Sefina Scout King with Friends

Card draw simulator

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veneretio · 339

Adjustments to the 3 player Sefina deck I would make that I played through Carcosa with a team of Roland and Minh.

What's Missing and Why

Rite of Seeking didn't perform well enough to warrant inclusion when you're paired with 2 investigators that are themselves capable at gathering clues. Drawn to the Flame is sufficient.

Storm of Spirits takes the place of the Agility based combat options until you've got access to Moxie and Streetwise. In general, Storm of Spirits was an underwhelming card, but as a backup damage option its the best reliable tool you have at 0 experience.

Quantum Flux never delivered throughout the entire campaign. I'd consider adapting it in for the final scenario, but that's about it. Dunwich would be a totally different story though.

I had high hopes for Narrow Escape. In practice, they weren't realised. It was more an awkward Unexpected Courage or a bad Manual Dexterity. I haven't given up on the card for the class as a whole, but for Sefina, I wouldn't play it in any of the known campaigns.

The choice Allys that could be used to remove a Doom counter bearing Arcane Initiate ended up being unnecessary. Calling in Favors tricks weren't consistent enough. Arcane Initiates were easy enough to sneak in or get killed. Eventually, the deck does want to run Leo and possibly even Dario, but out of the gate, I wouldn't.

Untested Inclusions

Think on your Feet isn't nearly as impressive as Elusive as far as events to select for Sefina's starting 5 (because you can't use it unless you have The Painted World). However, I think that early on it offers exactly what you need to allow you to scout around soaking in Lone Wolf money without fear of harm.

Fine Clothes is a considerably easier card to sell you on if you're experienced with the many Parley tests in Carcosa's early scenarios. Eventually, you'll want to adapt them out, but until that time, they're a cornerstone of your role on the team, part fighter, part negotiator, part scout.

Upgrades

The list is long as is the journey. Suffice to say, you're going to want to get a lot of mileage out of your Delve Too Deeps or even risk the Charon's Obol.

There's a few different phases to approaching the upgrades along with adapting the deck. First and foremost, you want to get a Hot Streak, Adaptable, Spirit Athame and Lockpicks.

Closely after that, you want to grab Charisma and bring in Leo for the Unexpected Courages. As an aside, it is important to keep the event count at or above 15 as failing to draw 5 events at the start of the game is punishing. Once, you've got access to Leo and Arcane Initiate, you'll become noticeably more impactful to your team.

Streetwise and Moxie (in place of Arcane Studies) allow you to finally get rid of Storm of Spirits in favour of better Agility-based combat tricks. You'll probably be able to ditch the Fine Clothes around this time too for even more of such tricks. A copy of Suggestion gives you another Arcane slot to play with. Remember, you can grab it with Arcane Initiate and most importantly, that it still works without charges so you won't need to use Recharge on it. On the note of Recharge, it's another card that is a spell grabbable by Arcane Initiate. (Yup, AI is insanely good in this list getting you The Painted World too!)

Regarding, St. Hubert's Key, it's a pass for me. Holy Rosary has the benefit of absorbing Horror hits that would otherwise take out Moxie. The Key can't do this. And your job isn't to investigate that much so I'd skip the Key due to its cost and lack of horror absorption.

At some point, you'll want to upgrade the Leo's because while you have lots of burst resource potential, money isn't infinite and getting Leo online immediately is as important as getting Arcane Initiate asap. The multiplayer Ward of Protections are nice, but I'd actually pick them up later in the campaign when the real ugly stuff starts showing up. Around this time, I'd look to getting the upgraded Fearless in since constant Ward and Shrivelling use will have you taking more Horror than you'd expect. And 9 Sanity isn't as infinite in the latter part of the campaign as it feels in the beginning. Which brings me to another aside, Moment of Respite is a trap that I recommend you avoid. As you experience greater levels of horror damage, it's easy to be attracted to Moment of Respite since it heals horror and is an event, but Fearless does the job better, for less experience and without costing you an action.

More Fun Stuff

Sure Gamble is a nice little luxury event. In many ways, it feels kinda like a bad Lucky!, but a bad Lucky! is still a great card. It is my recommendation over Time Warp for ensuring things like "Watch this!" happen. (Time Warp requiring you to be at the location is kind of a bummer in my experience) Ace in the Hole is a fantastic card, just remember you can't clone it with The Painted World however, you can add it to your 5 events at the start of the game. Finally, the watch is a classic Rogue card to make some truly busted plays for your high powered investigators late in a campaign. The 8 experience is challenging to justify and get unless you're running the Obol from the get go though.

