OBSOLETE - Power Word Amina: A Guide

EDIT: Since writing this, Power Word has been tabooed to require a (3) test every time, which quite effectively removes it from Amina's repertoire. (It also had its Mercy mode revoked entirely, and Cower got demoted to the customizable sheet.) They also decided to make permanents unattachable (this was a rules update, not a taboo), meaning that Elle Rubash can no longer provide a buffer for Blood Pact and Sin-Eater. RIP!

Core idea

Low-XP Amina can be a real struggle. This deck avoids her early campaign doldrums by leaning into Power Word first, and then building out the doom engine. PW complements her extremely well because

• its resource cost is no issue, since her ability lets her pay 0 for most assets (once Sin-Eater is acquired), and
• it works testlessly, so her terrible base stats don't matter.

Some pre-campaign considerations:

• This has been tested at 3-player. With only 2 players it may be difficult to reliably find good PW targets.
• Power Word's removal of multiple monsters from the encounter pool changes the dynamics of the game pretty significantly, so make sure your team knows to expect this. Specifically, fight-y teammates will want to be more flex-y than usual.
• To avoid hogging all the game's agency, I suggest making "how should we use our thralls?" a group decision every round.
• If the rest of your team is a also bit underpowered to begin with, consider dropping a Delve (possibly even both?) for something functional like Premonition. You'll have an opportunity to freely add one L0 back in when you upgrade Blood Pact after scenario 2.

Notes on initial card choices

• Power Word: In the Thick of It XP lets you start with 3; Refine lets you learn a useful word (Mercy) midway through scenario 1 (see campaign/progression plan below).
• ECache and Moonlight Ritual: Necessary initially, but ECaches can be dropped post-Sin-Eater. I like to leave the Rituals for AR to upgrade to L2, which is a nice emergency doom escape button, and occasionally fantastic versus doom-play encounter cards.
• Scroll of Prophecies: Crazy gas that also lets you foie gras your teammates! Her signatures make excellent discard fodder.
• Dream Diary:: Painfully slow, but better than nothing if you encounter a scenario test that needs doing. Don't bother trying to research it scenario 1.
• Lucky Cigarette Case: Bad initially (feel free to chuck it for icons scenario 1), but improves a bit once Blood Pact and DD are upgraded, triggering maybe once every 3 turns on average. Crystal Pendulum would probably draw slightly more often, but would not give Close the Circle an extra charge (and is very annoying to use), which seems like a net loss.
• Enchanted Blade: Lets you fight semi-respectably, but also cuttable fairly early.
• Alyssa Graham: Lets you weakly contribute to clueing, and the deck-peeking isn't nothing, but she's just holding Elle's place.

Campaign/progression plan

Scenario 1: Dig like crazy for a Refine (into Mercy=healing) and 2 PWs. Once you have 2 decent targets PW'd you can start helping to stabilize your teammates, who have probably been taking some extra lumps while carrying your ass. Without Sin Eater, her econ ability is only safely usable in witching hours (or with Moonlight Rituals, which effectively become ECaches 3-4), so be judicious about which assets you play. If there is extra breathing room, firing off a Delve or two takes priority over researching Dream Diary.

Upgrade priorities are as follows:

• Power Word: 2 XP (& the 2 AR discounts) to add Tonguetwister (2 commands/parley) and Confess (cluefinding). Distract (evade) and Betray (damage) are also good, but not immediately critical; let Refine pick them up.
• Sin-Eater and Elle Rubash: SE obviously has priority, but if you don't quite have the additional 6 XP, getting an Elle or two first is alright (as long as you are confident you will be able to purchase SE after scenario 2).
• Blood Pact (3): Good post-scenario-2 outlet for AR discounts. Leaves a hole for a free L0 insert.
• Close the Circle: Surprisingly great in this mostly-mono mystic. When most turns are just Move-Parley-Parley, it's sometimes difficult to find time to do anything else. With synergy at 2, SE makes CtC a flexible pile of 3 delayed actions. (Note that it cannot be used to PW-parley, and that CtC actions still provoke AoOs.) 90% of the time they'll just be free SE-clears, but it opens up other silly options like Refine-Parley-Parley, or an end-of-enemy-phase Delve. On the off chance you actually need to use it to take a basic evade/investigate, remember to tuck it under Elle immediately (she can't once it's doomless). Bonus: if you hit an elder sign, move a doom back onto it, for +1 action!
• Summoned Servitor, with Wings and slot reduction: Pseudo-Pathfinder that gives you a free move once per turn, without provoking AoOs, allowing you to briefly step away from your pets (or vice versa) without worrying about drawing an enemy. (Note that you can only ride the Servitor into already-revealed locations, so plan on your teammates having to open up the board.) Armored Carapace (3 health) and Jaws that Snatch (evade) are both fine low-priority upgrades that Refine can pick up. If it's a high-XP campaign, spend an extra XP to simply purchase Charisma rather than taking the Dominance upgrade; this allows you to purchase Dominance later to instead drop the arcane slot use, freeing up room to also play something like Seal of the Seventh Sign or Rite of Seeking (4).
• Dream Diary (Madness): Lets you nail the few skill tests that are foisted on you, and can help teammates, turning you into a walking safe haven.
• Seal of the Seventh Sign: Powerful insurance that doesn't require any actions to maintain. Consider including a The Chthonian Stone (0) to complement it.
• Abyssal Tome: Can dish out huge amounts of damage very quickly, but this isn't usually necessary until perhaps the last 1 or 2 scenarios.
• Lucky Cigarette Case (3): Definitely a luxury upgrade, but lets you justify throwing in fun 1-ofs towards the finale.

Using Power Word

Rules notes:

• Cower (exhaust) does not disengage the thrall. If you want to do so, you'll need to use Go (move) or Distract (evade).
• Mercy (heal) can affect anyone at that location, not just the person it is engaged with.
• Mercy heals damage OR horror, but not both.
• When you give two commands to X thralls, those 2X commands can be carried out in ANY order. For example, say you and thrall #1 are at location A, and your teammate and thrall #2 are at (connecting) location B. If you want to have both thralls heal your teammate, a Go/Mercy command can be executed as follows: #1 moves -> #2 heals -> #1 heals -> #2 moves. (Of course, if you can just float over on your Servitor, that simplifies things.)
• Unlike Servitor, thralls can be sent to unrevealed locations (e.g. in order to Betray/Distract an enemy there), but doing so will not reveal the location in the process.
• Thralls can Betray (damage) and/or Distract (evade) themselves.
• Commands must be followed, so Betray or Distract commands may well result in one or two of your thralls having to punch or disengage themselves.

Strategy notes:

• Take a moment before you start playing to examine the targets available to you (including investigator weakness enemies).
  • Clueing is the highest value usage, so avoid anything with less than 3 health if at all possible.
  • You'll want at least one high-agility target to be able to autoevade with.
  • Double-horror or double-damage enemies are great for healing.
  • Cultists are usually poor targets since those encounter sets often include treacheries that add doom to them, or make them attack.
  • The handful of targetable (non-Elite) Massives are generally poor targets (despite being very beefy) since they must be moved around manually.
  • Using VP enemies is fine: you can leisurely stack up almost-lethal damage, and then have them

• Anyone that is babysitting one of your thralls will probably need to go after you in turn order, so it is sometimes easiest to keep them all on yourself.