Tommy Muldoon: Holy Headshots

This is a taboo-compliant concept deck I'm pairing with Father Mateo in a run-through of Carcosa. (Before evaluating this deck in a vacuum, you may want to see the companion piece, Hallowed Be Thy Game. Despite being a long-time player, these are also my first two published decks, so I'm open to feedback.

OVERVIEW

The point of this deck is to utilize tokens to give the .35 Winchester its maximum efficiency, while clearing low-shroud locations and doing what Tommy does best: tanking. Again, this is not a solo deck--your partner will have the responsibility of clearing high-shroud locations and aggressively pumping the bag with tokens.

OPENING HAND

The Winnie may not be the ideal weapon to search for right out of the gate. It could take a few turns for you and your teammate to pump the chaos bag enough to make that bonus damage reliable, so I'd suggest Blessed Blade or Baseball Bat as a starter weapon...and I'm leaning toward the blade so you can contribute some tokens and carry the Lantern in your other hand. Of course you can't go wrong with Cherished Keepsake...and I like Tetsuo Mori or Guard Dog as an opening ally.

PILOTING

The deck may struggle with early resource acceleration. There are no tutors or Emergency Caches because, well...Tetsuo Mori is your (continually recurring) version of Prepared for the Worst. Get him killed, and he provides 3 or 4 resources while digging out your .35 Winchester. Remember that he takes hits for anyone at your location, too.

In the early game, try to explore a bit. Find those easy shroud locations; Tommy's 3 intellect is respectable when paired with an appropriate investigation tool. Don't worry about leaving the odd clue here and there, because your partner is running Sixth Sense with a decent amount of token manipulation.

Now we're a few turns in, and the real enemies have started showing up. Your Baseball Bat's going to break at about this time, or you need something that packs a bigger punch after using the Blade's once-per-turn ability to clear out small fry and add blessings to the bag. Your economy engine should be rolling by now, so out comes the Winchester or Becky.

COMBAT STRATEGY

The weapons in this deck require a little extra know-how to operate, but you should be covered for any situation. 1- or 2-health enemies don't need much explanation, but the 3-health and up ones could be tricky. If you find yourself facing a foe with 1 health remaining after a critical hit didn't cooperate...well, that's what the Lanterns and Guard Dogs are for. And speaking of testless, automatic damage...I know Beat Cop is conspicuously absent. That's because he goes straight to the discard pile instead of being defeated by damage/horror and recycling himself. Compare to Grete Wagner, who gives you the same bonus, and gets you free clues while killing herself in the process--much more complementary to Tommy's style.

A FEW OTHER FINE POINTS

Fine Clothes: Yes, I know it competes with Bandolier, but IMO Tommy's dress uniform is super useful. His statline gives him a great edge in Parley tests--his , , and values are strong, and I can't think of a single Parley check involving his weak spot, . With Fine Clothes, Tommy can breeze through practically any speaking test, and then ditch the tux for a 2-resource boost.

Scrounge for Supplies: Why this and not Resourceful, you ask? Well, because Scrounging is really only effective when you use it to recur a Fast card...and Tempt Fate, Trusted, "Let me handle this!", and Heroic Rescue, your prime targets, are out of faction. In a pinch, you could recur a gun that's gone dry or was discarded to due a treachery, but this is less efficient.

UPGRADE PATH

(More or less in order of importance)

Favor of the Sun: If there's a more ideal pairing than this and the Winchester, I'd sure like to know what it is. You want two of them ASAP.

Ancient Covenant: Duh.

Charisma: Everyone loves allies, but Tommy's whole game is centered around them.

Ever Vigilant: One of the best early-game economy cards, in my opinion. Just be mindful of Rookie Mistake if you have a lot of assets on the table.

Drawing Thin: Helps a lot with Tommy's piss-poor card draw.

Agency Backup: The ultimate Tommy Muldoon card. Enough said.

The Red-Gloved Man: If you abuse him hard enough, he goes back into your deck instead of the discard pile.

Heroic Rescue: I wanted to include Hand of Fate in this deck, but... jeez. 3 resources to cancel one attack? I just can't bring myself to do it. I rarely even run Dodge. But I digress...Heroic Rescue cancels that same attack against your teammate, gives testless damage which complements our playstyle nicely, and the upgrade is much better than the basic version.

That's right...I'm recommending all these as upgrades before purchasing another weapon. Let's see how far into a campaign we can get with a level 0 gun and signature asset as our main weapons, shall we?  °_°