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This is an updated version of a "battle mage" style Akachi deck that was the keystone to one a 3 man "Seal Team" blob run experiment which turned out to be one of funniest (and most satisfying) games of arkham ive had in a very long time. We technically played on standard, but this goes so far off the scale Hard or maybe expert would be fine. Ive used similar decks on hard mode a number of times without issue.

If i find time i plan to do a second guide with Blob spoilers as a bit of a comic battle report. But ill keep that separate so those who want to see the archetype without spoilers can do so safely. For now all i will say is it was extremely satisfying to play. Much less of a dry experience that you can sometimes have with akachi. It genuinely made seal work (something ive been wanting since seal's release) and was phenomenally effective as a killing machine. Then something very silly happened and made an emotional roller-coaster of a game. But youll have to read about that separately

Anyway - this write up is really just explaining how the deck functions and offering a bit of an overview of the archetype. This isnt quite the same deck as we ran, its been tweaked after seeing how things played out (mainly downgrading 2x Chthonian Stone (3)s to base versions, and dropping some Recall the Futures I didnt need to free up xp for Grotesque Statue (2)s and a spare Seal of the 7th. It turns when theres no in the bag, The Chthonian Stone doent go away easily (who knew!).

This is very much a stand alone build, though I have played enough akachi in the past to be confident about converting to a campaign deck, see last section, though that idea is as yet untested so it with a pinch of salt. In short its mainly about bringing Rite of Seeking in. Dont use Clairvoyance here. I explain why in the clues section below. We had so much fun playing Seal Team were considering it for a blind run of innsmouth so who knows I may find time for the campaign write up in due course.

Right - Onto the guide!

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BRIEFING (TL:DR)

OVERVIEW:

• CLUEING: ....................... low.
• ENEMY HANDLING: ...... High
• ENCOUNTER PROT: ...... High.
• DRAW CONSISTENCY: .. Moderate
• CASH ENGINE: ............... Moderate
• HEALING: ....................... Self only, but good.
• SPECIAL: ......................... and sealer.

PLAYSTYLE:

• ROLE: ............................. Hard Hitter & Bag Control
• COMPLEXITY: ................ Low.
• JANK FACTOR: ............... Moderate.
• THEMATIC FEEL: ........... Ritualist Battle Mage

SLOTS:

• Hand One ...... Grotesque Statue
• Hand Two ...... The Chthonian Stone ( Sealed)
• Accessory ...... Wish Eater (Cancels s) / Empty Vessel
• Body ............... Unused
• Arcane 1 ......... BIG 3 Damage Shrivelling
• Arcane 2 ......... Seal of the Seventh Sign ( Sealed)
• Tarot ............... Unused
• Allies ............... Arcane Initiate Early, Twila (Unilmited shrivs) later.

A battle mage Akachi build focused around token sealing and cancelling for both team support and enabling use of The Big 3 Damage Shriv. This usually cant miss due to attacking at (5 +3 =) 8 , and token cancelling and Grotesque Statues available. Akachis extra charge, occasional restocks, Spirit-Speaker and Twila Katherine Price keep Big Shriv going all game - like having an infinite ammo Lightning Gun. Kills charge up Empty Vessel (which even starts 1/3rd charged) into Wish Eater. This then cancels future s, preventing you taking the horror, and healing back any you took before you had the charges ready.

A token cancelled by Wish Eater will also not remove a charge from Seal of the 7th. This feeds into a wider plan using Grotesque Statues, Eldritch Inspirations, s, and The Chthonian Stone to keep the sealed in play as long as possible. With 2 copies this could viably be all game and its worth noting that this is one less token which can cause 2 horror from Shrivelling. Another can be on The Chthonian Stone, which incidentally cannot be taken out of play by its forced text while the is sealed.

All the while the rest of your team are also benefiting.

Obviously not all the components of this meta sealing machine need to be in play at the same time to work. The more you have the slower those charges on Seal of the 7th will go away. They simply build to a critical mass but no component (even Seal of the 7th) is essential, keeping the deck variance surprisingly low, and its worth noting that the best bit both starts with +1 charge, and is tutorable.

The rest of the deck are just good mystic stuff and draw. Occasional clues can be obtained via events or via Grotesque Statue and Wish Eater for 2 shroud locations (a cancelled token has no modifier, so you have a LOT of zeros in the bag). The Manual Dexteritys blob tech, but could be swapped for Unexpected Courage or another draw card if you prefer.

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TO ARMS (Muligan)

Your priority is getting shriv into play, but its worth keeping any draw you can find, and one or two of the high impact 1 per decks if you see them.

keep 1x of:

• Shrivelling
• Empty Vessel
• Arcane Initiate
• Spirit-Speaker

Muligan the rest in hope of finding the above (yes even the Seal stuff and Twila, those are second priority after you set up combat.

