mellchia · 112
Update: April 2018
With Path to Carcosa cycle wrapped up, I figured it was time to update my deck. Experience with Sefina, as well as having the opportunity to try other cards with other investigators, has definitely altered my opinion on card choices. Carcosa was also played with another player which did change my choices in the long run (more on that in a bit).
I think the biggest change for the deck approach was due to my counterpart's build, Yorrick. His Yorrick build was a combat-centric build with some clue pull when needed - so more or less blaanced. Thus some cards that I would normally want for solo play were definitely dead draws or thrown out for skill checks.
- Ritual Candles: I found that after the second game, I could really care less if I came across this card. The effect was not nearly as big as I hoped it would be.
- Backstab: Backstab's cost was extremely prohibitive. I think including one as a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card if you find yourself in a bind is useful. It did help us one or two times only.
- Pickpocketing: Ended up not useful or just not showing up at the right times.
- Leo De Luca: He was very handy but his cost is prohibitive (more on that in a bit).
- Rite of Seeking: I was genuinely not a fan of the cost and low charge count for Rite of Seeking. This surprised me but I found Lockpicks more useful at less cost. Given that I was primarily the Investigator it was absolutely useful at times but I would have rather done without it.
- Quick Thinking: I rarely was able to pull off the plus two, "Watch this!" is better. However, I can see Quick Thinking as useful if one takes a "pump" card such as Streetwise.
- Emergency Cache vs. Forbidden Knowledge: I have changed my opinion about Emergency Cache, but since I am building towards Key of Ys, I feel I need to keep Forbidden Knowledge in the deck. Emergency Cache though gets me Leo De Luca out faster.
I think going forward, if I were to play her again (and I likely will), I would definitely find out from my companions what kind of builds they are making their investigators. Sefina definitely benefits in being versatile, capable of surprise combat but also heavy lifting on the investigation. She can also easily be a great support investigator by healing or providing skills (and actions)
The changes I made represent either a two-player balanced counterpart or three or four player generalist investigator.
- Dropped Rite of Seeking. Use Drawn to the Flame or Flashlight/Lockpicksfor investigating.
- Dropped Ritual Candles.
- Replaced Think on Your Feet for Elusive. I found Elusive to be strictly better.
- Dropped Hypnotic Gaze. I did use it now and then but there are better options for a Generalist.
- Added Delve Too Deep. See below's edit.
- Added Emergency Cache.
- Dropped Guts, Perception, & Unexpected Courage. I really moved away from Skills.
- Replaced Quick Thinking with "Watch this!".
After this it is really what suites your needs. I like the following
- Add Clarity of Mind if your counterparts have substantially lower sanity (do not add if you have Carolyn Fern in the party unless you want another mode of Horror healing).
- Added Storm of Spirits.
- Last card is "I'm outta here!" or a 2nd Lone Wolf. List shows 2nd Lone Wolf.
Cards that I avoid: St. Hubert's Key - Great card, but Holy Rosary is cheaper. I am also pulling Forbidden Knowledge so I like having some Horror soak. Dario El-Amin - With this build I should be able to get the resources but Sefina really wants more actions. I also find that your fortunes can go from rich to poor in a single turn, rendering Dario a bit more useless.
Important Upgrades:
- Charon's Obol
- Adaptable
- Hot Streak (Emergency Cache), Key of Ys (Holy Rosary)
- Upgrade to Leo De Luca
- Recharge (Delve Too Deep) or Book of Shadows (Delve Too Deep)
Upgrades you should get (in no particular order)
- Lockpicks (Flashlight)
- Suggestion (Blinding Light) or upgrade to Blinding Light
- Upgrade to Ward of Protection
- Upgrade to Sneak Attack
- Streetwise
- Lucky Dice (choice over The Gold Pocket Watch if I am taking Recharge)
- The Gold Pocket Watch
Original Post from September
This deck design is actually a 2.1 version. I ran Sefina through Night of the Zealot and Dunwich Legacy campaigns (0.1 and 1.1 respectively), both were solo play. This deck list represents my latest iteration and I am content with the card pool.
Sefina's greatest strength is her starting game card draw ability. I think other decks on ArkhamDB touch upon the theme of consistency with her. She pulls a third of her starting deck (13 out of 38 cards) opening hand and gets to keep in some form or fashion most of it. This gives her a deeper access into the deck to start with, increasing the likelihood of beginning with ideal starting tools such as Lone Wolf, etc. It also gives her more consistency in pulling cards on the opening hand.
