Concept

(Edited 2019-01-14 with thanks to Reddit /u/4227 for some fixes)

I am trying to build a clue-oriented "Ashcan" Pete. This deck is targeted at a 4-player "Return to Dunwich" Campaign. We currently do not anticipate having a dedicated seeker. Planned team: Leo Anderson , Jenny Barnes , Sefina Rousseau , and me .

The starting point for this deck is my "Forgotten Age" deck (https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/275674); however, I wanted to focus more on the following:

1. Improvised cards. (Impromptu Barrier, Winging It, and Improvised Weapon)
2. Treachery cancellation. (Ward of Protection, Alter Fate, A Test of Will)

Piloting Thoughts

Opening Hand

In terms of "setup", "Ashcan" Pete starts with Duke in play and so in many games you are ready to start fighting (4) or clue-ing (4).

Nonetheless, you want to use the game's (generous) mulligan rules to try to get, in priority order:

1. Dark Horse
2. Peter Sylvestre

After that, Magnifying Glass is wonderful to get. The other cards are up to your personal playstyle.

Note, I did not include a lot of draw, or deck searching, focused cards in this deck. I did use my prior deck in games where Dark Horse came late. That definitely hurts; however, Pete/Duke are pretty capable without. (Note, 4 of the neutral, Skill-cards do provide card draw.)

Statistics: Given the mulligan rules, you can potentially see 10 non-treachery, player cards of 30 on the flop (1/3rd of your deck). So using the hypergeometric function of Excel, you can compute that the probability of at least one Dark Horse if you mulligan for it is an impressive 46% chance of finding one.

Start of Game

Until you have Peter Sylvestre and Dark Horse in play these suggestions apply.

From your starting hand you want to get Peter out first (Dark Horse from the starting hand into play will not benefit you while you are trying to build up three resources to pay for Peter.) Thus if both are in hand, play Peter on turn 1 and if necessary wait until the next turn for Dark Horse.

An ideal starting hand is Dark Horse + Peter + 1 or 2x Magnifying Glass. If you have Magnifying Glass play that early as well.

Other ideas:

• You can use Duke to investigate (or fight) at least once per turn. Use Duke's ability to take a free move before investigating as needed.
• Be willing to take the Draw Action to find Dark Horse, or Peter
• Consider committing cards to tests and discarding cards to activate Pete's special ability (once per round), to ready Duke again

Handling Upkeep Phase

The Upkeep Phase is where normally you get a card and a resource. For Dark Horse, you do not want resources. Luckily Dark Horse gives you the option to skip taking a resource.

Rule 1A No Dark Horse = no decision, you must take resources.

Rule 1B Scrapper = no decision, always take a resource

Rule 2 Otherwise, it is situational as described below, usually you will tend not to take resources once set up.

If you Have Scrapper: Always Take a Resource

Once you have 3 XP and Scrapper in your deck, you can always take a resource during the Upkeep Phase.

This is because you always have a window during a Skill Test to spend the resource to "pump" or (irrespective of test type) to go into Dark Horse "mode" and gain the +1 to all stats.

Scrapper Always Works: you are able to spend the resource on a or test even though Scrapper does not boost or . See Skill Test Timing and read carefully that the only restriction on needing the Skill icons to match is for committed cards (ST.2).

When Should you Take a Resource?

Per Above If Dark Horse is not in play (no option) or if you have Scrapper, see above.

Generally Not If no Scrapper and you are more or less fully set up. Skip the resource. This will be the most common choice until you get Scrapper.

Situationally If you need to play a card in your hand, including the one you just drew. (You draw before you have to decide about taking a resource. Be sure to read the timing of the Upkeep Phase rules carefully.)

Example 1: You had Peter and 1 Magnifying Glass (and Dark Horse) out, you just drew the second Magnifying Glass. This is a good time to take a resource.

