Silas Marsh the Himbo 19 XP

First Time Trying Out Silas

Soon I'm hoping to run through every campaign in a 3-player group and I plan to play Survivors at every opportunity. Likely this deck will be used in the Innsmouth Conspiracy for the thematic Marsh family tie-in. The cards included feature lots of brawny stuff to feature his high and prowess (Brute Force, Unrelenting, Overpower, Stunning Blow) and his dim and (Look What I Found!), making Silas a classic "Himbo".

Here is a 19 XP mid-campaign sketch. Swap out the 7 experience cards for the Side Deck to get the 0 XP campaign starter.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, it's my first attempt at constructing a deck for this investigator!

Silas' Innate Power: Own the Bag, No Wasted Effort

• The upshot of Silas' innate power is being able to commit one skill card when it's needed to overcome a test AFTER you see what token was revealed from the chaos bag
• Okay, technically it doesn't work out that way all the time. You need to have the skill card in hand and commit it, you pull a token from the chaos bag, then you may retract it if it was not needed. And you can only retract one. Think of it like your car insurance premium is refunded if you don't have a claim
• For critical tests, use Unrelenting to remove the three worst tokens, pull from the bag, and then retract Unrelenting (crazy powerful usage!)
• If you want to fail (see "Blunder Clues", below) stack Unrelenting to a Take Heart test and remove the 3 best tokens!
• If you've used Signum Crucis to load the bag with tokens, you could use the Unrelenting on a low-stakes test (see below about abusing Track Shoes) to gamble for free cards AND conserve tokens at the same time

Action Compression

• There is an absurd amount of free card draw and resources in this deck, mostly from Drawing Thin, Take Heart, and Backpack (2)
• Free movement from Track Shoes and sometimes Nimble
• Fast actions from Ice Pick (3), Look What I Found!, and Live and Learn
• Numerous fun effects on skill cards that otherwise would take actions, and they are less likely to be wasted on account of Silas' innate ability

Harpoon Shenanigans

• Silas' Harpoon is a kooky weapon that lets you commit (and benefit from!) a pile of skill cards and use them again. For example you can get free draw, free search, free actions, free clues, bless tokens, free evasion, and even crazy manipulation of the chaos bag. All on the same test. And you get to keep all those skill cards (!)
• Un-equipping the Harpoon is not great because it costs an action and a bunch of resources to re-equip it
• However... if you have LOTS of skill cards committed, they can overcome the +2 difficulty drag from Drawing Thin and earn 2 resources to mostly offset the cost. And Quick Thinking can offset the action spent to re-equip (credit to @Valentin1331 for the inspiration)

Abuse the Track Shoes for Free Cards or Resources

• Track Shoes generally grants a free move action, which is great! You'll often succeed, especially when committing a (retractable) skill card. It's a weaker, 0 XP version of Pathfinder that's available to Survivors (and shows you how overpowered the pool of Seeker cards is!)
• Nimble combines to potentially move several of locations if need be
• After you have Drawing Thin in play, you can abuse the Track Shoes and try a low-stakes (5) test, gaining free cards or resources whether you fail or succeed

General Play

• Mulligan for the Harpoon, Backpack (2), and Drawing Thin
• Given choices, you can right-size attacks. Punch or Shovel for 1 damage, Harpoon for 2 damage, Brute Force for 3 damage, or Brute Force + Ice Pick (3) for 4 damage
• Stunning Blow can be used early to evade an enemy that can't be killed in one turn, or late to evade massive monsters that would threaten other investigators
• Plucky is a second layer of horror soak beyond Peter Sylvestre, and if you're flush with resources it can save you against treacheries. Or aid in occasional clue-finding
• Silas's Net seems like a disposable commit for evasion or the Track Shoes, but there might be circumstances for equipping it?

The "Blunder Clues" Combo: Take Heart + Look What I Found + Live and Learn

• Three-card combos are a challenge to accumulate, but Drawing Thin and the other sources of card draw you tend to fill up your hand
• Even if you only have two of these cards the gimmick is often worth it
• First, investigate a medium-shroud location (or use Drawing Thin to make a low-shroud location more challenging)
• Commit Take Heart and possibly a + skill card
• Consider using Unrelenting to stack the odds towards failure
• Fail the test by 1 or 2 (pull back the skill if needed!) for $2 and 2 cards
• Fast-play Look What I Found! (resources paid for by Take Heart) for 2 clues
• Fast-play Live and Learn (saves action, try again with +2 bonus) to start over
• Commit skill cards, or ? skills like Signum Crucis, Unrelenting, etc to succeed on the re-try to find a third clue (and a fourth if you committed Sharp Vision)
• If you pull it off, you spend 3 cards and 1 action. You gain 3 or 4 clues, 2 or 3 cards, and you net 0 or 2 resources. Given his ability to retract skill cards the odds of success are very high, the main challenge is assembling the combo

Alternate Card Options

• Meat Cleaver is popular in Silas decks on account of its ability to do extra damage (especially given Silas' low starting horror), as well as ability to heal horror. However it's expensive and you'd rather have the Harpoon + Ice Pick. I opted for the Shovel as a reliable "backup" weapon that can find a testless clue before you replace it with a better option
• Alter Fate (1) or Alter Fate (3) is a life-saver in many campaigns
• Tennessee Sour Mash is pricy, but a popular option to boost