Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
Kal · 824
In the prologue for The Forgotten Age it says that if Leo Anderson, Ursula Downs, or Monterey Jack are in the game then one of them should become the expedition leader. I'd already taken Leo and Ursula through this campaign, so it was finally time for Monty to step up and take the lead.
This deck was designed for a two-handed solo run of Return to The Forgotten Age, on Hard, alongside Father Mateo.
The partner deck can be found here.
If you want to skip ahead to see the final version of this deck, it can be found here.
The Untamed Wilds
The Forgotten Age is infamous for having a very high front-loaded difficulty, and most of that is concentrated in the opening scenario, The Untamed Wilds. It's one of the reasons I love this campaign, because building a deck that performs well in hard content is incredibly rewarding, and the first half of this campaign has some of the hardest content the game has to offer.
I played through The Untamed Wilds a few dozen times while developing this deck. It started out pretty different from this final incarnation and while I won't say this is the best possible bunch of cards for the situation at hand, it ended up performing more consistently than any other iteration I tried.
For a broad overview of the design goals here it's best to take a look at some of the specific challenges presented by The Untamed Wilds.
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The key challenge here is loss of actions. The encounter deck has three copies each of Ancient Evils and Best-Laid Plans, and advancing both the first act and agenda forces you to shuffle the discard pile back into the deck.
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Getting Poisoned is a significant handicap because it turns the token into a second , and it also triggers a bunch of nasty effects on scenario cards.
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Killing most of the early game enemies can be counterproductive because it builds up stacks of vengeance, which scales the and makes the late game enemies stronger. Also, your vengeance is tracked between scenarios (in the form of Yig's Fury) and having too much later on can lead to an outcome we'd like to avoid.
So, with those considerations in mind, our deck has three main objectives:
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Be as efficient as possible with our actions.
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Don't kill anything (at least at the beginning).
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And, don't get poisoned!
That last one is particularly important because we decided to pack only one box of medicine for this trip and we're saving it for the third scenario.
This is our list of supplies:
Father Mateo: map, canteen, compass.
Monterey Jack: provisions x 1, medicine, binoculars, chalk.
That's right, no blankets. We'll be sleeping rough on this trip. Mateo also forgot to pack any provisions, but that's fine because provisions and blankets have no effect in The Untamed Wilds so we don't care too much about them. The canteen, compass, map, binoculars, and chalk all have helpful effects in this first scenario, so they made the cut.
All this focus on The Untamed Wilds is for the sole purpose of extracting as much XP from it as possible, because it's probably the most difficult scenario in the game and snowballing your advantages is still the best overall strategy for success in any campaign. That, plus it's fun to tech hard and see your choices pay off.
The Deck
Monterey Jack is a Seeker that looks like a Rogue. Building a deck for him was an interesting challenge because there are so many level zero yellow cards you could consider staples but you're only allowed to take five of them, and there are so many high level green cards that would be great for him but you're allowed to take none of them.
His ability looks good on paper but I was still surprised at how interesting and effective it turned out to be during play, and after getting a few games under my belt it prompted some significant changes to the deck. Being able to draw an extra card or gain an extra resource (or both) each turn slightly devalues other card draw and resource gain effects, or, to put it another way, it allows you more flexibility with regards to your other slots.
And it was good to have that headroom because after each test run I felt pressured to cut down on the setup time required to get things going. I needed to be investigating and exploring from turn one, not playing out a bunch of assets in the hopes of being effective three turns from now (the classic Rogue experience).
So I got pretty ruthless with the asset list. No Thieves' Kit, too slow. No Fieldwork, too situational. Every asset included here has justified its existence through repeated play, and I don't think the list can be pared back any more given the constraints of the scenario and the capabilities of Monty's partner.
Speaking of which, a funny thing happened after my 20th or so run. I decided to try giving Mateo the map, which up until that point I thought for some reason wouldn't make that much of a difference (and it also meant he had to drop his blanket and provisions). But it turned out to be a huge deal and it effectively saves you a heap of actions over the course of the scenario because you can avoid running headfirst into a bunch of treacheries.
This meant I was able to take a step back and reevaluate the entire deck list, and I made a couple of changes for the second and third scenarios. I never really build exclusively for the first scenario of any campaign anyway, but this list had been weighted more heavily for that than any other I can remember.
So, as with the assets, the events and skills were chosen with the opening scenario in mind, but I also wanted to create a clue grabbing engine that suited both the campaign as a whole and Monty's stats and play style.
The third scenario in particular has a lot of 4-clue locations, so he has multiple ways to grab three clues at once (after an upgrade or two) and then pick up the last remaining clue with a card effect or a basic investigate action.
The final list turned out to be pretty effective. I could have probably tried a few more changes but at some point you have to stop iterating and get on with playing the game.
