Turn 1 Flamethrower Tommy

Turn 1 Flamethrower Tommy

Overview

My main problem with big guns Guardian decks is being able to get the gun into play early. This deck poses a solution by giving you sight of over 80% of your deck in turn 1, thereby allowing you to get the Flamethrower out consistently. This is achieved by your opening draw (5 cards), Stick to the Plan (deck thinning by 3 cards), Short Supply (deck thinning by 10 cards) and finally Prepared for the Worst on Stick to the Plan (tutor 9 cards) - meaning you can go through a hefty 27 out of 33 cards in your deck should you need to.

Salvage is the new addition that makes this all possible, allowing you to play the Flamethrower straight from your discard pile with Short Supply, with Resourceful providing a backup to get Salvage in the unlikely event the Flamethrower and both copies of Salvage are discarded turn 1. Prepared for the Worst on Stick to the Plan covers the last eventuality where the Flamethrower is still in your deck after your opening draw and Short Supply discard. Once I had both copies of Salvage, Stick the the Plan and the Flamethrower in my deck (costing only 13 experience with In the Thick of It and the Flamethrower Taboo List cost) I was able to get it out turn 1 for the entirety of an Innsmouth campaign (excepting the last scenario where I chose not to put it into play for reasons...).

To cover everything else, Sharp Vision, Field Agent and Scene of the Crime allow you to do some clue-finding alongside the robust enemy management. Salvage provides a dual purpose as, in the situations where you don't need it for Flamethrower, you can often take a .45 Thompson out of the game as a pseudo-Hot Streak instead. Beat Cop and Vicious Blow allow you to more readily conserve Flamethrower ammo, while Extra Ammunition allows you to keep it well stocked.

In situations where you don't manage to get Well-Maintained onto your Flamethrower and the encounter deck makes you discard it, or in the unlikely event you don't get it out turn 1, then the .45 Thompson, Becky and the basic Runic Axe all provide great backup weapon options. A Chance Encounter allows you to recur discarded allies, which if you get them killed in the same turn (triggering attacks of opportunity, etc.) then you can reshuffle them into your deck. Mr. Pawterson provides soak which plays off your ability nicely, and also can be recovered from the discard pile with Resourceful or Salvage.

Overall here I've gone for a bit of balance with some clue-finding options, but it's entirely possible to make this deck more combat heavy. I will cover this in the side deck options down below.

Advanced Strategies

• Turn 1 Flamethrower. First draw and mulligan for both Flamethrower, Salvage and Resourceful. If Flamethrower is not in your opening hand, if it's in the 10 cards you discarded with Short Supply then play it with Salvage. If it's not in your hand or your discard pile, then play Prepared for the Worst to try and draw it. If you didn't have a copy of Salvage in your hand and both a copy and the Flamethrower are your discard pile, seek to pass a straight forward test with Resourceful to get Salvage to then get the Flamethrower (for example, commit to a Seeker investigate action at your location). As there's several measures in place to get the Flamethrower in play, this strategy has a high level of consistency.

• Pseudo-Hot Streak. This deck has 2 copies of Salvage and you only need at most one for the Flamethrower. If the .45 Thompson is in your discard pile, you can remove it from the game with Salvage to get 6 resources - one shy of an upgraded Hot Streak. What's more, .45 Thompson's have a icon, so you can always commit these to a fight action to get it in your discard pile for Salvage.

• Back from the dead. The Short Supply discard does have the issue of getting rid of allies, which is where A Chance Encounter comes in. This allows you to play an ally for cheap from your discard pile, then as long as they are discarded due to damage or horror in the same turn (hint: attacks of opportunity) then they're shuffled into your deck courtesy of Tommy's ability. Remember both the Beat Cop and Field Agent have abilities where they take horror or damage, so this makes it even easier to get them killed off in a turn. You do have to take an attack of opportunity yourself to play A Chance Encounter if you're engaged, but this can be worth it to recover these valuable ally cards.

