(Parallel) Jim Perfected [GUIDE]

This deck looks very solid and every card is reasonable. Thanks for the work!

Btw allies in the spirit deck should be distinct so you cannot take 2x Stray Cat (or I made a wrong understanding of the deck building requirement?)

Will you consider Occult Reliquary so that Jim can hold an extra Ritual Candles?

IMPORTANT DETAIL I MISSED.

Q: Does using Rod of Carnamagos during the investigation when using Eye of Chaos count as "revealing a during the investigation". A: Yes; if you use Eye of Chaos to initiate an investigation, and then use the ability on Rod of Carnamagos during a player window in that skill test, those tokens are considered “revealed during this investigation” and you can resolve the effect on Eye of Chaos. (April 2024)

This means you can activate the rod during any skill test to trigger Jim's or use during the FIGHT test of Armageddon to trigger Jim's & get a bunch of additional damage.

@RyanMuQ

The deck requirements has a soft limit. You can include 2x of any ally level 0-2, however if that ally is unique (they have a * in front of their name, like Leo De Luca), before the new copy attaches to the beyond, you have to discard the previous copy).

I haven't given much thought to Occult Reliquary since it's 3xp and only Rod of Carnamagos can benefit, surprisingly neither Jim's Trumpet nor Ritual Candles have the traits Blessed or Cursed.

@RyanMuQ & @TablePlay

Spirit Deck Restrictions:

• Spirit Deck Size: 10
• Spirit Deck Building Restrictions: 9 different ally assets from any class 0-2, Vengeful Shade.
• Spirit Deck Instructions: Shuffle the 'Spirit Deck' separately from your deck and place it next to The Beyond asset, facedown. This deck may be upgraded separately using your unspent experience.

On the back of The Beyond as Reminder text:

• Reminder: Spirits attached to The Beyond are in play but only retain their names and text boxes. Spirits do not take up slots and do not have health or sanity values. When a unique spirit is attached to The Beyond, any other asset that shares its name and is already in play is discarded. Spirits are always discarded to the bottom of the spirit deck.

The "9 different ally assets" in the restrictions is contradicted in the reminder text on The Beyond, which suggests you can have allies with the same name. In the rules, the "unique" in "When a unique spirit is attached to The Beyond..." refers to the "*" infront of the asset's name. Meaning you can only have 1 unique Leo De Luca attached & multiple Stray Cats.

This made sense to my interpretation, but I could be making incorrect assumption & playing the deck incorrectly.

Unique rules: arkhamdb.com

@Calprinicus @RyanMuQ

@RyanMuQ is correct, you need 9 different allies with different names. Your list cannot include repeats. The reminder text is for if your teammate Winifred Habbamock has a Leo De Luca already in play, when your Leo De Luca shows up in your spirit deck, Winifred needs to discard HER copy that's in play. There can only be one unique named asset in play, regardless of who controls it.

Likewise, if your teammate William Yorick has Stray Cat in play, when your copy of Stray Cat in your spirit deck shows up, yorick can keep theirs in play, since it is not unique (there is no * before the name).

@TablePlay

Ok, that makes sense. I will have to redo this guide as I've been playing the spirit deck wrong. Luckily, I have tested a bunch of allies, so it shouldn't be hard to find the best 9.

The best Level 0 Spirit Deck is: Leo De Luca, Stray Cat, Mysterious Raven, Beat Cop, Granny Orne, David Renfield, Laboratory Assistant, Jeremiah Kirby, and probably Dario El-Amin, Medical Student, Dr. Elli Horowitz, or Arcane Initiate, depending on build. As soon as possible, you will want to change the final ally to Priest of Two Faiths and will probably want to upgrade one of the others to Whitton Greene (2) in short order also. If you’re really intent on keeping your core spirits in play as long as possible, you can also consider Treasure Hunter and Hired Muscle as 1 XP replacements for some of the Level 0 spirits, to ensure you can keep discarding and never flip The Beyond. For most builds though, that will be too much work.