The Cards
My usual approach with any investigator that has a limited number of out-of-class slots is to take five cards that either can't be upgraded or won't be replaced until late in the game, if at all, the theory being you can get some unique utility that isn't available from other cards in your class.
Having said that, for the longest time I was using the humble Magnifying Glass here, because it's really hard to pass up for any Seeker (or anyone with a good base ). But after going through the first few scenarios a bunch of times I realized it wasn't that necessary, so I swapped it out for more useful stuff.
Since The Untamed Wilds is such a heavy action-taxing scenario, one of the most obvious inclusions was Leo De Luca. If you get him early it's about ten extra actions over the course of the average game, which is well worth the cost.
For an economy package I initially went with cards that offered action compression or didn't require an action at all. Combined with the trickle of resources from Monty's ability, you end up with a kind of just in time system where you should have what you need from moment to moment instead of building and sitting on a pool of resources.
The problem with this idea only appeared later in the game when I was trying to find slots for upgrades. Removing cards like Sneak By or Crack the Case lowered the critical mass of effects needed to sustain a good flow of resources, so you were running on fumes most of the time.
The solution to this problem was Bank Job because it offered a large amount of resources in a single card. I also added Sticky Fingers fairly late in the process because it proved itself in the first two scenarios, which are very evade-heavy.
Enemy management comes mainly in the form of our naturally high combined with evade effects. Mateo can take care of anything that needs killing, though it takes him some time to get up to speed. Fortunately, until then we can get by on our own.
In the Thick of It: We'll take two physical trauma here because we have plenty of health to spare and most damage-dealing treacheries test . We'll buy Charisma with the XP since we want to have two allies in play for the whole campaign.
Leo De Luca: Extra actions aren't worth it unless you can do something meaningful with them, like take additional tests that have a good chance of success. If you're mostly using Leo's bonus action to draw a card or gain a resource then your deck would probably be better off without him.
Fortunately, this scenario presents a compelling case with its Explore mechanic costing actions and its treacheries like Best-Laid Plans consuming them. Monty also has a high enough base to be able to investigate several locations here at +3, or +4 or better with a few spare resources for Sharp Rhetoric.
Olivier Bishop: This is an outstanding card for Monty which will directly lead to more cards drawn and resources gained from his ability during any game. Being able to move while engaged with an enemy is also very useful, especially in the first scenario when you can drop a snake off at a location where it won't bother anyone for the rest of the game.
And to top it off, Olivier boosts your to six, allowing you to evade any non-elite enemy in the scenario at +3 or better (the all-important number to reach to avoid getting poisoned when you pull an token and fail the test).
Disguise: I originally ran one copy of this when I was trying to balance enemy management duties between both investigators, but two copies is necessary to ensure you have a good chance of finding it early.
It's very good for handling hunter enemies, and its built-in +2 saves on commits. If the Boa Constrictor comes out early you can stall it with this card until you find a Transmogrify.
Transmogrify: Speaking of which, this card provides a unique and powerful effect for dealing with hunter enemies. Hitting something with this is often as good as killing it.
Polished Cane: I found this card while teching for the second scenario but it offers a surprising amount of value throughout the campaign. With the 1 boost from Olivier Bishop you can test at 8 without any other boosts, which is enough to reach +4 on most enemies and +6 on the Harbinger of Valusia.
Bonking the Harbinger on the head four times is the most efficient way to get rid of it whenever it appears, though you'll usually want to evade it at least once to avoid any -related retaliate accidents.
More generally, a lot of enemies have 3HP so getting one hit in and using the auto-evade here means you can move on and let Mateo land the killing blow with a single two damage attack (potentially saving him precious Cosmic Flame charges).
In the third scenario you can use it to dispatch the 1HP cultists, and it's also useful there for committing "Watch this!" since there are a lot fewer opportunities to perform tests. A minor benefit, but it all adds up.
Having two copies helps to ensure we get it when we need it and it also offers some protection from discard treacheries like Merging Timelines.
Trusty Bullwhip: I'll mention this one in the same breath as the Polished Cane because taking the cane is almost like getting two extra copies of the Bullwhip, which is a really good card.
The main difference between the two is that the Bullwhip can evade elite enemies, which is a great effect when you need it. Note that, as with the cane, you can keep attacking with it when it's exhausted.
Silver Tongue, Sharp Rhetoric: Having two copies of a card that can boost your for the Ichtaca parley test is valuable here as you won't always have enough commits to reach +4 (or +6) twice in one turn. Silver Tongue can also boost your evasion and investigate tests, though it's not very efficient for that, while Sharp Rhetoric offers a way to pass the test when the agenda advances (provided you have a lot of spare resources).
