Multiple Stab Wounds - "Miracle Rogue" Tony Morgan

Overview

This is a deck guide for a Tony Morgan build based off of using Switchblade, Tony's passive ability, Leo De Luca, Garrote Wire, and Haste for an absurd amount of fight actions per turn. Since Switchblade is ammo-less, you can abuse all these cards to get 6-7 fight actions per turn. Couple that with Tony's base 5 and good Rogue cards that provide passive stat boosts like Lonnie Ritter, Delilah O'Rourke, and Hard Knocks, and you're fighting 6+ times per turn at 8-9+ skill value.

This is the core of this build, which allows Tony Morgan to solo kill most enemies in expert multiplayer games.

I believe that this is one of the BEST Tony Morgan fighter builds for expert because:

1. Investigator ability and Rogue cards allows for extra economy + extra action synergy
2. Access to Haste + Leo De Luca with an insanely strong ammo-less weapon in Switchblade
3. Guardian skill cards to support skill value, draw economy, defense, and damage.
4. Decent defensive options in "You handle this one!", and Lonnie Ritter+Leather Jacket
5. Hits critical mass with very few cards

NOTE: THE SIDE-DECK CONTAINS ALL UPGRADES FROM THE 0 XP VERSION AND OPTIONAL CARDS THAT I THINK CAN BE VIABLE IN THIS BUILD

For me, I ran this build in an Expert, 4-player Return to The Circle Undone and it EASILY carried killing enemies throughout the campaign. The Spectral Watcher and Piper of Azathoth were a joke with this build, even on expert. It's an easy to play, straightforward fighter build that is incredibly strong and easy to upgrade. As a primary fighter for expert level campaigns, Tony Morgan is definitely one of the best investigators in the game, along with the likes of Mark Harrigan.

Playstyle

This deck is very simple to pilot, all you need to do is fight and kill monsters to do your job. Most scenarios don't have very strong enemies early on, so you should spend early turns drawing cards and playing assets. Lucky Cigarette Case is huge to get out early, because you can over-succeed multiple times on weak enemies and high hp enemies. Draw actions aren't bad if there are no enemies to deal with, because your only job is to fight enemies. Look for economy cards like Emergency Cache and Faustian Bargain to play early so you can get your assets out easily. I rarely had bad draws/openers on this deck even at all experience levels. You only need a Switchblade to get going in terms of fighting, which is fast and costs only 1 resource.

It's then just a matter of getting all your important assets into play like Lonnie Ritter, Lucky Cigarette Case, Garrote Wire, Haste, Leo De Luca, and Delilah O'Rourke, which is VERY easy to do in the mid game if you just take draw actions (also with Haste), and get Lucky Cigarette Case procs. By the time you're in the later stages of the game, any enemy that appears is getting stabbed multiple times by Tony Morgan and his Switchblade.

Here is an example of how absurd this deck's board state can get. This was taken from a 4-player the Return To The Circle Undone: Union and Disillusion scenario, played on expert and on Tabletop Simulator.

Multiplayer or Solo

I recommend playing this deck in multiplayer so that you can focus on doing 1 thing really well, and that 1 thing is to fight. Tony can easily be the dedicated fighter in 2 player, 3 player, and 4 player campaigns. If you're playing a 2 player campaign, I suggest pairing with a strong Seeker or Mystic.

This is not a build for solo. This type of build will get considerably weaker in solo because you need to replace fighting cards with clueing cards. You cannot specialize in 1 thing in solo play like what this build is doing. However, you can probably make it work in Easy and Standard difficulties. I would imagine Hard and Expert would be very punishing for this deck archetype in true solo.

Versions

Base Deck: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1600057

60+ exp version that I used to clear RttCU expert 4p: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1600077

Base Deck Piloting Guide

The ideas are all the same with the base deck, not much is changed. You're more focused on using actual guns to fight, and dropping .45 Thompson with Sleight of Hand for some quick burst damage. Economy is unchanged and you have less actions to draw cards, but that is to be expected with the base deck. The base deck is still incredibly strong. 5 weapons is more than enough to clear early scenarios.

TL;DR

• Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab
• Get money
• Kill stuff

Strengths:

High burst damage.

• You can potentially do 17 damage in 1 turn. Passive Ability + Leo De Luca + 3 default actions + Garrote Wire + Quick Thinking + Haste = 7 actions dealing 2 damage each and 2x Vicious Blow + Delilah O'Rourke and Garrote Wire = 17+ damage.

So many actions.