Her starting hand draw ability provides action efficiency as well. Where it would take another investigator an extra five actions to draw those cards, Sefina pulls it immediately. And where most other investigators would have to discard down to 8, she can save up to five events for later. This gives Sefina access to the specific card she needs, when she needs it. These events are mostly protected except from Stars of Hyades, so she continues to have access to them.
On top of this starting game efficiency, a number of and cards can be split into two categories: cards with dual actions or cards with free actions. have access to a majority of "free actions" or action adding cards. Pickpocketing is a free card draw, although as a result of an evade action. Lone Wolf is a free resource pull. Leo De Luca and Quick Thinking add to the action pool. Think on Your Feet can be a life saver and, in my experience, can also win you the game with the evade + move.
Where Sefina shines is not in the access to these cards - I think everyone would argue "Skids" O'Toole does the action count better. When you combine some of the free and dual action cards from the set with those of , this deck really becomes powerful. Forbidden Knowledge being free resource pull is amazing. Combine it with Lone Wolf and the drip economy (or economy over time) is really amazing. Blinding Light is an evade + Sneak Attack all in one and the upgraded Blinding Light is even cheaper. Hypnotic Gaze is both attack cancellation but also the potential to do damage back to the enemy without worrying about a skill test. Uncage the Soul has the Fast keyword and reduces the cost of spells, essentially "free" resources to play with.
Finally, The Painted World allows "re-use" event cards under her card. So instead of having just 2 Blinding Light or Drawn to the Flame, I potentially have access to three or more. This gives Sefina continued access to Events over again and without spending the action to draw the original card.
The low stat is a bit of a problem for investigating. Fortunately there are a few cards that help assuage the issue. Rite of Seeking and Drawn to the Flame become the main investigative tools. Given Sefina's high , Rite of Seeking is actually pretty amazing against locations with higher shroud values or locations where you need to pull multiple clues from. Success is fairly consistent. Drawn to the Flame gives Sefina automatic discovery of clues, but she has to pull from the encounter deck. So far this has yet to be a problem since the majority of encounter cards test on . This could be trickier to deal with in Paths to Carcosa, so a single Perception was added as a mitigation tool. Sometimes Sefina will also just need to investigate bare, so Perception and the added Flashlight helps with low shroud, single clue locations. After experience is earned, Flashlight is replaced by Lockpicks
The low stat is also tricky to deal with. Backstab, Sneak Attack, and Blinding Light give Sefina access to some damage causing cards. However Shrivelling is her only consistent fight card. So she really needs to pick and choose when she fights. Some enemies are just brutal, especially with Hunter key word. Hypnotic Gaze should be reserved for when necessary.
There are certain cards that I tend to avoid and are not in the deck that may be common in other decks. Due to the low , Burglary is not as strong of a play as it is in "Skids" O'Toole or Jenny Barnes decks. I personally dislike Elusive since it does not truly evade but only provides a free disengage. Your own mileage may vary, if you prefer it you can definitely replace Hypnotic Gaze with it. Likewise, I am not a fan of Emergency Cache since it takes the action to pull three resources. Upgraded Emergency Cache is better with the added card draw. Mileage may vary though and I recognize that this is a very personal choice.
Missing from common decks is Arcane Initiate. Sefina's card draw at the beginning of the game gives me access to most of the cards I need to start. Pulling specific spells was never really a problem with the deck and the couple of times it was an issue was due to my own bad shuffling from one scenario to the next. The ally slot is also fairly valuable since you want it for Leo De Luca. You can upgrade to Charisma but I think you need some better allies when considering that card.
As a disclaimer, I did use Alyssa Graham in my earlier decks, really to mitigate Stars of Hyades. However I rarely pulled Stars of Hyades that it was almost a non-issue. When I did, it was never game ending. Because Alyssa Graham only bumps , I dropped her in this deck version. If I need to add her back in, I definitely will.
Also, I have two Forbidden Knowledge due to my experience with the Basic Weakness Indebted. I pulled this as my starting weakness in the Dunwich Legacy campaign and boy was it frustrating to deal with. This was one of the few times that Emergency Cache was badly needed but over time, use of Forbidden Knowledge and/or Lone Wolf definitely mitigated that sore starting resource pool. A second Forbidden Knowledge was added for starting hand consistency.
We are about to begin Carcosa so I will know soon enough how the deck fairs.
EDIT: Correction on my thought about Uncage the Soul, less useful than I thought and played actually (my version was incorrect so we will ignore and remove). Instead I have added Delve Too Deep for early Victory/Experience gain. Given the corrections, I have also adjusted Hypnotic Gaze to a single card and beefed up the number of Ward of Protection.