Artiste Elusive [Co-op & Solo] - "Magnum Opus" Version

Artiste Elusive "Magnum Opus" Version - [Co-op & Solo]

Level 0 co-operative Rogue / Mystic deck for 2 investigators that relies on a big starting hand and a pool of semi-constant versatile Event cards, to avoid enemies or deal with them head-on, all while being decent at discovering clues. You will be spending a lot of time on your own, accomplishing objectives throughout the Scenario, while leaving the other investigator(s) to deal with the more direct confrontations.

Ideal co-op partners: Guardians and Seekers Roland, Zoey, Mark, Rex, Minh and exceptionally Yorick.

Current version 6.2 - Check out the Version History to see the incremental changes.

For a good Roland Banks co-op decklist to go with this one, click here.

Requires 2x Core Sets, the Dunwich Legacy and the Path to Carcosa Deluxe Expansions, the Blood on the Altar, The Unspeakable Oath and the Black Star Rise Mythos Packs.

Missing a pack or two? Check out the Missing Expansions section for card replacements.

Going in solo? Check out the Solo Experience section for tips.

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Imgur Table of Contents ALgQuFj.png?1

Investigator Breakdown
Deck Composition
Weakness Mitigation
Mulligan Guide
Playstyle Guide
Upgrade Guide
Scenario Tips
Solo Experience
Card Alternatives
Card Exclusions
Missing Expansions
Version History

Imgur Investigator Breakdown Sefina Rousseau Rogue - Artist

4 Willpower (), 2 Intellect (), 2 Combat (), 4 Agility ()
5 Health, 9 Sanity

Signature ability (1): Forced - When you would draw your opening hand: Draw 13 cards, instead. Choose up to 5 events to place beneath this card and keep 8 cards as your opening hand. Discard the rest. (You cannot mulligan.)

Signature ability (2): Choose an event beneath this card and draw it. Does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Elder Sign () effect: +3. You may choose an event beneath this card and draw it.

Deckbuilding restrictions

Access to all Rogue cards
Access to all Neutral cards
Access to Mystic cards of up to level 2
Unique Event 3x The Painted World
Unique weakness Stars of Hyades

Strengths

Very high Sanity
Decent at both discovering clues and fighting enemies
Starts out stronger and more consistent
Decent mobility
Great economy

Weaknesses

Very low Health
Low and stats
Bad starting hands can slow her down
Recurring unique weakness

"When she awoke in her gallery, she knew it had been real."

Sefina Rousseau (The Path to Carcosa #3)

Imgur Deck Composition

Sefina has two ways to fight enemies: either through her stat, or through her stat

2x Shrivelling A reliable damaging Spell Asset that will use Sefina's instead of when fighting. The +1 Damage bonus it gives during combat is absolutely essential in order to defeat enemies in one turn. Unfortunately it is limited to 4 uses, so try to save them for the more dangerous confrontations.

2x Storm of Spirits A powerful Spell Event that will deal 2 damage to every enemy at your location. Could be considered to be the Mystic 's equivalent of Dynamite Blast. It's a great fit in a Sefina Rousseau deck because you will be able to play it multiple times via The Painted World, effectively clearing a location of multiple enemies. Bank it to copy it.

2x Backstab Powerful but costly Event that will enable Sefina to fight with her stat instead of her stat. If it succeeds, it will deal a total of 3 damage, which means it will kill most enemies in one blow. Bank it to copy it.
2x Narrow Escape Fast and cheap event that will allow you to cancel an enemy's attack of oportunity, all while giving you a +2 bonus to your next skill test. Could be considered to be the Rogue 's equivalent of Dodge. At its worse, it will act just like a Manual Dexterity without the card draw, which is OK for Sefina. Bank it to draw it.

Although she can handle herself in a fight, Sefina is excellent at avoiding enemies. Her high makes her a natural at evading, and the deck includes a few cards to help her out even more

2x Elusive Very powerful Fast Event that will allow you to disengage with ALL enemies at your location, and let you move to ANY other revealed location, provided it does not harbour any enemies. Use in case of emergency, or just to move from one side of the map to the other. Bank it to draw it.
x2 Think on Your Feet A Fast Event that basically makes you evade and move before the enemy has a chance to spawn, which amounts to a discount of 2 actions. The location you can move to can even be unrevealed, as long as it is connecting.

This deck is also decent at discovering clues, thanks to the really good Mystic cards Sefina is allowed to use

2x Rite of Seeking Excellent Spell Asset you can use to discover clues by using Sefina's stat instead of her stat. It's expensive however, and limited to 3 charges, so use them wisely.
2x Drawn to the Flame Excellent Event you can use to discover TWO clues from a location without worrying about the Shroud value.

