George Discards his Ballast on the Mythos

Credit: Robert Laskey

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This year, I will propose a series of 6 investigator decks (all but Gloria), released one week apart, to help people who have little time to deckbuild, or are still getting familiar with the new cards. May these serve as a base for you to build your own decks, adapt to any other campaign or group size.

Disclaimer These decks have never been run through The Drowned City Campaign since they are published before its release. They are built and tested with a 2 context. The goal of these deck guides is to break down the new investigators, display some interactions, and give players a first reference point when starting to play the new team!

Enjoy the reading, and I hope you'll have fun with these in The Drowned City!

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Abuse Your Ability

• A Boat Full of Tempo

• Getting Clues 2 by 2

• Sailing Strategies and Navigation Tips

• Other Cards

• Upgrade Path

• Closing Thoughts

• Discard cards during as many phases as possible to abuse George Barnaby's ability

• Fill your Barnabasement (term approved by FFG) with tempo-positive skills so you can win twice, once when discarding and twice when committing the card from your boat.

• Get clues 2 by 2 thanks to your many clue acceleration engines.

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There are 4 phases in the game: Mythos Phase, Investigation Phase, Enemy Phase, and Upkeep Phase. By using a wide array of Discard engines, we aim to trigger George Barnaby's ability during each phase. We also pack a lot of redundancy for Discard engines because the earlier you have a couple on the table, the earlier you can build momentum.

• Cornered and Idol of Xanatos can both be triggered during the Mythos phase, either to pass a treachery test, or to dodge one of the many ping damage/horror provided by the encounter deck.

• Cornered and Nautical Charts to discard a card during your turn. Add Gift of Nodens and Bound to the Horizon to this list when you get them.

• Artistic Inspiration during the Enemy Phase. Note that you don't need enemies for the Enemy Phase to happen, a window with it. Therefore it is important to empty it from its charge during the last test of each turn, even if you don't need the skill boost, so you can replenish it during every Enemy Phase.

• At a Crossroads will sometimes happen during the Upkeep Phase, allowing you to take an immediate action, followed by a Discard, triggering your ability during the Upkeep Phase. Otherwise, you will try to overshoot your hand limit by exactly 1 every turn so you can discard a card this way.

Loading your boat with skills that move the game forward will basically turn the cost of discarding cards into an advantage.

• Your boat will essentially be filled with cards that either:

  • Win you clues, like Contemplative, Sharp Vision, and Deduction

  • Deal damage, Brute Force

  • Gives you an action, Quick Thinking

  • Draws additional cards, Perception, Unrelenting, Resourceful, Eureka! and later Last Chance

  • Busts any scenario test, Last Chance

• Considering the number of discard engines in this deck, you should have a strong flow of cards going to your boat. Since it is limited to 5 cards, try not to hold on to cards in your boat and commit it to every test possible. This is especially true for skills that have generic value, such as Eureka!, Quick Thinking, Resourceful, Unrelenting, etc...

Getting more than one clue per action is the best way to get ahead of the game. And George is ridiculous at this exercise.

• Nautical Charts discards a card for an extra clue. It exhausts, but using it once a turn is already huge.

  • Note that you only discard the card if you succeed!

  • Since you don't want to discard more than one or two cards during the Investigation Phase, we need additional ways to increase our tempo.

• Deduction and Contemplative add a clue to any investigation.

• Sharp Vision is a bit like the 2 above, except it has to be during a basic investigate action. This is perfect as it covers another 2-clue investigation after you've used your Nautical Charts once this turn.

• Winging It is insane in this deck even though it has no icons.

  • It can be the second card you discard this turn, making it possible to use more than one discard engine, without losing tempo.

  • It plays from your discard pile for another 2-clue investigate option.

  • Since it shuffles back in your deck, it can be used and abused.

• Speaking of reusing, why use your high-tempo skills only once?

  • Resourceful can get your Sharp Vision/Contemplative back for more clues

• It's time to introduce the elephant in the room: Gift of Nodens. It doesn't make the cut in this very low XP deck, but it's your very next purchase.

