Ursula Errant: Jailbreaking The Pendant of the Queen

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
Rex Errant: Jailbreaking the Necronomicon 48 38 4 1.0
Inspiration for
Pendant Ursula 8 5 3 1.0

ErrantChuck · 587

Ursula Errant: Jailbreaking the Pendant of the Queen

Introduction

Jailbreaking the Necronomicon was easy. Too easy. But can we do it again? Are there other tabooed treasures calling out for freedom?

How about The Pendant of the Queen?

Originally a three-use relic you could recycle back into your deck— it’s tabooed to three uses and then removed from the game.

Where’s the fun in that?

I see your nerf and raise you— UNLIMITED CHARGES!

Overview

Play The Pendant of the Queen and never let it run dry. Get a TESTLESS FREE ACTION every turn: Grab a clue! Evade an enemy! Move wherever you want!

All you’ll need is a MERE 2 XP, three Segments of Onyx, an Eldritch Sophist, and a BATTERY TO POWER IT.

Strategy

Whitton Greene is the power card in this deck. You want her in play on round one as she dictates your entire strategy: move one location a turn, trigger Whitton's search, gather your needed Relics (Segments and a Runic Axe).

Follow up with URSULA'S FREE INVESTIGATE ACTION, committing cards to ensure more draw, so you can get the one thing Whitton can't: An Eldritch Sophist to enable the entire fiasco.

AND REPEAT.

Don’t worry about leaving clues behind -- once the Pendant is in play you’ll grab them all.

It takes about six turns to get the full combination in play. And then only because of the resource cost. You can start using the Queen a few turns before everything is set-up if you want; just be sure to NEVER SPEND THE PENDANT'S LAST CHARGE

Once set up, you’ll move a charge a round from the Runic Axe via the Eldritch Sophist to the Pendant of the Queen. And then you’ll snatch up all the clues you left behind or — more obnoxiously — Evade an Elite Enemy, even if they're not at your location.

Seriously, how is this card only 1 XP, tabooed or not?

The Deck
  • Segments of Onyx turn into The Pendant of the Queen. You’ll need three. Some assembly required.

  • Runic Axe is more than the occasional rat killer. It's your BATTERY. Not only does it come pre-loaded with 4 charges, it replenishes one per round. It’s INFINITE baby!

    For 1 XP we’ve upgraded it into a RELIC, allowing it to be found by—

  • Whitton Greene digs through your deck for the Relics you need. Often triggering Astounding Revelation. She’ll get all your pieces together, and then you’ll replace her with—

  • Eldritch Sophist : His secrets won’t help you much (dump them on the Grim Memoir if you have the chance), but his ability to move charges from the Axe to the Pendant will.

2 XP. That’s it. With an XP to spare from your In the Thick of It.

OP from scenario one.

Other Cards

Grim Memoir helps draw cards while you investigate. Arcane Enlightenment gives you the extra hand slot to carry it around.

Astounding Revelation gets you much needed resources — you’ll be searching your deck a lot with Whitton and hopefully hitting all of these. Practice Makes Perfect and Eureka! increase these odds even more.

Calling In Favors is early game assistance to find the Eldritch Sophist and swap him with Whitton Greene when the time is nigh. Plus even more search.

Upgrade Path

Charisma is first. You don’t want to have to drop Whitton to get your Sophist in play.

Next upgrade Whitton Greene. She’ll search deeper and boost more stats.

Everything else is a luxury upgrade. Have fun.

You can dump Calling In Favors as soon as you’ve gotten a Charisma, picking up Pathfinder and Hiking Boots (just don't let Hiking Boots mess up your move-and-search rhythm with Whitton ).

Plan of Action can be retired for Survey the Area (we just want PRACTICED skills for our Practice Makes Perfect).

Deciphered Reality is the perfect card for this deck. Two copies even. You’ll have spent the first half of the game opening up the entire map, leaving clues behind. Why not grab them all at once?

Ditch Eureka for it.

Notes

This deck is as fun as THE PENDANT IS BROKEN. It feels more exploitive than the Necronomicon build (maybe because I ran it through Innsmouth).

Its set-up forces a fun play pattern: you’re exploring rather than focusing on clues or scenario goals. And once the exploring is done, you're plundering the map and dealing with locations and enemies on your terms, not theirs.

17 comments

Nov 04, 2023 Wittebaard · 293

Nice write up! Ursula is loads of fun "Just don't let Hiking Boots mess up your move-and-search rhythm with Whitton )": I believe you get a say in triggering this since it doesn't say Forced. Just don't trigger it when it doesn't fit your strategy, right?

Nov 04, 2023 ErrantChuck · 587

Right. Hiking Boots movement is optional. Even though Ursula is a movement-bonus character, Whitton (and getting this deck to work) demands you (and your teammates) explore the map slowly at first. Worth it of course!