Sticky Fingers: I've played Pickpocketing in Rogue decks before so I know you can generate ludicrous amounts of resources from this effect. Sticky Fingers isn't quite on that level since you can only have one copy, but the first and second scenarios are very evade heavy and it can still generate a double digit amount of resources if you play it early, so it's worth the slot.
Note that it requires you to "successfully" evade an enemy so it will only trigger if you evade as the result of a test rather than an automatic evade effect (like on Trusty Bullwhip).
Fox Mask: This card helps save on commits and resources and there's no shortage of enemies in the first couple of scenarios to recharge it. It's really solid, and it's even more effective with Olivier Bishop.
Intel Report: Testless clue grabbing is expensive but usually worth it. This card offers the best way to clear the Overgrown Ruins since it has a high shroud value, but it's also good early on for ensuring you have six clues before the agenda advances.
There are a lot of situations throughout this campaign (or any campaign, really) where grabbing clues without investigating is very handy, since you can bypass any location effects that might trigger and avoid pulling bad tokens (the token in particular can cause a lot of problems in this campaign).
Pilfer: The opening scenario can have 1-3 locations with four clues, and later scenarios have more. This card provides an efficient way to clear them but you can also use it on 2-clue locations if you don't have a better tool for the job at hand since you're still getting two clues for the price of one action.
Correlate All Its Contents: This card offers a way to avoid a nasty token like the , which becomes an auto-fail if you're poisoned. It's useful throughout the campaign in that regard because the token is really bad in some future scenarios, but it also offers some general failure protection when you've spent resources or extra commits on Deduction.
The other thing it does is to put a few charges onto Mateo's spells, which is pretty impactful even when they're not upgraded (and very impactful when they are). All these things together make it worth the slot here over other yellow cards.
Scout Ahead: In the first scenario you'll probably get to a point where you'll want to double back through a path that contains a Pit Viper or another ready enemy, and this card provides a safe way to do that and it might even trigger your full ability bonus while doing so. It's great in the first two or three scenarios but it'll get replaced soon after that.
Bank Job: The deck began with zero copies of this card because I was trying to maximize my action economy, but after making up a lot of actions in the first scenario by giving Mateo the map it turned out I could pretty easily accommodate it. We have plenty of other action compression effects to offset its cost and we'll pick up more as we progress through the campaign.
As mentioned earlier, it offers a very large amount of resources in a single card so it means we can spend fewer slots on resource generators, which is important later on when we're trying to find room for our upgrades.
"Watch this!": Risky at less than +5 but that number isn't too hard to hit on tests, and if you want to get greedy and do a double commit you'll also have Mateo's ability to save you from the inevitable token pull.
Out the Door: The first couple of scenarios have an abundance of tests so this is almost always a double commit. You can use it on other tests, of course, but in practice I found myself rarely doing so until later in the campaign. You can also use it to give your partner resources but I rarely did that either.
Perception: I went back and forth a bit between this one and Manual Dexterity and settled on this one since the deck is already fairly saturated with icons and after the first couple of scenarios the deck will gain a more -heavy identity as we add high level Seeker cards.
Buried Secrets: This one can be a real nuisance. Every time you decide to end your turn on a high shroud location you'll wonder if you should have done that, and then you invariably draw this card and roll your eyes.
Its main effect is to spoil your line of play for your next turn since most of the time in this game you're thinking a turn or two ahead. I probably eat the horror and reshuffle it maybe one out of three times, but I will say that having Sharp Rhetoric helps a surprising amount for dealing with it.
Morbid Curiosity: You would think that this would be the ideal basic weakness to draw for a clue grabber, but it has a bad habit of appearing at exactly the wrong time such that you don't have the resources to reliably clear a nearby location at -2.
The one saving grace of this weakness for Monty is that "when" effects trigger before "at" effects, so if you draw this with your ability at the end of your turn you don't immediately take a one point horror hit and reshuffle it.
And now for some cards that didn't make the cut:
Magnifying Glass: I'm surprised this card got reprinted in Chapter 2 because it really is too good. In a vacuum it's hard to make a case for taking other Seeker assets when this thing exists.
As mentioned earlier, I used it for a while and it performed well, but this deck doesn't rely that much on tests for grabbing clues, at least early in the campaign.
Fieldwork: This one was good, too, but definitely a tier below a lot of others. Monty wants to move a lot and a universal +2 boost is valuable, but there were just too many situations where it didn't do anything so it was hard to justify the cost of playing it.
Thieves' Kit: I tried this card for a while but it was only ever used a few times here and there for cleaning up anything left over after a multiple clue-grabbing effect, and Silver Tongue, Sharp Rhetoric, or an commit was good enough for that.
Lucky Cigarette Case: This is the one that's probably most surprising for its absence in a high Rogue deck. The main reason it isn't here is because Monty can draw an extra card each turn from his ability. You won't always pick that option if you have to choose, but it happens often enough to give the deck a steady amount of draw.