Example 2: Peter has finally turned up 5-6 turns into the game. Take the resource! Next turn, potentially, you Resource Action two times and then play Peter.

Middle to End of the Game

In the middle turns (once Peter, Dark Horse, and possibly 1-2x Magnifying Glasses are out) you want to use Duke at least 2x/turn. Plan to discard one card to activate Pete's special ability to ready Duke again. We have 5 total Improvised cards in this deck for easy discarding and play-from-discard.

When investigating in the mid-game, using Duke, you are at 7 without committing cards. (4 from Duke, 2 from Magnifying Glass, and 1 from Dark Horse for 7). You also get a free move before you investigate.

Other clue gathering options:

• Investigate without Duke ::gasp::. This is at 5 (2 base, 2 from Magnifying, 1 from Dark Horse)
• Wing it: If you have 1 resource you can (ideally from the discard pile having previously been used to ready Duke on an earlier turn), play Winging It from the discard pile (or your hand). This card lowers the location's shroud by 1 and, if played from discard, nets 2 clues. This can only be used without Duke since the Investigate action is on the Winging It card. But you should be back to 0 resources and have 5 on what is now a location with less shroud. (e.g. if it was going to be 5-on-4 pre-Winging It, you are now 5-on-3.)
• Commit cards: Especially to non-Duke cluing. E.g. Perception. Intellect is now back to 7.

As above, generally you will skip taking a resource pre-Scrapper but always take one post-Scrapper being added to your deck.

(Note Flashlight was not included because it does not synergize with Duke, when you use Duke the Investigate action is on Duke itself, but Flashlight's shroud reduction is an Investigate action. Thus if you use Flashlight you cannot use Duke, and vice versa. Magnifying Glass works with and without Duke. Also Duke gets a free move before investigating.)

Combat and Evasion

This is a clue-gathering oriented build so you are meant to focus on Evading.

Evading

Unlike cluing and fighting where the Investigate or Fight is on Duke, for evasion you are using Pete's native ability. This deck is set to generally have Pete at 5 (3 base, +1 from Peter, +1 from Dark Horse) means that you can evade most enemies with minimal card commitment.

Note: If you have to "discard" a resource (only with Scrapper) to activate Dark Horse, you will be at 6 because of Scrapper's fast () ability.

Other tools:

• Impromptu Barrier can both make it easier to evade, and when played from the discard becomes a multi-evade (some action compression).
• Elusive lets you disengage all and move. Note this card is also for "jumping" around the scenarios and costs 2 so save it for something important. (Enemies are not evaded)
• Unexpected Courage and Rise to the Occasion gets you two-s (latter only usable sometimes).
• Manual Dexterity gets you and card draw

Combat

Pete's low-ish 2 (3 with Dark Horse) is not great and the tricky issue in using Pete to fight is that you want to use Duke for the 4 base (5 with Dark Horse) and the +1 damage (2 damage/hit).

This means activating the Fight action on Duke itself. Look closely at most Weapons (and many Survivor Cards), the benefits come from that card's Fight action. This means those cards do not synergize with Duke and vice versa.

Why not include any weapons/fighting tools:

1. Duke is always available: deal 2 damage at 4- (5 with Dark Horse). This is very reliable to repeat twice in a single turn and no ammo concerns. Duke is always available from turn 1.
2. Once Scrapper (3 XP) is available: Pete's/Duke's skill can be pumped +1 if you had a resource
3. See evasion.
4. See this is a clue-oriented deck.
5. Relatedly, this is a treachery cancellation deck, so while monsters are not cancelled, if you cancel some treacheries you likely have actions to spend on monsters.

Combat Tools

When you need to combat, combat with Duke when possible and then with Pete himself, the following help with boosting :

• Rise to the Occasion (0): which upgrades to Rise to the Occasion (3) will help with fighting
• Improvised Weapon: can be helpful if you are not using Duke and commit other cards. Here it gives Pete +1 damage when played from discard and an easier shot at hitting
• Unexpected Courage: gets you two-s
• Stunning Blow: Gives 1 and evades the enemy. Provides action compression.

