Nat comes out Swinging!

This is my take on tweaking Nat's starter deck to remove some of the "bad" cards and streamline it a bit. It's intended for a multiplayer monster-slayer role, but can discover a handful of clues via Grete and Evidence with a focus on leveraging his investigator ability and remaining close to his out-of-the-box deck.

Changes from base deck

Removed Cards

Relentless is a delayed Emergency Cache. I costs the same card and action as Cache, but you have to wait around for at least three turns to get the same resources. Also, you have to spend your other cards and resources to generate the overkill damage, so you are likely losing efficiency there. It's also vulnerable to treacheries that target your assets. This is an easy swap into Emergency Cache.

Glory is probably fine. I don't think it's a bad card, but spending a card and a resource to net +1 card seems a little iffy. This could definitely stay in the deck, but I wanted to have a little more Clue potential via Evidence. Update: I think this card is better than I originally thought. I would recommend trying to hold Glory toward the end of the deck as a way to recycle the deck, once you're low on fight events.

Flesh Ward is a bit too expensive and too limited in effect. It will protect you from some combination of 4 damage/horror plus the potential for it to soak 1 more of each before you discard it, but:

• it exhausts, so it's best versus chip damage and not large attacks
• it only works on attacks, so you're not protected versus the encounter deck
• True Grit, Something Worth Fighting For, and Allies do the same thing for similar costs Hallowed Mirror does a similar job and can support Grete or your teammates. Being a one-of card means it may be harder to find, but Nat wants to draw through his deck to find Fight Events already.

Safeguard is a strong card, but I think it's fine as a one-of. You'll rarely want to use two of them at once, and it's not a critical card to find early. Dropping one leaves room for a few skills to help you be more flexible.

Physical Training is a card you probably don't have the resources for. Nat's base 5 + Boxing Gloves means he's usually fine without the boost. Spending for to protect against the encounter deck would make sense, but Skill cards let you do that for free and save resources to re-play Grete or keep using Fight events.

Added Cards

Daring is a flexible skill card that always replaces itself. It has the slight downside of causing the enemy to gain Retaliate/Alert, but you usually don't mind that when fighting at 8+ . It also lets you pull off the occasional Evade check, but don't count on it.

Take the Initiative is essentially the replacement for Physical Training. It gives you three icons to deal with the Encounter deck, while also letting you pull of the occasional first action Investigate checks. I'd recommend only using it for Investigation if you really need to, because this deck doesn't have a lot to protect Nat's Sanity (Just Randall and the Mirror) or or deal with Will checks in general.

Hallowed Mirror provides flexible healing for damage or horror for you, Allies, and other investigators. It's a great card. If you're fighting and drawing with Boxing Gloves regularly, you'll be drawing at least two cards a turn, so you're more likely to find it than usual.

Piloting

You want to Mulligan for Boxing Gloves or Randall. If you found the Gloves, I would shuffle Randall back into the deck. His healing ability is only useful later in the scenario and the only Weapon you can search for are the Gloves. If you know the scenario attacks Assets, Hand slots, or Sanity particularly hard, you may want to keep both, so that Randall can find another set of gloves or provide soak. Grete is great, but I wouldn't keep her if I didn't already have Gloves and some resource generation. If you have all of that, you only have two slots left for Fight events, so make sure you find some.

Once you have Assets figured out, most of the Fight events are interchangeable. "Get over here!" is better when you know your team will spread out. OTP is best for 3-4 health enemies. Most of the other events are just to let you trigger your bonus damage with a side effect. I'd suggest trying to have at least two in your opening hand. Vicious Blow can be included in this category, as it gives you two damage on your basic Fight actions.

Your basic play strategy will be trying to maximize usage of your free damage ability while balancing cards and resources. Your Boxing Gloves are critical because they help you replace cards you spent to fight. Remember that his ability can trigger once per phase, so Counterpunch can be a good way to get value from an Attack of Opportunity while you move or draw a card, but it can also let you use your bonus damage in the Mythos or Enemy phases in addition to the Investigator phase.

For odd health enemies, use basic Fight actions, Monster Slayer + your bonus damage, or One-Two Punch to deal the time. For even health, your bonus damage lets GOH, CTO, and Counterpunch efficiently handle those enemies.

Nat needs card draw. He has tremendous killing power early in a scenario, but the last ~8 cards in your deck can be a slog to get through. You need gloves early to keep Fight events in your hand, but once you run out of events to search for, he struggles to recycle his deck and can run out of steam for fighting. Thematically, this is great. A boxer gets gassed out in the later rounds and starts to slow down, but it doesn't feel great when your team is hoping you'll help kill the big bad or pull enemies off of them and you have no Fight events in hand.