• Doesn't necessarily have to be used on fights, you can move, draw cards, gain resources, any action that involves or whatever the case may be.

Great economy.

• The curse tokens from Faustian Bargain are almost laughably easy to deal with on a character like Tony Morgan. His passive is also extra income and if you get enough experience to upgrade into Hot Streak, you can flex into a character that can evade through Hard Knocks.

Decent defensive options.

• Many allies that soak, "You handle this one!" and the Lonnie Ritter and Leather Jacket combo. Can flex into evading with Hard Knocks

Can solo carry enemies in multiplayer

• For the most part, this build can handle all enemies if they don't have some sort of gimmick when they die, or if they need to be evaded.

Weaknesses:

RETALIATE

• One of the biggest weaknesses of this deck, especially on expert. We are doing so many fight actions, that unless you're playing on standard or easy, some of them are bound to fail. If you're fighting an elite enemy that has retaliate, it might be in your best interest to evade it or exhaust it somehow, either through Hard Knocks or one of your teammates.

Doesn't do much else but fight enemies

Losing treachery tests, low sanity, and bad defensive stats for expert

• If you're playing on expert, you're going to be losing most , , and tests. The best we can do is mitigate that, either through allies, or your teammates. Have someone get Hallowed Mirror, it's one of the best healing cards in the game right now.

Tony's Quarry

• Not really too big of an issue for this deck to deal with. It depends on when this thing spawns and where it spawns for it to be worrying. Otherwise, pretty tame weakness.

Upgrade Priority

I'm not going to exactly tell you what cards to replace from the base version because each campaign is different and each person evaluates cards differently. Replace the cards that you think should be replaced and keep the ones you think are best suited for the campaign you're playing. You can deduce what cards I replaced by comparing my base version to my levelled versions.

#1. Charon's Obol

• Free exp for the campaign if you don't die. Always get this first. This is an auto-include on any investigator that can buy it in my opinion. If you die, GG, go next, shit happens. If you're really new and don't know all the nuances of the game yet, then maybe avoid it so you can take trauma for dying instead of losing your character.

#2. Haste

• Super flexible card, whether you want to run 2 or 1 is up to you. I run 2 for draw consistency, but you can easily go heavy on the Lucky Cigarette Case to dig for the 1 copy instead.

#3. Switchblade

• Haste takes priority over the core weapon because it's more flexible, and the base weapons do a completely fine job of getting you through early scenarios. Once you acquire Haste, it unlocks that extra action that synergizes really well with Switchblade. Since your stat is so high, this is the ideal weapon because succeeding by 2 or more is no problem at all when you're going into each test with a skill value of 10+.

#4. Hard Knocks

• Once you get Switchblade, you need stat boosts to efficiently use it. This card is so good because it gives you 2 stat boosts for free each turn. Get 2 of these and you will seldom worry about stat boosts.

#5. Charisma, Delilah O'Rourke, Leo De Luca

• These are bundled together because you don't want to get these extra allies unless you also have 2 Charisma. Once you get these, you'll be sitting at absurd fight values every turn without boosts. 8 with Lonnie Ritter and 9 with Delilah O'Rourke as well.

• Delilah O'Rourke also helps clean up low HP enemies and we can afford it because our economy is so good.

#6. Relic Hunter, Garrote Wire, Lucky Cigarette Case

• These are bundled together because you need Relic Hunter before buying and upgrading to these.

• Garrote Wire gives that extra action to clean up 1 hp enemies. It's just a good card overall, but since we have an infinite ammo weapon and have so many actions, this card just becomes an insurance on 1 hp enemies or to reach that absurd amount of damage per turn.

• Lucky Cigarette Case is also just a nice card to have. Since your is so high all the time, you can dig super deep into your deck for specific cards. 2x Hard Knocks with Daring, and you're potentially digging 5+ cards deep, even on expert.

QOL Upgrades

At this point, you're already maxed out for what you want to do. The only cards you can get now just make your deck run a little better, and a little smoother.

Hot Streak, Another Day, Another Dollar, Pay Day, Emergency Cache

• More economy cards to let you flex into evading later in the scenario, and just for overall better consistency. You will always be able to play your assets if you have enough experience to get these cards later in the campaign.

Reliable

• This is a card that I didn't even look at when making this guide, that I am retroactively adding into the guide. If you can slap on 2 of these onto your Switchblade, then you probably will never fail a fight again unless you pull the -8, the auto-fail, or curse token combo'd. It's actually a really good card, the only problem is that you really want 2 attached to your Switchblade, but having just 1 is fine as well. I would replace skill cards for these.

