Drawing Finn - Finn Edwards (solo)

Full disclosure: This deck is still a massive work in progress, and I welcome suggestions to improve it.

Too easy. ~ Manual Dexterity

This is my attempt at a Finn Edwards solo deck for roughly any difficulty and campaign (with some caveats). I noticed that the majority of Finn decks on ArkhamDB that have any kind of buzz around them are suited for multiplayer only where Finn can give people other horrible treacheries using "You handle this one!". This deck takes a different approach, choosing to more or less face-plant treacheries as they come. The success in Night of the Zealot was pretty strong on Standard- 16 XP and 5 cultists nabbed going into The Devourer Below, where he won through clue getting despite being Frozen in Fear.

The Deck

"I don't mind being on my own. That's when I do my best work." ~ Lone Wolf

You may notice the expensive nature of this deck. There are a whole chunk of cards here that cost 2 or 3 resources, and as we upgrade we'll actually include even more cards that cost 3. This deck funds itself through Drawing Thin, Lone Wolf, and later Pickpocketing 2. Thanks to Drawing Thin, level 0 Pickpocketing and Lucky Cigarette Case, you can very often draw into your one copy of Lone Wolf, and that coupled with Drawing Thin you should have no trouble affording the components of this deck.

So what are we buying with our income, exactly? For one thing, . We have Trench Coat, Peter Sylvestre, Track Shoes, and later on The Moon • XVIII and Lola Santiago, all of which help us trigger the succeed by 2 Evade tests that Lucky Cigarette Case and Pickpocketing 2 want. Sylvestre and Trench Coat also give us a means to soak up damage and horror. This deck does not attempt to pass treacheries at all, instead electing to use Drawing Thin as a source of income for such tests that poor Finn would fail anyway. Because of that, you're gonna need to soak up the consequences somehow.

Early on we rely on Flashlight and Perception for most of our clue gathering, as well as Finn's innately high score, but later on we take Lockpicks which allow us to often over-succeed even on Investigate actions. This is important not only for keeping Lockpicks in play as a reliable source of clue gathering, but it gives us another test that's safe to Drawing Thin most of the time if we need it (say Lockpicks on a 2 shroud location). With a light boost to , Lockpicks can often test for 10 or higher (and up to 13 with all of our upgrades). That's a test that's usually safe to Drawing Thin if you need to and will often still trigger Lucky Cigarette Case.

Finally we can use our extra income to afford to turn our evasion into both testless damage and test favorable damage. Backstab allows us to turn our fortified into often a one hit kill, while Sneak Attack can hit anywhere from 2 to 4 damage thanks to Hatchet Man. Coup de Grâce can be used to pick off an annoying 1 health enemy such as Whippoorwills or Acolytes. You can use Narrow Escape both to boost a Backstab (either through commiting it or its ability) and to dodge an attack of opportunity to get out an extra boost beforehand like Track Shoes or Peter Sylvestre. Because of Finn's aversion to encounter cards, the name of the game here is speed. You don't want to sit there firing off at enemies that need to die turn after turn- if you want them dead, kill them in one shot if possible.

Piloting

"Next time, I'm driving!" ~ Narrow Escape

There are two general ways this deck generates the card draw and resources that you need to keep pushing forward. The first is to use Drawing Thin. No matter the outcome of the following skill test, you get to choose to take a card or 2 resources. Most of the time, you should elect for resources, as Pickpocketing 2 and Lucky Cigarette Case are overall more valuable for their card draw. If Lone Wolf is out, you might elect for card draw more often instead, but of course it depends on the situation.

