Dinkleberg's Better Dexter Drake Starter Deck

Introduction

Core 2026 for Chapter 2 is here, and much like Chapter 1, it shipped with investigator starter decks evenly split between their primary and secondary class. While this is great for getting broader exposure to the card pool, it also makes for less consistent and focused decks. Chapter 1 famously had a line of "Better Starter Decks" guides by Killbray, which offer an alternative deck structure closer to the theme embraced by the Standalone/Evergreen Investigator starter decks: two copies of a smaller selection of cards, to increase consistency.

These deck guides are provided in the same spirit for Chapter 2. You are encouraged to tweak them if you have multiple Chapter 2 Core sets, are playing with a low player count, or otherwise just want to put your own spin on them! Suggestions for some of the first items to consider will be described in the "Substitutions" section of the deck guide below.

Note

These deck guides are written assuming you desire to have a set of ready-to-play decks for each investigator in the Core Set, without having overlap or needing to proxy cards. The other decks in this series can be found at the following links:

Daniela Reyes

Joe Diamond

Trish Scarborough

Isabelle Barnes

Your Role and Your Cards

Dexter, being a mage who uses spells to take tests using his willpower stat, serves as a flexible fighter and clue finder. Thus, the core of his kit revolves around finding his spells and making them as effective as possible via permanent and one-time willpower boosts. Cosmic Flame and Second Sight grant Dexter the ability to easily fight and investigate, respectively, for as long as the entire scenario provided he is lucky enough with his token draws (though he can make his own luck early via Premonition). But should he run out of charges due to bad luck, never fear, as his investigator ability allows you to return empty spell assets to your hand to play again later! Cards like Lucky Cigarette Case, Jim Culver, and "For my next trick..." all help Dexter find his spells sooner rather than later.

Dexter doesn't have many options for long-term sustainment, as he wants Jim Culver to stick around, so he will want to selectively support his team with judicious use of his fighting and investigating spells. On the rare occasion that he is stuck without help with an enemy, cards like Premonition, Silver Tongue, Soul Link, and Unexpected Courage can all help set him up for a successful enemy evade so he can escape. Ward of Protection lets Dexter say no to nasty "for each point you fail by" encounter cards that target his health, sanity or resources, and/or require him to test in a stat other than willpower.

Economically, Emergency Cache is Dexter's most reliable source of resources. Less reliable, both because it may require him to evade, and because it can miss, is Paint the Town Red. It requires a bit of intentional turn planning to pull off well, ideally early in the game, so play it with care. The high cost of his assets will make it difficult for Dexter to bring them out the first time, let alone subsequent times via his investigator ability. Spiritual Intuition nicely pairs with both spell assets as well as more consistently triggering Lucky Cigarette Case, thus providing extensive card draw and preserving Guts for use on encounter cards and The Necronomicon.

Every investigator should be able to pick up at least a couple clues, and Will of the Cosmos helps make up for the fact that Second Sight is Dexter's more expensive spell asset. The doom generation seems a little scary, but the best targets for it are partially or fully depleted spell assets you plan to return to your hand anyway, or even The Necronomicon if you are confident you will pass the test to discard it (this is a great application for Guts or Soul Link to trigger both Lucky Cigarette Case and/or Jim Culver while disposing of it!).

For your skills, the classic Guts remains present for more reliably dispose of The Necronomicon, or helping pass tests on any of your spell assets (if you want to save resources instead of using Spiritual Intuition). Soul Link and Unexpected Courage both remain flexible to apply to any skill test, including any that Dexter might be stuck taking with his non-willpower stats due to the presence of a particularly poorly timed The Necronomicon draw or encounter card.

Your Challenges

Dexter relying on his spells is both a blessing and a curse. Dexter will struggle with any sort of critical game tests on locations or encounter cards that cannot be resolved by a basic Fight or Investigate action. Cards like Premonition, Ward of Protection, Soul Link, and Unexpected Courage all serve as insurance for these scenarios, but as such they should be kept in reserve for said scenarios, if possible.

Additionally, Dexter is more likely to be resource-starved compared to the other investigators in this box. Taking some actions to gain a resource will give Dexter an outsized return compared to others.

Substitutions

A second copy of Soul Link fits in well, particularly if you also add Cloak of Resonance, which can ping enemies for damage and trigger off of all the same cards that would trigger Jim Culver, like Ward of Protection. A second copy of Silver Tongue is a reasonable choice depending on how you tend to play. To make evasion reliable for Dexter, a combination of Olivier Bishop and Sticky Fingers is probably required, at minimum, to prevent the resource gained from Sticky Fingers to merely be a refund of resources spent on Silver Tongue (though, getting a functionally free +2 evade boost for life is a decent consolation prize).