  • It allows you to commit cards from your discard pile, at the cost of discarding a card. Once this is over, the card committed from your discard is shuffled into your deck for another cycle.

  • The targets are obviously Sharp Vision and Contemplative, but can also be Brute Force if your fighter is in trouble, or Last Chance if you are struggling with a scenario test.

Hand Size Management to Optimise George's Ability:

In order to discard a card each turn during the Upkeep phase, you need to end your turn with a very specific setup:

• If you have Artistic Inspiration in play, you want to finish your turn with exactly 3 cards in your boat and exactly 4 cards in hand. (in case you have less than 3 cards on your boat, adapt to keep N+1 cards in hand).

  • Discard one card with Artistic Inspiration during the Enemy phase, it goes on your boat (for a total of 4) and you draw a card with George's ability. Then you start the Upkeep Phase, draw 1 card, bringing you to 5, overshooting your hand size, forcing you to discard one card, triggering your ability to attach it on your boat and draw a replacement card. By the end of the upkeep phase, you now have 5 cards in hand and 5 cards on your boat.

• If you do not have Artistic Inspiration in play, you want to end your turn with 4 cards attached to George and 4 cards in hand. (in case you have less than 4 cards on your boat, adapt to keep an equal number cards in hand).

  • During the upkeep phase, you draw one card, bringing you to 5 cards in hand, 4 cards in your boat. You discard one card by overshooting the threshold, triggering George Barnaby's ability, attaching a card to your Boat, and drawing a replacement card, landing at 5 cards on your boat and 5 cards in your hand.

Ruling Question We are not sure how discarding works when you have 2 cards in hand more than in your boat. Do you discard as bulk? Or one-by-one, so you first discard a card, draw a replacement, and then have the possibility to discard that new card as part of your hand size check? I will update this deck guide as soon as we get an answer.

What to Play When I Have Too Many Options?

You will often have the choice between multiple 2-clue options, and at first glance, they all look rather similar, all offering +1 (even Sharp Vision if you want to get 2 clues with it). To maximise the payoff of the single discard you have each Investigation Phase, you should prioritise your options as follows:

1. Prioritise Winging It as shuffling it back in your deck and drawing it again will give you a second card to discard for a turn, increasing your capacity to use your Discard payoffs, such as Bound to the Horizon.
2. The second priority should be Sharp Vision/Contemplative when attached to your Boat, so you don't lose it stupidly to Cast Adrift.
3. Third priority will be Gift of Nodens, only when you can use it to target Sharp Vision, Contemplative or Resourceful.
4. The last priority to get clues should be Nautical Charts. Note that the discard only happens when succeeding so you can still use another discard payoff when you fail.
5. Finally, if you do not need to investigate this turn, you can use Cornered to pass a test (on a scenario test or Brute Force, for example), or get a free move with Bound to the Horizon.

Example of a Turn:

All in all, here's what a perfect turn using it looks like:

Mythos Phase:

• Draw an Encounter card that pings you 1 damage.
  1. Cancel it with Idol of Xanatos, discarding Sharp Vision.
  2. Thanks to George Barnaby's ability, attach Sharp Vision to your boat and draw a card to replace it.
  3. Gain a resource thanks to Lawrence Carlisle

Investigation Phase:

• First
  1. Investigate and commit Sharp Vision from your boat.
  2. Use Gift of Nodens to commit Resourceful from your discard pile and discard Winging It from your hand.
  3. Gain 2 clues, get Contemplative from your discard pile thanks to Resourceful, Resourceful gets shuffled in your deck.
• Second
  1. Use Nautical Charts and discard Contemplative, attach it to your boat, and commit it immediately to this test. Draw a card to replace it.
  2. Commit Deduction from your boat.
  3. Gain 3 clues.
• Third :
  1. Play Winging It from your discard pile.
  2. Commit Contemplative from your boat.
  3. Even if you didn't need it, use Artistic Inspiration to spend the Inspiration and be able to replenish it later.
  4. Gain 3 clues.

