Pickpocketing (2) and offer you a chance to succeed by a high number for the Lucky Cigarette Case (3), all this without using any action with Blur and Stealth.

This is why Kicking the Hornet's Nest is so good in Kymani Jones. It provides you with an enemy that you can easily dispose of, while triggering your assets and allowing you to skip an annoying spawning requirement.
Only taking 1 copy felt like the sweet spot between exciting, risky business with high rewards and limiting your chances to whiff or pull an enemy that is not as fun as you expected.

Early evasion:

  • Use Breaking and Entering when there is a clue at your location. Breaking and Entering also evades an enemy at your location, which means that you can evade an enemy engaged with another investigator or aloof and save an action engaging.

  • Cheap Shot is used when there is no clue at your location or when you want to deal 1 damage to an enemy to make it easier to use your ability.

  • Sneak By when you are confident you can use your ability easily, and there is no clue at your location. It can also help if you really need resources for your set up.

We quickly upgrade out of these as they are card and cost-intensive.


Later evasion:

  • Blur (1) and Blur (4) will be our exhaust engines. The reason why we choose these is mainly for the action that we gain back, making it virtually fast to evade and exhaust any number of enemies as long as there are charges left. For that matter, except if that second action is crucial, we try to spend the charges 1 by 1.

  • If you are not dealing with a hunter enemy and do not mind leaving that enemy here for the rest of the game, Stealth (3) is fast, saves a Blur charge, triggers your Pickpocketing (2) and makes it almost sure that you'll succeed.


Eliminate Evidence:

It was impossible to dodge every guard in the museum, and Kymani knew that. Nevertheless, they would try to avoid spilling blood anytime it was not absolutely necessary.

To do so, using their Stealth to Sneak behind a guard and then using their environment to disarm them was their method of choice. Their current favourite trick? Open a storage room door, and shut it right behind a guard who had a peek-in to see what could have caused it to open. After breaking the lock, they were sure that this one would never bother them anymore.

5/7

Evading enemies can be faster than dealing with them, but often, clearing the board is a safer thing to do.

Neutralise enemies blocking your way:

  • Enemies have to be exhausted to be vulnerable to Kymani's ability. To do that, you need to evade them first. But when you evade an enemy, you are not engaged with it anymore, and you can only evade an enemy engaged with you. That situation is solved by the engage ability of Kymani for exhausted enemies.

  • Early in the campaign, you can use Disguise to dab your enemies. It is illicit, so Fence makes it and can be in the Underworld Market. It helps with over-succeeding at the second evasion thanks to the +2 , and if you do not succeed, the enemy does not ready at the end of the turn so that you can try again immediately next turn.

  • As you gain more experience, though, you learn that it is much better not to be seen at all. Stealth (3) used to evade an exhausted enemy will trigger your ability , with -2 to the test's difficulty. I only added 1 copy as I never felt the need to have more. If you are playing 3 or 4 players, you may consider a second copy.

    • With Blur and Stealth (3), you can deal with one enemy per turn without spending a single action which is fantastic.

Note that discarding enemies is not the same as defeating them. You will not gain victory points from discarded enemies as they go to the encounter discard pile. This may be relevant for some events that trigger when an enemy is defeated. It is also really useful in The Forgotten Age to get rid of vengeance enemies.


Kill the nosy ones:

Unfortunately, some guards took their job way too seriously. Agent Fletcher was one of them. He was deeply convinced that these Grotesque Statues would be better conserved within the walls of a museum than in the hands of savages. He suspected Kymani from the start and would never let go unless something bad happened to him. They were one of the main reasons why they ordered this .25 Automatic and practised the Dirty Fighting methods of Hatchet Men while working with Missus O'Rourke.

6/7

If you are dealing with enemies that have a high evade score, high health points, victory points or have the elite trait, you will have to deal them damage to help discard them with your ability or simply to defeat them.