Upgrades and Use of XP

Like most survivors, Pete does not have very high XP requirements. Focusing on a Dark Horse build also means you want very few cards with costs >1 in your deck, that then rules out many Survivor XP cards.

Honestly 7 XP leaves this Pete deck in great shape (first two upgrades below).

Upgrades (in priority order):

1. 1x Scrapper (3) - Pump or with money; eliminate any need to think about whether or not t take the resource during upkeep
2. 2x Peter Sylvestre (2) - Upgraded Peter means most willpower tests will be at a base of 6 (5 without Dark Horse)
3. 2x Key of Ys (5) - Discuss among group who gets this; use XP to get 2 copies. (See below about swapping cards since 2 cards will need to go to make space for this.) This does add some setup costs (3 resources to play) for Pete + get horror on the Key, but the boost is well worth it.
4. 2x Rise to the Occasion (0) upgrades to Rise to the Occasion (3) - The better version has one fewer base , but can gain up to 3 for a total of 5 based on the spread between the test and your base skill.

The remaining upgrades generally require replacing one existing card with the new one. Pick a current card that is "not working" for you. For example, if the Improvised cards are not your thing, toss some of those for some of these. Similarly, the Leather Coat might come out if your Investigator is not taking much damage.

Situational upgrades (not prioritized):

• Alter Fate (3): This plays into the theme of canceling treacheries. This card can remove a Arcane Barrier that is blocking your team's path. Normally removing the barrier might not be a great use of this card; however, this example highlights that Alter Fate can work across the map and play area. What if a low intellect investigator is stuck far away? This card might save a lot of actions or them having to discarding 5 cards from their deck to move.
• Infighting (3): Maybe this turn you need to tank the enemies. This 3 XP card is and if you held on to a resource for this, the enemy phase will not hurt a bit. All damage/horror from all non-Elites for one turn are avoided. Tank all the enemies, avoid all of the damage.
• A Test of Will (1) Exile Card: This plays into the theme of canceling treacheries. This is a cheap card to purchase (and re-purchase since it is removed from your deck after use the ability). "Take" a bad treachery off another investigator in your location and cancel it.
• Stroke of Luck (2) Exile Card: This 2 XP skill that you will need to purchase again if you use its special the power (exile card). The card always provides a single . After drawing tokens, as long as the token was not drawn, you can exile Stroke of Luck and succeed.
• Charisma (3): This is the most situational upgrade listed. It does not require swapping cards out since it is a permanent. The reasons I might add this would be to get a second Ally like Stray Cat for auto-evade (action compression if I am needing to evade a lot) or to make space for a scenario ally alongside Peter Sylvestre (3).

Other Context-Specific Choices for the Deck

• Parlay needed: Try Fine Clothes which acts like a Flashlight for Parley's, reducing the difficulty by 2. I would probably put this in place of the Leather Coat. (Example uses: Ichtaca in Forgotten Age's The Untamed Wilds, the guests in Carcosa's Curtain Call, or the named cultists in the Night of the Zealot's Midnight Masks)
• More damage absorption needed: Bulletproof Vest

Card-Specific Discussions

This section has thoughts in several -specific cards in the deck:

• Resourceful: You get 1 each, of three different skills when committed to a test (every skill but willpower, so you get ). On success, the Survivor () card of your choice comes back from discard. Re-using some of the powerful events or skills is great, e.g. so no 3rd Ward of Protection in a game, but you can Stunning Blow again or pull back a discarded Peter Sylvestre or Dark Horse if in the late game you need to replay it.
• Live and Learn: After you fail, take another attempt this time with +2. Also can be committed to a test as a . This works for Duke tests (like with weapons, since the investigate skill test is being repeated [Per /u/4227]).