If you managed to get a Shrivelling and Guts(2) keep the guts as well as this will almost certainly draw 2 cards. You could also keep the guts if you have good reason to expect will checks on encounter cards or similar. You want the draw from them more than the icons, and if you are confident you can pull them off, then keeping Guts back is similar to having 2 cards back from your muligan.

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WET WORK (Combat)

Combat is focused around using the 3 damage Shrivelling and keeping it in play, while mitigating the chance of taking horror.

• Priorotise getting Shrivelling into play this sets you up to fight asap. This is why it and Arcane Initiate which can find it are prioritised in the mulligan. With a hard mul, you have about an 80% chance of finding at least 1 of them. You also have 2x Spectral Razor to tide you over in the short term, or to deal with aloofs as it gives you a free engage.

• Kills charge up Empty Vessel, Wish Eater cancels s This has a few important effects.

  • You treat the game as if No token was revealed. Ie Shrivelling doesnt deal you 2 horror, if you brought Rite of Seeking, you dont lose youre turn, and you dont lose a charge from Seal of the 7th. Infact...
  • Wish Eater will heal back the horror you took from shriv before you got it in play, as well as any damage youve taken. Suddenly one or two trauma from Angered Spirits is probably fine if youre playing in a campaign.
  • For the test you effectively apply no modifier. So you will effectively have a post modified 8 skill after token draws. This will not miss much. which leads us to...

• You will rarely (if ever) miss even on high difficulties With your base of 5 and +3 built into the action, thats attacking at an 8 so no need for passive supports. You are 4 points above a 4 combat enemy thats usually most of the bag except for the which we are sealing, any really nasty , which we are cancelling and/or sealing, and if you do come accross a brief moment you need to go high, Guts, Uncage the Soul and Prophesy can take you sky high for burst/boss moments wink.

• Keep 1 charge on Shrivelling as long as you can You need 1 in play to trigger Twila Katherine Price. But once shes down you essentially get one free charge use per turn. Dont forget shriv starts with 5 charges not 4 in Akachi. You can top up anytime you draw an if you need to, or you can use Spirit-Speaker to return it to hand and replay it to reset back to 5.

• Dont forget Empty Vessel starts with +1 charge. I initially had this wrong, including when I played the deck thinking you only got the bonsu charge on the first play of Empty Vessel, but Akachis ability works when a card with the words "uses charges" enters play so you get 1 charge on Empty Vessel when it is played, and when it returns to play after Wish Eater runs out of charges. Wish Eater itself doest have the exact words "uses charges" as needed by Akachis ability so it doent also get the bonus. But still - it will only ever take you 2 kills (minimum) to be allowed to swap to wish eater each time. Massive thanks to @thakaris for raising the matter and @mishkoff for digging up the FAQ entry in the comments below, and @VoiD3d for pointing out the specifics of the wording. As ive said a few times im not a rules guru by any means. Its really helpful to have people correct me on things like this and much appreciated!

• With Wish Eater down, its often ok to take Attacks of Opportunity. If you have the charges and a decent amount of hp/san spare, you can be confident you will get a heal in due course. Its fine to float a damage or two which lets you do things like use Spirit-Speaker to return an empty shriv back to hand and replay it while engaged if you need to reload on smaller hits.

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STEERING AN EMPTY VESSEL (Sealing)

Dont start sealing things until you have set up the combat stuff unless you have a lot of resources. You are a fighter first. The seal tools simply augment this and offer some secondary team support. A lot of this should be obvious but a few notes:

• Seal of the Seventh Sign is a spell so you can find it with Arcane Initiate, and you can spend one or two of its charges to fuel Angered Spirits later in the game if its still well stocked. You can even ditch it to get a lot of cash from Spirit-Speaker, not least if you have found the other copy (though you cant return it to hand as leaving play in anyway removes it from the game).

• While Seal of the Seventh Sign is in play, The Chthonian Stone cant get bumped back to hand by drawing an Its just not in the bag to be drawn. Also note that The Chthonian Stone only returns to hand if YOU yourself draw the not just anyone in the team (as I have been playing it for years apparently).

• Wish Eater and Eldritch Inspiration can stop charges being taken off Seal of the 7th Wish Eater only works on tokens you drew, but Eldritch Inspiration works on tokens drawn by other investigators as it interacts with the card not the token.

• Grotesque Statue can be used to fish for s (more charges) and keep draws down This both helps keep charges on Seal of the 7th, and helps restock them. Or with Wish Eater down you can fish for tokens to cancel which will give you an effective 0 modifier on a test. You can now evade/punch and clue a little on low strength tests.

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DEFENSIVE MANOUVOURS (Encounter Protection)

You have quite a lot of defences, not least the absence of bad tokens in the bag.

• Your base is plenty for most encounter checks not least since the odd horror here and there from effects which give horror per point you fail by are usually will based, and losing 1 here and there just gives you something to heal back with Wish Eater. At a push you also have a lot of will icons. Feel free to use Guts (2) overshoot an encounter check. It is there for the draw mainly.

