Just a Solid Dark Horse Pete Deck

Hello lovely humans!

May I present to you: Just a solid deck. This deck is very asset heavy, but once you are set up, you are going to pass almost every test.
With this deck you will be able to do almost everything reliably, but with no broken combos like Amanda or Norman can.

Combat (4.5/5)

You want to fight with the Fire Axe. Turns out that 2 is pretty serviceable and with proper setup you can go up to 7.

• You initiate an attack ( difficulty D) having no resources in your pool.
• Exhaust Drawing Thin to gain 2 resouces
• test gets +2 difficulty (D+2)
• you spend those 2 resources for Fire Axe, so you get +4
• You exhaust Madame Labranche to get an additional resource
• to spend also for fire axe getting additional +2
• you still have 0 resources, so Dark Horse gives you +
• So you have now: X = (2 + 4 + 2 + 1) = 9, while the difficulty of the test is D+2. So you can think that you have 7 in this test.

Since you can throw away a card to ready Madame Labranche, you can repeat the whole procedure assuming you have both of your Drawing Thins. With the draw in this deck you should never be lacking cards to throw away.

Moreover, if you're lucky enough to draw the Vicious Blow, you can one-shot a 3 health enemy.

Clues (3/5)

This deck focuses mainly on killing enemies, but since you fight with the Fire Axe, your Dog is free. So you exhaust Duke to investigate with base 4. You really want to move as the part of the effect, so you get +2 to this investigation. Assuming you have 0 resources already, you also get +1 from Dark Horse. This makes 7. If you want, Deduction is also a good card instead of Inspiring Presence. Plucky (3) can put you up to 8 in this way.

Economy (4/5)

• Madame Labranche provides that single resource you might need
• Take Heart possibly with combination with…
• Drawing Thin
• Note, skills don't cost money.
• Cost of this deck is pretty low.

Draw: 4.5 / 5

• Madame Labranche – probably will never give you cards, but technically it is possible
• Guts – replaces itself
• Overpower — replaces itself
• Perception — replaces itself
• Drawing Thin
• Rabbit's Foot — just a single copy, since you will probably pass almost every test
• Take Heart — 2 cards + 2 resources and you can boost yourself for the next test with Fire Axe or Plucky
• Resourceful — also gives you a card, which probably will be Lucky! (3)
• Backpack (2) — will find you Fire Axe, Talisman of Protection, Rabbit's Foot or another Backpack. Probably it will be a good target for Crypt Chill.
• Lucky! (3) also replaces itself, so technically draws a card.

Further Upgrades:

• Jacob Morrison — instead of exhausting Madame Labranche for +2 with Fire Axe, you can just go 5 to X and in case you fail, you get +2 when you need it. Luckily, Pete can ready Jacob.
• Scrapper
• A Test of Will or A Test of Will – good card. And level (2) even cost 0 resources, so you can play it in the Dark Horse mode.
• Perception →Newspaper (2), but remember, this card won't replace itself, so you risk the draw and consistency for occasional +2 and a clue.

Dark Horse

• If you have Plucky and Fire Axe in play, or maybe you also bought Scrapper, you will probably always take resources. Otherwise, probably not.
• Having resources also makes Take Heart more likely to work. So if you draw a treachery with a test, then you might have 3 resources at the start of the next investigator phase, which is pretty convenient for playing an asset.
• If you chose to start with A Test of Will: you probably want to take resources to pay for it.

Level zero deck

To obtain the level 0 deck, just downgrade:

• 2×Lucky! → 2×Lucky!
• 1×Plucky → Plucky → A Test of Will
• 2×Backpack (2) → 2×Backpack
• 2×Drawing Thin → 2×Unexpected Courage (this downgrade only if you play with the Taboo changes)