Holding Down the Chaos Tokens/Messing with Sanity Jacquelin

As a caveat, this is a more of a theory crafting exercise on my part.

Intro

This is a multi player focused deck. In that capacity, this deck fills a more of a support role, specifically when it comes to revealing chaos tokens. But that doesn't mean Jacqueline has to be baby sat. With a little bit of tweaking, she can even run solo.

Deck Explanation

Jacqueline Fine (Fine from here on out) is one of the most flexible investigators out there. She can be asset focused, and have a lot of spells, or can be event focused. This deck focuses on a little of everything.

1) First, Fine's ability allows to 3 tokens and cancel the other 2. This means that with Olive McBride and Grotesque Statue, you can reveal grand total of 6 tokens. So obviously, since these two cards synergizes so well with Fine, they are a must have in her deck. And depending on which order you activate the effects on those cards, you can choose the exact token you were looking for, or tilt the odds massively in your favor. Given this advantage, the role of any Fine investigator is to mess with the chaos token as much as she can.

So, at 0 exp level, I've included Premonition. When you would reveal a chaos token, you can use Fine's ability to draw 3 tokens, and choose the one you want to seal. Of course, you can also use GS and OM to reveal more chaos tokens to widen the search. You may want to look for the elder sign token or plus 1 token to resolve later. You can also seal a 0 token and have a sure fire way to pass a skill test later on. Chthonian Stone is a more sure fire way to seal those pesky symbol chaos token, so it's more of a defensive measure. Certain scenarios have brutal symbol chaos tokens. Use Chthonic Stone early on to remove unfavorable tokens. Defiance acts as a temporary and secondary Chthonic Stone.

The goal here is to remove unfavorable tokens, so that the tokens you DO reveal are only favorable ones.

2) Second, assets. As Fine has the access to the holy trinity of the mystic cards (Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking and Mists of Rlyeh), she can pretty much do all the investigating and fighting on her own. With base 5, she can use the rite to become a cluever or use Shrivelling to snipe enemies or use the Mist to evade enemies and move around the map. She also has her own version of these three, with Azur Flame, Clairvoyance, and the Ineffable Truth. They have slightly different effects, but they essentially serve the same function; Azur Flame and Shrivelling are for fighting, Clairvoyance and Rite of Seeking are for investigating, and the Ineffable Truth and Mists of Rlyeh are for evading.

They have their own strengths and weaknesses, but I've chosen the Shrivelling and Clairvoyance since they give you horror damage. (Mist and Truth are on par in terms of their effects. I've chosen Mist here, because I want my Fine to be mobile) I'll talk about horror a bit later.

Familiar Spirit allows Fine to wield all three spells. You could also go for Sign Magick, but it's a 3 cost asset. This deck is already resource heavy; I didn't want to include more costly assets.

To that end, Voice of Ra is a must for this deck. It gives you 2 additional resources for each symbol token you reveal. Coupled with Fine's ability, you can reveal 5 tokens, which increases your chance of getting more money. You can also add Forbidden Knowledge to this deck. But that might be a risky move due to horror.

3) This leads me to horror. I've taken a page out of Calvin Wright's playbook and decided to dance at the edge of insanity. The goal here to get down to 3 sanity and use the desperate skill cards. This is why I included two copies of Arcane Research. First, Mystics are exp hungry classes to begin with, so Arcane Research helps Fine get to those high level spells quicker in the campaign. Second, it gives her 2 metal traumas at the start of the game. Similarly, St. Hubert's Key gives you more one more and reduces your sanity further (also ironically acts as an insurance against being defeated by insanity). Take 2 horror from your spells or enemies, then viola, you can now commit +4 skill cards to skill tests. Yes, you might die from insanity but you and your friends will appreciate that +4 skill commits. This serves both support role and makes her a formidable force on her own. At her full force, she gets +2 from St.Hubert's Key and the Holy Rosary, then +4 from the desperate skill test, which comes out to 11 total willpower. With Fine's ability, even the automatic fail cannot stop her with her 11 .

I've also included Thermos. It will heal 2 horrors on Fine. This, coupled with St. Hubert's Key, Fine can recover 4 horrors (bringing her back to 7 sanity) if things get too hairy.

4)

Upgrade Consideration

I'm still working on this one.

1) Grotesque Statue is the obvious choice. Pretty self explanatory.

2) Jewel of Aureolus synergizes with the Voice of Ra, since they both give you resources when you reveal a symbol chaos token. This would be a good upgrade if you seem to struggle with resource management.

3) Robes of the Endless Night might be worth considering, since it gives you a discount to playing a Spell cards, and stops AoOs. But, at 2 exp per pop, it's not exactly cheap.

4) Seal of the Seventh Sign SEEMS like a good choice, but it clashes with the Voice of Ra/Jewel of Aureolus combo, since the Sign doesn't like the symbol chaos tokens while the Voice and the Jewel likes the symbol chaos tokens. But, if you want to specialize in the support role this might be a better upgrade.

5) Protective Incantation is another great upgrade if you are good at resource management. It further removes undesirable tokens.

6) If you decide to go with Azur Flames, Clairvoyance, and the Ineffable Truth, then Crystalline Elder Sign is the upgrade you want. This, however, eats into the effectiveness of this build's role as a supportive character. Sealing the elder sign or +1 is generally frowned upon.