Kymani goes Microscopic (29XP) | HC 1K Series

Thank you so much for posting this deck. Must be really fun in the dream eaters campaign to go wild on swarm enemies. Definitely will give this a try. Thumbs up!

@Brotkurier Thanks, I appreciate it! Yeah I think vs. swarm enemies it would go to town - I tried it vs. Feast of Hemlock Vale so I've not had a chance to use it against swarm enemies yet. Let me know what you think when you've tried it out!

This looks like great fun. Thanks for posting this (and the others!)

@acotgreave Thanks, glad you like it and the wider series! I think a big advantage is Microscope •••• is in the campaign starter, it's good to not have to wait around for the pivotal upgrade to a deck!

Oh man - I just played a Microscope (4) Kymani 29xp deck in an epic Machinations of Time arkhan nights 2023 event yesterday. I wasn't sure how well it would work. I made some sacrifices that I wasn't happy about in order to play it ... but it worked incredibly well. I was the main fighter and picked up 12 clues. I drew the auto-fail once or it would have been 16. It could have been so many more (I had about 14 evidence on the Microscope when it ended), but my agility was needed to actually spend the clues rather than picking them up.

Those clue numbers may sound small, but realize that I was the main fighter in a 3p group. If your main fighter in a 3p group is picking up 12+ clues, you're going to have an easy time (at least if they are keeping the board clear, and nobody keeps the board clear as easily as Kymani).

Stealth 3 is just flat-out busted in Kymani. Microsope 4 isn't "busted", but it does make them even better at getting clues.

@tcrudisi Yeah I know what you mean, the pairing of Microscope •••• and Stealth ••• is definitely powerful on Kymani - it flexes hard! For me I was actually using this as my primary clue-finder in a 2p group, as usually the max clues on a location is 2 and so Microscope can get them all in one. I guess the main drawback is Microscope takes some time to power-up, but Thieves' Kit solves that if it's in your opening hand and if not you'll likely have Lola Santiago/Intel Report (and Streetwise at a minimum if you need to just pay for +3 ).

Combat-wise as you say, this is also very good. There was a moment in Hemlock Vale where due to choices we made I found myself needing to kill of 6 or 7 Elite enemies alongside my main damage dealer in around 5 turns, who also each had 6 or 7 health. The 2 x Pickpocketing •• and Lucky Cigarette Case combo meant with one evade I could draw 3 cards, and so this allowed me to readily find British Bull Dog in the crunch time quickly. We just had enough actions to kill them all, so having a mechanism to get to your damage-dealing card when you can't just evade-to-discard is clutch.

I suspect a lot of people will want to be playing Kymani with Microscope ••••, so this guide should make it easy to get to the table and take the thought process out of upgrading. The only thing you could consider while upgrading is whether to take Stealth ••• before Pickpocketing ••, but the resources upgraded Pickpocketing gives and that it plays fast makes it easy to get out and the cash can then work with Streetwise or Intel Report at that point (and it's hugely helpful not having to find an action to play it in opportunity-cost wise). Honestly I also found base Stealth before upgrading to be useful (I was a bit dubious at first), as it essentially becomes a persistent one-per-turn Unexpected Courage on the action you need to over-succeed on. I guess what I think I'm trying to say is, I loved this deck!

@HungryColquhounI've been a huge Kymani fan since they released. I've played them through a few campaigns and in a few one-shots. I've never played Kymani as the primary cluever. I played them as flex once (had a bad time) and the main fighter the other times (they absolutely dominate). As the main fighter, I've had the main cluever complain to me that I'm getting more clues than they are. (It's my wife, we love to complain.) It sounds weird to say, but by focusing on fighting, I can get more clues.

Microscope exacerbates that since it wants you to evade. I was frequently getting 3 evades in for one action. It would have been almost trivial for me to do something like "evade/evade/engage/evade" (all that being one action) and then use Microscope 4 to get 4 clues from my current location. Or using Nimble on the last evade to move to a new location for the Microscope investigate.

I do think Microscope is just a bit of a "win-more" for Kymani who, frankly, didn't need it. They were already boss with just Thieves' Kit. Though I'm a bit wary of how it will perform in 2p as the primary cluever. If your partner draws the enemy (50% of the time), you won't get any evades to charge up the Microscope unless you engage first. And now you're using 2 actions to get 2 evades, which is inefficient for the Microscope. This makes me think the Riot Whistle may be a better amulet. Or at least warrant Relic Hunter so you can run both LCC and Riot Whistle.

@tcrudisi Yes I think it's definitely nice that Microscope rewards you more for what you want to be doing, and it is a win-more card for an already great investigator! On the not getting any evidence build-up if you don't draw enemies, it's worth noting Microscope 4 can trigger when other investigators evade or defeat enemies at your location. While this isn't quite as good as the build-up of two evidence you would get from dealing with the enemy yourself, it's still useful and takes the edge off everything sitting on your shoulders (and partly lessens the need for Riot Whistle, though it's still useful).