Lack (?) of Action Compression

Many decks focus on action compression. Fellow Dunwich-investigator Rex Murphy is perhaps the best example of this, his ability frequently collects two clues from one Investigate action. Many turns using 3 investigate actions, Rex does 6 actions worth of clue collecting.

Firstly, Pete via Duke does get an Ursula Downs-like action compression. (She gets a free Investigate after a Move, once per turn.) Specifically, using Duke's Investigate action, Pete can optionally move for free before the investigate. Better than Ursula, Pete can do this twice per turn. (My read of the rules is that move-investigating does not provoke an Attack of Opportunity at the destination. E.g. if you move to a location and an enemy engages you there, you do not get an attack of opportunity because the investigate is part of finishing the prior action.)

Having played a variant of this deck through Forgotten Age, the "secret" here is building very reliable performance. (Spoiler: the move-investigate did not work great in Forgotten Age due to heavy use of the Explore mechanic.)

Pete's base stats: 4 / 2 / 2 / 3 are ok.

But once Peter Sylvestre (level 0)+ Dark Horse are out (and we have no resources) we are: 5 for and . Duke always gives us 5 and for clueing, Duke gives us 5 .

This means most of the game Pete's effective stat line is 5 / 5 / 5 / 5

Impressive right?

(Add in a Key of Ys (5) with 1-2 horror and you can easily be 6-or-7 base for most tests.)

So back to the way this deck is built. Some decks do better by getting extra actions in every turn. Straight up action compression. This deck does better by offering that when move-investigate is desired, but also by consistently passing any type of test with no, or minimal, setup. If an enemy comes out on turn 1 and your Guardian is not set up? Pete is ready with 4 and +1 damage via Duke out of the gate.

Thus the "action compression" element(s) of this deck are:

1. Consistent passing of tests, see 5-across-the-board stats once setup, without committing more cards.
2. Few lost actions to setup (2 action setup total: 1 each for Peter and Dark Horse; note the Magnifying Glasses are Fast).
3. Duke's free move-investigate, 1-2x/turn.
4. Even statline can handle anything thrown at it,
5. Number 4 leads to a reduced need for others to take actions for you. Example, a who cannot fight well might require the group's to take extra actions to "get the monster" off the (1 action to engage, 1 to fight). Since Pete can fight-and-clue, those two actions by the group's are saved. Similarly, Peter Sylvestre provides a soak for horror and between Duke, Pete himself, and the Leather Coat, a lot of damage can be soaked up.
6. Some classic action compression skill and event cards are present, e.g. card helps a test and draws a card, evades multiple enemies, gets an extra clue, etc.

So while you are unlikely to regularly have a Rex Murphy-style, 6-clue turn, this Pete deck will reliably handle the Encounter Deck and can consistently pass 3 skill tests per turn and often like Ursala Downs, you will accomplish 4-or-5 actions in your 3 action turn if you move around.

Further Thoughts on Piloting

Some areas to be mindful of:

• Some of your treachery cancelation abilities can help other players, keep people posted if you have those cards in hand and a resource to pay for them
• Stay (mostly) broke once set up
• There are a total of six cards to cancel treacheries in this deck, use them
• Discard cards (especially Improvised ones) to use Duke 2x/turn with Pete's ability
• Commit cards for skill tests for their skill icons

• Exiling cards is fine, you will have plenty of XP

• • *

Roads Not Taken

In building this deck, I briefly considered a non-Dark Horse build.

Some cards I considered for that build:

• "Look What I Found!": Cost 2, but gets 2 clues after a small failure
• A Chance Encounter (0) -> A Chance Encounter: Both bring anyone's ally from discard back to you for either 1 turn, or permanently.
• Perseverance: Stave off near-defeat for 2 resources
• Waylay: For 3 resources, use your test to defeat an enemy
• Lucky! (0) -> Lucky! (2): Adds 2 to a skill test for 1 resource (upgraded version also provides card draw). Unlike in a Dark Horse deck, you might have resources sitting around when taking skill tests.

