Rancher Rambo | Chapter 2 Starter Guide

Rancher Rambo

This series provides 10 playtested decks using the Chapter 2 Core and new Starters, with each deck compatible for two player with at least 7 others (and working well at high player counts). Using his trusty Knapsack, Miguel lays fast traps like Lie in Wait or Glassing one location away and then drags enemies into them with Loner. For any foes that survive the trip, this rancher Rambo uses Longbow to finish them off.

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At a Glance

Stats
Clue-finding:	★★★☆☆
Consistency:	★★★☆☆
Enemy Management:	★★★★☆
Encounter Defense:	★★★★★
Survivability:	★★★★☆
Simplicity:	★★☆☆☆

Overview

• They struck first blood: The goal of this deck is to lay a trap at an adjacent locations (either with Knapsack, or place and move away), and then drag engaged enemies as a action to the trapped empty location with Loner. Doing this allows you to investigate using with Glassing, or kill stuff with Lie in Wait (or Makeshift Bomb if you're feeling reckless). Longbow is there as a finisher, with the added benefit of targeting Aloof enemies without engaging. You can also place traps on choke point locations which Hunters will move through, or you can scare the Feline Hybrid with a fight action to trigger a cleverly placed Glassing too. The world is your oyster!

• The (Mutant) Deer Hunter: To support the above, Stalk Prey allows you to spawn enemies with Miguel's free event action - getting a clue and a card in the bargain. In classic survivor fashion upgraded Hunter's Instinct and Do-or-Die give you options to recur events such as your traps or Stalk Prey. Notably, Scrape By can be recovered too - which is very nice for clue-finding with Stalk Prey (investigate, pass with Scrape By, spawn an enemy in with Stalk Prey, recur Scrape By - netting you two clues unless you draw on the investigate). There were turns where I both got 3 clues using this method and killed the 3 health enemy with Longbow (investigate, event, attack, investigate) - pretty sweet!

• Even more hunting: Guerrilla Tactics allows you to snipe enemies from a distance (especially those that have triggered a damage trap), and is made even better with Loner to close ground. "Shove off!" means you don't have to choose between evading and damage when you don't want to. Daniel Jameson is there so you can have a redo on fighting and evading, making you extremely consistent in this regard while also boosting your stat. This includes fight attempts on Guerrilla Tactics or Lie in Wait. A fun interaction on the latter is for Elusive Hunter enemies (e.g. Bat Horror) while you're at the trap's location: they move in during the enemy phase, they engage with you (and trigger Hunter's Instinct) but Lie in Wait's triggers before they make their attack - and so due to Elusive they get scared off (even if you fail the attack).

• The survival instinct: While this deck isn't especially strong in any one area, it's not overly weak in any either. The deck has 17 icons to help with a wide range of tests, and when you inevitably fail some then Rabbit's Foot allows you to draw cards in the bargain - with Scrape By giving a do-over on fails. With the icons and Scrape By, I gave Encounter Defense a 5 ★ rating. While the only soak here is Daniel Jameson or your Knapsack, Miguel's thic 8/8 sanity and health mean you need less soak than other investigators. The Knapsack can also provide card draw if you need it.

• Resource generation: Same Old Thing is a psuedo-Emergency Cache for events (and can fund other investigators' events as well). Speaking of E-cache, you can recur this with Hunter's Instinct and use your extra action to play it. While there's likely better things you'll want to recur, it's nice to know you can if you're cash-strapped!

_{Thank you: 5argon and their thumbnail tool; Valentin1331 for his support over the years; the community creators of Arkham.Build (Felix), Arkham Cards (zzorba) and ArkhamDB (kamalisk) - linking their Patreons!}

Explain Yourself!

I think this deck isn't too surprising for Miguel - it packs some non-fast events which use his ability and can also be recurred through Hunter's Instinct and Do-or-Die. I've heard people have struggled with enough non-fast events on Miguel for his ability to feel worth while, however the 9 eligible targets here feel appropriate in IMHO. For traps Decoy Trap is missing, but for me it's the most situational. The deck doesn't have much soak, but Miguel is a stout geezer so I don't think you need it.

Timely Intervention sits in Izzie's deck (the level 0 version and then later the upgraded version). Realistically the level 0 version is just okay here, as Miguel has a whole lot of wilds to commit to tests and then Rabbit's Foot or his Knapsack to draw these. Additionally he has Daniel to retake fight and evade tests - including Longbow fight actions (dramatically reducing the need to have Timely Intervention to commit to these). This leaves treacheries or failures by 1 as the main use cases for Timely Intervention, which Scrape By already mitigates against.

I bumped this deck up to a 3 ★ rating in clue-finding on a playtest. The Scrape By and Stalk Prey combo with Hunter's Instinct is pretty tasty, and your card draw is strong enough that you can usually assemble this engine. Plus, Glassing isn't half bad - a bit fiddly but as it provides a investigate it's essentially giving you action-less clue-finding. You can put it on a mid-shroud location while you bust a high shroud location with the Stalk Prey/Scrape By combo. Regarding other options, "Look what I found!" is absent as Miguel will fairly often fail by more than 2 on basic investigates - it's too situational.

Campaign starter and planned progression

0 XP deck is below (and link here):

A recommended order of purchases/upgrades is:

• Unexpected Courage → Scrape By

• Pocketknife → Longbow

• Hunter's Instinct → Hunter's Instinct ••

• Guerrilla Tactics → Guerrilla Tactics ••

• 1 x Manual Dexterity → 1 x Makeshift Bomb

Post-19 XP suggestions are:

• 1 x Manual Dexterity → 1 x Makeshift Bomb

• "Shove off!" → Rope Trap

• 1 x Levelheaded ••• if you feel a need (though Rabbit's Foot or Do-or-Die are all that should be replaced)

Compatability Matrix

Everyone likes a good matrix! Below are all the decks that are compatible at two player using one Chapter 2 Core and one 2026 Starter Deck set:

For higher player counts I've not 'compatabilized' the basic skills (Overpower, Manual Dexterity, Guts, Perception and Unexpected Courage). There are only 4 copies of each in the Chapter 2 core, enough for any two decks. If playing 3+ players and there's a clash, you can either:

• Swap with an appropriate level 0 class skill which that deck can use (e.g. On the Brink for Unexpected Courage).

• Swap with a class event or asset with matching or similar symbols (e.g. Working a Hunch for Perception).

• Swap with a different underused basic skill you still believe would be useful for the deck (e.g. Guts for Unexpected Courage).

• Proxy however you see fit (especially if you own Chapter 1 cards, just use the old school versions and remember the slight difference around who draws the card).

I empower you to do sensible things!

Final thoughts

Miguel is a weird guy! I didn't expect FFG to make the evergreen starter Survivor into a trapper, but I kind of like it (but equally, he almost feels like you're playing your own game within the game). Honestly I don't know whether Miguel should have a 5 ★ enemy management score, but he is perhaps less good at boss-killing than more conventional damage dealers. That said there's few people who can harass distant enemies quite so well, and the auto-damage with Makeshift Bomb can be very helpful. Add in other weird flavor here - like that the Feline Hybrid is somewhat helpful to trigger Glassing - and Miguel's playstyle feels unique. I dig it, it definitely swings for the fences in terms of quirky design!

Any thoughts - drop them below!