Duke - Best Boys Band

Deck used in a limited pool Dunwich Legacy campaign with 3 players (Daisy Walker, Carolyn Fern and "Ashcan" Pete).

Slot redundancy was cut to a minimum to increase mid-late game deck efficiency while increasing early game card variety and skill presence, and maximizing the toolbox efficiency of the Scavenging package. As this deck will attempt to make regular use of the card, Short Supply was also taken to feed the initial discard pile with cards. Only one In the Thick of It was available for the party, so "Ashcan" Pete starts with 3 experience and 1 physical and mental trauma.

The deck is a blend of toolbox discard looping and dog tribal meme. As such, the core cards of the deck are the allies, which are every dog available - Guard Dog and Sled Dog. The first provides good health soak and extra damage, and the latter, when in great numbers, provides very efficient Move and Fight actions. To be able to field every dog simultaneously, one experience is spent on Rod of Animalism, which thus comprises the accessory slot, and is the main accessory the deck digs for with Short Supply and Scavenging.

The Fight and Investigate actions will be taken using Duke, and eventually Sled Dog if necessary. As such, all hand slots were devoted to maximizing Duke's efficiency, and thus the remaining 2 experience were spent on Ice Pick. The card boosts both actions, and, once upgraded, can be discarded to boost damage or clue generation, thus generating the deck's core loop: investigate with Duke using Ice Pick, if successful by >=2 discard the Ice Pick to find an extra clue, and bring it back to the hand with Scavenging. As the Ice Pick is Fast, replaying it does not cost an action, making this loop very efficient.

If both Scavenging are fielded simultaneously, or the extra clue is forfeited, the loop also allows for the recycling of other items. The Talisman of Protection, which is included as extra protection to counteract the trauma taken with In the Thick of It, and as a asset, whose purpose will be discussed later when upgrading. Bandages help keep Guard Dog alive by healing damage assigned to it, while self-discarding once the supply tokens run out. Track Shoes provide +1 without taking up a limited slot, and a way to possibly get extra movement during the turn, improving the deck's action economy. Finally, Schoffner's Catalogue is another item that self-discards once the supply tokens run out, and it aids in paying for our and the party's Item assets.

One of the other strongest cards to build around in is Dark Horse, as the global buff is very strong. Schoffner's Catalogue already allows resources to be kept to a minimum while allowing for Item assets to be played. In addition, Streetwise was included as a resource dump that boosts (which helps in succeeding Investigate actions with >=2 to trigger Scavenging) and (which help pass the Track Shoes skill test and help in any necessary Evade actions or other unforeseen checks). Other Dark Horse interactions will be brought up when relevant.

One of the key challenges of the deck will be paying the 24 total resources for the 6 dogs, while maintaining a low resource count overall to trigger Dark Horse. To help with this balance, Emergency Cache directly provides 3 resources, enough for one dog, and Take Heart can be used to get extra resources and extra cards, to possibly draw a dog and immediately use said resources. To trigger Take Heart's failure condition, high difficulty investigation actions can be taken with "Ashcan" Pete's low base and , in particular the latter, as any location with a Shroud value of >=4 will make the Investigate skill check fail even when drawing the symbol. This card was also picked with upgrading the deck in mind, as upgrading into Drawing Thin will provide an easy way to both provide a failed test for Take Heart to trigger, and extra resources or draw to complement it (if you're not playing with the Taboo list this interaction is available from the get-go, thus justifying the card's presence in said list).

Another Dark Horse interaction is with Lucky!, as the Level 0 and Level 2 versions of the card cost 1 resource, and the ""hen you would fail a skill test" trigger happens before victory or defeat is locked in, meaning if the resource used to pay for Lucky! was the last resource in the pool, Dark Horse's bonus will also contribute to the check. A Test of Will serves a similar purpose, as the base version also costs 1 resource, meaning if only one resource is in the pool, the Dark Horse buff helps resolve the A Test of Will skill check. Both Lucky! and A Test of Will have 0 resource costing upgrades; these improve the cards significantly, but lose this interaction, so their upgrade is left to the players' discretion depending on how the other decks are being upgraded, and how the campaign is going.

Live and Learn was added to complement the Take Heart addition, and eventual Drawing Thin addition, as a way to repeat a purposely failed check with a skill buff, without wasting an extra action. If combined with Lucky!, both cards provide a total of +4 bonus to the skill check, making skill checks using "Ashcan" Pete's low or base values much more likely to succeed. The last slots in the deck are reserved for Guts, as a way to help pass treachery or A Test of Will skill checks, while providing a cantrip.

Upgrades:

1st scenario - 5 experience earned:

+1 Drawing Thin - its purpose in the deck has already been discussed, and it is considered to be one of the most important upgrades in the deck to get as early as possible.

+2 Strength in Numbers - with only Ice Pick and Talisman of Protection, both of which are Item assets, and thus easier to find and recover, this card already has symbold. Once Guard Dog and Streetwise are found, this jumps to a whooping symbols, making it one of, if not the, best skills in the game. For one experience each, this is deemed to be a powerful upgrade to the deck, which so far has focused on strategically losing skill checks, to have tools to pass harder or more important skill checks, or those with nasty fail conditions.

-1 Talisman of Protection - its main purpose in the deck is to act as a buffer against unexpected large volumes of damage/horror, and provide a asset for Strength in Numbers, both of which can be provided by a single copy.

-2 Lucky! - its purpose as a way to pass important checks is better served by Strength in Numbers, which, while needing t be committed before revealing the chaos symbol, is both far more powerful and can affect other allies. This was deemed to be the best cut.

2nd scenario - 6 experience earned:

+1 Drawing Thin - Both copies synergize well together and increase the chance of drawing at least one early on in the game.

+1 Protective Gear - Provides a lot of soak, potential hazard nullification, and is reusable with Scavenging if discarded, as well as providing a Guardian Item asset to help Strength in Numbers be as strong as possible consistently.

+1 Five of Pentacles - Additional soak balance out the relative lack of reliable healing in the party, and balance out trauma earned throughout the scenario.

-2 Emergency Cache - Drawing Thin and Take Heart provide great resource generation already, so this card is lo longer as important in the deck.

-1 Schoffner's Catalogue - Due to the deck's thematic dog nature, this card's inability to pay for the best boys, compounded with the cheap nature of most recursed items in this deck (chief of which will be Ice Pick), lack of expensive core items for the build to function, and the need to use an action to play it, this card was deemed the best cut.

3rd scenario: 7 experience earned:

+1 Charisma - The combination of this card and Rod of Animalism enables the possible fielding of all dogs, the deck's ultimate memetic goal.

+2 Ice Pick - The upgraded version's discard buff to the action synergizes incredibly well with Scavenging, generating the deck's core engine from now until the end of the campaign.