George - A R'lyeh Good Lawyer (Blind Run). | Deck Guide

Card draw simulator

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StartWithTheName · 72672

StartWithTheName

SUPER HIGH DRAW, SKILL SPAM, FLEX GEORGE
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As I said last deck, im really enjoying event and skill spam decks recently.

This is my best current idea for a George deck. I am presently taking it through my Drowned City blind run where it has thankfully been working as intended. It also had a few standalones to get the balance right.

As usual, ive included a little xp to show the general direction of the deck:

MY BLIND RUN TDC DECK, WHICH IS CAN BE USED AS VERSION OF A CAMPAIGN STARTER is available:

So - You know how in Patrice drawing and committing 5 cards a turn is loads of fun, but lacks consistency especially for getting assets down? And, you know how skill cards cost nothing, so people go Dark Horse in Silas? Imagine having Patrice's draw, the Dark Horse + survivor skill card compression synergy, a full statline with 5 and 4, AND the option retain assets until you can play them...

Thats how I see George. Hes Halfaway between the two!...eh!-eh! ...no?....no-one? ... no?...oh...ok nevermind....

Huge progressive stats. Draw hard and commit hard on almost all tests. Live in the moment reacting to, but having the option to smash, tests. All the while retaining enough agency for long term planning where Patrice struggles.

The price here is a high complexity deck. This is honestly not one for new commers (please just enjoy the game with anything that looks fun). But if you are looking for a really strong and engaging new take on the transient skill spam survivor archetype, George is it. With a little practice hes an absolute machine that feels like you earned it.

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THE BRIEF - TL:DR

 
Complexity: ★★★★★(..+★..Sorry!)
Enemy Handling: ★★★☆☆
Clues: ★★★★☆
Encounter Protection: ★★★★☆
Survivability: ★★★★☆
Economy: Dark Horse
Card Draw: ★★★★★(..+★..Not Sorry!)

SLOTS:

Plus: At least 1 (often slotless) fast card discard asset: (Nodens, Bound, Cornered, Artistic Inspiration, and/or Xanatos)

Draw hard (4-6/turn), play fast, spam out some of the best compression and/or versatile skill cards in the game on most tests, including many of those of your team mates. Despite its size, this is a very high consistency deck due to the high draw and overlap in use cases for various cards. When you dont need a specific card, but rather any card that serves the same function (e.g. bonus clue/damage) The deck size is actually irrelevant (see consistency section below)

Aim to keep 2 or 3 cards under his ID. Its fine to go lower. You will refill quickly. Commit something frivolously if you get to 5 to keep space open. Almost all skills here are wild or have 3 different icons to allow this to happen In addition to those under his ID, Many cards in the discard also act as a further extended handsize keeping lots of options virtually in hand.

Forced Learning is similar to drawing 3 cards in the upkeep alone, before draw on skill cards (~13% of the deck), or anything discarded in other phases via Nodens, Cornered, Artistic Inspiration, Bound for the Horizon, etc. Note: you really only need 1 of these assets early, 2 or 3 max long run (see setup). You will flip this deck once almost every map and see key assets early enough as almost all of them have surrogates (also see consistency section).

We dont need resources for skill cards, so weve paired this with the Dark Horse suite for a 3544 statline, and bonus damage bonus clues. Madame Labranche, Take Heart, and "I'll take that!" let you play assets/events when needed, or provide boosts for the the Axe/Compass. Alternatively just always take all upkeep the money and use Scrapper(3) to activate Dark Horse) if needed (See Econ Section). Treat Nautical Charts and Hand Hook as events (discard from hand) unless their Cashless counterparts havent shown

Living in the moment, adapting to the hand you have, rolling with the punches while still being able to do big bursts of activity makes this really satisfying to play. Its everything i love about Patrice and Silas combined.

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DETAILED PILOTING
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DE NOVO - UPGRADES

PRIORITIES:

THEN:

  • Fill out the card discard assets (Cornered / Bound / Nodens. Its fine to hold back on Gift of Nodens. This isnt a nodens focussed deck per se. Its just a good card that fits the build. 2 copies for 10xp is a big price early campaign.

  • Scrapper (3) See Economy section. This is a keystone to the Dark Horse (5) suite and may not be obvious.

FINALLY SOME OPTIONS:

Take whatever you fancy/fits the team.

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LET THE DEVIL OUT - SET UP & MULIGAN

MULIGAN:

Keep (in order of priority):

  1. Eureka!, it may as well be a choice of 3 cards... why mulligan for just 1.
  2. Madame Labranche
  3. 1 or 2 assets with a passive discard option (rough priority): Nodens, Cornered, Bound for the Horizon, Artistic Inspiration, Idol of Xanatos.
  4. Fire Axe/Nautical Charts depending on group.

