Mark Harrigan - How to kill an Elder God

Cthulhu rampaging your town? Cultist plotting to bring about the destruction of the universe? An elder god is gaining power, and the only way to stop it is with sheer, unadulterated firepower?

Well, friends, you're in luck. Mark Harrigan is here, and he's head and shoulders the best killer in all of Arkham Horror. You'll smile as your fellow investigators look at you in awe as you handily deal with 16 life bosses in one turn. Bosses? More like Mark Harrigan fodder. Delicious.

This deck is designed to stomp expert difficulty on any campaign. However, some campaigns should switch out a few cards in order to deal with their particular threats. See the "Sideboard" section for these suggests, and for optional suggestions for the main deck.

Kill Power S+

The trick here is abusing several mechanics and cards with Mark. Firstly, Practice Makes Perfect allows you to find 3 incredible choices for dealing with monsters throughout. Vicious Blow, Overpower, The Home Front - all searchable practiced cards. The Home Front in particular allows Mark to activate Sophie, along with his passive card draw, and to relieve him of the damage. Practice Makes Perfect allows you to do this twice. Furthermore, you'll be able to abuse your xp versions of Overpower and Vicious Blow later in campaigns, allowing your deck to punch well above its xp class.

Dynamite Blast allows you to deal with stacked mobs, and despite its significant taboo list nerf, Elusive allows you to reposition yourself to avoid the damage. Paired with Shortcut, you have the option of taunting several enemies from your fellow investigators, shortcutting away from your team, and "elusiving" to a safe dynamite distance.

Weapon choices prioritize the .45 Thompson for its standing +2 fight, and +1 damage, and the .32 Colt for its raw ammo efficiency. In Carcosa, I would suggest swapping the colt for an Enchanted Blade. This will help you deal with those pesky poltergeists in the first mission. The upgraded gem in our deck will be Shotgun. I know what you're thinking... it loses its luster on expert. That's true, unless you're Mark Harrigan pulling 10 over on every shotgun shot. Goodbye RNG, hello damage output.

Card Draw S-

Seriously, you'll get carpal tunnel drawing so many cards. As mentioned before, Practice Makes Perfect lets you double play your Overpower card draw - but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Every PHASE you activate Sophie, you draw a card, so make sure you're using that to be at least 4 over on most skill checks that are relevant. Stand Together is on the upgrade path, to lend you much needed resource help, and as far as economy efficiency there's not much better (cough, abusing Take Heart... why oh why hasn't that card been nerfed?).

Healing/Damage Soak A

As far as personal healing, you're better than an A. Second Wind allows the Mark pain train to keep operating at maximum efficiency. Make sure, and I cannot emphasize this enough, to manage your health when you're in danger of drawing Shell Shock. This card can go from being the most irrelevant, simple weakness to deal with, to an absolute crushing bane if you do not manage your health properly. Be greedy with your Soothing Melody as well, and only use on fellow investigators if they are seriously hurting. Your health is far more valuable, as each point is not just a card draw from your passive, but also a +2 bonus to any skill check.

Clue Power D-

Clues? What are those things? That's sounds like work for the wimps and nerds. Seriously though, for absolute critical locations, this is why a x1 Grete Wagner is run. Its purpose is not precisely to supplement your team with 1-2 clues - instead it is designed to clue cheat those frustrating locations that come with a big price to investigate. 6+ shroud, double action investigate locations, etc. Use her with discretion, and don't let her get in the way of playing your Venturer.

Evade D

In almost all campaign, evading is just not nearly as efficient as killing. You can however, like any check with Mark, punch yourself in the face a couple times and test 4 over.

Allies

Why Venturer? Doesn't even Guard Dog offer Mark more damage output? What are you doing man? I can already hear you, and let me tell you, you're wrong. Venturer is run because my friends, Mark likes two things, and they're the two barrels of his Shotgun. Venturer offers an excellent way to keep that boom stick firing, and will supplement your damage output far greater. Trust me. You're already a 5 Fight, so the additional +1 from say, Beat Cop is not nearly as appealing. You'll be testing 4-8 over on almost all fist checks anyway. Run Venturer, and thank me later.

Upgrade Path

Shotgun x1 Your card draw, and the x1 Prepared for the Worst... you only need one. Make sure to protect it from asset destruction. Keep it well oiled, shiny, and polished. SMart top of the line.

Extra Ammunition x2 Paired with Venturer, Custom Ammunition, and a possible Emergency Cache, this is all the reloading you'll ever need to keep thumping.