I think the best 9 starting spirits are:

• Leo De Luca
• Olive McBride
• Jeremiah Kirby
• Beat Cop
• Stray Cat
• Mysterious Raven
• Medical Student
• Laboratory Assistant
• Art Student

I would spend 3XP to:

• Art Student Priest of Two Faiths
• Laboratory Assistant Summoned Hound (Note: Your not playing it, it attaches, so you don't have to shuffle Unbound Beast into your deck.)
• Jeremiah Kirby Brotherhood Cultist ( +1 stat booster!, unclear if he deals damage when he's discarded, I'm assuming no)

I think you mean Brother Xavier and I believe the interaction is pretty straightforward. He only does damage when defeated. Defeated and Discarded are not the same.

"After applying damage/horror, if an asset has damage equal to or higher than its health or horror equal to or higher than its sanity, it is defeated and placed in its owner's discard pile."

Since he has no health or sanity as a spirit, he can never be defeated and all effects that get rid of spirits specifically say they are discarded.

I'm not sure if this is just an oversight but you're using the Advanced Trumpet but the basic Final Rhapsody. I couldn't find a great rule reference for "advanced" in the article for parallel Jim but in the Daisy article it does say "You can upgrade Daisy’s signature cards to the advanced version at any point in the campaign—but they must be upgraded as a set, so you can’t take the improved tote bag without the Necronomicon."

Also, I remembered something else I wanted to say about your spirit deck and ally choices. Since Brother Xavier cannot deal damage, you might want to spend one additional experience and replace him with Whitton Greene. His stat buffs are only while you control a relic or tome but he may also allow you a few opportunities to search for a relic or tome to get your trumpet or rod out more quickly.

@wizj619

Correct, it's Brother Xavier & he cannot deal damage when discarded.

After I play Living Ink with the vibrancy perk, my stats are:

6 2 2 1

Boosting my other stats is not really worth the effort as Close the Circle fills that void.

With Gabriel Carillo & Deep Knowledge I often find the trumpet by the second half which is where it's needed more.

@Calprinicus One of the main differences between our top 10s is that you remove an ally that grants an unconditional +1 as well as another conditional benefit, but you then suggest paying 1 XP fro upgrade to an ally that grants +1 with no other benefit? Aren’t you throwing away an XP?

@Eudaimonea

While I agree Brother Xavier is a waste of an experience when Granny Orne gives the same passive benefit at level 0, I believe there is also something you're missing. You keep linking the 3 experience version of Granny Orne, which Jim cannot run, and the Granny Orne and Granny Orne(3) abilities are different. You may want to reread the level 0 card as it is rarely any benefit at all. Only really helps you with cards like "look what I found!" or maybe taking one less damage from Grasping Hands.

@Calprinicus

Honestly, the comments for this "Perfected" Jim deck have been such a carnival ride that I hesitated to heap too much more on but I might as well say it. I noticed an omission in your write. Not sure if you're unaware of it or just didn't think it was worth mentioning.

Spirits are cards under your control. hint hint

*If an investigator attaches a player card to a player card he or she controls, he or she retains control of the attachment.

@Eudaimonea & @wizj619

I see where the confusion lies. Yes, there is no need to spend XP on Brother Xavier when Granny Orne exists at 0-Cost with a better ability.

For some reason, I never saw Granny Orne. In my collection, those 0-cost cards were tucked under the 3-cost version. The reason Brother Xavier was chosen was because I thought he was the cheapest non-conditional +1 stat boost available.

This is now fixed.

@wizj619 I assume the reason the wrong version is being added is the 0-cost came after the 3-Cost & is lower on the drop-down list when adding the card. Easy mistake & bad UI.

