Kymani Sweeps the Board with Cash (Guide)

Introduction & Purpose

Kymani has not been shown a lot of love so far, being considered as a mediocre flex or as a bad fighter. However, the Scarlet Keys provides a top-tier card that makes Kymani an incredibly reliable investigator from the very first scenario: Underworld Market !

This deck is designed to be the fighter of the group, either killing enemies through effects of .25 Automatic, Dirty Fighting and Delilah O'Rourke or discarding them through Kymani's ability.

Main Strategy

This entire deck relies on 2 keys pillars:

• The market deck offered by Underworld Market will provide you with your most important and powerful tools to fight and kill enemies. The statistical reliability of this set-aside deck is not to be proven anymore, you will find your weapons on the first 2 or 3 turns, almost guaranteed. You get 5 experience points to start with as Kymani, here are the first 4 points to spend.

• The resource economy needs to be huge to pay for several aspects of the underlying strategy: drawing cards from the market deck, playing your numerous expensive assets, and using the ability of Delilah O'Rourke as frequently as possible. We. Need. Money.

Market Deck Breakdown

Let's analyze this set-aside deck first, because it is actually your core arsenal:

• .25 Automatic is fantastic in Kymani since your purpose is to evade enemies anyway. Its reaction effect can be used either to kill an enemy after the initial evasion, because you need to save actions for the turn, or to lower the enemy's health in preparation of your ability, if the enemy is too tough. The fact that the card is fast speeds your setup a lot.

• Dirty Fighting is your second key asset in this Market Deck. Its first ability supports absolutely every test against an enemy after your initial evasion, providing a stat boost that will mostly help your low . Its second ability stacks with .25 Automatic, so you have 2 free fight actions if both cards are in play. The "Limit 1 per investigator" is not a problem at all, since we are guaranteed to find the card on turn 5 at worst.

• Switchblade is your backup weapon here, in the rare case where you would empty both your .25 Automatic or do not find them in the very first turns of the scenario. Of course, the +2 is not amazing by itself, but can do reliable damage when stacked with Dirty Fighting and/or Delilah O'Rourke. Again, the card is fast thus will not slow your setup down.

• Pickpocketing is great here, since you will evade enemies everytime you meet them. And since you will consistently succeed by 2 or more, you will get both card-draw and resource-generation with them. And guess what, the card is fast.

• Thieves' Kit and Tennessee Sour Mash are clearly here because we need 10 illicit cards in the deck, but they could potentially be anything else. In most cases, you will not play them. Thieves' Kit allows you to reliably contribute to the investigation when there is no enemy in play, getting resources in the process. Tennessee Sour Mash is an insurance against nasty encounter cards that will test your , but I rarely found the need or time to play it. I still prefered these over extra weapons, because I found that .25 Automatic were almost systematically the only ones I needed, and a single backup was way sufficient.

Main Deck Breakdown

The main deck can be split in 3 categories: Assets that help you fight, Resource-generation cards and Skills. Most cards are self-explanatory here, so let me focus on the ones that deserve extra comments:

• Delilah O'Rourke finds her home in Kymani's mansion. First, she boosts the and you need to manage enemies. Second, her ability will always deal 2 damages and can be used, again, either to kill an enemy or to weaken it before discarding it. Combined with abilities of .25 Automatic and Dirty Fighting, you can get a minimum of 6 damages without spending an action!

• Suggestion is another option to discard enemies if you need a guaranteed success on Kymani's ability. Adding a +3 on top of your +2 provides you with a base stat of 10 (!) for evasions, without any extra boost.

• Stylish Coat and Lone Wolf are the two resource-generation cards you want to mulligan for. Stylish Coat will boost your 15 other economy options, so the sooner you play it, the more resources it will generate. If you can play it in combinaison with Lone Wolf in the early game, you get 2 incredibly valuable extra resources guaranteed on almost every other turn.

• "Watch This!" is also a resource-generation card here, and should not be used to boost your stats. "Watch this!" is best played on an test you are sure to pass if no is drawn (and you will have a lot of them).

• Three Aces, on the opposite, is best played to guarantee you success on a critical test, and will provide you with extra cards and resources on top of that. Finding the 3 Three Aces cards is not very difficult with your numerous drawing options (Easy Mark, Guts, Manual Dexterity and above all, Pickpocketing).

Conclusion

I am a bit surprised by the lack of love Kymani receives since their release. They do not manage enemies the classical way, but the inclusion of Underworld Market from the first scenario makes them a reliable fighter from the very beginning, and absurdly good when the deck is upgraded. Their ability makes Kymani the best fighter for a TFA campaign, sweeping the board without accumulating vengeance. Try them, you will never see these snakes the same way anymore.