Ashcan Pete Lives a Charmed Life 19 XP

Test of concept deck, the idea is to screw with tests via fast effects in order to reap free cards from the Crystal Pendulum.

Envisioned with true solo in mind, but I imagine he'd be great in a group context. He could be cool as "point man" revealing new locations with Duke sniffing out the first clue. Plus his and are pretty good defense against whatever threats the location might inflict.

For a 0 XP campaign starting deck swap out the XP cards for the Side Deck list.

Failure Isn't an Option

There's a bunch of skill cards to make succeeding tests more likely. Plus a bunch of static bonuses from Crystal Pendulum, Granny Orne (3), and Plucky (3). So most tests shouldn't be out of reach.

There are also toolbox of ways to change a failed test into a successful one: Ice Pick (1), Granny Orne (3), Live and Learn, Lucky!.

If failure is likely it's smart to try a Take Heart first for lots of free stuff, and then a "Look what I found!" or Oops! (2) to benefit from that failure. If you can Live and Learn you complete the "Failure Trifecta" for absurd action compression.

Crystal Pendulum Has More Luck Than a Rabbit's Foot

There's 3 ways to dial in the right level of success / failure to benefit from Crystal Pendulum: Ice Pick (+1 to fight or investigate), Lucky! (+2 to any failed test), and Granny Orne (3) (+1 or -1 to anything). Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

No Such Thing as a Dead Card

If you aren't getting use from the event section of "Look what I found!", the icons provide when committed. And Perseverance is similar with .

And any card can reset assets with Pete's signature ability ability. Usually this is to reset Duke. However it could also reset Granny Orne or Crystal Pendulum if that makes more sense (important tests that aren't fight or investigate?)

Mulligan Thoughts

Ice Pick, Crystal Pendulum, Granny Orne, Leo De Luca, Lone Wolf, Resourceful, and Take Heart all look like keepers to me.

Janky Tutoring

There's not lots of ability to "tutor" here (dig for particular cards), but there's a little! Calling in Favors, Scrounge for Supplies, and two copies of Resourceful.

Before turn one check the 10-card discard pile (created with Short Supply) and the draw pile. See which weaknesses are gone, which cards you'd like, and whether you're trying to pull them from the draw pile or recur them from the discard pile.

Soak, Soak, Soak

The 0 XP version of this deck can lean on Peter Sylvestre to soak lots of horror and in a pinch can use Bandages to mitigate health.

Hopefully you're not getting abused as badly with 19 XP. But note that you can use Calling in Favors, to pull an injured ally back into your hand, then play the ally back to the table free from injury.

Further XP Ideas

Lucky! (2) adds free draw to a card that might often be recurred

Eucatastrophe (3) never hurts, turns failure into +2 and also resets Duke in the bargain

Drawing Thin (3) is another option for the economy; it's an in-faction alternative to Lone Wolf that pays to make tests harder