Overpower x2 Abuse it with Practice Makes Perfect

Vicious Blow x2 Abuse it with Practice Makes Perfect. Now you deal with 3 health monsters easily with no guns.

Leadership x2 Not compulsory, but it does give you the money bump that you can often find lacking. It's flexibility to find it with Practice Makes Perfect makes it a compelling addition.

Stand Together x2 Best economy efficiency in the game. I guess you can also support your fellow nerd investigators.

Telescopic Sight x1 Now the fun cards. Just for the giggles, and particularly because Taboo has buffed this card from nigh unplayable to seriously fun...

Bandolier x1 Why not. It's fun, and you can save shotgun rounds when appropriate.

Custom Ammunition x1 Almost all serious threats are monsters. Why not add one more damage AND replenish some ammo. Plus it's fast. Gogo custom ammo baby.

Enchant Weapon x1 Mark will be 4 head with Bandolier. Sounds like more 10 over shotgun test to me.

Emergency Cache x1 Slap some supplies on Mr. Venturer, and continue reigning down Mark style shotgun justice.

Stick to the Plan x1 To complete the deck, buy this guy and enjoy your lean, mean, killing machine. I suggest you attach Extra Ammunition, Custom Ammunition and Emergency Cache.

Empty Vessel x1 Just for fun. Drop the Hallowed Mirror at this point.

Potent Notables

Steadfast and Take the Initiative are certainly viable options for more skill power. The latter is practiced, and can give you extra punch on any skill check. I find it a bit too restrictive however, and prefer not to main board it. The times when a fellow investigator must go first for whatever reason, makes this a tough add for me. Secondly, you should already have ample self help, so I find Leadership to be the go to "team support" option. Besides, upgraded Leadership should replace either Steadfast or Take the Initiative for the extra money making. Be warned, the number of times I've dropped leadership in place of Steadfast (which I love btw), and then I've missed a Practice Makes Perfect pull only to see Steadfast...

Emergency Aid is certainly worth taking. In most situations, Hallowed Mirror will be enough, but consider this: Emergency Aid for Mark also adds the effect "get +2 to two separate skill checks AND draw two cards" through his passive ability and Sophie. Not too shabby.

Safeguard might also be worth consideration for extra movement economy. I find x2 Shortcut to usually be sufficient, but if you love it, gotta have it, it's certainly playable.

Sideboard

Dunwich

Delay the Inevitable is priceless in this one. You'll deal well with Beyond the Veil, one of the most serious threats in the first few missions. I would probably ditch the "If it bleeds...", and perhaps the Elusive for two of those bad boys. You might also consider a second Dynamite Blast since lets face it, the train is the only serious mission in the entire campaign, and that will allow you to deal with the damned cultist that get ahead of you.

Carcosa

I guess when Mark isn't smashing the mythos, he also likes to attend dinner parties. A x1 Fine Clothes will treat you well on the 2nd mission. Also, I recommend swapping the .32 Colt for Enchanted Blade. A second Dynamite Blast is not out of the question, particularly on mission 3 where the damned Aloof cultists are annoying. Better yet, snag the Telescopic Sight early, and enjoy.

Forgotten Age

Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes.... Drop the "If it bleeds...", and run a second Elusive. This will help you escape in the second mission, and will also give you flexibily to avoid vengeance from killing serpents in the first mission (unless you're returning). Since damage is more of a problem here, you can consider running... sigh... an unupgraded First Aid, and use some Venturer charges on that to keep the nerds healed. Hiding Spot is also worth serious consideration.

The Circle Undone

Once again, Enchanted Blade is our friend here. Drop the colts, and go stabby stab. I would also highly recommend dropping the Leadership in place of Steadfast, so you can make sure to pass the crippling head checks. Alternatively, you can run both, and squeeze out the Elusive and "If it bleeds...". Very head heavy, and very annoying. I also recommend, and I don't do this lightly, that you run Guard Dog to help deal with the Goat Spawn. The 3 life can be annoying early in the campaign. The doggy does turn into 3 cards drawn for you as well in an ideal world. Tommy Muldoon don't have nothing on that.

Dreameaters

Mk 1 Grenades as a good option for the swarms. Plus, you're Mark, so these grenades have your name on them.

Innsmouth

Perfection. Seriously though, while I've beaten each other campaign roughly 15 times each, I have only played through Innsmouth once. More opinions on this following, but Mark was my first run through blind, on expert with this deck and it was a joke.