Frontline Soldier

Mark has the most restrictive deckbuilding rules of any investigator in Arkham Horror as of Path to Carcosa, but he also has one of the strongest unique cards in the game in Sophie. His unique weakness, Shell Shock, is actually extremely easy to manage, largely only preys on the reckless while his unique skill card, The Home Front acts as a great Hail Mary to turn a bad situation around, and is also something you probably don't want to use too hastily.

Using Sophie requires a short guide in and of itself, probably, but there is a reason why there's very little actual soak in this deck, and instead, healing. The exception, of course, is True Grit (a multiplayer choice more than anything else,) and Beat Cop.

Despite having Sophie, however, I don't believe you should eschew skill cards entirely. There are situations where you absolutely do not want to take damage for whatever reason (maybe you're already at the threshold,) but you still need to make a check. While you'll want to lean on Sophie's ability more often than not, you also want an out when it's not feasible to do so. Basic skill cards let you do this where your items might just not be enough. While this deck does not use many skill cards (only two,) there are places you can easily fit them in as replacements. Use your own best judgment.

I'll go through what I feel are the 'core' cards to this deck that you should keep regardless of how you build Mark. At heart, he's still a pretty standard Guardian, but he has the skill advantage that neither other Guardian can boast. Note that while the decklist is mostly solo-oriented, I will offer suggestions for things to cut in multiplayer.

Core Cards

Machete is pure value as a weapon, especially if you're going to use this deck to solo. There is literally no other 0xp weapon in the game with the same cost:effect benefit as this besides possibly the Fire Axe which you, unfortunately, can't import. Never cut this. It's way too good.

Vicious Blow is, again, pure value. +1 Fight, +1 Damage. Unfortunate that it doesn't recur, but it still synergizes perfectly with Machete and .32 Colt. The upgrade isn't too bad either and, for Mark, is extremely easy to proc.

Emergency Aid is almost mandatory for Mark decks, IMO. It gets you out of the danger zone where Sophie becomes a liability, and is also good for multiplayer.

Smoking Pipe is, I think, a necessary pick at 0xp. You can replace it with something like Elder Sign Amulet later on, but you need some way to deal with horror, and I don't think "If it bleeds..." is a particularly good card for this.

This deck can run somewhat expensive, especially if you upgrade to a beefier weapon, so Emergency Cache is more or less a required include.

Unexpected Courage is, in my opinion, a core card in every single deck. There are times you don't want to use Sophie, and this acts as a fantastic catch-all for those situations. In multiplayer, they are also a god-send to help your friends out. Hang onto these in solo, and use them almost as a form of damage control. You can even combine them with Sophie on checks that really need that extra help.

Other Picks

Prepared for the Worst isn't strictly necessary, but being able to see your weapon even with a bad mulligan is extremely handy. If you're going to replace it, I would replace it with a skill card of your choice or possibly Shortcut. You can also replace it down the road for one of your Stand Togethers; a card that I think is necessary as an upgrade.

Beat Cop is extremely good, and the upgrade really earns its slot. You can make an argument for Guard Dog, though; especially if you're going to replace it with Brother Xavier later on.

First Aid is an alright card, especially multiplayer. It's another form of horror control, but can also be used in a pinch to keep your health controlled as well. I would probably look into replacing this with something later once you get better forms of soak (Xavier, or just keeping True Grit.)

Speaking of which... True Grit is a multiplayer pick, but it's also basically a 0xp Bulletproof Vest which makes it extremely handy. You can replace this with something else, and upgrade into Bulletproof Vest later, but I honestly can't think of too many things you'd want to replace this with.

Elusive saves games. Straight up. This is right on the edge of being a 'necessary' card for Mark, but you can also use Shortcut in its place. Shortcut would have some more multiplayer utility, but Elusive essentially acts as a teleportation device that can you out of a bad situation, or into a location you need to be to win the game.

.32 Colt is the ranged weapon I chose for Mark because the extra two bullets vs. .45 Automatic has more value. Mark already can boost his with Sophie's help, so you shouldn't have too many situations (outside of ) where you'll need that +1. If you keep Beat Cop over going to Brother Xavier, you'll barely miss it. That said, the extra point can still be helpful anyway. The two are, largely, interchangeable. You will want to have one non-melee weapon, though. Some scenarios will make life very difficult for you if you don't.

Taunt is great for both multiplayer and solo. Being able to engage without using an action is more handy than you think when you're trying to get Machete's bonus, and it can naturally save an investigator's life. This is probably one of the first cards that you can cut for something else, though; it's great, but it's not necessary.

Evidence! acts as a ghetto Perception when you need it, but more importantly, it lets you pick up clues during situations where you'd normally be restricted (Miskatonic Museum comes to mind.) You can probably freely change this out for Perception itself or another skill card, but its printed effect is quite good - especially as a soloist. If you're paired with a Seeker or investigation-oriented Mystic, it's less of a requirement.