Nat can end up with a full hand of cards, but can also quickly spend them and run low. Counterpunch and "Get over here!" can be played outside the Investigation phase, so it can be common to dump 4-6 cards in a turn. You want to avoid discarding due to hand size as much as possible, because it can be hard to draw without defeating enemies.

Upgrading

Nat's starter deck has a lot of great cards, so you don't have to stray outside of it to have a great deck. I believe the priority goals are improving Spirit card density, improving draw, and improving efficiency.

Given this deck works best in 3-4 player, I think "Get over here!"(2) is a top priority. Not only can it pull from two locations away, it gains Fast. This card was already great for Action efficiency by saving you Move or Engage actions, and the upgrade makes all of that better. Sign me up! It's a great card for grabbing an enemy your cluever drew in the Mythos phase, a Hunter (before it attacks), or an exhausted enemy in the Upkeep phase. Don't forget about the player windows in those phases, which will let you use Nat's bonus damage more than once per round.

Going for Boxing Gloves(3) helps make sure you always find a card to draw. The extra bonus is helpful of course, but going from 6 to 9 cards searched helps prevent missing a draw. The worst feeling is running out of Fight events and having to spend 3 actions just basic punching a ghoul. I think this is definitely a #2-3 priority, but maybe not first pick.

Stand Together is not often a priority upgrade, but, given we already have level 0 in the deck, getting an additional two cards for you and a friend seems like a great idea. More draw is one of the things we're trying to improve from the base deck.

Counterpunch(2) helps you kill enemies before they hit you, so you have less need for soak or healing.

One-Two Punch(5) is amazing! The first attack becomes testless and deals a bonus damage, but now the second attack can target a different enemy! Dealing 5-6 damage to a boss or taking out two enemies with a single action is great! As strong as this card is, I think the cost means it's hard to recommend as a first upgrade. It can work, but you need to be sure you'll get value out of it via strong Elites, high enemy density, or Swarming enemies. Those aren't always true in scenario 2-3 of a campaign, but I would definitely prioritize these after shoring up some of the draw/resource staples.

Stick to the Plan is a staple Guardian upgrade, and Nat's deck has enough Tactic cards in it to make that work. This can be a great way to make sure your One-Two Punch(5) is available in your opening hand or to have a Dodge handy at all times.

Safeguard is a strong upgrade for a card already in the deck to improve action efficiency. If you find yourself using Safeguard a lot or are paired with highly mobile investigators like Rita or Ursula, think about upgrading your Safeguard.

Vicious Blow is likely the only upgrade you'll look at from the Core box. The extra damage and icons are always useful.

Mano a Mano is a good upgrade for Monster Slayer or to replace a non-Spirit card to let you consistently draw with the Gloves. The Bold requirement of being your first action can be a downside, but 2-3 testless damage is hard to ignore. This is more of a luxury upgrade for this deck. Since we're not limited to the Core+Starter, I think upgrading Safeguard and Stand Together are a higher priority.

Empty Vessel is a potential upgrade for Hallowed Mirror. You lose the ability to heal your Allies, but it does help you mitigate the Chaos bag while still keeping your self healthy/sane. Spiritual Resolve fills a similar role, but does take up more deck space. Both are worth considering to provide Sanity soak.

If you want more clue power, I think Lesson Learned is a better choice than upgrading to Grete Wagner. As a fighter, you'll often get hit, so the trigger is likely to go off. The resource cost is also low, and two clues without a test or action is great. Grete(0) does a good enough job. I don't think you'll want spend many actions Investigate at 3 , and the extra health/connecting location for her ability are nice, but you already have a lot of xp to spend before you can afford her. As a late campaign buy, I think she'll be great, but Lesson Learned is just easier to play and is another Spirit card to find with Gloves. Evidence! fulfills a similar role, but is not a Spirit and the bonus clue is likely harder to trigger.

After these upgrades, you still have a number of options to try from Nat's deck. I think they all have a place. Physical Training is essentially a permanent Guts or Overpower, minus the draw. Taunt and Dynamite Blast have their places, but may not be staple cards. I think "Get over here!" is usually better than Taunt, but there are scenarios/campaigns where the opposite is probably true.

Beginner deck requires 5 packs?!?

Check out the Starter + Core only version here.