Dark horse Calvin with Survivability

Low resource Calvin Wright build. Dark Horse gives free stats if you have no resources which Fire Axe makes sure that you have no resources, especially when you need it the most. Madame Labranche makes sure you always have hand cards which will help you get you Perseverance. "Let me handle this!" also helps you and your team get those enemies out, which in turn gives Calvin Wright free stats. Delay the Inevitable and Talisman of Protection makes sure you are protected at a cost, and Ward of Protection makes sure that you are getting stats while cancelling the pesky Willpower tests early.

This build is not really a good dmg dealer, it leans more on surviving and cancelling cards from the encounter deck. The Fire Axe +1 dmg if you have no resources is not really good when dealing with bosses. In my opinion, you can use this Calvin deck more for evading rather than dealing dmg because of the +1 evade on Trench Coat, Track Shoes, and Peter Sylvestre. Dark Horse and Fight or Flight also gives you free stats for evading and Stunning Blow helps you with this while dealing dmg to a boss enemy.

When getting levels, I recommend getting Five of Pentacles for more free stats and survivability, Spirit of Humanity to get that early juice running while getting blessed tokens in the bag. Peter Sylvestre your BF for soak, "I've had worse…" Cherished Keepsake for more money and survivability. Alter Fate, is also highly recommended if you have really harsh encounter cards.

The Fire Axe, Scrapper, Dark Horse combo compliments this low resource build as they benefit from having no resources. Scrapper is not really a good card to spend your XP on, but if you have extra XP that you can spend, then go ahead and get it, but if you don't have extra, don't even bother getting it, as it is not a good card.

There are some cards which can be replaced by other cards like Live and Learn, Stunning Blow, Lucky! for other cards, but replace it with your own preference or if you think there are better cards. Take Heart can also slot in the deck if you want to combo it with Live and Learn, it will give you a decent amount of resources and card draw, and a retry and +2 on the test you were attempting.

All in all, this Calvin build is not really new, survivor decks running dark horse and fire axe have been around for a long time. This iteration is my own and in my opinion really fun to play with, as Calvin is not really a "Good" character as he needs to be on the edge. This build amplifies that playstyle, makes you take risky decisions while micromanaging your stats and your health and sanity.

At the most optimized run you can get a base: 8 , 7 , 7 , 9

You deal 2 dmg with a test of 7+ (11 if you use 2 resource)

You evade with 10 while dealing dmg (Stunning Blow).