Tricky Trish (8xp infinite combo)

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

Seamus · 288

Introduction

I was recently wondering what's the best value you can get from Friends in Low Places, and I think combining with Easy Mark for a fast action draw three cards gain three resources is pretty good. Other notable Trick cards include Cheat the System and Hit and Run.

These cards form the core of this deck which can generate infinite actions, infinite testless clues, infinite resources and infinite healing.


Table of Contents:
  • Overview

  • Main Strategy

  • The Winning Loop

  • Problems With The Deck

  • Other Cards

  • Make Your Own Deck!

  • Suggested Taboo


Overview:
 
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Enemy Management: ★★★☆☆
Clue-getting: ★★★★★
Encounter protection: ★★★★☆
Survivability: ★★★★★
Economy: ★★★★★
Card Drawing: ★★★★★

Main Strategy:
  • Draw your deck as quickly as possible.

  • Play all your non-ally assets as you get them.

  • Once you have reached the infinite loop, use Hit and Run for as many extra actions, clues and healing as you need.

  • Pay for this while cycling your extremely thin deck using Friends and Easy Mark.

  • Cheat the System for extra profit.


The Winning Loop:
  • When you play Friends to initiate each loop your deck should have up to 6 cards. These will be what was left of your previous discard pile which should have been

    • 1 copy of Friends
    • 3 copies of Easy Mark
    • up to 3 other cards, at most 1 of these can be a non Trick card
  • The first time you empty your deck, it might take an action or two to set up your discard pile, but after that a typical loop is

  • Since each loop is entirely made up of fast events and reactions, they all take place in the same player window.

  • Each loop will net you either an action, a clue or will heal someone. As well as getting a profit of 5 or 6 resources. The horror for reshuffling can be put on that loops ally.

  • Allies with two san can be left in play for two loops if you want to play a different card.

  • With infinite actions and resources, it should be possible to pass any test.


Problems With The Deck:
  • The deck will completely fail if you randomly draw the wrong weakness. If your weakness is Offer You Cannot Refuse, it will slow down the resources generated each cycle significantly, but you should still come out ahead as long as you never get to the Fine Print.

  • Expect to do nothing but build up for about the first 6 or 7 turns, so you will need a friend to keep you alive until then.


Other Cards:

Make Your Own Deck!

I wouldn't advise it. This is more created as a thought experiment and would probably not lead to a fun gaming experience

If you choose to ignore that advice though, there are a number of cards in the side deck that can be substituted in depending on how risk averse you feel. Or if you want to share your wealth of actions and possibly stat boosts with your bodyguard.

A variant of this deck can also be built with Jenny Barnes


Suggested Taboo

I'm not sure this necessarily needs a taboo, as players can just choose not to play this kind of deck. But the designers of this game seemingly like to break any infinite combo when it's pointed out. If they are reading this, and want my suggestion for a taboo, I would suggest changing the Prompt upgrade on Friends in Low Places to only work once per turn. That change would completely break this deck without significantly weakening any of the cards involved.


Guide created using this template by @Valentin1331

15 comments

May 05, 2023 mattastrophic · 3018

I think this makes you the winner of the race to break Friends in Low Places!

May 05, 2023 mattastrophic · 3018

Also, well done with pointing out the interactions with Hit and Run! It's almost as if fast actions are inherently problematic!

May 05, 2023 AL · 1

Holy *&&¨#&! Well done haha

May 05, 2023 chirubime · 25324

Are the assets like Switchblade just like fast-cheap cards that you want in your play area and out of your deck? If so, maybe Hidden Pocket + I'll Take That too? xD

Awesome thank though :D

May 05, 2023 davilimap · 282

Wow, good job putting this together. What's even more fascinating is that it only takes 8xp and with a few more XP you can do some really bonkers stuff. You can get Versatile on Friends to exponentially increase the possibilities of what you can do. I can see a pretty easy infinite action loop by choosing Gambit and picking up Swift Reflexes on every loop. Pair that with Experienced to play a full 9 cards per loop, including Hit and Run to soak the horror from reshuffling the deck. This doesn't even need to be Trish either, since all the core cards are Rogue, although I think she does this the best by taking advantage of fast Seeker cards that progress the game quickly like Working a Hunch and Shortcut. Once again, well done!

