Mystic-lite Madman Pete

The idea

Use In the Thick of It to drop Pete's sanity to 3 and allow for all of the desperate skill cards to be played from the off. Pete is a natural fit for this as Duke provides an initial buffer to absorb further horror, and then (when they're played) so will Cherished Keepsake/Holy Rosary and Peter Sylvestre (with Peter recovering horror at the end of each round). Both Calling in Favors and A Chance Encounter can help you to renew allies, especially when A Chance Encounter is upgraded.

Overall the cards in play are also reasonably cheap (nothing great that a 3 resource cost), so Dark Horse is also picked as a multi-purpose boost. This deck also makes Pete a bit of a Mystic-lite to make use of his strong Willpower and ensure you're not relying too much on Duke to do damage.

Combat

This deck eschews the usual tactic of using Fire Axe, which makes use of Pete's iffy Fight, for Azure Flame and Enchanted Bow (purchased with In the Thick of It, banking 1 XP for a second bow early into the campaign) which draw on his much improved Willpower. Pete is an excellent user of Enchanted Bow, as he can easily ready this for a second shot with his ability if needed. Holy Rosary is selected to further boost Willpower along with Dark Horse, and when you upgrade Peter Sylvestre he will also assist. Bandages are an easy way to heal off any damage from Azure Flame.

Azure Flame/Enchanted Bow can provide a nice one-two punch with Duke, negating the need to discard cards to ready him again. Likewise Enchanted Bow has the added advantage of letting you snipe enemies at connecting locations, helping to keep you safe. Duke naturally buys you time to find one of these combat orientated cards by providing some initial combat capability up front.

Clue-finding

"Look what I found!" (particularly when upgraded), Duke and Desperate Search all give you some capability here - but overall this deck is best paired with a stronger clue finder.

Progression

Down the Rabbit Hole makes a lot of sense for this deck as, apart from purchasing a second Enchanted Bow (swapping out Live and Learn which isn't much needed as due to the desperate cards you shouldn't fail many skill tests), you will likely only be making upgrades.

Planned upgrades are:

• Unexpected Courage
• A Chance Encounter
• Leather Coat
• Cherished Keepsake
• "Look what I found!"
• Peter Sylvestre.

In particular, after purchasing a second Enchanted Bow, A Chance Encounter should be a priority upgrade, allowing Duke and Peter Sylvestre to take horror damage to the point of discard and then for you to play these again from your discard pile and giving you more options alongside Calling in Favors.

You can purchase Charisma or Relic Hunter if you find there is a need. For the former, as Duke does not occupy an ally slot, this is only if story allies are added to your deck. For the latter, this allows you to use both Holy Rosary and Cherished Keepsake simultaneously.

Weaknesses

This deck is higher risk than other approaches to unlocking desperate skills - e.g. use of St. Hubert's Key - but provides a bit more upfront power as you don't have to find and play the key in order for the desperate skills to activate. This does leave you weak to direct horror damage, so pairing with a deck which can heal horror (Liquid Courage, Clarity of Mind) can remedy this if you're in a bind.

As mentioned clue-finding could be better but it's not awful. If you're desperate you can discard to ready Duke once more in a round.

Hope you've enjoyed, I'm a fairly new player so this is the first real deck I've designed. I did think of the idea of using In the Thick of It and the Desperate skill cards independently, but obviously when looking at In the Thick of It running it with Pete is one of the first things suggested so it's by no means a new idea!