Mark Harrigan - Standard Guardian Deck + Healing (Taboo)

Deck Overview:

Investigator Overview:

Card Overview:

.32 Colt - Cheap firearm weapon with total six ammo. Mark naturally have high base stat which allows him to best use this weapon. However, even Mark will need to have stat boost card to hit six in order to safely take down enemies with four .

.45 Automatic - Very standard firearm that is decent in any case. I usually use this weapon to kill something big while using .32 Colt to take down small 2 or 3 enemies.

Flashlight - nice neutral asset that helps you get some clues since it allows you to get clue almost guaranteed in shroud 2 or lower location. However, if your partner investigator is dedicated clue gatherer like Rex Murphy then probably it is better to put other cards that help you fight or survive better.

Hallowed Mirror - nice accessory asset that can help you heal damage/horror which are both problematic for Mark since he have five sanity threshold and have to maintain four or lower damage counts to avoid Sophie's negative effect. Soothing Melody is very versatile card that can be used to heal damage/horror in any investigator/ally asset in your location. Soothing Melody itself cost no resources and replace itself with card draw makes it very cheap to play which is perfect for class that suffers from having low resource generation and expensive assets for weapon and ally.

Beat Cop - one of the best ally for that generate stat boost. It becomes a lot better once you upgrade it to Beat Cop which can be tapped to deal free damage to that annoying 3 or 5 health enemy. Also note that Mark can gets card draw when you place damage on Beat Cop to activate his effect, which makes it even better for him.

Tetsuo Mori - It will be personal choice between this card and Guard Dog for secondary ally asset but I like Tetsuo Mori better because it can absorb both damage and sanity. You can use Tetsuo Mori as meat shield until you draw Beat Cop and replace it when he die allowing you to search weapon from top nine cards of deck or from discard pile.

Enchanted Blade - I believe this is best level 0 weapon for guardian as Machete got taboo-ed to cost two experience points. Although this have limited charges, +2 and additional damage is really nice when trying to take down big enemy. Taking up arcane slot is not really problem since class will never going to need them anyway.

Smoking Pipe - cheap neutral asset that heals horror exchange for taking damage. Can be used to activate Mark's ability to draw card and heal horror at the same time. Damage due to Smoking Pipe can be healed by using cards like Emergency Aid and Second Wind later on. Also Smoking Pipe only cost one resource so it will serve as nice layer of protection to those asset hate treachery card that will try to take away your expensive weapon and ally asset.

Sophie - key card in Mark Harrigan's deck that allows him to get +2 to the skill test whenever he needs it. Taking one direct damage can also trigger his ability to draw free card from the deck. However, you will get -1 on all stat if you have five or more damages on Mark's investigator card, so this card require you to manage your health carefully and trigger effect only when necessary or have means of healing damage.

Act of Desperation - nice tactic card that became a lot more useful after Machete being no longer available from the start of the campaign. Mark are forced to use weapon that have ammo/charges which will run out eventually. Act of Desperation can let you throw those weapons to attack one additional times and generate resources that you desperately need to play those expensive assets. Also having two pipe allows this card to be never an dead card in your hand.

Emergency Aid - nice level 0 healing damage card. Also can be used on other investigator and an ally asset in your location, which can combo very nicely with Beat Cop to constantly deal free damage and draw one card for free using Mark's ability. Cost of two resources is sometimes hard to pay but it is still one of the best option Mark have until he gets better healing card as an upgrade.

Emergency Cache - Staple in almost any deck plus class always can use some additional resource generation for their expensive assets. Note that Mark is more desperate for the resources because he will need resources not only for weapon and ally assets but also for playing healing cards to maintain his low health/sanity threshold. (Although Mark have nine health, you will have to try your best to maintain four or low damage on Mark investigator card to avoid Sophie's negative consequence)

Second Wind - another healing card beside Emergency Aid that is cheap, effective, and even replaces itself with an card draw. However, I personally prefer Emergency Aid more because you can only play Second Wind as your first action. This restriction by itself makes this card somewhat difficult to play because you will be constantly fighting engaged with an enemy throughout the scenario. You can replace this card with True Grit to avoid timing problem but True Grit is little bit expensive and soaking damage is not good with Mark's signature weakness Shell Shock because you will take more horror.

Shortcut - staple event that let you move for free. This card is especially good for fighter investigator because it let you to move to location where enemy is at without wasting one action allowing you to use all three actions to fight and kill enemy before it attacks you or your ally investigator. Also nice to combo with clue gathering cards like Evidence! and Scene of the Crime to move to location with a clue to use them. In addition, this card those not trigger attack of opportunity, so you can use it to avoid taking damage from those non-hunter massive enemy.

Take the Initiative - Mark can survive with low skill card due to his ability naturally gives him +2 whenever necessary by just taking one direct damage (which comes with card draw too). However, it is difficult to spam his ability due to his low health threshold considering Sophie and limited resource to play those damage healing card. Therefore, it is nice to have some skill cards to let him resist treachery without using his ability and Take the Initiative is one of the best treachery resisting card with 3 icons. Also Take the Initiative can be used to evade enemy when necessary because sometimes you do not want to waste ammo/charge or suffer negative consequence for killing it.

The Home Front - pretty much one additional damage to your attack and with four pipe, you will almost always successfully hit enemy unless you draw token. Not really strong signature card but still good enough for fighter like Mark to kill enemy faster.

Unexpected Courage - serve similar to Take the Initiative. Let you fight off treachery without using your ability or evade low evasion enemy. Note that unlike Take the Initiative, Unexpected Courage can be used to help ally investigator's skill test as well with two icons.

Vicious Blow - Staple in any fighter investigator that helps you take down those 3 health enemy with one shot. You will never unhappy to see this card in your hand.

Shell Shock - pretty mild weakness compare to other investigators' weakness, dealing horror for every two damage on Mark's investigator card. Most of times drawing this weakness will not matter because you will be maintaining low damage on your investigator card using bunch of soaking/healing card to avoid Sophie from flipping to the bad side.

Upgrades: (Somewhat in order of priority)

Charisma - Soaking damage/horror is especially important for Mark due to his low health and sanity threshold. Also main ally asset Beat Cop this deck is running is not unique so you can put both of them out in your play area for nice +2 stat boost.

Beat Cop x2 -> Beat Cop(2xp) x2 - Very useful ally asset that allow you to trigger free damage to finish off those 3 health, 5 health enemy easily without wasting ammo/charge on your weapon. Also let you draw one card due to Mark's ability when you place damage on Beat Cop

Stick to the Plan(6xp) - permanent asset that let you start out scenario with 3 additional tactics/supply cards in your hand. Very strong class permanent card that basically increase your starting hand by three and let you pick which tactics/supply card you want to start with at the beginning of the scenario. Mark has access to off-class level 0 tactic cards like Shortcut, Act of Desperation, and Elusive which allows him to can take advantage of this permanent card more than any other class investigator. Experience cost is little bit high especially has many strong high experience cards he/she can upgrade to, but you will never regret starting out the game with three additional tactic cards in your hand.

Ever Vigilant - perfect combo card with Stick to the Plan. You can attach this card to the Stick to the Plan and play bunch of assets on your first turn for action efficiency. Your goal will be play at least one weapon and one ally asset out on your first turn and be ready to kill any enemy that tries to interrupt your ally investigator from getting clues. Also this deck runs many low cost assets like Hallowed Mirror, First Aid, Smoking Pipe which you probably can play as 3rd asset usingEver Vigilant.