Three hunches Joe 19xp

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JordiC · 90

Three hunches Joe

Disclaimer!! This deck is though for true solo!!! It could work as flex also, it would require some minor adjustments. This is a 19xp example, but the core of the deck is a 13xp one

My Joe build is based on Ancestral Knowledge (6xp), which will allow to create a third deck of just skills. It forces you to have at least 10 skills, from which you will take five randomly at the beginning of the scenario. In a fast window (action), you can take one of these skills and add it to your hand. Your deck increase by 5 in order to replace these 5 cards that will under ancestral knowledge.

So basically, with this card and Joe, you have three decks: the normal one, the hunch deck and the "normal" investigator deck. For which purpose?

1. The hunch deck: the "events" deck. It is easy to understand what to put inside. Basically something that could be useful always, if it is possible a 2 cost card, and that roughly have the same purpose (investigate in my case). In my deck I will try to specialise the hunch deck to investigate.

At the beginning, I added a mix of autoclues, extra drawing and movement (usually always helpful), but through experience I expect to specialize it even further to make 6 cards over 10 adding seeking answers and taking out shortcut

2. Ancestral knowledge deck: The "skills" deck. I include only 10 skills in my deck and eight roughly have the same objective: to survive the mythos phase. Having 5 skills available from the beginning (even if random) will allow Joe to pass or mitigate willpower & agility tests from the very beginning

3. "Normal" deck: apart from the 5 skills, it will be focus on assets (weapons, allies and tools) , roughly doing for 13 to 17 cards of the 30 left, "situational" events like Evidence! or Vantage Point, and the skills not included in the ancestral knowledge deck.

The four legs of a "true solo" investigator

When building a deck for true solo or flex, I always analyze how it will do from the following four points of view. The investigator must be able to do average in all four or you will suffer a lot:

1) Enemy management: I have seen Joe decks with only 3 weapons. This is too short in my opinion for a true solo run. Another good deck I saw has just with the signature weapon and two cards in the hunch, two "No stone unturned" (5xp), to look for it. The idea is to look for the Detective's Colt 1911s and recycle insights back into the hunch deck. On the paper looks a good idea but I am not sure it is very consistent as:

  • It will be very lucky dependent, you need to draw these cards in the hunch or the cards in the mulligan. The problem is if you face an enemy meanwhile, which will make you loss a huge amount of tempo as Joe will not be able to evade it probably.
  • It will be very expensive (10xp only for the upgrade) and implies Extra Ammunition to survive the scenarios (two additional cards and 4 additional xp). Otherwise you will have just four shots for all the scenario!
  • If you lose the weapon due to a treachery, which it is easy as Joe is quite exposed to encounter deck, you will be probably merciless to enemies the rest of the scenario.
  • Recycling the hunch deck could look like a good idea, but for me it is not. I am in love with the flexibility provided by Eidetic Memory, having 20 insights events between the hunch deck and the normal deck, there are really a lot of targets for it. However, you need to have them in the discard pile!

So I went for three weapons, Prepared for the Worst plus the Detective's Colt 1911s. Maybe a bit too much, but I prefer consistency on my decks. There is no much choice for Joe with just guardian cards 0-2. As I play with taboos, machete is not an option for the initial deck. I went for the .45 Automatic and the Survival Knife that will be replaced later.

I found that Joe's 4 so not enough to manage some of the most powerful enemies. Boosting it through skills is an option, but I prefer to keep the place for /tests that the mythos phase or the scenario can throw to me, so I looked for the passive boost of the allies Beat Cop and Grete Wagner, which in addition will allow to do some auto clueving or extra damage.

2) Investigate: the hunch deck has four (potentially six!) auto clues. Grete Wagner allows for some auto clueving also as well as Evidence! (even though you need enemies around for these two).

Joe 4is not bad, but boosting it for the most difficult shroud locations looks necessary. Playing solo will allow to fill of resources quickly the hawk-eye camera for its passives and, as second option, there is the magnifying glass which is fast (to be upgraded, so the hand slot can will be free). Vintage point and looking for answers will allow to move clues around or taking them from lower shroud locations. The idea is to get to a 5 for investigating 3+ shroud locations, leaving 4+ ones for auto clueving / "clues moving" / investigating in other location.

Note that Joe's weakness will be almost sure appearing in each scenario and implies to drop one of your clues in the highest shroud location in play. This is the reason why Vantage Point and Seeking Answers have been chosen among other options.

3) Surviving the mythos phase: the Hawk-Eye Folding Camera will boost Joe to three, something average. Still, here we will need the skills cards to survive these willpower tests. Agility ones are more problematic, but usually imply health damage or losing actions/objects, which is less an issue for Joe. For it, apart from the skills, you have there the Combat Training composure that will allow to boost your plus 1 horror soak. Do do not forget to put down your allies that will allow to keep it around longer, soaking horror with them before you have to discard it.

Finally, as last resource, Dr. William T. Maleson will allow you to avoid the worst encounter cards.