From a game balance perspective, I'm conflicted. I disagree that the devs try to break any infinite combo when it's pointed out, I think it's a question of how easy it is to pull off, how much it breaks the game and how much traction it gets in the community. There's a few examples of infinite action loops you can do right now that aren't even that hard, have been posted or brought up in the community but remain intact. Some of them even include cards that probably should have been taboo'd a long time ago but have weirdly remained untouched. Like the aforementioned Swift Reflexes (despite the newer Honed Instinct inherently having a safeguard) as well as Cryptic Research and others. Many of those combos involve going down to a really low amount of cards in deck + discard and then just looping those cards, so maybe this is fine? The low XP, and ability for any Rogue to use it does have me worried though.

On the suggested taboo, it'd be unfortunate to completely disallow two Friends in Low Places to be played in one turn since one can find the other if you go for Favor as an additional trait, but maybe that's just the consequence of this card existing in today's metagame. I agree @mattastrophic that free actions are too good and Hit and Run is both free action and resource cheating, but I think the boat has sailed on making free actions limited. Like I mentioned, Working a Hunch, Shortcut, etc all exist and I don't think it's feasible to expect a taboo on all of them.

May 06, 2023 koaexe · 25

Could you elaborate a bit more on how the loop works? Namely I don't think the discard pile can be empty after the third Easy Mark is played.
The third copy of Easy Mark should not be able to shuffle itself into the deck because it is still in Limbo and not in the discard pile when it's being resolved, so after it's resolved, drawing from an empty deck and triggering a reshuffle and placed in the discard pile after all that, there should be 1-2 Easy Marks in your deck, 0-1 in your hand and 1 in your discard pile. Test-ran a bit and it seemed the loop would break down if you can't get all three copies of Easy Mark in your hand after playing Friends.

May 06, 2023 Seamus · 288

@mattastrophic I'm not sure I'd say that all fast actions are inherently problematic. I think that one's like this with no requirement on when they're played can be an issue, but fast cards with more restrictive play conditions are fine.

@chirubime Pretty much, yes. The problem with "I'll take that!" is it requires the player to take an action during the build up stage of the deck for it to be useful, and that would potentially slow down getting to the loop. Hidden Pocket is a good idea though if you want to run this with fewer ways to increase hand size.

@davilimap There are definitely ways to make it more efficient with more XP spent. My original build was I think around 17xp. This is just the version with the lowest XP spend.

Maybe I am wrong about the dev's tabooing this kind of thing. It's just been my observation, but as you say Swift Reflexes is still in the game so what do I know? :)

On the suggested taboo, maybe I wasn't clear in what I said, I'd just disallow two fast Friends in Low Places being played in the same turn. One fast and one normal speed play would still be doable.

@koaexe You could be right actually. I misread the FAQ entry about being in the discard when its ability triggers. The loop absolutely would break down without all three copies.

It would then be necessary to spend an extra 2xp on Friends in Low Places to add Versatile choosing 'Favor' so you can pick up the previous loops copy of Friends and leave just one card in the discard pile. That would also reduce the resource profit per loop by 3.

May 08, 2023 SSW · 206

What's the answer to Shadow Agents? Do you just have to have a teammate babysit them before you start looping? Leaving them on you blocks you from actually using Art Student.

May 09, 2023 gowonnie · 32

@SSW Good point. Ask for the teammates to bring those Handcuffs + Mind Wipe. :)

May 09, 2023 MagicalSturd · 1

spicy deck!

May 09, 2023 Seamus · 288

@SSW Various options. When testing I used a Yorick deck that runs Handcuffs, which is the easiest option. But if that's not an option, Disc of Itzamna is there for when you draw them on your first run through the deck, and Think on Your Feet for when you draw them when you start looping. If there are clues on their location you'll have to Shortcut your bodyguard into their location before you go back in.

May 12, 2023 chirubime · 25324

@Seamus But Handcuffs evades Shadow Agents, who has a forced ability that discards itself when it is evaded. It just slips out of the handcuffs. That's why people are suggesting the mind wipe on top of the handcuffs.

May 12, 2023 mattastrophic · 3018

Could use In the Shadows or even Elusive to disengage from them.

May 12, 2023 Seamus · 288

@chirubime Good point. I misplayed that in one of my test runs so. Bury Them Deep still works on them (which is part of why I used Yorick). Leaving them in the discard pile when running through the deck first and then using Think on Your Feet to offload them to the bodyguard of choice also works, and is the default option as built.

@mattastrophic I prefer Think on Your Feet over Elusive as it is a Trick. But yes those both work. :)

May 13, 2023 4aem · 1

Keep the decks coming!