  • Dirty Fighting is amazing in this deck. It gives you +2 when evading an exhausted enemy, which brings your ability to 11 with Stealth (3) and your 2 . It also gives you an additional action to shoot at the enemy if need be.

  • This action is best used on the .25 Automatic, bringing you to a comfortable 6 , that can be further increased by Opportunist (2) and the from Delilah O'Rourke.

    • If you upgrade to the .25 Automatic (2) at the very end of a campaign, you'll have the chance to shoot 2 bullets without spending any action, with their and the additional action of Dirty Fighting.
  • Delilah O'Rourke can deal 2 damage . She is best used during the skill test triggered by Stealth (3) as the -2 difficulty means -2 cost for her ability.

    • If you are trying to defeat the enemy, the best is to first evade it with Blur, use the .25 Automatic attacks given by Dirty Fighting. You can then engage the enemy again with your ability and use Stealth (3) to cut the price of Delilah O'Rourke. If the 2 damage from Delilah kills the enemy, it stops the test, and you will not have to pull a chaos token for the Stealth (3) evasion.
  • Hatchet Man is used during the Blur evasion to kill even-health enemies easily, acting like a Vicious Blow.

With Delilah O'Rourke and Hatchet Man committed on a Blur test, you can deal any number of damage between 1 and up to 7, without spending a single one of your basic 3 actions.


Example of a turn using your ability to discard an enemy:

1: Play Kicking the Hornet's Nest. Pick up a 3-fight, 6-health, 3-evade, non-elite, non-victory point enemy at your location. Gain 6 resources and discover 1 clue at your location.

2: Evade using Blur (1), commit Hatchet Man. With Trench Coat and Delilah O'Rourke, you are testing 8 against 3. You pull the -4, succeed and spend a charge to gain an additional action.

3: Gain an action from Dirty Fighting that you use to attack with your .25 Automatic. Commit Quick Thinking, you pull the -4 and still succeed, gaining an action. You deal 3 damage thanks to Hatchet Man.

Engage the exhausted enemy.

Use Stealth (3) to evade the exhausted enemy. Use Delilah O'Rourke's ability during the test to spend 1 resource and deal 2 damage to the enemy. You pull the -5. The enemy has 1 health remaining, you are testing 9 against 1, therefore, succeed by 3 and discard the enemy.

exhaust Lucky Cigarette Case (3) and Pickpocketing (2) x2 to gain 3 cards and 2 resources.

4: (gained from Blur): Investigate with Lockpicks

5: (gained from Quick Thinking): Investigate with Thieves' Kit.

6: Investigate with Thieves' Kit.

: Play Pay Day fast thanks to Fence and gain 6 resources.

Conclusion:

  • Used: 1 event, 2 skills, 1 charge from Blur
  • Result: 6-health enemy discarded, 4 clues, 15 resources and 3 cards.

Other Cards:

  • Grappling Hook is good as an action saver but is a bit underwhelming because of all our other methods to save actions. It works best when an enemy is engaged with another investigator or an aloof enemy is 1 location away. You can then spend to move, investigate and engage the enemy, saving 1 action. Your 3rd action will be used to evade with Blur, discard the enemy with Stealth (3) and still have another action left to investigate.

  • Lucky Cigarette Case (3) really shines in this deck because we want to succeed by a really high number to discard enemies. This is the reason why a lot of assets only have 1 copy.

  • Pickpocketing (2) is used to its full potential as we are doing a lot of evasions that are not automatic.

  • Daring Maneuver is great as a safety net, helping to kill a bigger foe before we are done setting up your assets, preventing the damage from Blur, triggering Pickpocketing (2), "I'll take that!" and "Watch this!", or prevents your 2 Opportunist (2) from being discarded.

  • Trench Coat is mainly a recipient for the Hidden Pockets, that comes with a nice boon of +1 during evasions, including for your ability.

