Jim "the Axeman" Culver Encore. (Beginner friendly demo set)

This is one of a set of decks designed to create a demonstration set to let new players try the game out. The intention is to give new players a meaningful choice between chars by making each play a little different to the others without overly nerfing them to the point of not being fun. This does mean some decks are stronger than others but no one has so far has cared.

The other decks can be found here: [This section under construction - I will edit these as I publish each deck but bare with me it might take a few days do to the write ups]

Roland: Firearm based combatant with passive clue acquisition.

Zoey: Heavy duty melee damage purist.

Skids: Combat rogue with high evasion and burst damage options.

Jenny: Cash driven multi action generalist

Daisy: Clue hunter/caster hybrid with additional support functionality.

Rex: Ellusive heavy duty clue hunter

Agnes: Classic Mage

Jim: Melee/spell hybrid tank

Wendy: Stealth rogue, event driven reactive deck

Ashcan: Draw heavy flexible damage dealer and clue hunter hybrid

If you don’t mind proxying or some substitutions, the only restriction between using some of these together is in the unique allies though I have tried to minimise overlap by only allowing them to be in pairings I would not expect to be picked together very often (Milan in both seekers, Leo in both rogues etc).

Disclaimer: Where possible I have tried to test these decks, though some have had more testing than others and one or two are as yet untested. I have added a second disclaimer at the bottom where this is the case. As I get the chance to try them out I may well update them a bit. I certainly welcome feedback if anyone does try them out or has suggestions.

PLAYING AS JEDI JIM: Melee/spell hybrid tank

This is the second iteration of the Jim "The Axeman" Culver deck posted previously and built in alignment with this format of making each char play differently (Agnes does caster better just now). The major change since last version is a shift away from test based spells to make it less reliant on Holy Rosary draws. With so many new xp spells having built in boosts caster options appear to be opening up later in the campaign anyway. The Rite of Seeking was also dropped due to its high play cost being a bit too much of a tempo hit, often preventing playing other high cost assets (Guard Dog/Shrivelling). Ive added Hypnotic Gaze in place of Blinding Light to fit better in a tanking role. Though this latter swap is as yet untested and could still turn out to be high cost.

Stayin' Alive: between Jim's Trumpet, Liquid Courage, Holy Rosary and Fearless, this deck has a lot of horror healing, not only providing some support to the group, but allowing you to absorb horror hits from spell drawbacks or enemy attacks as needed.

Cant Touch This: Get comfortable letting enemies hit you. Guard Dog can take the damage for you while hitting back and you will be able to heal back the horror later on. Hypnotic Gaze acts as a pseudo-Dodge, with about a 1/3 chance of retaliation depending on bag composition (note jim can choose to treat s as s on draws that are not for a test such as this).

Fight Fire With Fire Axe: Fire Axe's cheap pumping ability means you should be able to attack at 5 reliably. Keeping Emergency Cache in hand until you need to use it will help you keep the + damage option open. Note that Forbidden Knowledge lets you restock resources (action free) between attacks. Of course with Guard Dog out you might choose to trigger the attack of opportunity by taking a resource naturally. Finally Overpower, or Unexpected Courage can be spent while on zero resources for attack 3.

Shrivelling, Overpower and Unexpected Courage give you back up options if needed, though Shrivelling arguably needs some form of boost (Guts, Fearless, Holy Rosary) to be reliable.

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For: base 3 is fine for 1 shroud areas. Flashlight helps with up to 3 shroud and Drawn to the Flame can be used anywhere, so is traditionally saved for awkward spots.

Be Quick or Be Dead: Encounter protection comes from Ward of Protection, plenty of boosts to protect sanity, or indeed reterospective healing, and Manual Dexterity to protect physical damage.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (upgrading) We are seeing an increasing number of upgraded testing spells which come with a passive + boost built in, Song of the Dead, Shrivelling v3 and the upcoming Rite of Seeking v4. Any built in help Jim much more than Agnes removing the need to find that Holy Rosary as early (a nicety in agnes, a game changer in jim). As these are added to the deck, Jims potential to be a full time caster improves rapidly and will reduce the need for so many boosting cards (Guts, Fearless, Holy Rosary). Similarly as you add more attack spells you may be comfortable dropping the mike, i mean axe, though i would be tempted to keep at least 1 just becasue it doesnt come with charge limitations. The other obvious upgrade is the ever popular Grotesque Statue, which is just a solid card in any deck. Finally, ive never tried it, but you may want to consider Bind Monster for the Blinding Light/Hypnotic Gaze slot, or indeed just an Upgraded Blinding Light. However these are as yet untested and on paper im not sure they make much difference tbh.

Just remember, Its not the end of the world as we know it...yet