Magic Pete

My take on "Ashcan" Pete, a very versatile and depedable investigator. With his loyal Duke guaranteed in play on turn 1, Ashcan both can have a lightning fast start and is incapable of having a bad draw (apart from the weaknesses, of course), as in worst case scenario, each card is but a fodder for Duke.

This deck is primarily meant for solo play, but should work fine in a team as a roaming problem solver - whatever the problem might be.

The build

The cards are mostly standard fare for Survivor, with a Mystic bent in terms of splashes - cheap, effective cards that never sacrifice tempo paired with Rabbit's Foot and Scavenging to never run out of cards for Duke. Rabbit's Foot is particularly nice here, as it both allows you to essentialy reset a test failed by Duke and has the delicious scavengeable wild icon.

As for the Mystic splashes:

A lot of folks seem to try and kit out Pete with Fire Axe or other weapons, which I think is a mistake. Why bother overcoming his underwhelming base strength, when you can simply bank on your fully respectable willpower score with Shrivelling? Moreover, the card synergizes nicely with other cards you want to see in your deck anyway - the dependable Duke relegates the spell to a backup role in which limited charges are hardly ever a problem, while Peter Sylvestre both tanks possible horror backlash and further boosts your willpower.

With hands not occupied by a weapon, we are free to pack two Ritual Candles, which are simply awesome. They're a buff to literally everything you do - whether by yourself or via Duke - and help stay within effective range of "Look what I found!" and Lucky! when things do get sour.

Since you care about your willpower thanks to Shrivelling, in a pinch the candles can work as Scavenging fodder and, together with Guts and upgraded Peter Sylvestre should keep you safe from any willpower-based treacheries.

Finally, Ward of Protection is just a very nice card card that can save your butt for the very low cost of the single resource you have drawn at the end of the last turn. While you could freely exchange it for something else, I feel that the deck packs enough damage and horror durability, so it's more worthwhile to protect from a badly-timed event that could overwhelm you (particularly when soloing) or - God forbid - take the Duke away from you.

Weaknesses

For all his versatility and dependability, Pete doesn't really excel in anything. Getting repeatedly embroiled in 4+ difficulty tests can become awkward really quick, unless you have some extra icons to toss in. It's less important when searching for clues - with Rabbit's Foot out, a failure is just a single wasted action, and even that under assumption "Look what I found!" is not relevant at the time, yet can be troublesome when fighting stronger enemies and/or bosses - a few bad draws can drain your hand of icons quickly.

Moreover, for all of Duke's utility, Pete still has two of his own stats at 2, which might come up due to particular scenario's mechanics - e.g. having to test intelligence to parley.

Thankfully, the answer to these woes is prudent play and the plethora of Skill cards at your disposal. Simply put, don't throw them out nilly willy just to cycle for more interesting cards - after all, with Duke out you don't really need any particular card to do your thing. Unless critically pressed for time by the Agenda deck, Unexpected Courage should be saved for, primarily, combat purposes and, secondarily, particularly nasty treacheries.

Upgrades

The first priority should be to upgrade Peter Sylvestre, always. As a second choice, I prefer the upgraded Lucky!, as Pete really likes drawing cards for the sake of it. Further choices should probably depend on your preferences and scenarios, though I suggest Bait and Switch as the first card to replace - in practice, it seems more situational than Survival Instinct, particularly in solo play.