If the deck had been designed to churn through a large volume of cheap cards or skills then the additional draw would be more valuable and it might've made the cut, but the bottom line is that I wanted to keep the asset list as short as possible and it doesn't do enough to justify a spot.
Crack the Case: This is another yellow slot card I tried for a while but it tended to sit in hand for too long, so I swapped it for cards that were more readily played. It's a good card but it requires a different resource profile than what this deck wants to really shine.
Breaking and Entering: This is another good card that, again, tended to sit too long in hand waiting for the right opportunity to be played since you typically don't want to use it when you aren't getting any benefit from its evade effect.
Right Under Their Noses: I swapped this in for Breaking and Entering for a while, the intent being to use it to grab the last clue from a location before moving on. It interacts with Olivier Bishop pretty well and it's pretty flexible but ultimately there were better cards for its slot.
The Campaign
After developing a pair of decks I like to do an ironman run through the campaign, which is why I value consistency so much. And ironman in this context just means no restarting or taking back moves or anything unless I've made a mistake that prevents the game from continuing properly.
For each scenario, I'll make some notes about important or interesting things to look out for, then I'll cover the upgrade choices.
Scenario One: The Untamed Wilds
I've talked a lot about this scenario already, so suffice it to say we want to get set up and begin exploring as soon as possible.
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The key here is to advance the act the round before the agenda advances. Each advancement shuffles the encounter discard pile into the deck, so by advancing the act first we can ensure the discard pile is empty when the agenda advances, which means there's no chance for any copies of Ancient Evils to get shuffled into the deck twice.
In practice, this means we need to discover six clues before the agenda advances. Ideally, we would get all six clues from the two VP locations, but it's possible that both of them will only have two clues each so it's safest to grab two clues from an early location to hedge against that outcome.
Given the variance with the other early locations and the kind of surprises you can pull from the exploration deck, getting clues at the earliest opportunity is generally the best strategy anyway (one exception would be if you happen to stumble into a 4-clue VP location early in the game).
If you happen to get six clues before any copy of Ancient Evils has appeared then it's safe to advance the act early, and in fact it's better because it means the encounter deck will be slightly larger so there's less chance for any individual copy to appear in future.
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Mateo should be using the map before every explore action but if you feel like going in blind then make sure you don't explore with your last action, since if you draw a Pit Viper you're guaranteed to get poisoned.
Also, if you draw a Best-Laid Plans you won't be able to choose the "lose 2 actions" option if you don't have any actions left, and it's sometimes the preferred choice since you don't want the exploration deck to get too big for Mateo to stack.
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Be mindful of where you end your turn, since pulling an Overgrowth or enemy during the next Mythos phase can soft lock your location and prevent you from exploring or investigating. Don't go out of your way to always end your turn at the most favourable location, though, or you'll end up wasting too many actions.
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When the act advances and Ichtaca appears you will have to pass her parley tests yourself, though Mateo might be able to help with a commit.
Parleying is better than attacking her because it reduces the damage you take in future and it prevents Arrows from the Trees from gaining surge, which raises the chances of more Ancient Evils being drawn.
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Before the agenda advances you should evade or ignore all enemies, but afterwards you can help Mateo kill the odd Brood of Yig or two if it seems necessary. Having three or more vengeance makes the Serpent from Yoth very difficult to kill, so it's best if you can avoid that outcome.
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When the agenda advances, make sure you're at the same location as Mateo so he can help you pass the test with Torrent of Power. If he doesn't have it then you're almost certain to get poisoned, though you might be able to scrape something together with Sharp Rhetoric and/or one of his big wildcard commits.
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It's worth spending heavily to pass any poison test because the opportunity costs of being poisoned really do add up over the course of the game.
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After advancing to the final act it's a race to find and clear all three of the new VP locations. Chances are some exploration paths will be blocked off by enemies or treacheries but there are multiple routes to all three locations so you can often find a way around by discovering the first one and going through it.
The Untamed Wilds: 12XP gained (including 2XP from the interlude).
We take a third point of physical trauma here because we forgot our blanket.
Upgrades
Removed:
2 x Leo De Luca: He served his purpose well, but it's time to make room for a much better ally.
1 x Silver Tongue: This card also served its purpose by assisting with the Ichtaca parley. We'll keep Sharp Rhetoric because its boosting has value in the third scenario, but we don't need more than one investigate booster going forward.
Added:
2 x Gené Beauregard: Gené will snap the next scenario over her knee like a twig, not to mention the rest of the campaign. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration but she really is very powerful and definitely should have been 5XP on release instead of via taboo (I don't think she comes close to being Forbidden-worthy, but if you disagree I wouldn't argue).