  • Speak of the devil, Hidden Pockets are an easy and way to have either 4 hand slots, or 3 hand slots (1 investigation tool, 1 Grappling Hook, 1 .25 Automatic) and 2 Lucky Cigarette Case (3) if it was played using "I'll take that!".

  • Opportunist offers an amazing synergy with the succeed by X archetype, bringing +2 to any test you would have already succeeded without them. It is safer to wait until you have both to start committing them to tests.

  • In the Thick of It giving you 2 physical trauma allows us to start with 8 experience points, which is enough to buy and fill our underworld market! This will make your Vincent Lee teammates thrilled!


Upgrade Path:

Link to the 0xp deck


Core Upgrades:

 Cost  Total
   Kymani Jones  →  Underworld Market •• 4 XP 4 XP
   Kymani Jones  →  Fence 1 XP 5 XP
   In the Thick of It  →  Fence 1 XP 6 XP
   In the Thick of It  →  Dirty Fighting •• 2 XP 8 XP
   Lockpicks    Lockpicks 1 XP 9 XP
   Trench Coat  →  Pickpocketing •• 2 XP 11 XP
   Kicking the Hornet's Nest  →  Pickpocketing •• 2 XP 13 XP
   Disguise  →  Stealth ••• 3 XP 16 XP
   Lucky Cigarette Case    Lucky Cigarette Case ••• 3 XP 19 XP
   Lucky Cigarette Case    Lucky Cigarette Case ••• 3 XP 22 XP
   Cheap Shot  →  Blur 1 XP 23 XP
   Cheap Shot  →  Blur 1 XP 24 XP
   Emergency Cache  →  Pay Day 1 XP 25 XP
   Emergency Cache  →  Pay Day 1 XP 26 XP
   Gregory Gry  →  Delilah O'Rourke ••• 3 XP 29 XP
   Gregory Gry  →  Easy Mark 1 XP 30 XP
   Sneak By  →  Easy Mark 1 XP 30 XP
   Sneak By  →  Easy Mark 1 XP 30 XP
   Breaking and Entering  →  Moxie ••• 3 XP 33 XP
   Breaking and Entering  →  Moxie ••• 3 XP 36 XP

Luxury Upgrades:

 Cost  Total
   Faustian Bargain  →  Emergency Cache ••• 3 XP 39 XP
   Faustian Bargain  →  Emergency Cache ••• 3 XP 42 XP
   Thieves' Kit    Thieves' Kit ••• 3 XP 45 XP
   Thieves' Kit    Thieves' Kit ••• 3 XP 48 XP
   "Watch this!"  →  Opportunist •• 2 XP 50 XP
   "Watch this!"  →  Opportunist •• 2 XP 52 XP
   Blur    Blur •••• 3 XP 55 XP
   Blur    Blur •••• 3 XP 58 XP
   .25 Automatic    .25 Automatic •• 2 XP 60 XP
   .25 Automatic    .25 Automatic •• 2 XP 62 XP
    →  Relic Hunter ••• 3 XP 65 XP
   Kicking the Hornet's Nest  →  Lola Santiago ••• 3 XP 68 XP
    →  Charisma ••• 3 XP 71 XP
   Daring Maneuver aaaaai    Daring Maneuver •• aaii 2 XP 73 XP
   Daring Maneuver    Daring Maneuver •• 2 XP 75 XP

Create your own upgrade paths easily on Arkham-Starter.com.
Credits to 5argon


Link to the full xp deck


Make Your Own Deck!

There are many ways to build them, as a main cluever, a main enemy manager, or using Chuck Fergus, for instance. This video from Veronica from Until the End of Time reviews some of the core pieces of those different archetypes.


The pilfer was not easy, but it all went well for Kymani. Interestingly enough, they also crossed the path of an Old Friend busy stealing an esoteric statue called "Miss Doyle and her 9 dreamed lives".

The month after the theft was interesting as they had to blur the lines while being mandated to investigate. Meanwhile, the relics made it all safely back to where they belonged, allowing the prayers to Zemis to start again. This would mean the beginning of a brighter future for the Taino.