Cards you'll lose along the way

All of these cards eventually go for me for various reasons. The rule of thumb is keep your events at 15. I like to keep one of the Painkillers. You have Adaptable so don't be afraid to try different things as your deck progresses. Just remembering not to go too crazy since you can only move 2 cards with it. A lot of the cuts/adapts for these cards come down to what the rest of your team is doing, how the scenarios feel like they're going and what role you feel like you need to be playing.

Final Thoughts

The power of Sefina for me is a few things. She starts incredibly well due to the obvious 13 card opening. 3 clone cards lets you pull off amazing things. The combination of high Willpower and high Agility makes you very resilient to Carcosa's encounter deck. Leo's extra action and Elusive make you supremely mobile. I will say though, Sefina isn't for the light of heart. Your weakness doesn't go away and it will do unfair things sometimes. You aren't as reliably rich as you think. Often it feels like you're playing a level 0 Mystic and all I can say is that when those feelings hit you, it's probably because you're downplaying how potent being evasive and mobile is. Overall, Sefina is an incredibly fun investigator that's an easy transition for anyone with experience playing Mystic looking for something different.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

4 comments

Apr 09, 2018 queaux · 2

Thanks for the great deck and description. Sefina is the next investigator I want to play, and this style of experience tempered advice is invaluable in making deck building and playing decisions.

Apr 10, 2018 veneretio · 339

@queauxThanks! She is definitely a blast to play. I'm looking forward to trying her solo next.

Apr 11, 2018 mellchia · 106

Good write up. Glad to see someone else enjoying Sefina. I just wrapped up my two player Path to Carcosa campaign and I think Sefina's strength is she can actually be very versatile. The choices you made here are much more in line with a three player game (with two being Rex and Minh) and I think it would be quite different if you say had my partner, Yorrick. I do have a couple of questions:

  • Did you find in your games Sefina was handling more of the combat or took Evade actions more? I ask, since I personally found Sneak) Attack to be quite useful but I suspect that was because Yorrick was more combat driven in our game. The same could be said about Pickpocketing.)
  • Likewise, it is interesting seeing Storm) of Spirits and not see Backstab.) I found the extra damage to be invaluable at times. Did you at all miss that or did you find later in the campaign that Shrivelling) + Recharge) was enough?
  • By the way, I definitely like the addition of Recharge) with her. I started my campaign back in September before all the goodies were released so I overlooked this one when I could select it.
  • I agree with your assessment of St.) Hubert's Key, among some of the other cards listed. However, with Key) of Ys available, would you end up replacing Holy) Rosary?
  • How often did you use Arcane) Initiate? I had opted out, instead relying on my starting draw. I rarely found myself actively digging for cards throughout the game although I suspect that had to do more with my build and not having Recharge.)

Apr 11, 2018 veneretio · 339

@mellchiaThanks for the feedback/question, I'll do my best to address them.

  • Sefina handled more Combat than Evasion. This changes quite a bit once you get Suggestion though. For the most part, Evasion was unnecessary thanks to the coordinated efforts of the whole team.

  • I found Backstab stronger and more useful than Storm of Spirits too when I could use it. I found that early game, I couldn't without considerable resource investment. Storm ended up being the better early game card until you have Moxie and/or Streetwise. Once you have those, Backstab and Sneak Attack become much more desirable.

  • Yup, it's a pretty big deal. Even just that you can grab it with Arcane Initiate and use it for its 2 willpower icons makes it very useful.

  • I do not have experience with Key of Ys. It does appear incredibly powerful and I wouldn't fault anyone on taking it. I would probably try to grab it just after getting Moxie were I to add it to the upgrade path.

  • Arcane Initiate is insanely powerful and really the card that makes Sefina hold up against other investigators in terms of power level in this type of build. Without her you run out of steam pretty quickly and are forced to play much more conservatively. There's a reason some people opt for Calling in Favors + David Renfield builds, it's just to get Arcane Initiate out faster and more reliably. It's one of the essentials to the list imo and there's a reason I do not list it in my "Cards you'll lose along the way" section.