She works extremely well with Olivier Bishop for managing enemies, allowing you to shake off anything without spending an action, and her clue moving ability works really well with Pilfer, allowing you to turn a 4-clue location into a 3-clue location or a 2-clue location into a 3-clue one.
The number of favourable lines of play she opens up in every game easily justifies her high cost.
1 x Deduction: Another 3-clue effect. It has limited application in the second scenario but in the third one it will be very useful indeed.
12XP spent, 0XP left.
Scenario Two: The Doom of Eztli
This scenario had some huge variance while I was learning it, with some runs being a cakewalk and a lot of others falling short by two turns (it was uncanny how often it was exactly two turns).
At one point I added The Chthonian Stone to Mateo's deck as a silver bullet and it really paid off. If Mateo finds it early then the run was very often a cakewalk because it eliminates the most random source of doom (the token). It's good in the first scenario, too, and also later on when more tokens get added to the bag.
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Our first objective here is to find the Ancient Hall because it's basically a safe zone that both investigators can hang out at while they build up their kits.
The reason for that is that Mateo has a compass so he can flip one doom per turn for free. He will probably need to sit here for a while in most games since he begins the game with two resources, but it's useful for someone to sit there for as long as possible anyway because it effectively neutralizes Ill Omen and Ancestral Fear.
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When you're ready to venture out, clear the Grand Chamber so Mateo can use his map on it, and try not to end your turn at the Throne Room so there's no chance it can get doom on it during the next Mythos phase.
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Gené is extremely good for clearing VP locations, saving you actions by not having to discover clues.
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She's also good at escaping from the Tindalos Alpha if you have Olivier Bishop in play.
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There's one copy of Wrath of Yig in the encounter deck but getting poisoned here isn't much of an issue so it's not worth trying to pass the test. You can clear your poison at the end of the third scenario pretty easily.
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When the Harbinger of Valusia appears you should be able to shoo it away fairly easily with the Polished Cane. Chances are you'll pull it off in one turn if Mateo can throw something at it as well.
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Try to save a Scout Ahead for the run back to the entrance since it will allow you to safely skip over the Snake Pit.
The Doom of Eztli: 5XP gained.
Upgrades
Removed:
1 x Sticky Fingers: We have a few cards that lose a lot of value now and this one is at the top of the list because there are barely any enemies worth evading in the next couple of scenarios.
1 x Disguise: For the same reason as above.
Added:
1 x Deduction: The second copy.
1 x Grisly Totem: It's time to make use of our accessory slot. This is a really powerful card because it helps you pass a test (+1 is more significant than you might think) and then you draw a card, helping you to pass a future test.
5XP spent, 0XP left.
Scenario Three: Threads of Fate
During the interlude we gave the relic to Harlan, so we're forging our own path. This means we'll get more tokens from now on, which is really quite bad in some scenarios, but it's the only way to go if you want to turn back time.
We also chose to get to the root of the problem because Veda Whitsley is a really powerful ally who we'll definitely want to recruit.
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This scenario is a feast for Seekers as it has six locations with four clues each. Use Gené Beauregard to create 3-clue locations you can clear with Pilfer or Deduction, and if you don't actually need the clues then use her to move them off the VP locations.
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You can try to do the parley tests for Harlan Earnstone or Clinton Freeman using Sharp Rhetoric if you have a lot of spare resources, but it's probably easier for Mateo to handle them.
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There are two copies of Hunting Nightgaunt in the encounter deck and it's the only enemy you can safely Transmogrify since all the cultists can potentially build up doom. It can be costly to catch a Nightgaunt with an evade because of their ability, but if they appear early then it's worth trying to do it.
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Use the medicine you've been carrying on The Hastings Estates.
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Try to clear the Curiositie Shoppe before you talk to Harlan since it'll be a bit easier if the relic happens to be there, and you want to clear it anyway for the VP.
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It's good to have multiple act decks in progress at the same time rather than finish them too quickly because it makes The Secret Must Be Kept much more dangerous. Mateo will hopefully have a Ward of Protection for you if you pull it in the late game, or possibly a Torrent of Power.
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There is some randomness with the final act of each deck, with the outliers being if you get ambushed by the Harbinger of Valusia or have to kill enemies for Ichtaca's quest. Mateo can really pull his weight here when it comes to clue grabbing though, so you should have a fair amount of time left to accomplish every task.
The Threads of Fate: 10XP gained.
Upgrades
We could take the Expedition Journal here but it's not worth the slot.
Removed:
Fox Mask: The next scenario doesn't have enough enemies for this card to really be worth it. I do still like it even if you only get a few uses out of it but we need to make room and this is the best place to find it.
Disguise: It would've been nice to keep one copy of this since it can be useful again later on, but in the short term it's not worth it.
