That Blessed Boy

Dear Preston,

This is a love letter. Love, yes, because few others offer what you do, and fewer among the few do so in a meaningful, elegant and extremely fun way. You are a challenge first and foremost, Preston, and that's why I love you.

Sincerely,

Pr8vidence

There is no real reason I'm writing this guide, except wanting to spread the love for Preston. Being a card game veteran, I like playing investigators that offer a challenge from the deckbuilding up. I'm not strictly referring to underpowered investigators (even if some of the most powerful decks I've played are based on investigators often cast among the abysmal low B - high C rank, such as a 55xp Power Mateo), but when I see a Guardian with less than 4, a way to play with doom or, as this is the case, 1s across the board, my eyes shine with the glow of potential.

So here we are. I hope nobody needs to be told how good a good Preston deck can be, but most I've seen around here are big money deck, which are pretty straightforward given his ability, or very tame focused decks, a strategy I too adopt in this list but that I see other rely too much on.

So, why do I love this Preston? Scarlet Keys gave me tools to love him to the moon and back in Gumption and expecially in Shed a Light, one of the most busted cards in the list. The gameplay is simple: power through the mythos phase, find a location with shroud value and clue presence suitable to your needs and go to town. For these reasons, this Preston is best when played multiplayer, expecially with someone that can defend him from pesky creatures and somebody to explore the map in advance, which may very well be the same guy. Yes, you can be the main clue getting machine of the party and yes, this deck become obscene once you cash in some sweet, sweet xp. We'll get to that, but first let's take a moment to focus on the gameplay loop.

Your level 0 deck focuses on two things: getting clues for "free" and supporting the party with . The first task is simple, just find a location with 2 or less shroud and go to town with Old Keyring, Flashlight and and Shed a Light, pay for clues with Intel Report and loop cards with Resourceful and Scrounge for Supplies for every successful investigation. As for the , spend your roundly allowance to Keep Faith or commit [Signum Crucis] (/card/07197) to a particularly gnarly test to get maximum value. Be aware: these two cards may seem lackluster at first, but they're key to make the insane deck we're going to get once we grab some xp. Just trust me, or better, have some faith. Other cards are for survival, card economy, action economy and passing some test with Lucky!.

Noow, for the fun stuff: once you get 4 xp you immediately take 2 Favor of the Sun and 1 Ancient Covenant. Most first scenarios grant 6+ xp, so you should be able to cash in 2 Gumption as well or, if you too like living dangerously, Charon's Obol. Anyway, the bless-centric package is a must for the deck to start rolling. Take out Scrounge for Supplies for Favor of the Sun and Lucky! for Gumption. Now the engine is ready to start: focus on getting a favor + any way to generate bless, then watch the next 3 difficulty test get crushed by little squeamish Preston. Oh, did I say 3? Sorry, I meant 4 (+[Resourceful] or Signum Crucis, which still puts blesses in the bag due to your base skill value being 1)(/card/03039)), 5 (+ any -2 shroud item or Gumption) or even 6, 7, up to 8. Mix and match what you've learned from the first scenario and go to town with this new, awesome, package.

Is this it? Of course not, the engine has started but it can get much, much faster. In order of priority:

Preston is a slave to the Encounter Deck but Counterespionage can help mitigate this. Out 2 Leo De Luca for these.

Double, Double is what oils the cogs of this deck, enabling obscene plays like a double maxed Intel Report for 4 clues almost anywhere or the great double Shed a Light to instantly grab 5 clues. That feels so, so good you won't ever look back at other clue centered investigators the same way. Out 1 Take Heart as we're starting to avoid failure more and more.

Eye of the Djinn comboes off brillantly with blesses, and takes the ceiling of tests you can pass off the roof. Out 1 Decoy for this.

At this point the deck is ready to tackle almost anything. Consider each other card you buy as a luxury upgrade. I've posted some of my favorites in the side deck but Rogue 0-5 has unlimited combo potential (The Red Clock is obviously a great card!).

So here it is, a deck that can slap down 4-5 clues per action, repeatedly and pretty much ignoring the chaos bag, the difficulty of the test or any other boring condition. Preston truly is a blessed boy, and I can't wait for you to try it!