7/7

To create your own guides, find the template I have created here

33 comments

Oct 27, 2022 chirubime · 25319

The upgrade section formatting is lovely.

Did you get a chance to test all of the new investigators in campaigns yet?

Oct 28, 2022 filippo21daniele · 184

Great deck, Kymani Jones has a lot of potential, I think his ability is insane.

Valentin I would appreciate if you can take a look to my Kymani Jones deck! arkhamdb.com

Oct 28, 2022 Wittebaard · 293

Stop hogging the Popular decklists section with your awesome decks!

Just kidding of course, these decks look amazing!

Nov 01, 2022 Valentin1331 · 55083

@chirubime thanks! 5argon really made our life easier with his tool! And keeps on updating it to make it even better!

Due to a busy personal life, I only took this deck through NotZ and a 39xp standalone-friendly version through Depths of Yoth, which is one of my common playtesting processes when I have limited time.
It is always a bit challenging to do these "universal" decks as each campaign has its own specifics, and you don't gear the same way for TFA and TCU... I like this process, though, as it seems to be quite balanced and helps see the strength and weaknesses of each deck in a time-efficient manner. Do you have any specific way to test your decks?

Also, I haven't tried Vincent Lee yet, but I plan on doing it really soon. For Carson Sinclair, on the other hand, I am only playing with 2 investigators, so I will probably not play him anytime soon.

I'd be curious to have your take on the new investigators too!

@filippo21daniele I also loved their ability. It's both efficient and fun! Your deck looks really fun, too and having a lot of actions is definitely a good strategy too! I was really tempted to take Underworld Support as well.
If you allow me to nitpick, your deck seems very asset-heavy. I always try my best to keep the amount of "play" actions as low as possible as the game quickly accelerates, and one of my worst things is to have an amazing asset in my hand and no time to put it on the table. It then becomes a waste of card space and potentially xp.
Also, I am surprised that you do not use Stealth (3). This card is bonkers in Kymani Jones, and so is Dirty Fighting! Haste won't help either when you take 2 evades (one to exhaust the enemy and one for your ability), as you probably won't need a third one.
Finally, it may be a bit tight on resource? But this is harder to judge, and only testing will tell!

@Wittebaard Thanks, I made sure to leave you some space in the Popular area! On a more serious note, I am happy to have seen so many other great decks with this expansion already, including some super cool Carson ones. I personally had no clue how to make sense of him, so that's always nice to see the collective brain getting into work like this!

Nov 04, 2022 tasman · 1

Could you not find a use for Sleight of Hand in this deck? Seems as if they would be an auto-include if for no other reason than getting cheap uses from assets that have charges on them.

Nov 04, 2022 Valentin1331 · 55083

Hey @tasman, good call for Sleight of Hand!

To be fully honest, I didn't try it, but I completely see your point!

Deck space was extremely tight in this deck with the increasing number of cards, so we have to make concessions. That being said, your point is fully valid, and both .25 Automatic and Thieves' Kit are amazing targets for Sleight of Hand and their upgrades are both within the taboo range.

Nov 06, 2022 Zelineit · 1

The deck looks really fun to play! The guide and its formatting look great as well. Based on this deck and the feedback you gave in the Discord I've made (mostly copied) this deck. I can't wait to try it.

Nov 06, 2022 Valentin1331 · 55083

@Zelineit looks good! I will add your deck to my « Make your own deck » section at the bottom as a proposal for a fighter deck :)

Happy to be of any help and feel free to get back to me to let me know how it went!

Nov 24, 2022 carlsonjd11 · 488

As much of a question as a comment, regarding the Stealth and Delilah, let’s say I use Stealth to evade an enemy with one health remaining (or 2 if it’s already exhausted). During the free trigger window before pulling the token, I use Delilah to kill the enemy. Do I still pull a token and finish the test? It’d let me react with my other cards, but I suppose bad effects could happen should I fail. Can I do this trick on an already exhausted elite enemy to save money even though the enemy couldn’t be discarded with Kymani’s ability?