4) Economy: the cost of the deck is average. if you expect to have a weapon, a tool and an ally on the table, the cost combined will be between 8 to 10 resources. The problem in true solo is that you want your set up there as soon as possible to be able to manage whatever the scenario will throw to you and that you need to keep a couple of resources in your bag until your signature weakness Unsolved Case appear.

Burning the Midnight Oil and Crack the Case are my elections here for them. The first because has some tempo: investigate, which you will do anyway, will provide you two resources. The second because it is really extraordinary: action compression (is fast) and easily two/three resources. Moreover, in solo it will be easy to play it on high shroud locations making use of the hunch deck and the autoclues cards for a boost of 4 to 5 resources! Moreover, taking into account that Joe's weakness will appear soon or later, keeping it in hand will make for the loss of resources. In addition, both have useful icons in case the resources are not needed.

And if you feel rich during the scenario, spend these resources in Combat Training.

Playing style

You have to mulligan hard for a weapon, in order to be able to defend yourself the first rounds of the scenario as it is the weak spot. Second objective is to look for the tools and allies for boosting intellect & force.

Do not forget to draw the skill from Ancestral Knowledge. At the beginning privilege Take the Initiative, which is very flexible, and Steadfast, which is more useful while you have your max of health.

Whenever possible finish in a location with a clue. Inquiring Mind needs it and the optimal is to use it in a mythos phase. If you draw an enemy, you will be able to take that clue for free with Evidence! or Grete Wagner, increasing your tempo.

Also, many of your cards in the hunch deck depend on it like: Working a Hunch, Scene of the Crime, Preposterous Sketches… and remember that hunch deck cards, if not used, are shuffled back to it.

Indeed, depending on what you have in hand, already played and in the hunch deck, potentially is better not to investigate and get a resource/card or put another asset in play.

Upgrade path

I have it quite clear up to around 13xp. After that… up to you! But the deck will be consistent from that point.

My Joe's deck main card is Ancestral Knowledge 6xp, which will allow to create a third deck of skills to survive mythos phase. The strategy to make him a well round up investigator and survive the campaign turn around this card and it must be the first upgrade.

The second is to upgrade weapons in order to get a consistent two damage attack per round: Machete (1xp due to taboo) will be the first option, as for true solo it works perfectly in 90% of the situations.

Then go for Charisma (3xp) to be able to have two allies on the table. One giving the fight bonus and the other for soak, does not matter who but probably Dr William in order to have some protection against the encounter deck. This is necessary because before including Combat Training (1xp), the composure that will allow him to use his extra resources and cover his weak spot (agility), you need to have ally soak. Remember that before assigning horror to Joe, you have to assign it to combat training… or to your friends!

That makes for 13xp and form there I have different "upgrade packs". Taking one or another will depend on the campaign evolution and what I (you) will feel Joe needs more.

Improve combat (4xp): getting a third damage to get rid of three health enemies in one action. The first "cheap" upgrade to get this is Beat Cop (2xp).

Investigate better through recurring insights (10xp): add two Eidetic Memory (3xp) to the deck and upgrade Seeking Answers (2xp). Start recurring the insights played from the hunch deck… and get more auto clues!

Damage explosion (10xp to 18xp): if you really think you need additional punch, replace two Gretes by two Michael Leigh (10xp). Very expensive but you get an additional damage by round, as you will always have evidences, plus a boost to your fight and investigation. Add two Galvanize (4xp) and take your Machete and get an additional three damage fight action per round. Upgrade your two Vicious Blow (4xp) and you can get up to 5 damage in an action. Not bad for a not pure fighter.

Protect your mental sanity (4xp to 10xp): If you have many mental traumas or the campaign push hard on willpower tests, add two Holy Rosary (4xp) to add a willpower boost and two sanity. Upgrade one Logical Reasoning and add it to your hunch deck to heal your mental traumas and come back in full force! Forewarned (1xp per card) can help you avoid most of the nastier effects the deck can throw to you. Make sure you use it as soon as possible if you have already Eidetic Memory in your deck, it could save your life later! Another option is to forget about combat training and look for Physical Training.

Improve your mobility (2xp to 6xp): replace shortcuts with two Hiking Boots (2xp), which provides an additional bonus, or change them for two Pathfinder(3xp). In the hunch deck you can change the shortcuts by upgraded Seeking Answers or Logical Reasoning.

Insights options: in my opinion the best options we will find are:

My order preference for the moment would be: ancestral knowledge + machetes (8xp), beat cops (4xp), combat training (2xp), looking for answers (4xp), hiking boots (2xp), eidetic memory (6xp).

At this point I would have a way to boost my base stats up to 3/4/5/3 with all the passive boosts, some extra movement, ways to do three damage in one action, some events recursion and a easy way to boost tests through weapons and tools, resources and cards commitment. An optimal full set-up has a cost of 13 (machete 3 + camera 2 + boots 2 + beat cop 4 + Dr. William 1) and can get done by turn 3 to 5 just by using Crack the Case

So that's all! I hope you enjoy and brace the true solo with Joe!!

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