As a primary cluever it didn't let me down in 2p, but the other deck was also flex (but spec'd much more into combat than flex - e.g. they would get 1 clue per action - but I guess equally then that means they manage enemies alongside you giving you time to use the Microscope). Lola Santiago and Thieves' Kit naturally pick up a lot of the slack, if it was just Microscope then I wouldn't recommend it but with the addition of the other two cards it was decent enough. One the point of Nimble, it's definitely a nice pick - I liked Lightfooted just a bit more as a more defensively orientated card which lets you deal with multiple enemies more readily.

Cool deck! Happy to see an alternate deck for Kymani!

It's one of my favourite investigators, but somehow, it feels like they polarise the community. Some say they're one of the best/their favourites, and others don't seem to like them that much.

Anyways, they seem like a natural fit for the Microscope (4) and I think that it's a great way to increase the value of Evade, which is always good!

@Valentin1331 Thanks as always for the praise! (As a warning to anyone reading this, I'll get into some very vague and minor Hemlock Vale spoilers below in the final paragraph).

For me Kymani is a powerful S-tier investigator, but not too powerful (e.g. on the same level as taboo Rex, Mark and Darrell). I think the main reason for them not being too powerful is their ability is limited to non-Elite non-Massive enemies, so when a high health massive/elite enemy shows up you are in a bind. Alongside Microscope ••••, British Bull Dog has definitely helped Kymani for this reason.

Re. Hemlock Vale, there's one (skippable) scenario in particular that takes a tower defense format - with both Elite and non-Elite enemies showing up regularly. Without British Bull Dog I think myself and the Guardian this was paired to would have been overwhelmed, however with it the enemy management worked like a dream - with me discarding the non-Elites, killing the occasional Elite with Bull Dog, and the Guardian dealing big damage to the majority of the other healthier Elites. We nailed the best resolution as a result, so with all the clue finding this does pairing it to another flex build works very well!

No Kicking the Hornet's Nest in here? Seems like it would be nice to start up the machine

@jgoldshlag I thought about it but TBH there isn't a load of space for it (and the deck does well enough for clue-finding without it with Thieves' Kit while Microscope powers up). You could replace Bank Job with it if you're especially keen, for me personally I like it when I know exactly how the cards in my deck are going to perform (which is why I have resource generators like Bank Job picked over it). In any case, Arkham throws enough enemies at you in my experience!

Any suggestion on where to put the [[In the Thick of it]] trauma? 2 in Health or split even?

@KarnEdge I typically go for double in their biggest soak stat, so yes health in this case (especially as their is strong enough that you'll pass a lot of damage-dealing treacheries).

Can this deck work in true solo? Pretty new to the game and only been through the starter campaign and we've done 6 missions in Caracosa, all in 2 players. Trying to do some solo runs and this deck looks fun. Thanks.

@MattV I've not play-tested it solo, but I would think so to an extent. I think the exceptions would be campaigns with scenarios where there are multiple Elite enemies (Scarlet Keys can be bad depending on your choices). Quite possibly you could consider something like Hyperphysical Shotcaster Railshooter to make this better for solo, as then you have another damage option alongside British Bull Dog for when you need it. For scenarios with only one or two Elite enemies you should be fine.

This looks great, thanks for sharing. I actually found moderate success with tramsmogrify and microscope in Kate, her bonus clues power up subsequent evades nicely, Kymani however looks much more efficent!

@SolarJ Cheers! Yeah I think Kate or Trish (for unupgraded Microscope) are also decent ideas, by Kymani is in a bit of a league of their own!

Trying this in Forgotten Age with Silas. It's a good time. Either Silas or Kymani can evade the snakes, then Kymani can get rid of one for no actions with their upgraded Stealth, and more by spending actions if needed. The Microscope routinely has 10+ evidence on it, so once the evading is done, Kymani can hoover up all the clues on the location for one action. Just amazing. The only downside is both of them have middling Willpower, but you can't have everything.

Correction: hoover up all the clues for TWO actions.

Have found this basically unplayable solo. Any elite enemy that you can't evade just spells death. Microscope is also really bad unless you get it in your opening hand, and even then you need to wait for enemies to arrive to evade them.

@ChrisSF Glad you like it! I definitely found it to be a powerful deck, while Kymani's is on the weak side Liquid Courage helps a bit and you do have some decent soak here too, so that usually helps.

@tbigfish88 Thanks for the feedback. I'm not 100% on which Elite enemies couldn't be evaded with this deck, especially as you have Streetwise to get over the tricky tests? In any case you can also use British Bull Dog to kill Elites, especially in solo where their health is lower - and you also make sensible adjustments if you're going to need even more damage (e.g. Sneak Attack). I would recommend leaning into the card draw more on solo, as Thieves' Kit is still suitable for finding clues while you're waiting to build up your Microscope. Obviously you see fewer enemies in general in solo play, so cards like Kicking the Hornet's Nest may help as well.

Just ran through this deck in a 4P ironman Edge of the Earth. I started with one less British Bull Dog for a Fox Max and would suggest that change. This deck was a blast to play!

@hunter5a Glad you liked it! My only thought with Fox Mask is that you're not too often moving out of locations with enemies, you'll more usually stay put and double-evade-to-discard to power up Microscope. It's far from a bad option though and lets you access stat boosts readily. Streetwise covers similar ground, but of course it will drain your resources and you won't have it within your first scenario or two (though it is a fairly early recommended upgrade).