A deck which crams all the "flame" cards in Forgotten Age Investigator Expansion into the first 19 XP : 2x Flamethrower, 2x Kerosene. (...and 2x Treasure Hunter. He is holding a torch. Does that count?)

► About "2 Packs Deck Guide"
　A series of decks made with the new distribution model in mind, requiring a Revised Core Set box + just 1 more Investigator Expansion box. Φ character on the deck's name means the additional box it uses is The Forgotten Age Investigator Expansion.
　It maximizes the chance of newcomers being able to build and learn to play the game, enjoying the story on Standard difficulty ASAP. They can then get into deck-building later if they wished to do so. See other decks in the "2 Packs Deck Guide" series here.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

2x Flamethrower fits in 19 XP even with Taboo on! If you are not playing Taboo and is taking this deck to Standalone Scenario at 19 XP, I suggest using spare 2 XP for 2x Leo De Luca (1).

Venturer works with .45 Automatic / Flamethrower / Flashlight in the finished deck. I want to rush to 1x Flamethrower ASAP so Venturer has something good to do, but I think 1x Charisma and 2x Treasure Hunter are more impactful. (Just commit Venturer while waiting for your first Flamethrower.)

How to play

This deck performs unexpectedly good for such a mindless "throw all available decent Ally into the deck" Lv. 0 deck. I slotted this Leo in right in the middle of on-going campaign on my test play and he is doing serious work for a 0 XP deck. Being balanced on tanking, fighting, investigating, and even actions from Leo De Luca to help moving, engaging, revealing location, etc.

Ability and resources

His ability saves you an action and even reduce play cost. Playing Guard Dog at 2 cost and can even reload the dog while fighting without AoO felt really good.

As long as resources aren't dry when your turn begins then he's good to go. Therefore the actual key card of this deck is Emergency Cache. You don't know whether you will get an Ally in your Upkeep draw or not, and if you do get one but you don't have enough resources even after discount, you missed your chance to play as has to be triggered immediately on turn's start. The key to keep the Ally rolling is to keep your resources 3 or higher by preemptively playing Emergency Cache. The only problem will be drawing Leo De Luca in Upkeep, which requires 5 resources to immediately use the play.

It is a shame I don't have XP space to upgrade Beat Cop to Lv. 2 one in the first 19 XP, but with Leo the Lv. 0 version is working quite well already. He gets +2 sanity to take and an important to land the attack, at 4 - 1 = 3 play cost.

Charisma and Shifting Slots

Thanks to the Revised Core Set, we all have Charisma in the collection now. (Though you can pretend you have one after paying 3 XP.) This is a very important card that works with Mitch Brown, which gives 2 more slots for only non-unique. () Without Charisma, there is sometimes conflicting order with Leo De Luca which is unique.

Since there is only 1x Mitch Brown in the deck, a typical flow will be that you get either Leo De Luca (unique) or Beat Cop / Guard Dog (non-unique) first. Then you get one more among those three, before you found Mitch Brown, making Leo De Luca + [non-unique]. 2 Ally is possible because you have Charisma.

Then after you put down Mitch Brown, you have Leo De Luca + [non-unique] + Mitch Brown, with Leo De Luca using Charisma quota (can host unique ally) and Mitch Brown using your normal Ally slot, and that [non-unique] shifted to using Mitch Brown's extra slot seamlessly. Without Charisma, the moment you play Mitch Brown, Leo De Luca would fly away to discard pile. Right here you have 1 more non-unique slot to play too. (But don't let Mitch Brown dies, of course.)

(Read about Shifting Slots here.)

Investigate!

Have to say his 3 is impressive, like Roland Banks. With help of Scene of the Crime, Intrepid, 2x Perception never removed, 2x Flashlight never removed, and Treasure Hunter, he is a Guardian that can have some clues.

Sometimes these clues are asked to be spent or dropped to bypass a treachery, so indirectly he is quite bulky not only for endless supply of Ally, but also by having some clues on him.

Investigation plays very well with his ability. You no longer have to use your actual actions to play Ally (you do need to setup the weapons and other things), and you don't want to since you would miss the discount. Action saved from not manually playing Ally is often used to Investigate, helping your actual clue finders.

Decorated Skull... is good

Initially I add Decorated Skull just because he could, but I was pleasantly surprised what 1 draw and 1 resource at the same time meant for Leo. Screw mathematical action economy calculation. Payout of this card is different for Leo due to his ability.

As said before, you want some resources ready just in case you get an Ally in Upkeep Phase so you can put them down right away on his . The here gives you both potential Ally to play and the resource in addition to one you will get on Upkeep!

For example, if you have no Ally at all on hand / field and on the verge of death (often due to horror), and also having 0-1 resource, spending action on Decorated Skull's is not a bad way to survive. In addition to Upkeep resource you will get to 3 resources that allows you to found-and-play Beat Cop to add 2 more sanity, as well as the draw to gacha the Ally up to your hand. Analyze your discard pile if you want to bet on drawing Ally on critical moment.

(And of course survive the incoming Mythos Phase, before you can get to the trigger. Take the Initiative is good at this as it still have full .)

Tips

• Leo has high chance to trigger Intrepid on any test he got in Standard difficulty, since he has starting 4 already. If you have Leo De Luca, you get a longer turn with the boost. (Often you would have to Move, wasting some of the boosted action.)
• He can help beating 4 shroud sometimes with either Scene of the Crime, or activating Intrepid then commit Perception to get to 6 .
• Treasure Hunter is a good target to send to die in order to add charges to Decorated Skull.
• Upgraded Beat Cop (2) "defeat" on used up the health unlike the base version that straight up discarding, so they gains compatibility with Decorated Skull. Upgrade comes after 19 XP.
• Despite Leo's Ally discount, this deck is not good at economy. (Weapons and Scene of the Crime are also expensive to play.) 2x Emergency Cache are all kept all the way, only replaced by an another economy related card 1x "I've had worse…" (4) at the end. (If you have "I've had worse…" (2) version from The Circle Undone, I think adding 2x of that one is better inside 29 XP. But this deck is limited to 2 packs.)
• You can't kill-steal enemies on other players with Flamethrower. You must engage with the enemy yourself. (And the other enemies you want to distribute damages, you must also currently engaging them.) But with Leo De Luca you would have a spare action to pick an enemy from your Seeker, etc. before turning up the heat.
• Using Leo Anderson's to play Ally will not reduce icon on Take the Initiative. You are not taking a Play action, you just play. This is unlike Ursula Downs in the same expansion, it says "take" and she is susceptible to AoO while doing so too.

Solo?

This deck has quite high density of investigation helpers, together with his 3 . He has his Ally for horror taking, high 4 for horror treachery resistant, Ally health to just take treachery damage. I think this deck has real chance in solo play.