With these corrections, I believe the optimal spirit decks consists of:

• Leo De Luca
• Granny Orne
• Olive McBride
• Jeremiah Kirby
• Stray Cat
• Mysterious Raven
• Beat Cop
• Laboratory Assistant
• Medical Texts
• Vengeful Shade

Upgrades:

• Laboratory Assistant Priest of Two Faiths
• Jeremiah Kirby Summoned Hound

Thanks for all the feedback! Once I run through another campaign I'll update this to a 2.0 guide to fix the spirit decks issues & misconceptions I used prior. Luckily, I don't think it changes much on how the deck run except The Beyond will flip a little more often.

Medical Student not Medical Texts. No edit button...

Very similar to a deck I've built (once you account for only singleton Ally cards in the Geist deck). So much fun!

I found Olive McBride to be the ideal core Ally (not Geist), since she can help ensure the Rod goes off AND bring you more curses for Jim's ability.

Wicked Athame is a great curse generator, and helps Jim almost automatically deal with Vengeful Shade.

Occult Reliquary makes room for it while keeping a slot for 1 Ritual Candles or the trumpet.

@bernieschlotfeldt

Wicked Athame is a great call. I played with it before, but forgot why I cut it... I was hesitant on Occult Reliquary before because only Rod of Carnamagos could use it, but if I replaced 1 Ritual Candles with Wicked Athame that guarantees 3 hand slots. The difficult is the +3xp. 32xp is pretty expensive for early campaigns, normally like to cap my builds at 30 or under.

What if I don't have the Scarlet Keys expansion and don't have access to Living Ink? Can the deck be played as efficiently with some kind of replacement for it?

@Ice_Kill while Living Ink is particularrly strong, especially with Jim, I don't think it's 100% mandatory. You just need another way to boost your . I have definitely ran through scenarios without it.

I think the best replacement would be Relic Hunter so you can wear a 2nd Holy Rosary. I would also take Backpack to help find both copies (+ your other items).

Since you don't choose the monster before the ":" you can discard stray cat without a monster to evade.

This is wrong. You cannot initiate an ability if it would not change the game state, so you must have a monster to evade to discard stray cat.

Otherwise, looks decent as a deck, if a little slow from having to play out so many assets.

Nice guide, i'm currently playing //Jim Culver and will see if i can add some of your ideas.

Things that i noticed:

• Play Kohaku alongside //Jim. His Book of Living Myths is OP for Jim. Kohaku eats 3 and 2 each round so you need enough curse generation, though.
• Spirit of Humanity creates / (for Kohakus ability) and recharges Sparrow Mask
• Jewel of Aureolus triggers on any symbol (including /)
• Soul Sanctification is OP with Jim's Trumpet and gets better the bigger the team (Spirits are not allies so they don't count). Gain 1 Offering per full Investigator and ally of them in range.
• If you have 7 disposable allies in Spirit deck, the other 2 stay permanently. My permanent choices: Leo De Luca, Summoned Hound; Disposables: Beat Cop, Bianca "Die Katz" (need to fail her test), Hired Muscle, Mysterious Raven, Priest of Two Faiths, Stray Cat, Treasure Hunter

Hey, I've had some time to digest your deck and I like it! It's clear both the angle and the ally graveyard have had some thought put into them, and it's always nice to see cards like Sparrow Mask on a Mystic.

For my thoughts as other have pointed out additional discardable allies are useful, I think level 0 Beat Cop, Mysterious Raven, Priest of Two Faiths and Stray Cat would be my picks. Whitton Greene •• I think would make a nice pick for a second non-discard ally with Rod of Carnamagos and Jim's Trumpet (again as suggested elsewhere), as it allows you to tutor it out (and then boosts when you do). I would also agree with adding Occult Reliquary to give you the option of running both candles with the Rod. Mr. "Rook" may be handy as a general tutor for all cards instead of Whitton (and then you could strip out card draw like Gabriel Carillo if you feel like it), even with the taboo it's a powerful tutor effect which Jim can use for free. He may also help you draw Final Rhapsody early before you've flooded the bag with curses.