The deck features a couple of powerful Ally Assets that really make a difference

2x Arcane Initiate Cheap and useful Ally Asset which will allow Sefina to draw her powerful Spell Events, and more specifically, her unique The Painted World Events.
2x Dario El-Amin Powerful but expensive Ally Asset that will let you gain TWO resources for one action, and will grant you +1 bonus to both and while you are holding 10 or more resources, which is very easy to do with this deck.

The following cards contribute to Sefina's GREAT economy. While I placed it in the above section, the Dario El-Amin Ally's ability is also a factor

2x Lone Wolf Amazing Asset that will allow you to generate an extra resource a turn, for a total of TWO resources a turn, as long as Sefina begins her investigator phase in a location with no other investigators.

1x Emergency Cache Some of the Assets included in the deck that you will want to equip in the early game are quite expensive, so you will be glad to have this Event in case you don't draw any of your other economy cards. Use it to gain 3 additional resources.
2x Uncage the Soul Excellent Event that will let you immediatly play a Spell or Ritual from your hand, with a discount of THREE resources. At its worse, it will act just like a Guts without the card draw, which is OK for Sefina.

The rest of the cards offer a good amount utility

2x Holy Rosary Amazing Asset that should be auto-included in any deck that runs Rite of Seeking and Shrivelling, since the +1 it adds makes a big difference during those skill tests. Also gives +2 Sanity, which is always helpful.

2x Arcane Studies From mid-game to late-game, Lone Wolf and Dario El-Amin will make it so that you are swimming in resources, which is why this Asset is a perfect resource sink. Better than Hard Knocks, because it provides bonuses to TWO useful stats ( and ) instead of just one ().

2x Ward of Protection Fast and cheap Event that will allow you to cancel the revelation effect of any non-weakness treachery card you draw, whether it's from the Encounter deck, or any other source. Bank it to copy it.

2x Unexpected Courage Skill card to commit to any skill test for a +2 bonus, but does not come with the card draw.
3x The Painted World Sefina's personal Event, and literal star of the show. Play it as an exact copy of an Event that you banked during your starting draw, including its resource cost. Will basically allow you to play more than 2 copies of any banked Event.

"Whether focused through a mundane trinket or a mystical artifact, there is real power in faith all the same."

Holy Rosary (Core Set #59)

Imgur Weakness Mitigation

Sefina Rousseau's personal Stars of Hyades weakness Sefina's personal weakness starts off as an annoyance, but gets worse the longer the Scenario goes on, because it will be more and more likely that you will draw it multiple times. Not only will this be slowing you down immensely, it will also hurt you with both Damage and Horror when your banked events are all gone. It's therefore recommended to complete Scenarios as quickly and efficiently as possible, and to draw the banked Events you deem critical for the Scenario before the weakness has a chance to remove them from the game.

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Sefina Rousseau's extremely low Health value Mitigated by her high stat and evasion cards such as Elusive, Narrow Escape and Think on Your Feet that let her avoid direct confrontation. It's therefore generally better to evade enemies rather than fight them.

Sefina Rousseau's low stat Mitigated by cards like Shrivelling and Backstab which allow her to defeat enemies without using the stat.

Sefina Rousseau's low Mitigated by the Rite of Seeking and Drawn to the Flame cards which allow her to discover clues without using the stat. The bonuses provided by Dario El-Amin and Arcane Studies also help.
Sefina Rousseau's weakness to bad starting draws The way the deck is composed mitigates this to an extent: having 17 Events (other than The Painted World) gives a very high chance to draw and bank 5 of them during the starting draw, ideally each one of them unique.

"Too easy."

Manual Dexterity (Core Set #92)

Imgur Mulligan Guide

Sefina Rousseau works differently than other investigators because of her special ability: she simply cannot Mulligan. Instead, she draws 13 cards, can bank up to 5 Events under her investigator card to draw later or copy via The Painted World, and can keep up to 8 cards in her opening hand. This means she starts out stronger and more consistent than other investigators, and has an arsenal of versatile tools to use when she needs them, but a bad opening hand hurts her more than any other.

Events you're generally going to want to bank in order to copy them later Backstab, Storm of Spirits, and Ward of Protection

Events you're generally going to want to bank in order to draw when needed Elusive and Narrow Escape

Events you would rather not bank and just have in the opening hand Emergency Cache, Uncage the Soul, Drawn to the Flame and Think on Your Feet
It's not like you can Mulligan any starting cards (other than the weaknesses you draw), but here are the Assets you ideally want to have in your opening hand Shrivelling, Rite of Seeking, Lone Wolf, Arcane Initiate, Arcane Studies and The Painted World

"You can never be too prepared."

Emergency Cache (Core Set #88)

Imgur 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

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+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