The other main way this deck generates ridiculous economy is through Finn's free evade action each turn. Generally speaking, you can do one of two things while engaged with an enemy in this deck- kill it with Backstab, Sneak Attack, Coup de Grâce etc, or Evade it to generate income using Pickpocketing 2 and often Lucky Cigarette Case. This means that Finn is actually in a position to not always needing to clear the board of enemies if he doesn't want to. An Acolyte might be a great source of income for a couple of turns if you need it, and then before the doom becomes a problem you can simply Coup de Grâce it away. This allows you to draw into solutions for more problematic enemies that show up later on. Hatchet Man even motivates you to Evade first (and helps you more easily gain economy with its commit symbols) by rewarding you with extra damage on the enemy just evaded.

So the big killer in Finn decks is . Now while some tests are ones that, given you would fail anyway, there's no consequence to simply using Drawing Thin on them, there are several that you should absolutely avoid using the card with. Notably Rotting Remains, and anything that punishes you by how much you fail by. However, some cards, though devastating, actually have ironic upsides to being in Finn's threat area. Frozen in Fear for example is a devastating card that essentially says Finn loses between 1/3 and 1/4 of all of his actions for the rest of the game. However, not only does this card let us take a fail-able test each turn for Drawing Thin, it's also not very hard for Finn to make up for the lost actions. With our emphasis on over-success, Quick Thinking can help out. Track Shoes can also be used to easily compensate for the more expensive move by letting us move twice (with an incredibly easy to pass test). Finn's free Evade essentially just costs him an action now, so dealing with enemies becomes Evade Fight third action, and our emphasis on doing a lot of damage at once will save us actions as well.

As a general rule, you should hard mulligan for your economy: Drawing Thin, Pickpocketing 2, and Lone Wolf (and to a lesser extent Lucky Cigarette Case). Late on you'll add The Moon • XVIII to your deck, and I recommend tossing it unless you have at least one economy card in hand, in which case absolutely keep it. Even though it's nice to get it out for free, this deck can easily pay for The Moon if necessary. Other nice cards to have starting out are Track Shoes, Peter Sylvestre, and Lockpicks.

Upgrade Path

Open your eyes, and listen to your shadow. ~ The Moon • XVIII

2x Pickpocketing 2x Pickpocketing 2 (4 XP)

2x Flashlight 2x Lockpicks (2 XP)

2x Manual Dexterity 2x The Moon • XVIII (2 XP)

1x Perception 1x Ace in the Hole (6 XP)

1x Trench Coat 1x Lola Santiago (3 XP)

Charisma (3 XP)

The upgrades here aren't too crazy. Upgrading your economy is priority number one, so Pickpocketing 2 comes first. Lockpicks are much stronger for Finn than Flashlight and will often last you the whole game without breaking. The Moon • XVIII is another strong boost. Ace in the Hole helps deal with cards that drain our action economy like Frozen in Fear. You can elect to take one or even two copies of Lola Santiago for the extra boosts to and , boosting Lockpicks by 2 when she's out and also giving us a source of extra clue getting if we need it. Before taking a second copy, I recommend picking up Charisma to make sure she can be run alongside Peter Sylvestre. the extra soak is also heavily appreciated. You can also set up your economy a bit faster if you choose to take Another Day, Another Dollar, though upgrades beyond Lola are up to you.

Final Thoughts

"Never lose track of the exit. Or the merchandise." ~ Finn Edwards

There are some caveats to this deck regarding different difficulties and campaigns. In flightier campaigns like Dunwich you may elect to include some weapons such as the .41 Derringer to deal with the large influx of enemies. In more evasive campaigns like Forgotten Age, consider Slip Away over Coup de Grâce as a method to lock down a problematic enemy that you don't want to kill. On higher difficulties you'll find succeeding by 2 to be harder, so Lucky Cigarette Case might be worth trading out for Unexpected Courage to more easily trigger the economy on Pickpocketing 2.

Overall the deck is incredibly fun to play because it rewards you for playing like a real Rogue . Do you push your luck and let the enemies trickle in for more evade economy, or do you start picking them off before things get too crazy? When do you try and get multiple economy triggers off of one test, and when do you spread it out? It takes practice and you will make mistakes in the process, but I've found this deck to be one of my absolute favorites to play.