Joe, a Diamond in the Tough!

This deck is a jack-of-all-trades build for Joe Diamond, using his ability to both fight and investigate well to handle just about anything. This deck was designed to be played multiplayer but should do well solo.

Mulligan: Mulligan hard for item assets. Because you a re using Geared Up, you will be using your first turn to build as much as possible at the reduction of 1 resource per item. Due to this deck's low item cost and 13 item cards, it is likely you can mulligan into 3+ items in your opening hand, and be able to put all 3 into play on turn one.

Hunch Deck: Emergency Aid, No Stone Unturned, Preposterous Sketches, Scene of the Crime, Working a Hunch. You could swap in Crack the Case or Shortcut into the Hunch Deck, but you don't get any cost efficiency out of it.

Upgrade Path:

First lets get Joe doing what he does best, and that is to upgrade Tetsuo Mori Michael Leigh x2 right away. There is an argument to upgrade only one of these and to use a Charisma, but I am a guy that loves consistency, so I'd spend the XP on the big upgrade right away.

Now that you are investigating and fighting at a base of 5, we need to make sure you have the tools available to do those things more efficiently. Bandolier is nice because of the additional hand slot, but what if you want to wield ALL your weapons? Lets upgrade it! Bandolier Bandolier x2. Now, as long as your have 2 weapons out (or your Detective's Colt 1911s), you gain a as a bonus! The next efficiency upgrade is to swap Survival Knife Survival Knife x1, and Magnifying Glass Ice Pick x1. Then do this upgrade again so you have 2 Ice Pick and 2 Survival Knife. The removal of Magnifying Glass shouldn't hurt too much, there are a lot of ways to get clues, and the Ice Pick will help you pass these tests and grab extra clues or do extra damage in clutch situations.

Now that you are a professional PI, lets round him out by finally focusing on his skills and making it easier for Joe to pass tests. First is an easy one: Unexpected Courage Fey. Fey acts like an Unexpected Courage but is better because it throws for an extra , and if someone else is throwing into the bag, on a draw of one Fey returns to your hand! Lastly we want to upgrade Vicious Blow Vicious Blow and Perception Perception to help with all those tests.

If you are keeping track, you are now a 4 5 5 and 2 as base, and if you have the Tooth of Eztli in play, you are a 5 3 when testing treachery cards! Go Joe!

Any additional experience could be spent on upgrading your weapons into something else entirely, or upgrading your hunch deck. Enjoy!