Put the dog in the corner [expert, taboo]

The most amazing thing about this deck is that Pete starts the game with his best card on the table.

Duke sneaks in a lot of value. Sure, the stats are nothing to write home about in hard or expert, but the free move and the +1 damage are what actually matters and will help you cruise through the scenario. In order to turn those investigate and fight actions into something worthwhile you'll need to be able to turn those base 4 values to something way higher.

THE STATBOOSTERS

These cards enable Ashcan to turn skillschecks into succes. Note that Scrapper and Cornered are both xp cards, so you'll have to wiggle your way around some fighting skillchecks in the first scenario of each campaign.

• Arcane Studies
• Scrapper
• Cornered

THE ENGINE

The Engine produces cards and money. With Cornered on the table, each cards is an Unexpected Courage. Note that Cornered does not exhaust, so you can use it multiple times per round.

• Madame Labranche
• Drawing Thin
• Take Heart
• Rabbit's Foot

TRICK 1 ASHCAN ABILITY

Dont forget about Ashcans ability to throw away a card, to ready an asset you control. You will probably use it consistently on Duke to bring down 4+HP enemies or to redo a failed investigation. However when Cornered is not on the table, you can use it to double trigger Madame Labranche while you are pumping your coins in Scrapper or Arcane Studies.

TRICK 2 INTENTIONAL FAILED SKILLCHECKS

When a skillcheck is too high, or when you need a ton of economy: for example you are in a fight, and you lack cards to defend yourself. You can combo Rabbit's Foot, Take Heart and both Drawing Thin to give an insane: +3 cards, +6 resources on 1 failed skillcheck or, +5 cards and +2 resources. Remember that Drawing Thin gives the resources/cards before the skillcheck.

THE CARDS

Magnifying Glass boosts Duke's search ability. They provide excellent economic value. In a pinch you can destroy them, when you need to throw away an asset, due to some unfortunate Crypt Chill.

Cherished Keepsake, in order to get value out of Fight or Flight, you might wanna go low on your sanity. Having a teddybear nearby is handy.

Rabbit's Foot actually provides a card here and there, because you will fail some skillchecks on higher difficulties. Also part of the failed-checks-combo.

Leather Coat just some backup leather coat, in case you need it. If you are not taking alot of damage, feel free to feed Duke or Cornered with it.

Madame Labranche will treat your nicely. Especially when your deck runs out of card. 1 Card is usually more value than 1 coin, especially when Cornered is on the table.

Arcane Studies an essential tool to get rid of all your coins. Its not unlikely that this deck is swimming in coins and low on cards. Actual thats the preferred way to play this deck.

Drawing Thin, this card will probably get nerfed in the next Taboo list. Allowing you do to only 1 of these on a skillcheck. However, its not all good. Failing skillcheck might hurt you, especially when the chaos tokens are not nice. Apart from that, this card is amazing and will make you filthy rich.

Track Shoes maybe they ll come in handy. The ability to move up to two locations and run through enemies seems handy. The stat boost looks also nice. The shoes aren't essential though, because with Duke running around, you probably are going pretty fast already.

Deny Existence very handy card when you know something really scare is going to hit you, like 3+ horror, or an encounter cards that deals a kazillion damage when you cycle your deck. Its very similar to Ward of Protection but Deny Existence has the advantage that you dont have to use it, unless the incoming dmg/horor/cardloss is inevitable.

Fight or Flight I undervalued this card a bit. But with 3 or 4 sanity damage on Ashcan the economic value is pretty insane. When you are fighting, a combat round usually consists out of at least 2 or sometimes 3 fight actions, effectively turning 1 card and 1 coin, in a +9 or +12 coin stat boost. As soon as you have both Scrapper and 2x Cornered the value of this card diminishes and you can rotate them out.

Improvised Weapon In the odd case you need to do 6 damage, or you messed up an attack on a 4hp enemy and you can no longer refresh Duke, this card is a little lifesaver. You can just tuck it away in your discard pile as soon as you see it, and let it wait there until you see the perfect opportunity.

Live and Learn. A nice variation on Lucky. I like both. If you use it after you failed attack with Duke, Duke will attack again, you dont have to refresh Duke. The nice thing about Live and Learn is that you can use it, even when you draw an Autofail chaos token. The not so nice part about Live and Learn that you first have to accept the failed skillchecks conditions, for example: a retaliate.

Lucky!, a nice backup cards that lets you do more crucial tests with a 75 or 80% win chance. You want to succeed at the tests you do, but you dont want to overpay. Lucky lets you do exactly that. In the odd case that you do fail, you can still play the Lucky to save the day.

Winging It same story as Improvised Weapon. If you play Multiplayer, I would suggest getting two of these, cause they provide a solid way to get 2 clues.

Last Chance. As soon as you have Cornered, you will often run low on cards. Last Chance is simply amazing, more often than not, giving you +4 or +5 on a skillcheck.

Overpower basically a poor man's Scrapper. You need this card to get you through the combat checks in the first scenario when you lack Scrapper.

Resourceful lets you pick up value cards from your discard pile. In the first scenario that could be a Fight or Flight. Last Chance and ofcourse Lucky! is a solid choice too. It can also salvage some parts of your key assets, in case you had to destroy them.

Take Heart. A very effective economy card. Just make sure you fail the check, for example by giving it +2 with a Drawing Thin.

Scrapper is the first upgrade you should get. Together with Arcane Studies you got all skills covered. It's never a bad idea to float enough money to deal with some nasty enemies.

Cornered remember the time when every deck had 2x Unexpected Courage. If you install Cornered, you have a deck that consists out of 100% unexpected courages. You can use cornered multiple times each turn. Labranche will get alot of value if you keep using cards with Cornered. Upkeep and Labranche combined net you a +5 on skillchecks, every turn if you feed all of it through your statboosters. It also enables you to profit more from throwaway cards like Winging It and Improvised Weapon.

UPGRADE PATH

• Get Scrapper 5xp
• Get 2x Cornered 2xp 2x Overpower

MULLIGAN

Try go get your assets on the table as soon as possible. They are all rather cheap and will give you so much economy. Only Leather Coat, Cherished Keepsake and Track Shoes are not necessary at the start of the game.

If you dont have Scrapper, it might also be wise to keep an Overpower in your hand, if you draw it.

MULTIPLAYER

You can easily turn this into a Multiplayer deck. Just add +1 Winging It and +1 Impromptu Barrier. Throw out both Overpower. When you get Cornered, swap out Fight or Flight.

FUN TO PLAY' Cards come and go. Labranche gets tabbed every round. Money is never a problem. Duke usually does something spectacular every round. The failed skillcheck economy boosts can be used often, and you can pass virtually every skillcheck if you put your mind to it. Every turn you will have to make a few cute choices, that really impact your game. The deck has a bit of nuance, but is rather easy to pilot, even for a starting player. After you get 9xp you have a lot of expansion options, because no other cards are essential.

COMING SOON

This deck has seen a lot of play on hard difficulties. I am currently trying out Return to the Night of the Zealot with it on Expert and its working out fine. I will post a sort-of-walkthrough here, when I find some time.