• Your is actually decent A base of 3 with Grotesque Statue, Prophesy and Manual Dexteritys around can pass agi tests quite reliably. This build is slightly over teched into agi for the Blob, so the man dex`s could be some other draw tool if you are playing a different map/campaign.

• You have 2 Ward of Protections Because they are just so flexible use them as needed. Note that you can put the horror on allies if needed, and you can heal it back later.

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INTEL (Clues)

You are not doing much cluing, but it would be rude not to at least be available to pitch in while you wait for enemies to fry and some scenarios specifically need all players to get clues so we have a few tricks:

• Drawn to the Flame & Read the Signs will do most of the work Not a lot to say here. Thats upto 8 pretty much guarenteed clues with the sealed away.

• You can also clue with Grotesque Statue and Wish Eater on low shrouds Just use your base int of 2 vs a 2 shroud and fish for a token to cancel, a 0, +1 or . That is actually likely to be about 1/3rd or 1/2 of the bag and you are taking 2 tokens.

• If you are using a campaign variant, bring Rite of Seeking not Clairvoyance. This is counter intuitive until you play it or look at the rest of the deck. While you have ways to recover the horror, and generally speaking the horror tends to be less taxing than needing to use Rite of Seeking last action or risk action loss, shriv and clarvoyance combined is quite a lot of horror. You are also shrinking the bag making +1s, 0s, and s more common, so that horror will start coming in pretty fast from Clairvoyance, unless you are actively choosing the s which will burn your Wish Eater or Seal of the Seventh Sign charges faster. Better to lean into the cancelling side of the seal mechanic rather than the fishing side of it.

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OVERWATCH (Team Combo Potential)

When the deck ran the blob, it was paired up with 2 other decks running 2x Protective Incantation, with a view to each having 1 in play at late game. Across the whole party this allows you to seal an additional and whatever the worst non symbol token is (so the -6, -7, -8 or whatever). There are a few IDs and archtypes which can pull this off, some obvious choices being:

• Non Spell focused Diana
• Renfield/Milan "white mage" Daisy
• Big money & Skill card Patrice
• Rogue Money Dexter

The key is to find IDs which can also benefit from cancelling, and are defiantly not fishing for them for say Sixth Sense. Some general thoughts that might help people plan fun games:

• The combo has a lot of synergy with rogue exceed by 2 stuff since the wider flattening the bag strategy removes the swingyier tokens which can occasionally break an exceed by 2 decks draw and economy engine.

• Untested, but reasonably thinning the deck should wok well with blessed mechanics Which would also lean into Father Mateo since he should in principal have good blessed token generation access when the cards are released, and he likes a leaner bag as you will simply be drawing s more often, or Sister Mary.

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THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY (Possible Campaign Variant)

As I elude to this is untested and somewhat speculative, but i have played enough Akachi decks in the past to be confident it works since well, it at least starts in a similar shape. A few things.

• Campaign start Downgrade everything you can to lvl 0 versions where they exist. The two Grotesque Statues should become some sort of boosting asset, probably Crystal Pendulum for the occasional draw. We then need to add a few more things with charges over Seal of the Seventh Sign and Twila Katherine Price to have something to feed Angered Spirits early campaign or to ditch for cash with Spirit-Speaker. Depending on team composition these can be anything really. Usual suspects are:
  • Mists of R'lyeh This is better in akachi than Ineffable Truth unless you plan to do a lot of evading. Like the logic on Rite of Seeking (see clues section) it plays into out seal strategy and it simply offers much cheaper charges when used for Spirit-Speaker, and just more efficient if used for Angered Spirits. 2 for 5 charges with Mists vs 3 for 4 with Ineffable.
  • Rite of Seeking See the clues section for this really. Its the best reusable clue spell available in this build. if you plan to stick with Rite of Seeking in the deck, you will probably want to drop either Drawn to the Flame or Read the Signs, unless you want to go very cluey. These slots can then be spent on Sign Magick or similar to allow it to sit alongside Shriv and Seal of the 7th
  • Alchemical Transmutation You dont need to use the ability, though you have the to pull it off. The value here is just in cheap charges.
  • Azure Flame Simply having more damage spells in the deck make it quicker that you see at least one. You can heal the HP back with Wish Eater, but it will occur more often and you have less of it to play with.

You`ll also want to pick up a little xp boosting from Arcane Research x2 since you will be able to heal anyhow and maybe a Delve Too Deep or two depending whether you consider delve to be too strong or not (and whether you care! - just do what you find fun).

• Upgrade Planning I need to work out the specific path, but priorities should be Empty Vessel and Twila Katherine Price, while stepping up Shrivelling one stage at a time via Arcane Research to get the built in . The extra damage can be added after youve brought in Seal of the Seventh Sign. The other bits like Guts and Grotesque Statues can wait for last.

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