Nov 24, 2022 Valentin1331 · 55083

Hey @carlsonjd11, thanks for the question.

  1. We had a ruling that I couldn't find about Agnes Baker and cards like Meat Cleaver. If this situation happens, the test is cancelled, and you will not pull a token, unfortunately.

  2. As you can engage an exhausted enemy with Kymani's ability, you can evade any exhausted enemy, including Elite, and therefore use Stealth (3) to have a discount with Delilah O'Rourke.
    You will not add your for the test and nothing will happen if you succeed other than triggering Pickpocketing (2) and the like.

Nov 26, 2022 tasman · 1

I love this deck. I tried a solo play through with it in The Midnight Masks. I did pretty well, i had accounted for three cultists and accumulated 7xp by the time the final doom fell. Very fun, but a lot of book-keeping. One more thing- you say that Lucky Cig case can be added to hidden pocket if played with "I'l take that"- LCC doesn't take a hand slot......

Nov 26, 2022 tasman · 1

nvm.... I just re-read that card effect. Missed the whole accessory part. Awesome card and combo. I'm liking this 'gator more and more.

Nov 27, 2022 la_la_lasagna · 109

It's nice to see that you came up with a similar idea to the deck i just made to go through The Scarlet Keys campaign! I chose to provide more combat off the bat.

arkhamdb.com

Nov 28, 2022 acotgreave · 782

Looking forward to playing this deck! Do you tend to put Fence in the Illicit deck, or hard mulligan for it from the opening hand draw?

Nov 28, 2022 acotgreave · 782

(ignore the above - I've worked out that yes, you put it in the Illicit deck!)

Dec 01, 2022 Nonprophet · 1

Wouldn't Pay Day pay out 7 instead of 6 if you're using fence to make it fast after 6 actions have been taken? It does specify that it includes itself on the card.

Dec 07, 2022 Wittebaard · 293

Are you supposed to evade a Victory Point enemy first before going for the Delilah O'Rourke, Stealth, Dirty Fighting, .25 Automatic combo?

If not, a lot of damage would go lost.

Dec 08, 2022 Valentin1331 · 55083

@la_la_lasagna I liked your deck; it's a good way to use the new Tool Belt. This looks like a really fun deck to play!

@Nonprophet, the rules are both unclear and changing when it comes to what counts as "play" for every card, such as Pay Day, Haste and so on. Yet here, I think we can be pretty sure that since we do not spend an action doing it, it doesn't count as an action you perform for counting the resources.

@Wittebaard Exactly! Blurring a VP enemy gives you your action back, triggers your Pickpocketings (2), Lucky Cigarette Cases, Dirty Fighting and enables your Delilah O'Rourke and .25 Automatic.
Since you can engage an exhausted enemy, you can also use Stealth (3) just to support Delilah O'Rourke, even if you are not trying to use your ability. If Delilah O'Rourke kills the enemy during the test, you even skip the token pull!
This is really fun to evade and see all the ripple effects it triggers and how it gets a lot of work done without using your actions, and if it is not enough, you're still safe during the enemy phase.

Dec 08, 2022 Nonprophet · 1

I was going by the "including this one" on the card - I was under the impression that taking an action and spending an action aren't the same thing. For example, you can take a move action, - if it's fast, you're still doing a basic action, you're just not spending an action to do it.

Dec 12, 2022 TheMegaSage · 1

I feel silly for asking this, but I thought there was a 30 card deck limit, and this list has 40+ cards. Am I misunderstanding something? Which are the 30 cards we should be using? Or is there something unique about this investigator that lets them have more than 30 cards?

Dec 12, 2022 Valentin1331 · 55083

Hey @TheMegaSage, it's a bit of everything!