Ever Vigilant

• Action compression and economy for playing assets. A pretty decent pickup, not necessary whatsoever.

Ace in the Hole

• If you want to get WILD, and do 10 fight actions in a turn, then go for this. It's not worth the 6 experience initially, but if you have extra experience, dump it into this card for some crazy shenanigans

Observed

• A fairly new card, just a little extra RNG boost to each of your scenarios. Can get really insane if you pull the The Tower (removes your basic weakness for the scenario).

Opportunist

• 2x of these can really push your win by 2 rate with Switchblade to a higher consistency. Reliable is better though, and costs less experience.

Decorated Skull

• Decent option in place of Lucky Cigarette Case. We have so many actions, we can afford to spend a couple on this card.

The Fool • 0

• You play alot of cards. This decreases the cost of cards you play, and you don't use the tarot card slot. Viable but really unnecessary.

The Gold Pocket Watch

• Buy this if you're seriously maxed out and you're on the last scenario or something

Level 1 Guardian Events

• This deck certainly has the means to run cards like Mano a Mano, Righteous Hunt, Evidence!, "Fool me once...". Put them in at your own discretion, for variety sake. None of these cards are staples by any means. If you aren't shouldering most/all of the combat, then you can flex the clue events in to help with clue grabbing.

Level 2-5 Rogue guns

• If you feel like 4 weapons in a fighter deck is too low, then maybe consider buying one of these guns with ammo. Personally, I've never had a problem finding at least 1 out of 4 weapons in my deck, and never had a problem finding Switchblade. That may be a product of luck, timing, the campaign, or whatever the case may be.

This build does not need any other weapon but Switchblade. It's not worth investing in a weapon that has ammo because with the amount of actions we have, these weapons will be used up very quickly. This means you have to fill your deck with more clunky and expensive Rogue weapons, that have low ammo and require some sort of build-around.

Deck Breakdown:

Core Cards (Non-Experienced Assets)

Tony's .38 Long Colt

• Great card in early scenarios. Becomes somewhat useless once you get Switchblade out. They're still nice weapons to have if you get super unlucky and don't draw Switchblade until late game situations.

.41 Derringer

• Just a filler card. Works like a Switchblade but worse. Replace ASAP.

.45 Thompson

• Staple of the base deck, Sleight of Hand makes this card so good. Honestly, you can run a Tony Morgan build that revolves around Sleight of Hand and big guns, and it would achieve relatively the same things as this build. I think stabbing enemies 7 times a turn is cooler though and unfortunately, this card is very quickly replaced by Switchblade in this build.

Lucky Cigarette Case

• Just a good card that procs based on how many enemies there are. Pretty reliable draw engine overall. Other accessories don't really come close at all in this build.

Lonnie Ritter+Leather Jacket

• Lonnie Ritter by herself is great because of the passive skill boost and soak. Leather Jacket is the only item that can be healed by her however, so it has to come along for the ride, even though the card is quite mediocre by itself.

Other viable options

Lone Wolf

• The less players, the better. Good level 0 economy card if you can make consistent use of it. Somewhat counter-intuitive in multiplayer games due to "strength in numbers" being true most of the time.

Tennessee Sour Mash

• Not that great in expert and hard, viable in standard and easy. The stat boost is not as impactful odds-wise on hard and expert, so I choose to mitigate, rather than prevent.

Leo De Luca

• I'd argue you don't need him early on, and he's quite expensive. Lonnie Ritter is undoubtedly the better pick for earlier scenarios.

The other level 0 assets aren't really worth mentioning because they're bad cards for Tony Morgan's statline on expert.

Core Cards (Non-Experienced Events and Skills)

"You handle this one!"

• Amazing card, especially in higher player counts. More chances of someone else being equipped to deal with that specific treachery very well. You should hold onto at least 1 to really pass on a devastating treachery for Tony to someone else like Vice and Villainy or Rotting Remains. I'd advise against ever replacing this card.

Emergency Cache

• Nothing really needs to be said about this card. It's good in every base deck. Replace it at your own discretion, or for better economy cards.

Faustian Bargain

• Absolutely bonkers card. A level 0 Hot Streak and the drawbacks aren't even that bad. It could even be good with the right decks. You can even distribute the wealth too, which is very important in multiplayer. I wouldn't be surprised if this card gets taboo'd soon, if your Rogue deck isn't running this card, then you're making a mistake.

