Sleuth Jim Solo

OVERVIEW:

This is a true, 1 player solo deck designed to be self sufficient while also being able to buff yourself enough to power through late game bosses and challenges. By yourself, you're expected to gather clues, kill (or perpetually evade) enemies, and survive an onslaught of treacheries, which is a lot to ask of any investigator. Jim's and are competent enough that he can get things done without needing much, certainly not requiring the playing-with-fire cards from the pool. And the 4 allows you to survive the Encounter deck for as long as you need to get set up or test the Chaos Bag, which in Jim's case, is often more inclined in his favor due to his signature ability.

Jim's and are respectable enough that a single Flashlight or Knife should get the job done, ala conventional play. The real edge you'll have later in the scenario comes in after you can get Arcane Studies, Lone Wolf, and Dark Horse up. From there, the strategy is to pitch the extra resource you get from Lone Wolf through Arcane Studies and get a third stat boost from everyone's favorite hillbilly porch property manager. If you're casting something like Shrivelling, you should be going in with a 7. Jim's debuff of the tokens should prove advantageous as those are often far more harsh the longer the scenario goes on.

At this point, you can take a resource from Forbidden Knowledge to continuously boost Arcane Studies and still maintain Dark Horse, holding a respectable 6 Willpower for the more challenging bosses down the line. If it's later in the campaign, you'll probably want upgraded Shrivelling and maybe a Grotesque Statue, but who isn't planning on grabbing those. You might also want Charisma to keep both allies in play. Other decisions I made include Leo De Luca and Shortcut because I find Mystics, Jim in particular, to be a little sluggish.

The only thing I didn't bother to account for was evasion but I find more success playing into strengths rather than trying to accommodate weaknesses. I thought I wouldn't include Delve Too Deep and Scrying but having extra experience points to spend is only going to be a good thing when treacheries are often fairly manageable for a . And if you have Leo in play then taking the time to monitor the Encounter Deck shouldn't be too much of a burden.

PLAY TEST - NIGHT OF THE ZEALOT:

I took Jim through the OG campaign on Standard difficulty and found good success with it. In The Gathering, I had a tense moment where I had to decide whether or not I should spawn and immediately smite the Ghoul Priest, or spend my last few shrivels on the two feral ghouls converging from the Attic and the Cellar. I opted to take on the lackeys since the VP is helpful, and I was confident I could get a knife out in time, which I did. Then it was just a matter of convincing Lita I wasn't a cultist maniac and the rest was history. I even managed a Delve Too Deep combined with Scrying.

Midnight Masks took a turn for the worst however as I only managed to get the The Masked Hunter and 1 unique cultist. I did clear two locations for clues, but I think this is where the "horror" in Arkham Horror makes it's presence known. I get the (s) aren't supposed to get every unique cultist, but having to face 4 of them in the Ritual Site in the Devourer Below just seemed ludicrous. My intent was to prevent Umôrdhoth from spawning, but give the hostility of the ritual site, I ended up purchases two fully upgraded shrivelings, and then waited around in the main path, playing dark horse, Leo, Lita (to soak up some damage), lone wolf, and even Holy Rosary.

The trouble with the Midnight Masks is it just asks way too much of you. You have to travel across an erratically connected town that is not in any way like the sample image in the campaign guide describes, get clues, spend said clues to spawn cultists who are hopefully near you and hopefully you have the money, cards, or raw damage output to deal with, all the while killing the The Masked Hunter and Hunting Nightgaunts, AND not drop any clues, AND hunt down AND kill the doom hoarding Acolytes AND avoid getting dragged around by the nightgaunts, AND, AND, AND, AND... It's a fun scenario, and I wasn't unhappy with my result of only getting the two cultists, but it did make me feel like I was forced to fight Umôrdhoth, which is what I mean why I say the NOTZ campaign leans into the "horror" more than any preference the player may have had.

It is not surprising that the Return to the NOTZ includes the Vault of Earthly Demise to pressure players into going into the woods. But frankly, my strategy would still have worked as is because I overkilled him by 2 damage, to say nothing of the knife I had equip and ready to throw, and two allies who could help me soak up at least one hit with Charisma. I think what I'm trying to say is I feel like the second two scenarios in NOTZ, particularly in how one punishes the other is a bit much and not the most idea for deck testing. But who knows, maybe I'll dry a deck and go for that R1. Will post if I do.

CONCLUSION:

This is a solid quality build minus some low damage healing and low in favor of clue acquisition, but those are nothing a Versatile can't fix. If I ever get the urge to play Jim solo again, this is the deck I'll be referring to. Happy investigating!