Sefina Rousseau - Zealot 3 Player

Playstyle Guide Sefina Rousseau is considered to be one of the harder investigator to play, since she her unique ability gives her a LOT of options from the start of the Scenario. Not only that, but because her unique The Painted World Event is extremely situational, it can be difficult to figure out which is the right moment to use it. The fact is: she does not particularly excel at anything, but she is very good at adapting. The general strategy of this deck is to avoid most enemies adapt to any situation, whether it's Scenario-specific or not

With Sefina, it is absolutely possible to be Lead Investigator, since you have enough tools in your arsenal to deal with almost any situation.

With 17 Events in the deck (not including The Painted World), your starting hand should be most of the time: 5 unique banked Events, and 8 varied Assets, Events and Skills.

At the start of a Scenario, the first actions should be to equip your very valuable Assets, ideally Lone Wolf in order to get TWO resources per turn, and Arcane Initiate if you did not get to draw Rite of Seeking and/or Shrivelling. If you did, just equip them instead, and leave your Ally slot open for Dario El-Amin.

Use your Arcane Initiate's ability to try and draw The Painted World, or your other Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking and Storm of Spirits Spell Events.

Dario El-Amin will be good if you were unlucky and did not draw Lone Wolf in your starting hand, by providing you resources, and when you have 10 resources or more, a +1 bonus to both and .

You can wait a bit before equiping the Holy Rosary, which will give you an edge during your fights, since it will give you a nice +1 to and two Sanity.

You can also wait a bit before equiping your Arcane Studies Asset, but it will be a great resource sink in the mid-game, allowing you to spend your plentiful resources for a big boost to your and .

Even if you did not draw an ideal starting hand, you should still have drawn a good variety of Assets and Events that will still let you perform during the Scenario, just adapt accordingly. That is the key-word of this deck: Adapt. You will find yourself almost playing Solo, even if you are playing with your co-op partner, since the deck is decent at doing basically everything

Depending on your opening hand, you will either be discovering clues, or defeating enemies. If you find yourself able to do both (for example by drawing both Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking), you will be able to go off on your own to accomplish the Scenario objectives.

Don't go too far off in case your co-op partner needs your help, and you can always use Elusive to come back to them fast. Only investigate locations with Rite of Seeking equipped, in order to use your high stat instead of your low stat when drawing from the chaos bag

Successful investigation tests will let you discover TWO clues from your location.

But the Spell Event comes with a price: drawing a bad (, , , or ) token will immediately end your turn, so it's best to use it as your last action if possible to minimise the damage.

If you need to discover clues in a hurry, simply use the Drawn to the Flame Event, but be ready to deal with the drawn Encounter card. Ward of Protection is in the deck to make sure you will be able to deal with the nastiest Treachery Encounter cards. You have multiple options if you need to defeat enemies

Shrivelling will let you directly fight enemies, by using your high instead of your low stat. You will take 1 horror if you draw a bad token, but it's nothing, since Sefina has so much Sanity.

You can also fight enemies with Backstab, which will make use of your high stat instead of your low stat. If successful, the attack will deal a total of 3 Damage, which will deal with almost all enemies in one blow. Since this is only a one-off Event, it's a good idea to bank it and copy it with The Painted World.

If you need to fight multiple enemies at the same time, you can use Storm of Spirits to deal 2 Damage to all enemies at your location. You can use it multiple times if you copy it with The Painted World, effectively clearing the room of all enemies. A bad token will deal 1 damage to all investigators at your location, so be careful.

Narrow Escape will be useful in case you need to do something that will cause an attack of opportunity while engaged to an enemy. You can also just trigger an attack of opportunity to get the +2 bonus to skill tests. Otherwise, you can just commit it to an test, since it comes with two pips.

You will get better results when using your spells if you also have the bonuses from the Holy Rosary, Dario El-Amin, or Arcane Studies. If you ever need to avoid combat, Sefina has a few good options available to her

Sefina's high stat makes her very good at just evading enemies.

Think on Your Feet will technically let you evade an enemy and move once, before it even engages you. That's a 2 action discount, and no evade test is needed, so the results are guaranteed.

Your very powerful Elusive Event will let you disengage from ALL engaged enemies, and let you move to ANY revealed location. You can still use it even if no enemies are engaged to you. Use it if you are in deep trouble (multiple enemies, low Health/Sanity, etc.), or just to zip across the map if you are in a hurry to accomplish a Scenario objective or help your co-op partner. Resources will never be an issue to Sefina, since both the Rogue and Mystic cards are available to her

Uncage the Soul can reduce the cost of the costly Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking and Storm of Spirits Spell Events by THREE resources. If you don't need it, you can just commit to a skill test, since it comes with 2 pips.

The star of the show though, is Lone Wolf, since it will basically double your resource income through the game, provided you don't begin your turn next to another investigator (really easy to do when going second). Starting from mid-game on, resources will never be a problem, and you'll be happy to sink them into Arcane Studies to boost your stats in case of tough skill tests.