Enemy Phase:

• Discard a card to replenish the Inspiration from Artistic Inspiration. Attach this card to your boat and draw a card to replace it.

Upkeep Phase:

• Finish your turn with exactly as many cards in your hand as in your boat, and no more than 4 cards in your boat.
• Draw a card during the upkeep phase that overshoots your hand threshold. Discard a card to meet the hand size requirements, attach it to your boat, and draw a card as a replacement.

Round Aftermath:
0 resource gained/spent, 8 clues, 4 draws from your ability alone, Resourceful and Winging It shuffled back into your deck.

• Why Ascetic if there is an Upgrade Path? This deck at 12xp is one of the strongest I've ever played. So this makes it a great deck to use Ascetic on if your investigator dies in the middle of a campaign. I added it to the deck so it appears whenever someone searches for a deck with the card for that particular use case. However, if you are playing in a campaign, do not add it to your deck and follow the Upgrade Path!

• Grim Resolve is a special Signature. Its impact has been very limited over my playtime, and I would cut it if I could. However, it serves one main purpose: fludifying your early game. In theory, you wouldn't want to discard cards that you would like to play later, since once in your boat, there is no way back. This is solved by placing them in your boat, and using Grim Resolve to swap them with skills later on.

  • Since Artistic Inspiration or Cornered are in the deck in 2 copies, it can be worth discarding the first copy to speed up your early game, hoping to get a Grim Resolve before you lose them to Cast Adrift, and if you get the weakness first, well... there are still the second copies in the deck somewhere. However, I would not take the risk with assets that are only one-offs.

• Empirical Hypothesis is the boring but probably best use of that last Splash slot, increasing your card draw.

  • Don't forget that you can pile up Evidence on Empirical Hypothesis if you don't need the draw (because you would get too many cards in hand compared to your boat). This becomes particularly helpful when you draw Cast Adrift during the Upkeep Phase, and you need to trash your boat AND your hand. Being able to start the next round with 2 cards is a massive contingency plan so you can immediately use Cornered / Idol of Xanatos and build momentum again.

• "I'll take that!" is 3 resources and play action in this deck. It is mainly made to play the Idol of Xanatos since it can often wait a little bit until you find both cards. Alternatively, Nautical Charts is a good target as well, but don't die because you didn't want to spend an action playing Idol of Xanatos!

• Brute Force may look odd at first in this deck, but when you consider that you can discard it with Cornered and play it during the same test, for a +5 and 3 damage if you succeed by 2, all of a sudden things look much more solid.

  • An alternative for George Barnaby is to take Anchor Chain instead of Brute Force, to long evade enemies, but let's face it, why evade enemies if you can defeat them so easily.

Late Campaign:

• Last Chance (3) is a great upgrade, giving an additional , adds 2 more cards in your hand, and is a fantastic target for Gift of Nodens, what's there not to like?

• Plucky (3) and Scrapper will cover all 4 skills to spend your Lawrence Carlisle money on further increasing your insanity.

  • Plucky (3) will also have a good survivability in play thanks to Idol of Xanatos, and will absorb some horror due to deck scuffling.

• Nothing Left to Lose can also be a good way to either build or recover momentum from Cast Adrift.

• Dark Horse (5) is a good complement to the above cards so you have an extra skill point when you pump your value.

• Observed as the traditional "I don't know what else to get and I love the Tarot Cards".

(View at arkham-starter.com)

George has it all:

• He will gain at least 2 clues per action, all scenario, from super early in the campaign!

• He can deal with mid-size enemies extremely well, thanks to Brute Force.

• He has great survivability by passing many scenario tests and absorbing damage/horror with Idol of Xanatos.

• He generates more resources than he'll ever need thanks to Lawrence Carlisle.

• He draws like a seeker.

• He is fun and extremely engaging to play.

All-in-all, I consider George Barnaby a strong S-Tier investigator in terms of strength, and my only criticism is that his deck reaches peak strength at 20xp, and from there, it will barely evolve, making the late campaign a little bit repetitive.

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