Grim Rex (||/OG) - Full Guide

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

VinnyB · 151

Premise: Milk double Cryptic Grimoires at double speed thanks to Rex's Curse, risk-free thanks to double Ritual Candles. Fully set-up, every you pull effectively gives you +1 action to play another Insight. And every insight either lets you take another test (and thus pull more s) or draw more cards (and add more s back into the bag). It's an exhilarating whirlwind!

Party role: Main cluever for a curse party (or, at least, a party that's okay with you cursing the bajesus out of the bag).

Flow: Once set up, you want to maintain the highest possible curse density throughout your turn, which means carefully managing your bag-titration tools.

  • Deep Knowledge, Captivating Discovery: Add , so ideal for topping off the bag if you're at 7-8 .
  • Search for the Truth: Can similarly only add , but this one has a lot more potential power and flexibility, so be more circumspect about when to play it.
  • Esoteric Method: Can easily dump 4+ , and is often best placed on an Uncanny Growth you're already trying to oversucceed on, or to help a teammate out right before your turn starts.
  • Analysis: Can fill the bag entirely from 0 → 10 , minus however many it helps you to fish out in the process. Good insurance for Unearth or Deduction, and probably not Esoteric Method.
  • Favor of the Moon: Locking curses out of the bag decreases the curse density of the bag, so why include this? It has several minor mechanical benefits (lightening the curse load on teammates without curse payoffs, and putting a lower bound on pull variance), but the primary value here is social signaling to your teammates with curse payoffs, to encourage them to expedite their usage of their own FOTMs. If no one else is actually bringing FOTM to the table, or signaling isn't useful to you (because you're playing multihanded, or because your group has uncanny skills of communication) this can be dropped.

Rules notes:

  • Rex himself: You can only make the [clue drop → ] substitution once per batch of dropped clues, so
  • Unearth: Actually requires a asset in hand in order to be played. Note that you can commit the chosen assets to the test to help them play themselves!
  • Ravenous Myconid (Nurturing Strain): Moves exactly (not "up to") [growth] damage/horror to itself. So, for example, if you choose the dmg/horror-reallocation option while it's at 4 growth, and there is 4 damage but 0 horror amongst local players/Allies, it will be forced to absorb 3 damage and explode. (Note you can't "overkill" it with 4+ damage or horror.) You could use Analysis to help perfectly calibrate your oversuccess, but letting it pop is actually action- and card-neutral as long as you can loop back to it this turn, since it'll let you Uncanny Growth a 2nd time, and re-enable Unearth to drop it back down.
    • This isn't carnivorous, partly because I'm bored with that degeneracy, and partly because we do need a way to soak looping horror (and sometimes damage, depending on RBW).

Other notes:

  • Random Basic Weakness: Hugely impactful, since you'll be looping at least a dozen times every scenario. Lock it in play if possible, with Riddle/Transmog (enemies) or a teammate's FMO (discardable treacheries). Most other RBWs will have to simply be tanked (the soak Myconid can manage damage/horror).
  • Standalone: 9(+3) XP involves cutting all XP cards other than the grimoires and myconid, leaving a functional but definitely weakened deck. If you can stomach a 2nd RBW then 19(+3) XP is a lot smoother a transition.
  • Campaign: Even though this deck only needs ~20 XP to whir, it feels reeeal rickety in scenario 1 (sans your key card), so I recommend taking In the Thick of It to be able to at least start with Gabriel Carillo. Getting the Grimoire translated is pretty easy thanks to Analysis.
3 comments

Oct 06, 2024 Badspoons · 1

Do you have a reccomended upgrade path?

Oct 08, 2024 VinnyB · 151

@Badspoons Starting from the Level 0 list, the 2 Grimoires are the highest priority by far, so ideally you can get at least 7 XP from scenario 1. (There's 1 unspent Thick XP.) Beyond that it kinda depends on how the campaign's playing out. Here's an example path:

 Cost  Total
   Cryptic Grimoire    Cryptic Grimoire •••• 4 XP 4 XP
   Cryptic Grimoire    Cryptic Grimoire •••• 4 XP 8 XP
   Ravenous Myconid    Ravenous Myconid •••• 4 XP 12 XP
    +  Higher Education ••• 3 XP 15 XP
   Perception  →  Esoteric Method 1 XP 16 XP
    +  Occult Reliquary ••• 3 XP 19 XP
   Arcane Enlightenment  →  Esoteric Method 1 XP 20 XP
   Transmogrify  →  Existential Riddle 1 XP 21 XP
   Crack the Case  →  Unearth the Ancients •• 2 XP 23 XP
    +  Blasphemous Covenant •• 2 XP 25 XP
   Transmogrify  →  Confound ••• 3 XP 28 XP
   Crack the Case  →  Favor of the Moon 1 XP 29 XP

(View at arkham-starter.com)

But adjust according to your run. Need help with tests? Take Higher Ed earlier. Teammates struggling with all the curses? Take Blasphemous Covenant earlier. Teammates using Favor of the Moon? Get in on the action yourself. And the enemy answers are particularly campaign/team dependent. E.g. if you've got evaders that enjoy milking PP(2), or if there are enemies that are super annoying to be around, then you may be perfectly fine with just leaving the transmogs in permanently.

Oct 08, 2024 Epicnoob · 21

I was planning to run a similar deck, except try the parallel backside for memery with Butterfly Effect and the Crystallizer of Dreams. Parallel backside also gives you a nice discount on upgrading the Grimoires.

Sadly the parallel backside is not compatible with the Ritual Candles so I'd have to find another way to actually beat the skill tests. I'm actually looking at the Skeleton Key as an option.