Flashlight is actually more of a solo and early-game pick. If you're in a multiplayer game with a Seeker, this is going to be the very first card you'll want to cut in place of something else. Like Evidence!, you can outright cut this for Perception if you'd like, but I find the flashlight to have more value overall. You can also keep this for the first few scenarios to help your clue-collector a little bit, and replace it with something like Stand Together later on.

Dodge is a good card solo or multiplayer. It's yet another piece of your damage control, and when saved for a boss, you can get a lot of value out of it. That said, it isn't a necessity since you have so many ways you can mitigate or heal damage in this deck. Feel free to cut this for skill cards, "Let me handle this!" for a similar effect for the slot to save other investigators from bad draws (multiplayer only,) or replace it with an upgrade later on.

How To Play

Mark is deceptively tricky to play well. Somewhat similar to Lola, Mark is able to do a little bit of everything pretty well. Even though he has a few low base stats, Sophie gives you the edge to meet almost any skill check the game throws at you... for a price. Obviously, like most Guardians, you'll be best in combat, but Sophie being a reusable Unexpected Courage (with draw!) lets you solo quite efficiently as well.

The primary issue, of course, will be managing your health. Once you go below half-health, Sophie turns into a liability, and all of the things that make Mark good are gone. It's extremely hard to get out of that hole once you're in it, so while you want to use Sophie relatively judiciously, you also want to be intelligent about it.

As a general rule, if you have three+ damage on you, you don't want to use Sophie if you can help it unless you have ways to soak monster and encounter damage out. Even then, be careful toeing that five damage line; you can always get sucker punched. Arkham Horror LOVES to do that.

You'll want to take advantage of locations that heal damage for you whenever possible before using your items. This is common sense, but it's even more important for Mark.

In managing your health, you also manage his weakness, and can make it one of the least impactful weaknesses in the game. In turn, his unique skill card is only good for a single power action, but - well, you have Sophie.

Upgrades

Your upgrades will likely depend on whether you're soloing or not, and there are a couple of different paths you can take. I will try to give some broad suggestions that are friendly to both.

• If you have and are keeping Beat Cop, it should be the first card you upgrade. It is pure value. If you do not, you will want to replace your Guard Dogs with Brother Xavier whenever possible.

• Regardless of which Ally you ultimately end up upgrading into, you will want to replace something with Stand Together. The first likely candidate is Taunt, followed by Evidence!. If you are playing with a dedicated clue-scooper, then you should definitely get rid of Flashlight for this. Stand Together is an excellent card; solo or multiplayer. It is absolutely worth its XP cost.

From here, you have a few possibilities to consider. These are not presented in any order; pick the ones you can afford and think will be most useful.

• Upgrading your Vicious Blow is a great idea. It's easy to proc its +2 damage effect as Mark; especially if played with The Home Front.

• Replacing your Smoking Pipe with Elder Sign Amulet is also an absolutely great idea.

• Grabbing Ever Vigilant can be a very good early campaign pick. Having the action compression plus the potential effective money of Emergency Cache is extraordinarily good in a deck that is likely to play a lot of assets.

• If you are using Beat Cop, an expensive, but extremely good option is to grab Charisma and then replace Smoking Pipe with Brother Xavier instead.

• If you want a bigger gun, you can replace your .32 Colt with something like, say, the Lightning Gun or the Springfield M1903 (especially if you want to be thematic.) Note that this is EXTREMELY expensive, will prevent you from using your Machete until you replace it (or possibly grab Bandolier) and you will likely want to grab Extra Ammunition for it to get as much value out of the gun as possible. Replace something like Dodge or Evidence! if you haven't already for the extra ammo.

• "I've had worse…" can actually serve as a defensive card and an economy card. Find a monster that does 2/2 damage/horror, draw a card in front of it, receive four resources. It can also help to eat the horror from Shell Shock if you're unlucky enough to have a lot of damage on you for whatever reason. It also helps eat up encounter damage for skill tests you don't want to spend health for.

• Lastly, you can look into upgrading your Emergency Cache and Taunt (if you've kept it) for a little bit of extra value. Both upgrades are 'boring,' but add some efficiency in giving you cards, and seeing more cards is always good.

I hope this write up is useful. I've been tooling with Mark since I received the Carcosa box, and he's quickly become my favorite Guardian of the bunch. Roland is likely more efficient as a soloist due to naturally getting clues for doing what he wants to do anyway and Zoey is more efficient as a murdering machine due to her resource generation, but Mark trades efficiency for flexibility. His deckbuilding restrictions are absolutely fair when you consider that he essentially has a reusable Unexpected Courage available to him at almost all times.

Any feedback on the deck is welcome! Any suggestions are also welcome. If you want to see more mistakes I've made, check out my Yorick and Akachi decks.