What did Father Mateo see in the Forbidden Tree - Seal of...

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Invocation 2018 Mateo 0 0 0 1.0
Father Mateo's desperate faith moves tentacles away (TFA) 10 5 0 1.0

OzValdo · 691

I'v yet to really test this deck properly. So any thoughts are welcome!

WHAT'S THE IDEA:

With St. Hubert's Key & Alyssa Graham, his & goes up to 5.

The deck would use a lot of resources, which is why Forbidden Knowledge is there.

With St. Hubert's Key & use of Forbidden Knowledge, sanity should easily get down to 3. Hence why there are 6 desperate skill cards to help through , & ....Don't worry too much about Sanity loss, Alyssa Graham can soak up horror, St. Hubert's Key would heal back 2, and 2 copies of Fearless also helps

But the real trump card here is Seal of the Seventh Sign. With 7 charges, if it does get depleted, there's Recharge to boost it up. Counterspell would ensure that Recharge does do its job (EDIT: Counterspell does not work with Recharge, so I recommend to swap Counterspell with 2 Sacrifice).

The Codex of Ages will make sure Recharge triggers. If that's not enough, Enraptured can add more mileage.

Without turning up, the The Chthonian Stone would stay in play. If both stones come in play, even better! (EDIT: the stones are unique, so both can't be in play) I recommend sealing or to help Seal of the Seventh Sign last longer.

I think this strategy of making most of Seal of the Seventh Sign could work wonders in a 2 player game. I would imagine in a 4 player game, it is more likely the card won't last more than 3 rounds but that's not bad either...

Having said that without an auto-fail in a multiplayer game, Baseball Bat could last longer for instance, Stroke of Luck would always trigger, silver bullet cards like "I've got a plan!", Double or Nothing would never auto fail! So many endless opportunities.

I would be delighted to hear if others get a chance to try this deck.

Happy Sealing!

19 comments

Nov 22, 2018 mogwen · 253

Hello, I like your deck very much! I would see Mateo shine in a 3 players game between a dedicated guardian and a rightful seeker. I wasn't sure about the desperate cards til I remembered that you could use them on others tests, making you a fantastic support! I see very well Father Mateo who endures the horrors of the mythos to help his friends win the day! Very thematic! But that's only 13 XP, What are you gonna do with the rest? And for which campaign? I think he would do very well in Carcosa!

Nov 22, 2018 OzValdo · 691

Hi @mogwen! Thank you for liking the deck. I generally keep XPs upto 19 because for stand-alone it means just 1 further basic weakness. And for campaign play, 15-19XP could be possible around midway a campaign.

You’re right, I think he would suit Carcosa well, especially as a support investigator. It would be interesting to see how long the auto fail could stay sealed in a multi player game with this deck, exciting :)

Nov 22, 2018 OzValdo · 691

@mogwen I think upgraded fearless would be a good splash. I would stay away from more expensive cards because the deck already takes up a lot of resource.
Also Sacrifice would be interesting to try on Seal of the Seventh Sign because it prevents it from being removed from the game. Which in turn makes Quantum Flux useful to recur Seal of the Seventh Sign again. I would suggest to get rid of the desperate cards to make room for such a combo & only in a multiplayer situation.

Nov 22, 2018 Django · 5063

Since the relase of Seal of the Seventh Sign I've also been thinking of a seal focused deck. 4 player causes you to draw more a lot more tokens than single, so the seal is also more likely to die. However if you also seal many symbols with The Chthonian Stone and Protective Incantation, you're far mroe likely to keep charges on the seal.

However with Protective Incantation has several problems: It's not a spell to tutor with Arcane Initiate. It costs a ressource each turn, but mystics assets are expensive and need refilling. Seal and incantation are both arcane assets, so you can't play 2 incantations + seal. You also won't have any arcane slots for other spells left.

Side note, The Chthonian Stone is unique so you can't have 2 in play.

Nov 22, 2018 OzValdo · 691

Hi @Django I had the same thought process around Protective Incantation. It's just too expensive for this deck & doesn't leave any arcane slots. Good point with the The Chthonian Stone.