The 10 extra cards are coming from Underworld Market, and Kymani Jones can take it from the beginning of the campaign thanks to their 5 additional experience.

Jan 05, 2023 FarmAnimalofWar · 1

Ran this with Valentin's Darrel deck through Scarlet Keys. This was a beast! Resources fuel this deck, so it is very important to get an upgraded Pickpocket into play early. Fence and "I'll Take That" keep the momentum in the thick of things. We were able to keep throwing resources on Embezzled Treasure to set up the next scenario, which jumpstarts things a lot! Because Kymani was our enemy specialist, we skipped Stealth, and because of the way the XP landed and how resource hungry the deck is we took one Lucky case, one Blur, then Payday and Easy Mark before second copies of those and Delilah. Also traded out Faustian Bargain instead of Sneak By, because of risk-aversion preferences and action compression.

Jan 15, 2023 pekac45 · 1

The 0xp deck (https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2458366) is incorrect. Underworld market is exceptional so it counts as 4xp, not 2.

Jan 15, 2023 pekac45 · 1

No it's not incorrect, it's fine because of In the thick of it

Feb 24, 2023 Baronoli · 1

Can anyone tell me how building the 0xp version of the deck works? As you say in the thick of it earns 3xp so how does it afford the underworld market (4xp) card. Plus two copies of fence and 1 copy of dirty fighting is 4xp. I am not seeing the logic atm but I'm sure someone can correct me.

Feb 24, 2023 Baronoli · 1

Answered my own question immediately by rereading the character text!

Apr 24, 2023 Hitchslapped · 1

@Baronoli That's something that's easily missed because I think only 2 investigators have additional starting XP.

Jan 13, 2024 AstroLad · 1

Thanks for making this! Playing with it right now and on scenario 2. I see that Trench Coat is one of the first cuts, but I was curious how that works with the Hidden Pockets. Is 1x Trench Coat really enough even though afaict that's the only thing Pockets can attach to? Asking because I feel like maybe I'm missing something!

Jan 20, 2024 Valentin1331 · 55083

Hey @AstroLad if it is not too late, the main reason is that by that time you get Pickpocketing (2) which, paired with Lucky Cigarette Case that you upgrade quickly after, you will cycle through your deck more than once each game. On top of this, the Hidden Pocket part is more gravy than actual core of the deck, so it is not so detrimental if it takes a little while to set up :)

Jan 20, 2024 AstroLad · 1

Thanks `@Valentin1331 that totally makes sense! Having played a couple now I do realize just how quickly the deck cycles, and also some of the scaffolding piece that don't hit as much early but that pay off later. Such a fun deck (and writeup) ty!

Feb 08, 2024 thakaris · 193

@Valentin1331 great deck, thanks for sharing, really liked playing it. One question though: Why 2 fence? Isn't 1 fence enough in the illicit deck, what do I need the 2nd for? Is there some synergy I am missing out here?

Feb 08, 2024 Valentin1331 · 55083

Key @thakaris, happy you enjoyed it, Kymani is a hidden gem of this game!

2 Fence is good for multiple reasons: when you have one in play, your asset gains fast, and your second will make it cost one less, or 2 resources cheaper if the asset is already fast. This doesn't seem like a lot but it can lead to a significant discount as the game advances.

The second and probably most important part is that if you have only one copy in your Underworld Market, it may be the 5th card you see, and force you to "refuse" another important asset, leaving you with no choice. So it is there for consistency.

Feb 08, 2024 thakaris · 193

@Valentin1331 Kymani Jones really is a hidden gem, you are perfectly right. His mechanic is a bit situational though. He currently completely amazes me in RtTCU, it feels like I found a glitch or i did hit the easy button. In Innsmouth, he seems to be pretty useless though, since he has to reengage enemies and Innsmouth enemies do a lot of nasty things, when they engage.

Anyway, thanks for the clarification on Fence, makes totally sense to me.

I am looking forward to seeing what you will come up with for Hemlock Vale.