There were also some XP cards of interest with costs >1, but not many.

What I could not get past is each of the above cards are more or less one-time only. (True Survivor (3) might for 3 resources bring some cards back from discard, like Resourceful and the base 2-skill icon Neutral skills.) But all of these are expensive.

To get the benefits of any of these, I would have needed to establish more resource generation, e.g. an Ally like Dr. Milan Christopher or other tools like Lone Wolf and Emergency Cache. All of these could work, but would leave the stat line much less well-rounded. And more in jeopardy of needing help and wasting other people's actions.

So this was the trade off, 46% chance of Dark Horse given +1 to every skill for most of the game from a single card and 3 resources vs. ~4 or so cards (8 total in deck) that I might be able to use once provided I have enough resources.

Just was not compelling enough relative to the across-the-board stat boost.

Let's compare this deck vs a similar one using some of the above cards and still using Peter Sylvestre (this chart assumes Dark Horse "mode" is active once set up and any allys are in play; I also compare with a Milan deck; and Key of Ys with 1 horror on it):

So for Standard difficulty, you are generally aiming for 2 above the test level to have a good chance of passing. Many skill tests seem to be 3's, particularly a number of treacheries, so that means 5 is your "bar".

The Dark Horse deck delivers with 5+ across the board post-setup. That means you can save your card contributions as skill icons for the harder tests, e.g. 4/5-skill checks. You also can save cards for "must-pass" tests nearly guaranteeing success. The non-dark horse deck would rely on Scrapper to boost and skills, but tests would generally be looking for card contributions.

(Notice also that once we get the upgraded Peter Sylvestre the Dark Horse deck shines across most treacheries with 4 and 6 to apply to tests without additional cards committed for skill icons.)

Consider this Pete-deck's role focus: clue-ing. We have a reliable, zero-cost 7 investigate twice/turn. Further, the third investigate is at 5. This means it is viable to clear locations with shroud of 4-5 without too many cards/resources. Mind you the non-Dark Horse deck is not that fair behind for investigate, but in the other areas you can see the gap... Harder to evade and pass willpower treacheries.

Specifically comparing the upgraded Peter Sylvestre statline vs. the Milan statline (likely swap for resources): 6 / 5 / 7 / 5 (this deck) vs. 4 / 4 / 7 / 3 (non-Dark Horse using Dr. Milan Christopher) or 5 / 4 / 6 / 4 (using Peter Sylvestre (3)).

I'll pick this deck's stat line, as equal or better across the board and with few possibilities of being resource constrained be effective.

To be clear, I am not claiming that this deck is per se superior to all non-Dark Horse decks, just that to my mind this deck has a more consistent play to it at a higher effective stat level across all tests.

BASE DUNWICH SPOILERS

There was a treachery in Dunwich, Beyond the Veil, that caused you to take 10 horror if you ran out of cards in your Player Deck. There were also several discard acceleration cards in the base Dunwich campaign, e.g. discard 5 cards to skip a test.

Playing the similar deck linked above I never hit a reshuffle in Forgotten Age.

However, the ability to play Improvised cards from the discard linked with Pete's fast-ready an Asset on discard is an interesting synergy. The discarded cards are available to use in a later action (possibly on a later turn). Compare, any non-Improvised card you discarded you cannot use for either the card's skill icons or* the card's text. Example, a discarded Magnifying Glass will never be playable for Pete to help clue nor could you have gotten the benefit of the 1 on any skill test. But a discarded Impromptu Barrier is always ready to be played from discard. (Alternatively think of Improvised Cards as expanding you hand limit, beyond what is in your hand any Improvised cards in discard are as well.)

The Improvised cards will also "thicken" my Player Deck when I use them from discard. They reshuffle into the deck in on play from discard. This also means the same Improvised card might be used multiple times in the game for readying Duke when it gets re-drawn.