Memories of Absolution | Deck Guide

This is a fine tuned blessed cluever deck that builds around Seal of the Elders (more precisely, Keeper of the Key). The unique combination of Father Mateo & Memories of Another Life & Seal of the Elders & Spectral Shield brought me lots of fun during the 3-player campaign in Return to the Forgotten Age (TFA). Ascetic The main clue accelerator is Keeper of the Key which provides 1 ~ 3 additional action-free clues per turn. To make this happen, you need to:

• Commit Memories of Another Life to play Absolution (X=100) from your collection AT NO COST. This would run out of the chaos bag at the Step 7 of the skill test because it happens while resolving the effect of the committed cards.
• As long as you have 2+ in the chaos bag, that would activate Seal of the Elders and spawn Keeper of the Key. Note that chaos tokens revealed in this way are still considered during the skill test as per the FAQ.
  • If you also have 2+ in the chaos bag, it will spawn Servant of Brass as well.
• Attach Spectral Shield to Keeper of the Key. This will prevent the horror hence make it infinite use.
  • Note that the horror is described after the colon, so preventing the horror will not prevent the additional clue, not falling into the nunbo of Beat Cop (2) / Field Agent's case.
  • Number of additional clues you finally get only depends on how many you and your team revealed. No round limit. Horror are fully avoided. Clues can be got from your or connecting locations.

Besides that, Father Mateo's ability provides the most reliable team-wise revealer among the game, which makes many interesting team-wise synergy happen. I will elaborate this in the Making a Deal section below.

Mulligan

Ideally we want the starting hand to have at least one copy of each category:

• Card draw (the more the better): Crystal Pendulum, Backpack (2), Scroll of Secrets, Arcane Initiate.
  • Crystal Pendulum provides reliable 1 card draw per turn: as long as you have sealed, you can resolve it instead and activate Ancient Covenant. In this way, you may calculate the number you will succeed by at the beginning.
• Money: Rite of Sanctification, The Key of Solomon.
• generator: Keep Faith, Tempt Fate, Priest of Two Faiths.

Keep both Memories of Another Life and Seal of the Elders if both of them are in the opening hand. It is very possible that you will get Keeper of the Key in play at very early game.

This deck provides reliable card draw to ensure you draw all substantial components at reasonable time. More precisely, it is expected to draw 49.5 cards in a game. See the out-of-game thinking section for how it is obtained.

Preparation

As long as you have 2+ in the chaos bag and Seal of the Elders is in your hand, you can commit Memories of Another Life to play Absolution(X=100), as described above. This will result in:

• Fill tokens into the chaos bag, as you run out of the chaos bag and get all non-symbol tokens revealed.
• Heal 2+ horror for your team, depending on how many you originally have.
• Activate Seal of the Elders and spawn Keeper of the Key.

If it is impossible to get Seal of the Elders in hand, or it is the second copy, the target of Memories of Another Life is Leo De Luca or Drawing Thin before you purchase Charisma. In some extreme cases where does not work at all, Scavenging is the backup.

Investigating

Clue acceleraters are:

• Keeper of the Key spawned by Seal of the Elders.
• Read the Signs (2) as usual. Recur it by as it is also a symbol token.
• Eyes of the Dreamer if it successfully fishes for for the first X-1 attempt. Then you may resolve the sealed for the last attempt. In this way, you can ignore the first and resolve the last . You can even return it to the chaos bag as Father Mateo's ability explicitly states "release that token".

This section mainly elaborates my thinking of why I added / dropped this card. If you just want to find a deck to play, you may skip this section.

Engines

The card draw engine ensures totally 49.5 cards drawn before turn 14.

• 13 total from fixed card draw: Scroll of Secrets = 3x2=6, Backpack (2) = 3, Guts = 2, Tempt Fate = 2.
• 2.5 total draw-per-turn: Crystal Pendulum = 1, Arcane Initiate = 0.5, Leo De Luca spawn by the second copy of Memories of Another Life = 1.
• Total card draw: 49.5 = 5 (opening hand) + 13 (fixed card draw) + (1.25 (extra draw-per-turn on average) + 1 (upkeep)) x 14.
• ~See? Our Mystic is soooooo reliable!~

You may be doubtful that why I added Arcane Initiate and spend 4 experience on Backpack (2). Even though it just have 8 items and 6 spells, some of them are so important that I need to get them at the early game: The Key of Solomon, Crystal Pendulum, Seal of the Elders, etc. Arcane Initiate and Backpack (2) here is to provide a guarantee, like how Prepared for the Worst acts in a Guardian deck. On the other hand, it also provides a trading opportunity for you and your teammates. See Making a Deal section below for more details.

Revealers

Tempt Fate and Priest of Two Faiths are preferred than Keep Faith because I really need some for The Key of Solomon especially at the early game. Actually I would prefer 4xTempt Fate if it was legal. Surprisingly, Father Mateo is more tolerable than other bless characters that heavily rely on Ancient Covenant. It makes us possible to be more blurse, such as being more greedy (Servant of Brass + Favor of the Moon).

Never upgrade your signature card unless via the standalone game. The upgraded Serpents of Yig brings huge and unaffordable tempo loss and sometimes leads to death, especially you have Rite of Sanctification in play. The upgraded The Codex of Ages, however, brings little improvements for Father Mateo himself. It is only considered as team combo. See Making a Deal section below for more details.

All the tricks described above fall far short of Father Mateo’s full potential. For example, Blessing of Isis?**. I believe it is the cheapest generator in this game, and Father Mateo has the access to it. However, his ability does not actually worth it. On the other hand, there are many characters who really want a reliable generator but does not have Isis access or short of synergy. Hence there is the opportunity for trade.

What we can offer

• Blessing of Isis as a reliable generator considering Father Mateo's ability to generate for others.
• More flex like Shrivelling (5). I don't want to do this mainly because I want this deck to be more consistent, to avoid the long preparation before actual works. Luckily, Father Mateo does have the level-5 access (Can you do this, Narukami?)
• Even more revealing. I choose not to upgrade The Codex of Ages mainly because the upgraded Serpents of Yig is not acceptable. However, if someone can handle this enemy, the upgraded signature card is of course an excellent team-wise revealer, especially when you choose Scavenging for Memories of Another Life.

What we want from others

• Handling Serpents of Yig especially when it is upgraded.
• More reliable tutoring ability, like Daisy with Old Book of Lore (like this) so that we can drop Backpack (2) and Arcane Initiate.
• More reliable generator like Sister Mary.

What Deal I Made

In my team, I cooperate with William Yorick who is the fighter. He has strong ability and has more potential to recur consuming assets like Rite of Sanctification. So we made this deal:

• Father Mateo:
  • Rite of Sanctification -> Blessing of Isis
  • Upgraded The Codex of Ages.
• William Yorick:
  • add Rite of Sanctification for team use.
  • Favor of the Sun to get the ability to reveal 2 with Father Mateo's ability.

This is a good deal as William Yorick can kill Serpents of Yig then immediately recur Rite of Sanctification, making me no longer worry about the tempo loss. Meanwhile, William Yorick's ability even ensures that the team has Rite of Sanctification EVERY TURN. On the other hand, the joining of upgraded The Codex of Ages and Favor of the Sun makes the Blessing of Isis a reliable revealer for William Yorick. Similar deal can also happen for Guardians like Nathaniel Cho and Lily Chen.

(View at arkham-starter.com)