Added:
2 x Deciphered Reality: The next scenario is kind of a huge mess and not really worth teching for, but this card offers the best mitigation for all the crazy stuff that can go wrong there if you want to spend a couple of slots. It's also one of my favourite cards so I had to take it.
More generally, it's always a 2-clue action since you get one for investigating your location, and Gené Beauregard can spread clues around to maximize its value.
10XP spent, 0XP left.
Resupply
Monterey Jack: Removed poison, blanket, medicine, pocketknife, pickaxe.
Father Mateo: Removed physical trauma, provisions x 4, gasoline x 2, medicine, blanket, pickaxe.
Scenario Four: The Boundary Beyond
The Return To version of this scenario is a huge improvement on the original but there's still a lot of randomness here, and the interaction between certain treacheries and location effects can create some amusingly awful situations.
The main offender here though is that we now have two tokens in the bag, and every time you draw one it puts a clue onto the nearest Ancient location, setting your progress back since you need to clear six such locations to advance the act. I had at least two games where I somehow pulled seven tokens within the span of three rounds, at which point you just have to shake your head.
I managed to clear six locations once or twice but with the final version of each deck it was more common to clear four or five locations, which is still a good result.
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You should begin the game at Zócalo (or Zócalo) so that two locations are revealed at the start of the game. It's not particularly suited to you unless you happen to have spare cards to ditch to it, but starting apart also lets you visit each location quicker to see which ones you're dealing with.
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Mateo begins the game at Coyoacán (or Coyoacán) since both versions of it are well suited for him (he'll usually have four trauma at this stage of the game).
You should explore here first (let Mateo do the first exploration since it advances the act and forces you to do a test) because it's the safest Ancient location to have in play. Both versions of it only have two clues and the Present-Day versions are also the easiest locations to repeatedly explore, so if you draw a Window to Another Time early in the game it's definitely worth flipping back instead of taking a doom.
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Note that most of the Ancient locations have different connections to the Present-Day ones, which can be handy for dealing with hunter enemies. It also makes a lot of paths longer, so Scout Ahead still has some value here.
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Use Gené Beauregard to move clues out of Ancient locations. This might mean moving them to another Ancient location, but at some point it should become pretty obvious how many locations you'll be able to clear in time so you can build up clues on a Present-Day location or two.
And, as always, consider building up 3-clue locations for Pilfer or Deduction.
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You can also move clues around with the intention of playing a big Deciphered Reality, which is always fun.
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If you haven't revealed the bottom location and you pull a Hand of the Brotherhood it's worth spawning him there in case it's Xochimilco, but it also shouldn't be too hard to use Gené Beauregard to move an enemy down there if you need to.
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When the agenda is close to advancing, wait around at Templo Mayor for Padma Amrita to spawn. Since it will be late in the game, Mateo should have the right cards in hand to be able to dispatch her in one turn, but you can help out with your Trusty Bullwhip or Polished Cane.
The Boundary Beyond: 8XP gained (five locations cleared).
Upgrades
The next scenario is very easy so we don't need to tech for it. Instead, we'll look ahead to the following one.
Removed:
2 x Scout Ahead: It's outlived its usefulness.
Added:
2 x Cryptic Research: A Seeker classic. This will help us dig for our most important cards (our allies) if we don't get them in our opening hand, but free, fast card draw is simply very strong at any stage of the game.
8XP spent, 0XP left.
Scenario Five: Heart of the Elders
If you clear six locations in The Boundary Beyond you skip part one of this scenario, which is actually kind of bad since you miss the opportunity to farm a bit more XP.
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We're back in the jungle and everything that applied in the first scenario applies here, more or less, except that the consequences of being poisoned aren't as serious.
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As always, don't explore with your last action because this time, in addition to all the other reasons, you might pull a Poisonous Spores.
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It should be pretty trivial to grab the clues you need to get to six pillars, so most of the first part of the scenario will be exploring to find and clear all the VP locations.
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The second part is also a VP hunt. Not much else to say.
Heart of the Elders: 14XP gained.
Upgrades
Removed:
2 x Pilfer: We've been steadily removing icons from our deck with previous upgrades so there's fewer ways to boost this, so it will be particularly hard to use in the next scenario. It's also an expensive card and we have no shortage of those already. In short, we can live without it for the rest of the campaign.
Added:
2 x Logical Reasoning: The next scenario is very heavy on horror and it also features the dreaded Frozen in Fear. This card will go a long way towards keeping us, well, alive, but it's also great for clearing Mateo's trauma horror so that he can more easily deal out Retribution.
1 x Sharp Rhetoric: Upgrading this card ensures we'll always have it in our opening hand. It will be useful for investigating and parleying, and also for the abundance of tests we'll face, not that we would necessarily try to pass all of them.
