Introduction

Have you ever been disappointed in how weak you are? Running scared after taking two damage from an event? City life got you down? Well I have a solution for you! Simply paint yourself into the lovable farmer Hank Samson. Protect your weak allies, and banish all of your foes.

Background

Transfiguration caught my as eye as soon as I saw the Drowned City cards. My group had been performing extremely well in the past few campaigns, so I decided that I would build around transfiguration no matter what, and this is what I came up with. I thought it was going to be a bit of a troll deck, but it ended up being surprisingly powerful and extremely fun. This deck was a huge contributor to our ability to beat the Drowned City secret mission in a blind run, which was the first secret mission we had ever unlocked.

The 0 XP version is largely what I used with a few adjustments that I think improves it. Its far from an optimized deck and allows for quite a bit of flexibility in how you build it. I would not follow it blindly, but instead adapt as you need.

It should be noted that this deck was built for a 4 player party that already had a dedicated fighter. Early campaign I served as a secondary fighter that offered some support, and in the later half turned into a gatling-gun focused fighter that decimated encounters after a bit of setup.

The Deck

The core of this deck is to combine Transfiguration to turn into Hank Samson. We are then able to combine Hank's trait in conjunction with Spectral Shield and high charge items such as Eyes of the Dreamer to tank an enormous amount of damage for our entire team while giving Hank access to powerful rogue weapons such as Gatling Gun

Why Sefina?

She has access to mystic 2 giving us the Transfiguration card and generically powerful mystic cards such as Ward of Protection, Delve Too Deep, and Deny Existence. Her weakness is completely negligible while a 13 card starting hand feels downright broken. She also gets access to Memories of Another Life which is both powerful and flexible.

It's worth noting that you will be no longer be able to draw cards beneath Sefina once you transform. They can still be utilized via The Painted World though.

Why Hank?

Strong fighter that doesn't normally have access to powerful weapons. Retains decent which lets Eyes of the Dreamer and Spectral Razor be useful as both characters. Also gives him access to Spectral Shield which is amazing with his ability to tank damage for other characters. No longer has to deal with his weakness which can be rather brutal.

Downsides

The deck requires setup and can't easily deal with monsters in the early rounds. I relied on the other fighter in my party while I setup for the Transfiguration, Gatling Gun, Contraband combo. It is also a resource blackhole hence the inclusion of so many resource cards.

Core Cards

These are cards I used that I found to be invaluable. I would not replace them, or only do so after careful consideration.

Transfiguration - The basis of the entire deck. I started with In the Thick of It to get it on the first mission though you could wait until mission two.

Gatling Gun - Our damage of choice. Big gun go boom.

Contraband - Required to combo for gatling gun. You really want to get at least one of these off before firing the gun, though ideally you get two off and instantly blast anything that shows up. Useful early campaign to double your other fighter's weapon, otherwise a dead draw.

Memories of Another Life - Economy, flexibility, and a free action to boot. High XP cost but absolutely worth it. I didn't run an ally with my deck so my go-to was grabbing a Leo De Luca, but also used it to play a free Bank Job or Contraband. You can also use it with eyes of the dreamer to guarantee a pass, otherwise try to make sure the +2 makes it only fail by an auto fail.

Spectral Razor - Allows Sefina to fight while still being incredibly powerful as Hank.

Eyes of the Dreamer - Wow did this card ever surprise me. Early campaign it lets you get a surprising amount of clues. Retains its use later to guarantee a test for Memories of Another Life and Lucky Cigarette Case while also being fuel for Spectral Shield

Cat Mask - +2 to or , the only two stats we care about. Refreshes itself surprisingly often without needing to do anything. Could be replaced later on, but invaluable in the early campaign.

Lucky Cigarette Case - Generically powerful and we absolutely need our key cards in order to get started. Upgraded version is incredible.

Bank Job - We are resource starved and need all the money we can get. Can also be used to support your allies if you already have all the money you need.

Spectral Shield Tons of damage soak which lets us tank for allies as Hank and utilize charges from Eyes of the Dreamer.

Scroll of Secrets - Incredibly powerful for a 0 xp 1 cost card. If you already have your key cards in your starter hand (which happens a lot due to 13 card draw), then you can use it for your allies instead while you gather the resources for gatling gun+contraband.

Cards that I didn't use but think would be good

Breath of the Sleeper - I don't think this is as good as eyes, but it does provide you more options to fight as Sefina if you really need it while retaining the later benefits that Eyes does. I ran derringer in my deck over this.

Emergency Cache - Can't even remember what I used instead, but I found myself spending actions on resource gathering when I had a high hand size. I definitely should have picked this up.

Guts - I used an ally, but rarely had resources to play it. A cycle skill of choice would fit great here.

If you think your deck list is lacking draw or resources, then consider "Where's the party?" or Alchemical Transmutation to replace Delve, Breath, or Emergency Cache.

"Meh" Cards

Hypnotic Gaze On paper it seemed good, but I used it maybe once the entire campaign for Drowned City. I don't think its bad, but it is easily replaced especially because I rarely had the resources to fund it. I wanted to keep 6 spells for Arcane Research, and this was the last card to make the cut. Definitely consider replacing this with something else. I also wanted to stay at 22 events for Sefina.

Playstyle

Use Eyes of the Dreamer to grab early clues and as set up in combination with Memories of Another Life and Lucky Cigarette Case. Use card draw and resource generation cards as needed until you assemble everything you need for the Transfiguration, Gatling Gun, Contraband combo.

Upgrade Path

My suggested upgrade path is Transfiguration x2->Lucky Cigarette Case->Gatling Gun->Lucky Cigarette Case->Memories of Another life x2->Gatling gun->Luxury.

My personal path was Transfiguration x2->Memories of Another Lifex2-> Lucky Cigarette Case->Gatling Gunx2->Lucky Cigarette case-> Luxury.

Cards you'll want to think about replacing for upgrades include Enchanted Blade, Delve too deep, Breath of the sleeper, and Hypnotic gaze. When you have 2x gatling and 2x Lucky cigarette case enchanted blade becomes a dead draw, but its nice for some fighter consistency before that.

Luxury Upgrades

As XP allows. Drowned city thew so much XP at us that I didn't know what to do with. These are all cards I got by the end but there's tons of other directions to go too.

Another Day, Another Dollar - This was extremely valuable for me. Thought about moving this into core upgrades rather than luxury. This deck is all about racing the clock in the early rounds to get setup before your other fighter is overwhelmed.

Relic Hunter

The Red Clock

Hot Streak

Other

Charon's Obol and The Great Work synergize perfectly with this deck. You're already incredibly tanky due to reasons mentioned above, but you can also transfigure out of the Homunculus if you somehow do die. I simply did not include these cards as I do not like their design.

Transfiguration

Big thanks to the creator of this Google doc. It saved me a LOT of time in figuring out a deck I wanted to build for transfiguration, and made me realize Hank's resolute works when I initially thought it would not. I got the document from reddit but couldn't remember who posted it. Sorry!