"Icepick" Pete

Introduction

The Ice Pick + Duke combo is fantastic and for some reason no one has posted a deck featuring it yet, so here it is. The basic thrust of this deck is recycling Ice Pick with Scavenging and using it to buff Duke to unreasonable levels, a play style that works extremely well in solo.

Instructions

In the Thick of It gets Ashcan 2 mental trauma which turns on Desperate skills, those 3XP are also enough to buy 2 copies of Ice Pick heading into scenario 1 of a campaign, meaning the basic combo of this deck is in place right away.

Ice Pick, even at level 1 is fantastic for Duke as it buffs his Fight or Investigate actions to 5 rather than 4, every single turn. 2 copies in play and he's at 6. But how does Ashcan get both in play as quickly as possible? Short Supply helps immensely here, with a starting 10 card discard pile there is a high chance one or more copies will be in hand after a mulligan or in the discard pile and easily accessible via Scavenging or Resourceful.

Scrounge for Supplies is an important card to keep in hand off a mulligan, pick up whatever is necessary to get the ball rolling out of the initial 10 card discard pile (usually Resourceful or Scavenging).

Desperate Search and Inquiring Mind (or just stacking Resourceful with A Glimmer of Hope) can help fire off Scavenging to pick up the Ice Picks (or an errant Moonstone or Track Shoes). Take Heart also helps dig for the Picks while providing a little resource generation.

Peter Sylvestre is there to compensate for Ashcan's low sanity. It's also good to aggressively soak damage and horror on Duke and use Inspiring Presence to heal Duke along with giving him additional uses so taking that 2 mental trauma is never much of a risk.

Vicious Blow helps Duke take out increasingly common 3 health enemies before Ice Pick gets upgraded to level 3, once level 3 Ice Pick is in place, Duke can one shot 4 health enemies, or even take out a 6 health enemy in two actions with the right combination of cards (Vicious Blow + Inspiring Presence).

A Glimmer of Hope is obvious fuel for Duke reuse, starting with a discard pile of 10 usually means multiple copies of this will show up quickly and be a test passing engine for later in the scenario.

Dark Horse is a flex slot, it's an old staple of Ashcan decks, and can work here in the right situation but there are plenty of other options to player taste such as Live and Learn, or more skill cards (and of Unexpected Courage, Overpower, or Perception fit in easily).

Strength in Numbers is a solid skill card (3 ? icons with Ice Pick is in play), the fact that it's Innate opens the option of going with True Survivor later in the campaign. Inquiring Mind fills the same role.

Upgrades

Ice Pick to Ice Pick (4XP) This is the most important upgrade, get the most powerful version that can be discarded for additional benefit and recycled via Scavenging.

Peter Sylvestre to Peter Sylvestre (4XP) 3 starting sanity isn't as big a deal as it would be with most investigators, but it's still a good idea to upgrade Peter quickly to get that additional level of protection. The downside is that he can't be picked out of the discard with Scrounge for Supplies but usually that's not an issue as Scrounge often targets one of Resourceful, Scavenging, Lucky!, or a skill card.

Charisma (3XP) Necessary for the next upgrade...

Dark Horse to Jessica Hyde (1XP) Damage isn't as big of an issue as horror, but it's still nice to get +1 Fight and an endless damage soak.

Inquiring Mind or Reckless Assault to Strength in Numbers (1XP), not a strict upgrade for Inquiring Mind but it will be most of the time as the deck almost always has at least 1 Ice Pick in play early. Reckless Assault is a great card but the flexibility of Strength in Numbers is preferable.

Lucky! to Lucky! (4XP) Not the sexiest upgrade, but every bit of draw helps move through the deck and find the key combo pieces, plus it just a stepping stone to...

Lucky! to Lucky!, the best version of the card. (2XP)

At this point the essential build is complete which is convenient at 19XP for standalone play and 2 weaknesses, like many Survivors it doesn't take much to get to the mostly optimal version of the deck.

Followup options for XP are:

Scrounge for Supplies to True Survivor, by the end of a campaign there are fewer targets for this and True Survivor is a way to get a bit more value though it comes at a steep resource cost. While it probably doesn't make sense to convert both copies of Scrounge, cutting one is not that big a deal with fewer level 0 cards. True Survivor picking up Strength in Numbers, Take Heart, Resourceful, or Inspiring Presence is a great play and can provide a lot of value, even loop with Resourceful to keep Ashcan's hand full late game.

Moonstone to Key of Ys (10XP), under taboo this costs a whopping 10XP for one card but Ashcan makes really good use of it here as he can reliably fish it out of his discard pile with Scavenging, dramatically increasing his chance of seeing it early and loading it up with horror. With Peter Sylvestre and Duke absorbing horror for him he uses it extremely well once it is in play.

Weaknesses

The biggest weakness of this deck is Wracked by Nightmares, the signature weakness that turns off Duke. Like any Ashcan deck that is heavily reliant on Duke, this card is debilitating, though here it's impact can often be mitigated if it is one of the 10 cards in the discard pile at the beginning of the game (37% chance of that happening with a 32 card deck). This deck doesn't power draw and cycle, so when this happens it's likely the weakness will be avoided entirely.

Much of the enemy management will be done with Duke's combat, but even at level 0 Ashcan can evade quite well, once fully set up he hits 6 Agility with all of Peter Sylvestre, Track Shoes, and Moonstone in play. If playing a campaign with an emphasis on Agility tests (such as The Forgotten Age) there's always the option to include Run For Your Life, replacing Dark Horse in the flex slot might make sense.

Willpower tests shouldn't be a problem for Ashcan, he has base 4 Willpower, Moonstone at level 0, and should quickly upgrade to Peter Sylvestre to reliably be at 5+ Willpower. Strength in Numbers A Glimmer of Hope, or Lucky! help a lot in passing these types of tests.

Staring with 10 cards in the discard pile does have negative implications when playing The Dunwich Legacy campaign, in that case replace the single copy of Strength in Numbers with Alter Fate or Devil's Luck depending upon preference (Alter Fate has the advantage of not costing XP when used and can solve another problem encounter card in Dunwich that is crippling to this deck, but Devil's Luck is cheaper and probably more reliable as a Fast event). If Alter Fate is chosen, it probably makes sense to cut Dark Horse in favour of another skill card or cheap event such as Live and Learn. Ultimately it probably makes a lot of sense to upgrade into Alter Fate and possibly A Test of Will at some point given this deck's vulnerability to certain encounter cards in this campaign.