1 x Studious: We have a couple of very key assets (Gené Beauregard and Olivier Bishop) so this will increase our chances of them being in our opening hand. It improves your mulligan quite a lot, plus starting with more cards in the next scenario is more beneficial than usual.
14XP spent, 0XP left.
Scenario Six: The City of Archives
We've been turned into Yithians! And transported through time and space! This scenario is always fun and it rewards teching more than most. It's very different to all the others in this campaign, most notably for how much horror it deals out.
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Grisly Totem is very good here since you can use its ability to add an icon to a committed card before using your Body of a Yithian effect to double it.
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Unfortunately, we don't have any sacrificial assets for Crypt Chill apart from the Polished Cane, which is actually pretty useful here since it doubles up on your stats. It's worth keeping Sharp Rhetoric in hand if it would be your only asset in play because it's crucial for specific tests.
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You can't play items before the first agenda advances, but this works well for us because our deck doesn't rely on using items to investigate.
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Instead, we need to spend resources on Sharp Rhetoric or commit cards, so draw effects like Cryptic Research are valuable (especially since we don't have our investigator ability here).
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The Return To version of this scenario added two more tasks but you still only need to complete six to get the best resolution. Those six are at these locations:
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We resisted captivity during setup so we begin play in the Interview Room and we get a free Yithian Observer in the victory display.
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Transmogrify works well on any Yithian enemies that get angry and gain hunter. The Captive Subjects will always be aloof because we aren't messing around in their rooms.
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Mateo can ace any of the location tests with Blood Curse or Soul Link but he can't do them all, so you should focus on the and ones.
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Let Mateo reveal the Interview Rooms because the Ichor-Filled Chamber has a nasty test on it (Interview Room).
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I find this to be one of the most complex and brain taxing scenarios in the entire game (at least prior to Edge of the Earth) because of how many locations there are, but with careful play it should be possible to get all six tasks done and clear all the VP locations every time.
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To escape, make sure you're at the Yithian Orrery so you can hold onto six cards at the end of your turn. On your next turn, use the act ability to draw cards by spending clues (or Cryptic Research if you have it) to get to ten cards.
The City of Archives: 13XP gained.
Upgrades
Removed:
2 x Correlate All Its Contents: The next scenario has a bad token (auto-fail if there is three vengeance in the display) but we should be able to stay below the limit for most of the game. Mateo can also now recharge his own assets with Enraptured so there's less need for this card's secondary effect.
Added:
2 x No Stone Unturned: This card essentially doubles as an extra copy of your best card (or Mateo's). In the next scenario there's a particular challenge we want to overcome so making sure we have exactly what we need for it will help a lot.
1 x Studious: Two copies of this really supercharges your mulligan. Also, because we don't have any torches we begin the final scenario with two fewer cards in hand, so this card helps mitigate that effect as well.
13XP spent, 0XP left.
Scenario Seven: The Depths of Yoth
It's time for a boss fight. Mateo has been preparing for this moment for the entire campaign so our task here is to be chief facilitator, using cards like Bank Job and No Stone Unturned to make sure he has what he needs when Yig makes his entrance.
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Of course, we still need to explore and grab clues to make our way through the tunnels. The main obstacle to these tasks is the sheer number of enemies in the encounter deck. You can really get swamped, so finding your Trusty Bullwhip or a Polished Cane early is essential.
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Try to save Transmogrify for the Pit Warden. We want to avoid killing them to keep our vengeance level below three (so that the token, of which there are now three in the bag, doesn't become an auto-fail). Enemies that go to the pursuit zone keep all their attachments so Transmogrify won't fall off.
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Since any enemies in play go to the pursuit zone when you go down a level it's generally better to evade them instead of killing them whenever possible. Later on, it won't matter too much if a bunch of them appear at once because Mateo can blast them all with Storm of Spirits.
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When Yig appears, your job is to whip or otherwise evade any enemies at his location, but you may not want to evade Yig himself each turn because the most efficient way for Mateo to kill him is with Retribution. You can safely duck out of Yig's location with Olivier Bishop to avoid his attack if necessary.
In my final run I had 14 Yig's Fury so I started this scenario at Agenda 3. I also didn't manage to reach level five (I got defeated at level four so at least there weren't any additional consequences beyond an extra point of trauma for each investigator). I did manage to bag Yig though, with a double Retribution from Mateo (one for Yig's attack on him and one for Monty).
The Depths of Yoth: 6XP gained.
Upgrades
Removed:
2 x Intel Report: The finale has mostly low shroud value locations and you'll spend most of your time handling enemies rather than grabbing clues.
Added:
2 x Surgical Kit: The main problem I kept running into there is Wracked by Time. A test that deals damage really is Monty's Achilles Heel, especially considering he had four physical trauma there and you can't use your allies to effectively soak it. It comes up a lot because there are three copies and it can get repeatedly shuffled into the exploration deck by various effects.