And some skill cards that look most useful for whatever is needed on the Act, or that will let you draw asap (usually Perception/Eureka!). A good hand really wants 3 skills and 2 expensive assets (to get the cash spent) from this but its not that critical.

SETUP:

  • Aim to get 1 / based card discard asset down early: (see above priority). There are 7 of these in the deck (see consistency section) + Resourceful (which can be Nodened) if they are in the bin, or Hand Hook/Nautical Charts if desperate. In almost all worlds you should have access to one of these, if not draw hard and play one on sight.

GENERAL DECK RUNNING:

Most turns you will draw 4-6 cards and hopefully commit 4 or 5. How?.

Georges can be used each phase Forced Learning covers upkeep, the investigator phase is usually easiest to trigger, Followed by mythos then enemy. Some details:

  • Upkeep: Forced Learning is similar to having 3 cards/turn: The cards are drawn to hand, then discarded. So you get to keep one in hand, tuck the other under your ID (where you can still commit it, or recover it with Grim Resolve), and draw a 3rd. Thats 1 more than non Forced Learning decks get if they are able to over draw without the need to manipulate the timing to get the upkeep discard.

  • Artistic Inspiration can be used in any window. Making it special in the sense that it doent require you to take a test in the mythos phase. If short on draw, I actually try empty it ie boost tests that would have passed anyway, before any mythos/enemy phase in case i don't get another option.

  • Investigator phase: This should be obvious, but Nodens, Cornered, Nautical Charts and Hand Hook can be triggered by taking appropriate tests. Bound for the Horizon when moving, and Idol of Xanatos on AoOs if needed.

  • Mythos Phase: Either use Artistic Inspiration (see above), Cornered/Gift of Nodens if you get a test, or Idol of Xanatos if you take damage/horror. Hence being less under your direct control.

  • Enemy Phase: This is the hardest. It really wants Idol of Xanatos to trigger, but Artistic Inspiration can also be used in the window between enemies moving and attacking if not.

This means there are diminished returns on the second and subsequent / card discard asset played, especially if the first was Cornered which does not exhaust on use. Further assets mainly add new functionality movement, defence etc. I find I only need 2-3 of these in play in a given game. Building out the full rig can be tempting but ultimately often inefficient. Also note that you dont actually have to trigger every phase. 2-3 triggers/round is usually plenty. It just helps to keep an eye on other opportunities.

Finally, there is even more draw from:

  • 7 Skill Cards with Draw: (Eureka!, Perception, Overpower, Take Heart, ~13% of deck) let you dig hard early for key parts. At campaign start theres usually Guts too. These basically act to thin the deck and help find key assets early. Use them frivolously for the draw.

Keep Space Open Under His ID. I find 2-3 cards under the ID to be the sweet spot (similar to 4-6 cards in hand). If you get to 4 or 5 under his ID you may block future opportunities. At that point commit something to clear space. The skill suite is full of wild pips and 3 icon cards to allow this (see consistency section). These can be handed out to other players. Long Shot and Contemplative can even be committed from adjacent locations, and few people dont appreciate being given Take Heart or Eureka!. Remember you can reuse any skill with Gift of Nodenss, so a lot of these are still available from the discard pile.

Then just play fast and hard. Draw through your deck aggressively to get lots of uses of the high compression skill card suite.

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BULLSEYE! - SURROGATES & DRAW CONSISTENCY:

To understand how a 55 card deck can be considered “consistent”, you need to think of cards in sets based on a common function (e.g. extra clues, extra damage, big pips etc), rather than needing a specific card by name. If several cards would solve your current problem, then consistency is just a matter of:

  • (1) what proportion of the remaining deck would work, and
  • (2) how many cards you can draw,

since each draw gives you a chance to find one. At this point the actual size of the deck is irrelevant Only the proportions of the deck matter. You can additionally consider recursion via Resourceful/Nodens/Winging It as access here, which is actually helped by larger decks delaying deck flips. There are other properties as well that ill spare you the maths for, but a larger deck will keep its proportions closer to their starting ratio longer than a small one because each card drawn changes the ratio of remaining cards less. But you get the idea. Smaller decks are usually better for finding specific cards, draw is king otherwise. and Forced Learning functionally gives George 2 additional card draw per turn under most circumstances (see setup), thus increasing consistency in this sense.

With that in mind, here are some “sets” of cards: You can change the composition to match your own tastes/team needs.