I would personally go with Eye of Chaos over Close the Circle, as you can't use Close the Circle on treacheries which need resolving in the Mythos phase IIRC and clue compression is more useful. Similarly I don't see much of a need for Living Ink - both Eye of Chaos and Armageddon allow you to test at an 8 with Holy Rosary and Four of Cups, so I think Living Ink may be surplus to requirement. You have very effective means of recharging both spells, so I think that's a big plus for Mystics. I would go for the tried and true Arcane Research to give you big XP cost breaks for both of these.

Final Rhapsody is a merciless weakness too, so I'd be inclined to use Leather Coat as further soak (but only if dropping Living Ink due to the slot conflict). It wouldn't be out of the question to have even more mitigation. From experience I think the curse tech is enough even without Gabriel Carillo, Promise of Power never goes amiss on curse decks though so I would suggest making space for that.

Anyway, good stuff! Even with the suggestions I've made I think the deck is good "as is" and uses P-Jim well. A like and a favorite from me!

@Calprinicus If it were me, I'd probably swap out Gabriel Carillo for Olive McBride and maybe Dawn Star or a Stirring Up Trouble or two for Wicked Athame [depending on how much you're focused on clues v. enemy mgmt.]

And I’d swap out “Perfected” for “Admirably Attempted” in the title. Just kidding, please forgive the tease. A bold title like this list has surely invites nitpicks, but the list really is solid. I agree with @HungryColquhoun above about most things. I think I prefer Deny Existence to Leather Coat as Final Rhapsody defense though.

@Eudaimonea

Deny Existence cannot stop Final Rhapsody. It is not an encounter card nor an enemy attack.

@Calprinicus

Lol, this gets better and better.

Unless something has changed recently, all treacheries and enemies are encounter cards. Deny Existence's arkhamdb page is full of FAQs about using Deny Existence against different signature weaknesses.

@wizj619 & @Eudaimonea

Yup. Wrong again.

Hi, aren't the allies in the spirit deck supposed to be different?

@nonobstant

Yes, OP was informed of this a few weeks ago.

Just completed SK on hard with This Jim and an Parallel Zoey.

1. I regret listening a bit too much on the comments. The purpose of Gabriel Carillo as an ally is not just a card draw. You depend on his reliable curse generation, and if you don't have him you really struggle. After charisma, the stage is set for McBride, but not at all before that.

2. And I hated pulling Mr Rook from the spirit deck, and Summoned hound was also meh. I rarely wanted to take the free action Hound gave me (probably because of hard mode, I was lacking boosts for these stats to do anything then give me a fail, maybe with a bonus curse if I was lucky.), and Mr Rook just pulled my weaknesses. I had a full hand of good assets but no money, and no curse generation, so barely any horror heal.

3. Desperately needing more healing, I found that the Devil arkhamdb.com worked wonders in my spirit deck. I loved pulling it, and I could keep it from not setting off if I wanted to with painkillers. It ultimately replaced medical student, but I could have replaced with the two above just as well. The (loss) investment into the hound kept me from replacing it.

4. A minor point, I didn't get to use the rod or armageddon very much either, with Zoey hammering everything and the Campaign rarely giving me non-elites to deal with. YMMV.

1. (and 3) 2x Spirit of Humanity in play solved both problems for me.

2. I also disliked the action cost from taBoo! Rook, Laboratory Assistant and Jeremiah Kirby are much better, even Whitton Greene. Summoned Hound needs some boosts like Soul Sanctification with Jim's Trumpet or cat mask, Blood Pact and Sin-Eater.

3. "Devil" doesnt work in the spirit deck because it is never dealt damage or defeated. Damage is transfered to jim instead.

@frejon I'm not sure "Devil" works in the spirit deck. The beyond reads "When damage/horror would be placed on an attached spirit, it must be placed on Jim Culver, instead." So you can't move damage to it nor can it be defeated and blow up on you and your allies