Leo Anderson - Spray and Pray

You have one solution to all of life's problems: Apply ammo until said problem goes away.

This is my version of a Leo Anderson "BAR" deck. It's been tested in "Rougarou" and "Labyrinths" - both times to good effect. For example, in Labyrinths, we (three players) were ably to deal 31 damage to our version of SPOILERS in a single round, mainly thanks to Mr. Anderson and his trusty BAR.

General Gameplay

This deck is meant to be the "monster slayer" in a 2-4 player stand-alone scenario. In a 2-player setting, the other investigator should definitely go heavy on investigation as you won't be finding a lot of clues.

The main goal is to play a M1918 BAR and then Contraband in order to get a high-power weapon on the table along with enough ammunition to last most of a scenario.

You might be somewhat strapped for cash in the early game, but by the mid-to-late game, you should have plenty of resources.

Setup

Put Contraband, Emergency Cache (3) and Prepared for the Worst on Stick to the Plan.

You then hard mulligan for a M1918 BAR. The only thing I might keep is another weapon, but only if I knew that there was a high chance of encountering an early enemy that I needed to deal with.

After finding a M1918 BAR, you want to gather nine resources. The Emergency Cache on Stick to the plan will help you do this quickly. Note, however, that you cannot play both the Emergency Cache and the Contraband from Stick to the Plan on the same turn.

If you don't find a M1918 BAR right away, you can make do for a while with the other weapons and Leo's posse of allies.

The optimal opening hand would look something like: M1918 BAR, High Roller, Sleight of Hand, Venturer, Emergency Cache.

First turn: Play the two caches and Venturer.

Second turn: If a monster turned up, play M1918 BAR with Sleight of Hand and smoke it. Otherwise play High Roller and you're off to the races.

Cards

Notes on some of the included cards:

• Survival Knife: You could switch it for a Machete, but I prefer the Survival Knife when it's purely supposed to be a back-up (which is the case in this deck). Combos well with Guard Dog (take hit on the dog, dog does damage and you get to counter-attack).

• Hired Muscle: Free if played with Leo's ability. Do so right before you intend to kill stuff, and even if you keep them around for a few turns, they won't break the bank.

• Venturer: Used to top up the M1918 BAR. Especially useful if used right before you play Contraband so you'll get an additional ammo for free.

• High Roller: Mainly used to give you +2 on combat rolls (where the likelihood of failing will be very low), but is also really useful as a -booster when the encounter deck hits you with something nasty. Lastly, it just might allow you to pick up a clue or two from low-shroud locations.

• "Eat lead!": A much-maligned card (looking at you Mythos Busters) that is really useful in this particular deck, where ammo is usually abundant. Use when you do the 5-ammo, Double or Nothing+"Watch this!"-powered attack against the final boss, where the only thing that can stop you is the (and you know that's exactly when you'll pull it otherwise) .

• Emergency Cache: Usually used to take you across the nine-resource threshold, but it's worth noting that it can also be used to refill a Venturer, if you don't need the cash. There's an XP left over before hitting the 29-XP threshold so you could exchange the two caches for two Hot Streak, though I haven't tested that. I suspect it would make the deck slightly jankier but it might be worth trying out.

• Sleight of Hand: Very useful if you get it early along with a gun. It gives you a turn of "free" ammo and allows you to hold off on playing your gun and focus on other things early on.

• "Watch this!": You usually want to play this with a combat test where the chances of failing are very small.

• Double or Nothing: Play with a five-ammo attack from the BAR for a massive 10 damage in one hit. You'll be attacking at 10 (at least), so you should be able to overcome the doubled difficulty. Also useful as a way to save ammo against low-, high-health enemies, like the Conglomeration of Spheres.