Traveling Rogue Ashcan Pete - The Dream of Rod of Animalism

Hi All, this is my first published deck

My goal for this deck is to make a functional deck while being an animal-themed deck with a story to go with it. The title of every card appears in the story one way or the other including the weaknesses.

You are Pete, nicknamed the Charisma[tic] Ash, who has been traveling around and "sleeps wherever [your] travels take [you]". You always travel with your Mariner's Compass, Smoking Pipe, guitar, some Emergency Cache in your Backpack, and last but not least, beloved Duke by your side.

One day, as you were traveling in the forest, you found a cave with a lot of ravens on top of the tree breach around the cave, a lot of Mysterious Raven... At the start, you didn't pay much attention, just a random cave with a few ravens around, but Duke seems to be weirdly obsessed with the cave, despite you are not prepared, and unsure whether you should go into the cave, there was some Unexpected Courage surging through your veins and your Guts tells him he should go in. You said Say Your Prayers and decide to go in.

As you traveled deeper and deeper into the cave, and you arrived at an old wooden bridge, it looks like it will break and fall off anytime. Duke paused, you look at his eyes, you knew Duke wanted to step in but were a bit reluctant to do so. You set off a Flare from your backpack to try to see whether you can see what's on the other side of the bridge if anything... From the glimmer of red light, you noticed some light reflection, seems like a rod, unsure what is it exactly. You look at Duke again, and something tells you, you must go and have a look. With Duke no longer leading the way, you decided to be the Inspiring Presence to Duke and make your way through the bridge. After you cross the bridge, you only then noticed that the rod is surrounded by a handful of Sled Dog[s], which seems to be acting as Guard Dog[s] of the rod. Doesn't seem too hostile, just calmly sitting next to the rod.

As you approached and prepared to pick it up, you hear a voice "Howdy traveler!". You looked around, and there didn't seem to be anyone around except A Black Cat. The cat then walk out of the shadow, and introduced herself, "Howdy, I am Miss Doyle, "Look what [you] found!" .. the Rod of Animalism, but don't say I didn't warn you, but the dogs are here for a reason."

After hearing the warning, you considered leaving, but before you turn, you look into Duke's eyes, you knew Duke didn't want to leave. You threw all the Perception out of the window and be Plucky as you can proceed and picked up the rod. As you were warned, all the dogs started Reckless[ly] Assault[ing] you immediately, and just within minutes, no seconds, you, Duke, and the dogs are in the thick of it

It wasn't easy, but as you duck, dig and dodge the dogs' attacks while punching back left-right, and center, you start Overpower[ing] the dogs around you by landing a few Stunning Blow[s] on them. As the dust settles around you, but you notice some blood on your jeans, some dog must have got a bite on you that you didn't notice due to the adrenaline. But as you look around, Duke was nowhere to be found, you Desperate[ly] Search[ing] for Duke, but it is nowhere to be seen. You notice a blood trail, and despite your Leg Injury, you followed the blood trail, and after a few twists and turns in the cave, you found an ever-familiar lifeless body, and your vision started going into a blur with your tears coming out from your eyes...

Suddenly, you were Wracked by [the] Nightmares and opened your sticky watery eyes, you found that Duke is cuddling beside you, you give Duke a big warm hug and of course, the good boy that Duke is, he just starting to try to lick the tears off your eyes. You pack your bags and continue traveling. Later that day, you found yourself in a forest, looking at a cave with, once again, some ravens around. You felt a sense of Deja Vu. You have been here before, just like your nightmare. But this time, you have learned your lesson, a lesson you were Forced to Learn in your dream. Despite Duke's desire, you moved on, not to be tempted, it is not the matter of A Test of [your] Will, it is just dangerous and unnecessary risk.

A few of the cards I found hard to use in the story. Plucky, Forced Learning, Perception are the hardest to put in.

Before I put in the Deja Vu, (since Deja Vu is the first animal card that came into my mind before all the cats and such, I wanted to include it dispute there is no animal/creature in the tag, but the image does...). I had to put in more cards, (I had 0 exile cards before that), so I had to put in Forced Learning. And to add more thematically fitting cards that still make the deck function-able as a real deck, I added In the thick of it, Smoking Pipe (to heal horror) and desperate skill cards. With that inclusion. As a result, the story changed a lot, initially, the story was based on Ashcan and Duke fighting a monster to get the Rod and unite all the animals together...

Another older version had Hawk-Eye Folding Camera as my hand slot to help investigate (and take photos of dogs), however, I wanted to put in more Dogs (Guard Dogs) while still able to investigate, so changed to Compass, which fit better with the Traveling Ashcan as well.

Thank you for reading till here, I am not that fluent in English and this is the first story I wrote, hope you enjoyed it and give me some feedback!