Nov 22, 2018 Invisiblecam · 1

I like the look of this card and think i am going to use it in a upcoming three player campaign of Forgotten Age. Do you have any advice for a zero level deck for this other than starting with 5XP? which i would presume you go for the Seal of the seventh Sign.

Also you could use 1 or maybe even 2 Arcane Research to lose even more horror letting you use those desperate skills sooner rather than later. Maybe up grade of the sacrifice to ditch the Forbidden knowledge later in the scenario. Just some thoughts. looking forward to trying this one out next week.

Nov 23, 2018 OzValdo · 691

Hi @Invisiblecam thanks for the comments. I would probably start off with 2 copies of Drawn to the Flame.

Nov 23, 2018 matt88 · 3093

Another note: You can't use Counterspell to cancel a special token during Recharge action, because Counterspell requires a special token to be revealed during a skill test to be cancelled.

And by the way Seal of the Seventh Sign to go with The Chthonian Stone is generally a good plan but you can't add Protective Incantation in such a deck because it would leave you without Arcane slots and it would force you to pay a lot of money. However another player can add it in his or her deck and you can become a sealing party, being able to pass most of the skill tests without a sweat. In a 3-player party for example, your clue-finder could be Daisy Walker or Carolyn Fern, both of which can splash Protective Incantation. I would definitely recommend such a setup for the Forgotten Age campaign, because the chaos bag there is really harsh.

Nov 23, 2018 11zxcvb11 · 3

@matt88 "You can't use Counterspell to cancel a special token during Recharge action, because Counterspell requires a special token to be revealed during a skill test to be cancelled."

i think you're mistaken here. from the official ruling on 'counterspell':

"When a token is 'cancelled' or 'ignored' in its entirety (such as through Wendy Adams's ability, playing Counterspell or revealing two tokens with Grotesque Statue's ability), treat the token as if it had never been revealed at all. [...]"

Nov 23, 2018 Nallej · 1

The point is that the revelation effect on recharge is not a skill test, thus counterspell cant't be used here.

Nov 23, 2018 OzValdo · 691

@matt88 thanks for the comments. A mass sealing party sounds cool! Daisy Walker could be the right fit as a clue gatherer and second sealer.

Nov 23, 2018 OzValdo · 691

Hi @Nallej, good discovery. So Counterspell won't work with Recharge. I can't see it fit in this deck. SO I'm going to swap it with 2 sacrifice, and upgrade fearless.

Nov 23, 2018 11zxcvb11 · 3

@Nallejtrue, i missed that.

i suppose if you want to use 'recharge' with more confidence, you could slot in 'premonition' instead, though i don't know how useful that card is otherwise - haven't used it myself, yet.

Nov 23, 2018 OzValdo · 691

Premonition won’t work either ...

Nov 23, 2018 Django · 5063

Why doesn’t premonition work with recharge?

Nov 23, 2018 matt88 · 3093

It works.

Nov 23, 2018 soakman · 25

i'm curious why you prefer desperate skills. Mateo has a lot of sanity and i don't know how often you'd be able to make use of them. Why not take Guts/Perception/Manual Dexterity? Having draw could help find the seals faster.

I also find it odd that there are only 2 attack cards, and no real way to investigate either. I'm just not sure what you would be trying to do on any given turn. A base intellect of 3 is not going to do you any favors without some flashlights, and he does not have Rite of Seeking. I like the seals, but why not replace Desperate Search with flashlights. That way you can keep your arcane slots for seals but you will always have at least 1 hand free currently as you can't use both stones at once (unique).

Nov 24, 2018 OzValdo · 691

@Django @matt88 yes premonition does work thanks guys

Nov 24, 2018 OzValdo · 691

Hi @soakman. Thanks for your comments. The reason behind the desperate skill cards is to support his low stats for fight and evade. After St. Hubert's Key & Forbidden Knowledge his sanity is low already. You have a good point, the deck can use two flashlights too.