Ok, with that all said, Id like to avoid a massive mathematical discussion around the concept of consistency in the comments. I am aware it has multiple meanings. PM me on discord if you like that sort of thing (I do), but im just trying to clarify a concept here really. Im not declaring this "optimal" or anything. Im just showing people how to use/think about it here really. In particular, please at least be polite.

Anyone interested in consistency when you DO care about the specific card may be interested in this my old deck highlighting another approach [at this link]((https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/35159/21-thump-street-deck-guide-1.0).

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DARK SEAHORSE! - ECONOMY

HOW TO DARKHORSE:

This is a flex deck, you will be testing all stats in most games. A 3544 statline is just handy.

  • With Scrapper (3) down, Always take the upkeep resources. This can be used in any window to just get rid of your resources, even if you are boosting the wrong stat. Normally this is wasteful, but here it means you can always activate Dark Horse if you get caught out. So take the resource in case its useful and just accept that a lot of the time you will lose it soon. Those pennies come in handy with Fire Axe and Mariner's Compass.

  • Need to play an asset? You need to think ahead here. Use Labranche before upkeep for 1 resource (if you had none), then get a second in the upkeep then accept darkhorse wont be active in mythos. You can do a similar thing with Lone Wolf if you took it. Almost all assets here are 2 cost for a reason. There are two 3-cost assets (Idol of Xanatos and Mariner's Compass) that you want to play (Hand Hook and Nautical Charts are better discarded from hand if possible). Ideally play these with starting cash if you can, or use "I'll take that!" (they are items), carry resources over a round (ie forgo Dark Horse bonuses briefly), or use Take Heart cash if possible (potentially via Nodens or Resourceful).

  • Need to use Winging It? or Glimmer If you dont have cash carried over from upkeep (see scrapper note), get a penny from Madame Labranche. You can also use her to get pennies at short notice for Fire Axe and Mariner's Compass.

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EXTRA JUDICIAL - ENEMY HANDLING

Thing about red, they can't tell how much you're bleeding and Arkham has a lot of hallways

  • Fire Axe offers reliable +1 damage 4 with Dark Horse, usually with +2 from a or upkeep Madame Labranche penny (see economy section). You have plenty of wild and skill cards and Cornered/Artistic Inspiration if needed. You wont carry the team with this, but you will more than handle your own.

  • Burst damage is on skills Brute Force, Long Shot, both reusable via Nodens.

  • Treat Hand Hook like an event Unless you really cant find Fire Axe. Note that you can tuck it, or whatever card you use to add the damage under your ID when you play/discard it from hand. Generally speaking you want to bin Hand Hook and bank a skill card. That usually wont go as far. If you want more event damage, bring Improvised Weapon as well.

  • You can evade with wild pips Or pay into Scrapper. Base 4 with Dark Horse active.

  • You can tank small AoOs/hunter hits/retaliates with Xanatos Hopefully obvious. But its there. Good enough for smaller enemies. Arguably gets expensive on big ones.

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DISCOVERY - CLUES

There are other ways to see

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FEAR CAN BE OVERCOME IF YOU HAVE THE WILL - ENCOUNTER PROTECTION

  • Skill Check Based Tests: You Have Lots of Pips A skill check is usually the best outcome from the mythos phase. With this many wild pips and Dark Horse (See above for how to use), you should be covered for big checks, including . Artistic Inspiration and Cornered also help with this. I find I often use the mythos phase to clear out a card from under his ID, committing to other players tests if i dont get my own.

  • The biggest risk is getting hit by Cast Adrift before a mythos phase. But I would argue all George decks have this issue. And Persistence and Artistic Inspiration and soak may still be available. Or tbh taking one big shock a game is par for the course.

  • Automatic Damage: You have 4 soak cards Idol of Xanatos x2 and Madame Labranche x2. Shes 2/2, 2 cost, recurable with Resourceful, and theres no shame in hiding behind little old ladies!... ok there is, but im not judging (...much). These can also compensate for s or if caught short by the above.

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As always thanks for reading!

And Sorry for the length on this one. Ive wanted to write a guide around different forms of draw consistency for new players for a while and this felt like a great opportunity to showcase the difference between Forced Learning and Underworld Supports approaches.

Finally, please keep your comments friendly. Any toxicity will be met with general incredulity.

2 comments

Jul 28, 2025 JotunThreeships · 1

Thank you for this amazing deck list and guide.

I was looking for some inspiration for a George deck, and this is just what I needed! Fun and innovative!

Jul 29, 2025 Revan · 1

This looks so fun and I WILL be trying it out in my next campaign. Thanks for this! (I also loved all the daredevil lines, though it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to piece them all together)