What didn't make the cut

There's a lot of combat-orientated cards that I didn't include in this more balanced version of the deck, which I'll cover in the Further upgrades and side deck section below. This section is more for particular upgrades or alternatives I considered by steered away from while deck building:

• A second Flamethrower. Given the reliability of the combos to get the Flamethrower into play, a second copy for me is wasted experience.

• A different big gun. While the Flamethrower does have the requirement that you need to engage with enemies, its splash damage is such a huge help that I wouldn't ever consider running a different gun. Of the contenders, the Lightning Gun is nice but expensive, the M1918 BAR requires much more ammo support, and the Shotgun has too few ammo for what I was looking for.

• Beefy allies. Agency Backup is nice but pricey. While Beat Cop and Field Agent essentially do similar things, I like how they give and boosts respectively, and one copy each of both cards is still cheaper in terms of XP than a single Agency Backup. Rookie Mistake also stings a lot when using Agency Backup too! A new interesting ally is the upgraded Guard Dog, which I've covered in the side deck section below.

• Prepared for the Worst upgrade. It's a nice card but only saves a resource and an action, so for the XP for me there were better picks.

• Ever Vigilant, either version. Again this is a reasonable pick, but there were just other cards I wanted in the deck more.

Campaign starter and planned progression

With In the Thick of It this is a 30XP deck in all. I would recommend getting a copy of Salvage with your first 3 XP, and then you will want Flamethrower more or less immediately after that. For Stick to the Plan, I have Prepared for the Worst, Emergency Cache and Extra Ammunition on it throughout the campaign. Starter deck is directly below (and link here):

A recommended order of XP purchases/upgrades is as follows:

• Evidence! → Flamethrower

• Evidence! → Salvage

• Overpower → Extra Ammunition

• Stick to the Plan

• Overpower → Well-Maintained

• "Look what I found!" → Well-Maintained

• "Look what I found!" → Extra Ammunition

• Charisma

• Guard Dog → Field Agent

• Guard Dog → Field Agent

• Beat Cop → Beat Cop ••

• Beat Cop → Beat Cop ••

• Winging It → Sharp Vision

• Winging It → Sharp Vision

Further upgrades and side deck

It's quite possible to make this deck much more combat heavy, side deck suggestions for this are:

• Custom Modifications. With Quicksilver Bullets your Flamethrower can easily do three extra damage per turn, while Extended Stock better allows you to over-succeed and do that extra point of damage. What's more, Custom Modifications is a Supply card and so it can go on Stick to the Plan. I highly recommend this if you're looking to do more damage.

• Enchant Weapon. An oldy but a goody, Enchant Weapon gives your first Flamethrower shot more bang for your buck - and works great with Custom Modifications.

• Upgraded Guard Dog. The new Guard Dog gives a free engage action, which is very useful given Flamethrower's restriction in this regard. In a combat heavy deck, particularly if you have Custom Modifications with Extended Stock, I think the dog slightly edges the upgraded Beat Cop for me.

Putting these changes together, I've also made a Turn 1 Flamethrower Tommy - Combat Heavy variant in case you need even more powerful enemy management on your investigator team.

If you find XP mounting up towards the end of a campaign, I would recommend:

• Keen Eye. Due to Tommy's ability, his resources tend to build up later on in a scenario. Keen Eye provides an outlet so you can make better use of them as the need arises.

• Brute Force. Brute Force allows for some ammo conservation on the Flamethrower, upgraded Vicious Blow can also be used similarly.

Final Thoughts

From what I can see, no one yet has paired Salvage with Short Supply and a big gun - so this can be considered a Brand New Idea™! My biggest headache with Guardians is always getting that key weapon asset out, and for me this deck solves that problem very, very well. You could do this as well with Minh Thi Phan and The Necronomicon, but she does already have Scavenging so it feels slightly less worthwhile. If you're looking for a reliable combat heavy deck then give this a try, you won't be disappointed!