Joe Diamond in the trenches

This deck is part of a two to four-deck combination, paired with a William Yorick deck and optionally a Diana Stanley deck and a Zoey Samaras deck. The underlying concept behind these decks is to use Riot Whistle to pass enemies back and forth, allowing the team to continue working to attack the scenario efficiently. In essence, instead of having to pause dealing with the scenario when an enemy appears, the decks use Riot Whistle at the end of their turns to take enemies from other investigators, so those investigators can take their own turns without attacks of opportunity.

Joe Diamond uses Pathfinder to move, and the other investigator(s) use Safeguard to follow him, allowing for efficient movement through the scenario and good use of support abilities while avoiding the risk of any one investigator getting caught on their own and ambushed. Since the investigators are ideally all going to be in the same location alongside enemies, everyone can use Scene of the Crime for maximum effect, and all investigators have On the Hunt to maximise enemy draw. 19 exp has been chosen as a good break-point, especially since this is more likely to be a fun one-time gimmick for a standalone scenario.

The job of this deck is to gather clues and provide economy support to other investigators. This deck has minimal combat ability, only really able to fight in an emergency with Trench Knife, but that shouldn't matter - it uses skills, Dream Diary and Joe's hunch deck to gather clues.

It's important to use Pathfinder before engaging enemies, and for the team to structure their turns so that Joe doesn't have any enemies engaged with him when his turn begins if the group wants to move in a given round. Trench Knife prevents opportunity attacks from the Riot Whistle engage actions, Charles Ross, Esq., Crack the Case and Deep Knowledge allow sharing of resources and help the team establish its board states.

If greater investigation power is required, the deck could replace Charles Ross, Esq. with Dr. Milan Christopher or Whitton Greene, and add in Death • XIII in place of Backpack or Emergency Cache.

Upgrades from here could include upgraded Deduction and Perception, Leadership (2) in place of Take the Initiative and Cryptic Research and No Stone Unturned (5), with the latter being in the Hunch Deck.

Hunch deck: Unsolved Case, Working a Hunch, Scene of the Crime, Emergency Aid, Logical Reasoning, Preposterous Sketches.