Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preston Returns to Dunwich | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
Difrakt · 1280
Expert. what do you do when the bag looks something like this:
0,-1,-1,-2,-2,-3,-3,-4,-4,-5,-6,-8,,,,,
and we're trying to hit a test of 3 or so.
With a stat line of 1s.
This means on default our test values without boosting look like this:
1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0(+bad shit),0(+bad shit),,1(or pay two for victory)
or what if we boost by +4:
5,4,4,3,3,2,2,1,1,0,0,0,0(+bad shit),0(+bad shit),,5 (icons may vary but are usually this bad)
this is less than half the bag and at a whopping 4r cost per test. It is seriously unsustainable, hell even with a stat line of 3s this isn't a good look.
Getting up to +6/+7 improves things significantly (since , and are often in the -3 to -4 range on Expert) but even with the level 0 talents and your weekly allowance Preston isn't going to be hitting these numbers.
Fortunately for us Preston has access to two things:
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the bonkers level 1-5 rogue pool (which allows us to hit these numbers with regularity)
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the bonkers level 0 survivor pool (which allows us to turn that fat stack of zeros into successes, or something close enough)
Here's the definitive guide for Preston Expert, the rules here are simple:
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1) don't waste on tests that don't matter
2) don't take tests you don't have to
3) if you have to take a test, try and make failure work for you
4) otherwise conserve resources for the time when you do need to hit tests.
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1) is well understood by the expert community. If you don't have to explore from here don't bother clearing out underbrush. If you have lots of health, eat a grasping hands. Sometimes losing an asset you have is better than paying out the nose to pass a crypt chill, etc. etc. etc.
2) cards like Gravediggers Shovel and Lantern may be expensive for others, but to guarantee a clue off of a 5 shroud location is an absolute steal (and money is nothing to Preston). This templated deck doesn't have lantern because it's designed for TFA, but you may want to carry some of those around if a certain set of annoying birds is following you around Dunwich. Guaranteed damage or evasion also falls under this umbrella hence the inclusions of Cunning Distraction, Coup de Grace, Elusive and Sneak Attack.
3) sometimes failing a test can result in more than winning it would. You cannot fail a 2 shroud location by more than 2 (or a three shroud location if you start with Winging it) so you can nearly guarantee a trigger of "Look what I found!" which can net you two clues. Use this little combo to guarantee victory points off of dastardly locations (just watch out for 'if you fail' triggers, which can still burn you)
4) for everything else we're going to want a stack of resources. This is explicitly why I hate the idea of Dark Horse in Preston (and IMO it is unworkable on Expert as +1 is almost meaningless). First of all Money Talks and Well Connected can mean stunningly high numbers that nearly guarantee success after a very little buildup. Second of all if those can't cut it then Dig Deep and Hard Knocks can boost us regardless. Chop down the overgrowth around base camp, prevent that horror which would drive you insane, and become unfrozen in fear.
4b) In order to get this slush fund we have one last rule that governs our overall play style: if you have 2+ resources on Family Inheritance at the end of your turn and have an action to spend, prioritize taking those resources off. Obviously don't eat a strong AoO or fall out the back of a train doing so, but in any situation where it doesn't explicitly hurt you or risk disaster you should be stockpiling.
And that's basically it. Once you don't really care about the token bag Expert is basically as easy as Easy. The only difference between the two is that Expert will punish you for mis-committing your limited pool of resources, and what better way to learn how to do that than with the man who's whole thing is resource management.
| 8 comments |
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Feb 13, 2019 |
Feb 14, 2019I'm finding that with Dark Horse Preston you can just hang on to as much money as you want since it is very likely that you will use it all. He breaks the Dark Horse archetype to which we've become accustomed; it's definitely ok to take a resource every Upkeep or even move them off Family Inheritance if you so choose. Not enough cash to make Money Talks a bomb, but I'm also finding that, on Standard, you can hit any test you want with stat pumps, which makes a 20 resource Money Talks unnecessary. (But I bet it still feels great!) |
Feb 14, 2019I actually don't get the point on poorston builds. We complained since dunwich that having a pile of money and all 3s (jenny) wasn't good enough. Why trying to build a 2-cards all 2s deck in the same rogue class now? |
Feb 14, 2019I think Dark Horse is good in preston's deck because his Family Inheritance does not count as part of his ressource pool. So the horse is like a free +1 on any test when you spend ressources to push yourself and you can do that more than once each turn, depending on how much you boost yourself. On the other hand gaining 5 ressources each turn suffices to play any assets you might draw (baring Leo De Luca 0), so spending down to 0 doesn't stop you from further setting up, compared to most other Dark Horses, where you'd have to gather ressources for Peter Sylvestre, for example. |
Feb 15, 2019
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Feb 15, 2019Whether or not Poorston builds might work in a different context, Dark Horse will never fire in this deck (and absolutely shouldn't). +1 is less than negligible in Expert and actively works against the archetype of using an aux pool of money to hit high pump numbers. The cycle for this deck is if low on resources -> conserve, if high on resources -> use to maximum effect. What you should never do is aim to bottom out your extra funds at 0, and the chances of it happening accidentally are very, very slim. |
Feb 15, 2019
What is the aux pool of money you are trying to avoid bottoming out on and why? To what end are you saving your excess resources? I've been playing on Expert since the beginning of Dunwich and in my play experience a "free" +1 to all stats over many turns is quite welcome, but I do understand that there are differing play styles than my own. I do not look at the bonus in isolation, but how it interacts and augments every asset and skill (I'm lookin at you Rise to the Occasion!) I play throughout the entirety of a scenario. I view Dark Horse as essentially augmenting every token in the bag, similar to how you lay it out in your write-up and not entirely unlike how Jim, skull tokens and Ritual Candles interact. Is there a specific reason you aren't running Take Heart? |
Feb 15, 2019My apologies, I thought this was a low resource build, I get that you are leveraging high resource pools and the new "Preston Cards." |
I feel like Borrowed Time has a lot of potential. Especially since it doesn't trigger attacks of opportunity. It can let you borrow actions for when you need it.