Jenny's Retribution | Chapter 2 Starter Guide

Great work, thanks! Would you consider adding Premonition to increase the chances of Eldritch Whispers and as another layer of encounter defence?

@mat_eyo Thanks, glad you like it! While you're right that Premonition would allow you to hit with Eldritch Whispers a little more consistently, it's a bit of a waste in the deck otherwise (e.g. Ward of Protection already cancels treacheries you don't want to take, and Timely Intervention allows you to retroactively boost so you don't need foreknowledge of the upcoming modifier, and you've got Levelheaded for easy boosts too). Also, if you draw a number modifier from the chaos bag, then you're in the same boat anyway - so it's a bit unreliable. Lastly Izzie's ability in itself is serving a similar function already - e.g. giving you more chances to make it hit.

If there was lots of deck space I'd consider it, but this deck is extremely tight already. I would say if Eldritch Whispers was more than 1 XP I don't think I'd include it, but I think 1 XP is alright for a solid boost and then a chance at a recharge (and given you do have duplicate spells assets and then Old Compass plus Isabelle's Twin .45s as back-up assets, it's fine for the recharging to not fire all the time). I moved it down the XP track for this reason, i.e. it is a little lower priority than other XP purchases.

Very good question though! Hopefully answers like this reveal a bit more of my inner workings when designing these haha!

@HungryColquhoun thanks! It's just what I thought - that interaction would be nice, but it's rather straight from the Wonderland, waaay too inconsistent to rely on.

@mat_eyo Yeah I think Premonition is nicer on Mystic decks which have other things like Augur of Elokoss or Dread Curse of Azathoth which have effects with specific symbols, especially when running things like Mask of Silenus as well. There's not enough in the card pool yet though for me to get excited about that archetype (and it would need to go on a pure Mystic rather than Izzie as most of those cards a >2 XP).

I did have it on my Marie deck for the interaction with Augur of Elokoss, and generally because the icon works well with her high Intellect for clue finding (or if you have a test upcoming that's critical, it's always very nice to have then as you'd expect).

Amazing deck as always, always fun to check out. If I were to pair Izzy with Joe Diamond, would there be any changes you would make to make them more compatible?

@BOMMdude Thank you, appreciate it! I'll have a new Joe Diamond deck out tomorrow - and with that deck no there's no changes I would make. The Joe deck will be more combat orientated while still capably finding clues, as such he hits the ground running a bit faster than Izzy sometimes can if you have an unlucky mulligan with her.

Likewise, Retribution here alongside Joe as a combat-focused partner will make boss-killing very easy. Should make for a very capable two player pairing.

Hey! I enjoy this series of decklists and appreciate the time you've put in.

One question for you, since I am fairly new, and also picked up a copy of the 2021 core set to round out my collection, which (if any) cards would you add from that core to this Izzy deck, and the other 4 2026 starter investigator decks in this series? I ask because I've copied your 5 0xp decks from this series as my baseline configuration (the 5 expansion investigators, Miguel, Tommy etc. were picked apart to make this happen obviously)

I see some really good 0xp and upgrade cards in 2021 that didn't make an appearance in 2026 core for example 0xp Lucky! I also have 0xp Fearless that would be a good fit. Of course this also leaves extra copies of the colorless staples (Overpower, Guts etc) that could change this series' decklists had you had the extra copies to fit in.

Part of me wants to leave the 2021 core together, the other part wants to add in some strong 2021 staples to your series. It seems like FFG encourages intermingling of all old product with the caveat that 2026 is the new "evergreen" experience. What are your thoughts? I'd love to see a 2021 core inclusion decklist of the 5 dual-colored starter investigators from this series! Thanks, and again great work. You've been an inspiration for my creative deckbuilding.

Just for clarification in my previous comment, I am using only Izzie, Dexter, Trish, Daniela and Joe as my 5 go-to's, I could gut the expansion investigators like Miguel and Tommy completely if need be, I could always patch them up and make them playable with the 2021 core. I like having dual-class versatility that the 5 mentioned provide so I want those to be the strongest 5 decks I own for me and friends to jump in!!

@WineoftheVeins Apologies, just spotted this!

As you say, I think level 0 Fearless would be the main thing to include. For the most part the Mystic tech in the old core are downgrades, so there's nothing else I would really consider. Something like Voice of Ra would be useful to replace Favor of Baalshandor - but that came in the Jacqueline Fine deck. For Lucky! I don't think it's needed here really, as Timely Intervention plays that role much better on Izzie. It's maybe more handy on Miguel de la Cruz - though primarily if you have your Knapsack out and so can draw a card from playing it.

For Guardians, Guard Dog, upgraded Beat Cop and possibly Evidence! are all reasonable picks - though Logan Hastings is still very nice so it's more if you wanted to take Charisma for more allies.

For Seekers, Dr. Milan Christopher is a straight upgrade for Dorothy Simmons and Research Librarian is more or less a straight upgrade of University Archivist (though without the extra slot).

For Rogues, Pickpocketing is useful on Andre (with the signatures padding his deck a little bit). Backstab is an upgrade more or less to A Sudden Fall [2].

I guess it's hard to say which of these you should use in your decks though. Clearly, in cases where some cards are a straight upgrade, there was a conscious move from FFG to move away from that power. Guard Dog on Daniela in particularly adds an additional testless damage every turn to her ability. Personally I'm keeping Ch2 separate for now - and if I do any legacy decks it would probably be to add quirkier cards into a largely Ch2 deck rather than create something 'powerful' per se.

Hello ! What changes would you make to play in True Solo? I always play True Solo.

@Javi1967 I would swap a Guts for an Old Compass. I would also move upgraded Levelheaded to just after Fearless on the upgrade track to help with enemy management early on. If you get more XP than 19 you can prioritise two upgraded Old Compasses.

You will need prioritise finding spell assets early (Arcane Initiate is your greatest tool for this). Overall I'd say this will work well (but not mindblowingly so) for true solo. Retribution in particular can make boss killing a doddle due to health scaling when playing solo. Hope it goes well for you, and good luck!

I’ll give that a go. Thank you very much for your reply.