Nov 05, 2023 Fallenmoron · 1

Eventually you could add the red clock 2/5 instead of using the axe perhaps?

Nov 05, 2023 ErrantChuck · 587

I think you could, though not sure you're gaining much other than being able to swap out a free action for +3 to a skill test (at the cost of 7 XP (+Relic Hunter)). Might be interesting to try the reverse: keep the Red Clock running at 3 charges every turn (Jenny + Runic Axe + Sophist)...

Nov 06, 2023 Zaratan · 34

You can virtually stop the Red clock at any level by letting it reach that level and then starting to swap charges. So you could also get 2 extra move or one extra action every turn.

Nov 06, 2023 Zaratan · 34

I have a question/suggestion : Miskatonic Archeology Funding gives you two ally slots (for myskatonic allies (like Whitton and the ES)) for 1 more xp than Charisma allowing you to also get Jake in play. Wouldn’t it be better ?

Nov 06, 2023 ErrantChuck · 587

The only issue with the Red Clock is replacing the Runic Axe as your battery source. If it's your battery, you're only activating it or the Pendant any given turn (ignoring the starting bank of charges you have on the Pendant).

Miskatonic Archeology Funding is definitely better if you want to spend the extra XP. You just don't really need Jake at all for this build (though if he's in play along with Whitton you'll find all your pieces much faster).

Nov 06, 2023 Zaratan · 34

I don't see the issue with The Red Clock + Pendant of the Queen. If I read the card correctly (and I probably don't) you can use them both together.

Let's say you have 2 charges on both items (Cl:2, P:2) :

  • Start of the turn you add a charge on the Clock (now Cl:3, P:2).
  • Since the Clock has 3 charges you get an extra action this round.
  • You swap the charge with your Eldritch Sophist from the Clock to the Pendant (Cl:2, P:3).
  • You use one charge on the Pendant for whatever you want (Cl:2, P:2)
  • You are now in the same state as the beginning of the round and can take your 4 actions.

Bonus : You get both of your hands free now that you don't have an Axe to run around with.

This is definitely not a core upgrade though and more a QoL one. 7XP is not cheap and I'm unsure if it's really worth it for one extra action (or 2 move (which could have been Pathfinders)).

Thanks for the guide by the way ! Loving it and will soon run a slightly modified version of it through EotE soon !

Nov 06, 2023 ErrantChuck · 587

I think you're right. I hadn't realized you can just let charges accumulate on the Red Clock and don't have to take them off. It seems you could create a state wherein you're always getting an extra action from the Clock and using the Pendant each turn. This is even more horribly broken of course. Yikes.

Glad you liked it! I'd love to know how your deck plays in EotE!

Nov 06, 2023 Zaratan · 34

@ErrantChuck this is the deck I'm planning to run : arkhamdb.com

Nov 13, 2023 Balthazar_03 · 1

Like Zaratan said*, how would Miskatonic Archeology funding fit the deck? I don't quite have enough experience in the game to know for sure, so I'd like your opinions :D

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*The exact quote from Zaratan: "I have a question/suggestion : Miskatonic Archeology Funding gives you two ally slots (for myskatonic allies (like Whitton and the ES)) for 1 more xp than Charisma allowing you to also get Jake in play. Wouldn’t it be better ?"

Nov 13, 2023 Zaratan · 34

@Balthazar_03 if you look at my veprofile sion of the deck this is my planned upgrade path. In my opinion it’s 1Xp for a nice quality of life upgrade. Depending on which campaign you’re playing and how front loaded in xp it is it can be worth it.

Nov 13, 2023 ErrantChuck · 587

Miskatonic Funding is a great card for this deck. Gets Jake in play which will only allow you to put the pieces together faster. Well worth the additional 1 XP.

Nov 14, 2023 suika · 9269

A good deck deck distilling down the bare essense of what enables a pendant build.

From one deckbuilder to another: if you're finding the game too easy and the cards too "OP", up the difficult to Hard or Expert. It may sound like just a small numbers change, but you'll quickly run into new limitations and restrictions that you'll need to account for, and decks that had worked well previously becoming slow and brittle.

Feb 12, 2024 Dekdarion · 7

how do you manage the encounter deck ?

Feb 13, 2024 Zaratan · 34

@Dekdarion by the end of my run with a very similar deck with everything on the table I was at 4 will and 7 agility + lots of ally that can take hits from you which let you manage a lot of what is thrown to you. What trouble do you have with the encounter deck ? (Bonus : Which difficulty ?)

Feb 14, 2024 Dekdarion · 7

no trouble at all it was just a question i m traumatized bye a solo campaign with joe ;)