The Surgical Kit takes two actions to use but healing three damage gives you a lot of breathing room and you won't need to do it every turn. You can also use it to manage your horror, and it has some value when used on Mateo as well if he doesn't have enough allies to soak Retribution.
6XP spent, 0XP left.
Scenario Eight: Shattered Aeons
Due to our narrative choices so far there is one more big fight left in the game and in some ways it's harder to handle than Yig. As with last time, our main job will be to run interference for Mateo so that he can deal with everything coming our way.
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Our first task is to find four clues so we can advance the act and shuffle A Pocket in Time into the exploration deck. This should come pretty quickly, but depending upon how well you're doing it might be best to wait for the second agenda to advance before Mateo plays the Relic of Ages since it will spawn two boss enemies, and you don't really want to have to deal with the Formless Spawn at the same time as them.
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So, after killing the Formless Spawn it's then time to deal with Alejandro Vela and Ichtaca once and for all. You should wait at the Pocket of Time and use Olivier Bishop to move into the Nexus with Alejandro, then either evade him or Ichtaca, or both.
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Mateo will use whatever he's got (including Retribution) but this battle can get pretty dicey sometimes and it will take a few turns to resolve. During this time, cultists might spawn at other locations so you'll have to go and deal with them (by either killing them or dragging them back to the pile-up).
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Deciphered Reality is good here for clearing locations and dealing with Shattered Ages.
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With so many treacheries it's usually better for Mateo to do the exploration, but he will also check the top card of the deck each turn with Veda Whitsley so it can be safe for you to explore sometimes.
Once Alejandro and Ichtaca have been slain, the rest of the scenario should be very easy to wrap up. I had Monty die early in one of my test games and Mateo was able to finish the whole back half by himself (Second Sight is a really strong card).
Shattered Aeons: 4XP gained.
Upgrades
Added:
2 x Perception: I'm sure the bonus scenario will just be a victory lap so let's take an easy upgrade here that doesn't require us to think about any slots.
4XP spent, 0XP left.
Scenario Nine: Turn Back Time
Finally, I made it to the bonus scenario! I had never read the act cards for this one in my other runs through this campaign so boy was I surprised when I advanced to the final act. I had been speed running what I thought was a Doom of Eztli rerun (only with 70 more XP) and then I ran into Yig again.
Neither investigator was prepared for that but Monty did have his whip, so he sat there whipping Yig for five or six turns while Mateo scrounged up what he needed to put the big snake down for a second time.
The investigators win the campaign!
Final Thoughts
Monterey Jack is a fun investigator to play because his ability interacts heavily with the most immersive element of the game's design: the location system. The game already implicitly rewards you for being in the right place at the right time, so adding an additional bonus for movement has you constantly looking for additional lines of play and evaluating opportunity costs. It's a really engaging design and it feels thematically appropriate for the character as well, in much the same vein as Ursula Downs.
Regarding alternative upgrades, I considered a Researched asset a few times but taking a couple of cards that don't do anything and require multiple actions to activate was a tall order for the first scenario. I could've taken Ancient Stone into the second scenario (and scored a huge 12-point shroud value from Sealed Passage) but upgrading the stones would have precluded a few other more targeted upgrades for the following scenarios. I'm sure they would have worked well because they're strong just generally, but I chose a different path. And then when I discovered how useful the Polished Cane was for the entire campaign that sealed the deal, at least for hand slot upgrades.
The final deck was built around leveraging passive stat bonuses (always a good option for the Hard token bag) and using multi-clue investigate events, with a dose of classic Seeker upgrades for consistency (Cryptic Research and No Stone Unturned).
One card I went back and forth on a lot was Hiking Boots. Its passive bonus was valuable and Monty could fairly easily exploit its ability with Gené Beauregard, and he benefited from extra movement. The main issues with it were that it was yet another asset that took an action to be played (which might seem like a minor thing, but it's still a consideration) and it was competing with other cards for a spare slot.
To that last point, there are a lot of good cards in this game, and yellow cards especially have a lot of competition within their pool. Deciding which of a bunch of great cards should be added to the deck can be tough since taking generally strong cards will often work out fine.
I find the only way to really evaluate cards in this situation is to play with them and see how they perform at the task at hand, which is why I like repeating a scenario over and over with different builds. I tend to repeat the later scenarios in a campaign much less than the early ones but I'm still surprised at how a lot of cards perform differently to my expectations from scenario to scenario.
The Forgotten Age is my favourite campaign because I love going on a pulpy adventure to a mysterious corner of the world. We've covered jungle and ice so surely our next expedition will see us heading into the desert. I'm sure Egypt won't be too far away.