This Is Not A Good Jenny Barnes Deck

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Check out the Pips on Jenny! 0 0 0 1.0
The Desperate Dilettante 1 1 0 1.0

EinTheDoggie · 30

This was an idea that suddenly came to me one evening and I started to tinker with the idea. I've always been a fan of the Desperate suite of cards for their thematic nature and because they provide a swing that most non-XP cards just can't. Survivors have a variety of shells that can run these cards and they run them quite well...but I started thinking: What if you could do things without having to test, and then using the Desperate cards to back them up when you did?

Unfortunately, there are few investigators who meet the following criteria:

: Be able to run Arcane Research and/or St. Hubert's Key

: Have a Sanity score that can get to 3 with a combination of the above cards

Enter Jenny Barnes. She's probably the most flexible investigator still, just because she has a balanced stat-line and an ability that while not exciting, is consistent and ensures that you always have resources to use.

So I came up with this. I've given it some runs through a few scenarios and it's performed surprisingly well. Very fast to get going and you rarely are in a position where you can't carry out whatever it is you need to do. But that's also a downside to it - because we're using the key, we can't run something like Lucky Cigarette Case to draw cards. So the whole goal is to basically resolve the scenario as fast as you can before you run outta gas.

It also goes without saying that you hard mulligan for St. Hubert's Key in all circumstances, as that's what gets the engine online, and Jenny's constant influx of extra cash means the Favor cards give you several testless actions to evade, investigate, and fight.

Probably could use some tweaks, and honestly is probably Not A Good Jenny Barnes Deck - but it's different, it's fun to pilot, does something different with the Rogue card pool than most other 'Gators can.

Feedback is welcome, and if you do decide to give it a try, I hope you at least have fun playing it.

6 comments

Oct 15, 2019 TheBlackHorror · 16223

Relic Hunter + Lucky Cigarette Case would be good for her. Between that and Easy Mark, she would have much better card draw, giving her access to more cards to commit each turn. I love the concept of this deck!

Oct 15, 2019 Dai · 1202

This is such a cool deck idea. I have a few questions: Did you find "Watch This!" to be particularly crucial? I can see it being handy early on to pay for a Small Favour or something, but this deck runs 20 skills, I don't know if a skill that is worth less than a single wild icon but gains resources is worth it.

Also, what would you suggest for an upgrade path? All In seems like an obvious choice, but otherwise I'm not sure. Perhaps picking up assets/events with excellent icons like Hard Knocks, or simply Streetwise? But then you might start to lose the essence of the deck.

I kind of want to try the same thing but with 2x Well Connected - rather than building up resources by using cards and actions, simply letting the money roll in while spending very little because 2/3 of the deck is skills. But again, that might go against the core concept somewhat.

Oct 15, 2019 dotPeddy · 1

I think you might need a bit of horror soak :) If you're at 3 sanity without horror soak, i think it might be too easy to hit zero, and be forced to discard huberts key? splash into a single peter sylvestre instead, and possibly one other soak? :o

A fun upgrade, could be going for suggestion :D buy 2x lv 1, and let arcane research help you the rest of the way ^_^

Oct 15, 2019 EinTheDoggie · 30

@DaiI think @TheBlackHorrormore or less mirrors my own thoughts on what I'd spend the first 4 XP on; Relic Hunter and then Adaptable so you can put in Lucky Cigarette Case. After that, you're absolutely right that All In is probably the next card. From there it's kinda up to your preferences/the campaign you are playing. I also think Easy Mark would be a good pickup here as well.

"Watch This" isn't strictly necessary, so if you'd want to swap that in for something else I think you'd be fine as long as it wasn't a card that cost more than 1 or 2. Campaign depending, Fine Clothes wouldn't be a bad pick up.

Well Connected is a card I love, but at the same time, I find I usually spend 4 resources on the Favor cards. So I feel like Well Connected would end up very hit/miss depending on how things are going.

Oct 15, 2019 EinTheDoggie · 30

@dotPeddyI think there's a fine argument to be made for adding soak of some kind; a Peter instead of a Cunning is a fair call. As I mentioned above too, even something like Fine Clothes or potentially Smoking Pike might be worthwhile. To be honest I hadn't even considered something like Suggestion, but I really like that idea since we're using the Arcane Researches already. So I might tinker with that and see where it ends up. Thanks for the suggestion!

Oct 15, 2019 Dai · 1202

Thanks for the answers. A couple of other thoughts I've had: While it's necessary to make this deck work in a given scenario, taking Arcane Research just for the mental trauma always feels a little clumsy. In a full length campaign, since Jenny's signature weakness causes mental trauma, I'd be tempted to instead pack 2x Ghastly Revelation, get the benefits of those and maybe ignore Searching for Izzie for a scenario or two, and then Adaptable the Ghastly Revelation out and sub in a nice off-class skill or Peter Sylvestre once a healthy 2 or 3 trauma has been achieved.

Cheat Death might also be a useful card to save the St Hubert's Key and escape some tight spots. Normally it's an absolute luxury given its huge XP cost but this deck runs very low exp.

Man, I really want to try out a deck like this now. I've never been particularly interested in playing Jenny before, so well done!