First Watch

• More mythos deck mitigation. Gets better with more players. Solid card, consider running 2 copies depending on the campaign.

Prepared for the Worst

• Not really necessary with 5 weapons in the base deck, it's moreso there for when you drop all the weapons and make the switch to Switchblade only. Can be replaced easily when you get more card draw capabilities. 1 copy for consistent Switchblade finding, 2 copies is not needed.

Sleight of Hand

• This is an amazing card early because .45 Thompson is super expensive, and you can just plop one on the field for huge burst damage for 1 resource. Very possible to use all 5 ammo as well with Quick Thinking. Not needed once you get Switchblade.

Daring

• One of the best skill cards for this deck type. You are only ever fighting or evading in this build, so it's basically a juiced up Overpower and Manual Dexterity. Guaranteed card draw too. Very relevant skill card throughout the campaign. I would be very reluctant to replace it.

Overpower

• Just necessary skill icons for expert difficulty, and the card draw helps with our deck as well.

Quick Thinking

• The "pop off" skill card, it's just a flexible skill card that lets you make sure you have enough actions to accomplish your goal. You fail a fight and can't 1 turn kill an enemy anymore? Commit Quick Thinking to the next test, succeed, and now you can. It just synergizes so well with what we're trying to do in this deck, which is take 6+ actions per turn.

Steadfast

• Just a flex defensive/offensive option that can possibly mitigate a treachery, or help you succeed on that last attack. Easily replaceable.

Take the Initiative

• Most of the time, the fighter goes first to clean up enemies that have spawned during the mythos phase to allow the rest of the team to move freely. This card also always works fully in the mythos phase, so it's just a good, flexible skill card.

Vicious Blow

• Pretty self explanatory. One of the best skill cards a fighter can get. Never replace this card.

Other options that you might think of putting in

Cheap Shot

• If you're desperate for evades, then play this. Otherwise, it's more of a solo card, and quite mediocre in multiplayer for me to pay 2 resources for it.

Daring Maneuver

• The only succeed by mechanics we have is the Switchblade and Lucky Cigarette Case, both of which are succeeding using sheer amounts of tests and skill value. Very unnecessary card. If you don't succeed by 2 for one fight, who cares? You do 1 damage, just succeed on the next 5 tests.

Coup de Grâce

• If this card costed any less, it would be an auto-include. 2 resources makes it debatable. Once you get Garrote Wire, this card becomes worse. However, it does do things that we want, damage and card draw, and it can do it at a decent price. We have the actions to play it and it is test-less. Viable alternative, especially in expert.

Money Talks

• Our economy is good to sustain ourselves, but we don't get out of control like big money decks for this card to be any good.

Small Favor and Sneak Attack

• Test-less damage is always good, but it's less needed with the more players you play with. Other investigators can mitigate the effects of failing tests, so test-less isn't as necessary. However, both these events are too expensive for what they do. Sneak Attack is conditional as well, which can be viable if coordinated with teammates, but Small Favor is just bad unless you're big money.

Swift Reflexes

• You don't need to pay for an action when you already have so many. Overkill card, not worth the cost in a base level 0 deck, but can be good in decks with experience when you can reliably afford it. Going from 7 actions to 8 actions is a marginal increase for the investment, and even moreso if you have Ace in the Hole going from 10 to 11. Still viable for what this deck is trying to accomplish, but not necessary at all.

"Watch this!"

• Higher risk to run in expert. Can replace Emergency Cache if you're feeling ballsy. Gets better with experience because we over-succeed by so much on skill-tests once we get our assets in play.

The level 0 Guardian events

• On the Hunt, worst version of First Watch, better in 2 players though
• Glory, just card draw, probably not better than any of the base deck cards
• One-Two Punch, I'm not Nathaniel Cho, so I'm not going to pay for events to fight things.
• Evidence!, Scene of the Crime, if you aren't shouldering most/all of the combat, then you can flex these cards in to help with clue grabbing.

The rest aren't worth mentioning because most of them focus on and , which we don't care about, or just aren't that good.

I went through the levelled cards in the "Upgrade Priority" and "QOL Upgrades" section. If I didn't mention a card there, I probably forgot about it or it's just not that good. I've listed most cards that I think are viable in the side-deck, along with the upgrades.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my Multiple Stabbings Tony Morgan guide. I think he is one of the best fighter investigators in the game at all levels, and is very beginner friendly.

Please leave any feedback or share your experiences with the deck in the comments!