The awesome Ally Asset Dario El-Amin is also perfect in this deck, because it can serve as a replacement to Lone Wolf if you don't draw it early. If you already have Lone Wolf equipped, then you will be benefiting from the +1 and bonuses, which is active as long as you keep more than 10 resources on you.

The Emergency Cache Event will grant 3 you resources when needed, and you can even copy it with The Painted World to use it more than twice (although this will probably not be needed). It is especially useful in the early game, since cards you want to equip from the start of the Scenario are quite costly.

Try to never use the gain 1 resource action: it's generally the worst action you can take in the game, and it's even worst with Sefina since it's so easy for her to get resources. Instead, use your actions for other, more important things, such as moving, fighting and discovering clues. This deck is very heavy in Events, in order to fully take advantage of Sefina's Event banking power

Having 17 Events makes it so that you will always almost bank 5 unique Events when drawing your starting hand.

However, this also means that there is not much room for Skill cards.

Narrow Escape is an Event that will also act like the Manual Dexterity Skill if you need it.

On the flip side, Uncage the Soul is your replacement for the Guts Skill.

I have kept Unexpected Courage in the deck, because 2 pips are always useful, but they can definitely be replaced.

Sefina's personal The Painted World card will allow you to copy Events which you have banked at the start of the Scenario. It's generally best to copy Backstab, Storm of Spirits and Ward of Protection, but that can change depending on the Scenario.

You can also bank Events without copying them later, and just to draw them when needed, such as Elusive, Think on Your Feet and Narrow Escape. Sefina's Stars of Hyades unique weakness starts as a mild annoyance, but can become terrible as your deck is emptied

The weakness does not get discarded after being resolved, it goes back into your deck, and it is not uncommon that you will be drawing it 3 to 4 times a game (unless you get lucky). Every time you draw it, it represents a huge tempo loss: 1 card draw wasted, and 1 banked card lost until you start losing Health and Sanity.

If you ever need to draw a card, make sure it is the first action of your turn, but I would avoid it: since Sefina starts with 8 cards in hand, and has a reliable pool of (hopefully) 5 unique Events to draw from, drawing a card is not as good as for other investigators. You are also incentivised keep your deck as full as possible, so you do not draw your unique Stars of Hyades weakness repeatedly. Instead, use your actions for other, more important things, such as moving, fighting and discovering clues.

"Sometimes, the most selfless acts can come from the strangest places."

Unexpected Courage (Core Set #93) Imgur

Upgrade Guide Recommended upgrade priority 1 > 2 > 3 > 4

Priority 1: 5 xp total Priority 2: 7 xp total Priority 3: 10 xp total Priority 4: 5 xp total

-2x Arcane Studies +2x Spirit Athame • : Since you will be upgrading into Streetwise, you will no longer be needing Arcane Studies in your deck. Replace them by the amazing Spirit Athame, a great Asset that will occupy the free hand slots, will give you a +2 bonus to skill tests when casting spells, and will act as Sefina's rat killer. Priority 1

+1x Streetwise ••• : The Rogue Permanent Asset will allow you to get a +3 bonus to your and/or values for every 2 resources you spend, for one skill test. Great for Parley actions, for evading enemies, and for playing Backstab. Does not need to be drawn, paid for or played, you'll be glad to have it in the deck. Replaces Arcane Studies as a resource sink. Priority 1 Imgur

+1 Charisma ••• : With 4 Ally Assets competing for the one Ally Slot available, this Permanent Asset will allow you to equip BOTH Dario El-Amin and the Arcane Initiate Ally Assets simultaneously, to great effect. Also good if you need to take control of a Scenario Ally Asset and you already have one equipped. Best of all, it doesn't count towards your deck size, and you start the Scenarios with it already in play. Priority 2

-1x Narrow Escape +1x Lucky Dice •••• : Great Exceptional Asset that will let you reroll chaos tokens, provided you pay the resources. Will keep working as long as you don't draw the token. Priority 2

-1x Narrow Escape +1x Sure Gamble ••• : Amazing Event that will let you transform failures into successes by transforming the '-' from a negative token into a '+'. Pricy in XP, but awesome to have in your Event bank. Priority 3

-1x Think on Your Feet +1x Sure Gamble ••• : See above. Priority 3

-1x Emergency Cache +1x Hot Streak •••• : Not a priority since resources will not be a problem in most cases, but good to have nonetheless: provides 10 resources for the cost of 3, meaning a net gain of 7. More than twice the amount awarded by Emergency Cache. Priority 3

-1x Think on Your Feet +1 Cheat Death ••••• : If you've been getting a lot of experience through your campaign, you could pay for a copy of Cheat Death. Will save you from getting defeated and move you to a safe location. Will help if you are having a hard time with the end game. I believe it can be copied with The Painted World, so this is extra good for Sefina. Priority 4