Gangleader Jim Culver

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

Big_Bartek · 12

The Jim Culver Gang

Playstyle: Multiplayer, Themed Build, Taboo List, Normal/Difficult Mode

The majority of Arkham players think that Jim Culver is more of a luckluster investigator. And if they play him, most of them try somehow to bruteforce a -token draw paired with card's, that profit from these tokens. This strategy is in fact luckluster.

Let's make him bether. Let's make him reliable. Let's have some fun...

The -cards in this deck are not that necessary for a functioning Jim Culver deck. Other out-of-class-cards might be better suited here, but my build was with a specific "story" in mind. Let me introduce you to "The Leader", a cunning and gifted local gangboss with his entourage: "The Right Hand" and "The Left Hand". For the other local gangs, Jim is known as the guy with the Trumpet, who never walks the streets without the finest illicit Whisky in his pocket.

As a general warning: I'm not a native speaker. There will be typos. If this is something that triggers you, better stop reading. So without further ado...

This is a more fighty Version of The Leader. But beeing fighty doesn't mean he's bad with clues. So hear me out:

Jim's Right Hand

Jim's playstyle is a bit expencive, but his Right Hand is here to help. He provides the cashflow for the gang. Either to play fo Jim's expencive livestyle, or to reach the magic threshold of 10 reccources for this sweet sweet +1 and +1. Combined with the Key, this boosts the Leader to an impressive 6 5 statline.

Jim's Left Hand

Jim's statline might be good thanks to his Right Hand, but he is lacking of some speed due to the expencive setup. Here comes his Left Hand into play. One additional action per turn is a huge improvement!

Jim, the Leader

Jim seems not to be an impressive investigator at first glance, but as always, the first impression might be as far fetched as it can get. He is the most reliable investigator in the game. The Chaos Bag consists of at least 2 tokens, which are getting progressively worse modificators the later the scenario is placed in a campaign. But Jim doesn't care. The modificator is always 0.

So let's capitalize this fact:

  • The chaos bag contains of 12-14 chaos tokens. 3-4 of them are "0" or "+1" in addition of 2-3 -Tokens, which are also "0" for Jim. This are on average 5-6 non-negative tokens plus the -Token. That's nearly a 50:50 chance not to get punished by the chaos bag!
    • Let's increase our chance a bit more: within the chaos bag is at least one other bad Token ( ). Ritual Candles makes them a bit less scarry and becomes suddenly +1 (+2 if you have both candles). Alternatively you could take The Chthonian Stone. It allows you to remove one of the bad tokens (choose the most punishing one). I prefer the first one, because you can have both of them in your hands as long you don't need Jim's Trumpet (or haven't drawn it yet)

Clue Gathering

Rite of Seeking is the way to go on high shroud locations (always use it as your last action, so the punishment doesn't bother you). Clairvoyance is arguably the better spell (Jim shouldn't have much problem with horror, -tokens can be turned to -tokens and no risk of ending the turn), but also more expencive to upgrade. Besides that you still have the Key and Dario. 1-3 shroud locations should be cleared with ease. If you manage to have the Key, Dario, at least 10 ressources and 1-2 Candles in play, even 5 shroud doesn't look so scarry. Did I mention, that Leo gives you an additional action per Turn?

  • I will discuss a primary clue gathering version at the end, if you are interested

Fighting

There is nothing much to say here: Shrivelling for killing bigger things. Wither for smaller threats and infinite uses. Storm of Spirits for groups. If you have Wither and Shrivelling you attack an enemy with an uneven healt-count, than always use Wither first, because of the triggered effect. This changes when you upgraded to the best version. Do the math, whats most benefitial in every sytuation without wasting your charges. Try not to "overkill" (= more damage than healt) to much.

Survivability

Dario and Leo are provideing a verry minor damage soak. In case of an emergency you could sacrifice one (or both) of them. Still, better them than us... Horror damage shouldn't be a problem. Out of the treachery deck, it is neglectable, due to the high . His self infilcted horror is healed of passively (Jim's Trumpet , St. Hubert's Key's , Fearless, or Liquid Courage) Normal enemies shouldn't survive long enough and for everything else there is Deny Existence, Hypnotic Gaze and/or Ward of Protection.

Economy

Skill Icons

Not needet... but still: Unexpected Courage

Upgradepath

Priority Upgrade:

Arcane Upgradepath: (Arcane Research)

  1. Shrivelling (0) Shrivelling (3)
  2. Ward of Protection (0) Ward of Protection (2)
  3. Rite of Seeking (0) Rite of Seeking (4)
  4. Shrivelling (3) Shrivelling (5)
  5. Storm of Spirits (0) Storm of Spirits (3)

Nice to have:

Alternative Builds:

Ultimative Clue Gatherer:

Ultimative Fighter:

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