Discount Diamond Makes Perfect

Welcome to Discount Diamond's Investigating Emporium. A little birdie told me that you liked saving lots of money and then using all that money to help your friends. Well, Discount Diamond's got you covered, with all the money saving combos you could ever want.

Clues and Damage We love clues and damage around these parts and nobody knows clues and damage like Joe Diamond! That's why we have .45 Automatic and Fingerprint Kit. Get 2 clues, deal 2 damage? Now we're cooking with gas! And you're telling me Deductions and Vicious Blows are here too? Your signature asset is a weapon? Clues and damage seems pretty locked up if we get our cards into play! Too bad they are really expensive and... oh, wait, this is Discount Diamond's Investigating Emporium! And we have...

Charles Ross, Esq. Charles Ross will reduce the cost of Items by 1. This is fantastic for us, because Joe's signature asset is an Item. Furthermore, Joe's signature asset gives us extra hand space for tools. Magnifying Glass is a tool, which costs 1. It becomes free with Charles Ross. Being able to play Magnifying Glass for 0r is very similar to the upgraded Magnifying Glass, so this combination is basically "shadow XP", where you get the effect of the upgraded card without actually having the upgraded card. (See Preposterous Sketches in the Hunch deck for another case of shadow XP.)

Charles Ross also makes Fine Clothes worth 0r. While the usefulness of Parley actions and Fine Clothes fluctuates, you can make it even more useful by including Persuasion/Interrogate in your hunch deck, which also will be played for 0r. These tests are really easy for Joe to pass thanks to his natural base stats and Fine Clothes.

Practice Makes Perfect + A lot of skill cards So funny story, but Skill Cards are not only incredibly useful, they are also free to use! And as Discount Diamond we love free things! It only makes sense that we love our skill cards. Practice Makes Perfect, aside from being ridiculously cheap anyway, gives Joe the opportunity to get more use out of his best skill cards. Every skill card in this deck is Practiced, so any of them can be taken by Joe. Ideally, though, we want to see Practice Makes Perfect grab Take the Initiative during a Will/Agility test in Mythos, because TTI is our main source of having any hope of being able to pass against Will/Agility Treacheries. If you don't care too much about being defensive, combo PMP with a Fight or Investigate action and you will test super high regularly.

Hunch deck giving free clues Scene of the Crime and Working a Hunch give you clues for 0r! How can we say no to free clues? We love free clues at Discount Diamond's Investigation Emporium! And while it isn't particularly guaranteed the same way, the Fine Clothes/Interrogate combo can also get you 2 clues on a rather easy test for you.

Astounding Revelation When I first thought of saving this much money, I thought it was an astounding revelation, and I'm making it even better by including Astounding Revelation in this deck! We have so many search effects with PMP, PFTW, CIF, and Mr. Rook. Why so many search effects? Because we really want our key cards in play: Detective's Colt, Ross, Take the Initiative and Fingerprint Kit as examples. Also, Rook is amazing in Joe because Rook cannot hit Joe's signature weakness! So of course we'd love to include Rook combos here somehow, even if Ross is our first choice for making the major concept of the deck run. Use Rook to get your card draw and then use him up as soak or use CIF to see if you can turn him into Ross for free! (Or commit Rook for 1 Will icon in an emergency, worse things have happened.)

But what do I do with all this money?? Oh friend, you have Ross in play don't you? After you've saved so much money and gotten set up yourself, it's time to start paying for everyone else's items! Santa Diamond is on the map, ready to make everyday Christmas and you better believe he is buying everything on sale! Do you have a Yorick on your team? You can pay his recursion costs (you can also make his Knives free with Ross triggers, I mean, there's a lot going on here). Does someone need help paying for a giant Lightning Gun? Joe and Ross will take care of it for you! With Astounding Revelation, Ross discounts, and a deck that is already super cheap, you can start being a support to everyone else with your money. Then, with XP, you can start looking at money sinks such as Scientific Theory, Combat Training, or Higher Education or big expensive bomb cards like Timeworn Brand.

How do I deal with 2 Will/2 Agility on defense? This is where Joe may falter a little bit, so I have a few tools to handle it but not lots. Again, Take the Initiative to give you the +3 skill value is a big tool you have here. You have some soak available to you with Fine Clothes and Rook/Ross as your allies both of which give you a little sanity buffer. You also will notice this deck has 12 potential hunches and of course you only need 10 in the deck. I recommend using Logical Reasoning outside the Hunch deck so that you can choose to trigger it. Since we already have ways to deal with horror, Logical Reasoning is primarily here to protect you from Terrors, especially Frozen in Fear. Finally, you have a Hallowed Mirror for some healing if you really need that. As you gain XP, you may want to get some tools to help you out here if you are really concerned, such as Forewarned or The Eye of Truth.

XP Considerations In addition to previously mentioned cards, with XP consider getting Extensive Research in your Hunch deck, as you can play that at a lower cost in Joe. As well, Charisma may be helpful as you could now have Ross and Rook out simultaneously and look to get other allies into the deck, such as Brother Xavier. And lastly, of course upgraded Deductions and Vicious Blows will synergize with the deck amazingly, as you are already set up to use them and those combos will know be even better!