Joe Diamond vs Brethren of Ash (Hard, Ch2) - Deck Guide

My first Chapter 2 experience was a two-handed game featuring the new introductory campaign, pairing Joe with Tommy Muldoon. Joe was one of my favourite Seekers from Chapter 1 so I wanted to see how he'd been getting on, and it turns out he's doing really well for himself.

This deck was designed for a two-handed solo run of Brethren of Ash, on Hard, alongside Tommy Muldoon.

The partner deck can be found here.

If you want to skip ahead to see the final version of this deck, it can be found here.

The Deck

I wrote the Tommy article first so I've copy/pasted some stuff from it here. This one will be kind of abridged, but I'll make sure to cover all the important details.

Joe's main weakness is obviously that his and are low, but we won't be trying to boost them or commit anything to tests involving them. It's better to focus on grabbing clues as efficiently as possible and rely on soak to handle any damage or horror we might take.

The Cards

So, we know what Joe's weakness is and we won't be trying to shore it up. Instead, we'll double down on his strength, which is card draw.

Over the course of iterating on the design of this deck I quickly learned that having a hand full of cards isn't particularly useful if you can't play any of them, so I went over the available card pool multiple times and settled on playing just about any card that can give him a boost.

The main idea here is to draw cards to commit to investigation tests, then keep drawing more cards to commit. It's not exactly reinventing the wheel, but when it gets going it feels like an incredibly efficient engine.

Fingerprint Kit: This is our number one mulligan target in every game since being able to grab two clues with one action is a powerful effect.

Magnifying Glass: I was surprised to see this card make a return in Chapter 2 because it's honestly one of the most powerful cards in all of Chapter 1. It's not flashy but it really is incredibly strong.

Dorothy Simmons: I wasn't surprised to see Dr. Milan Christopher missing from Chapter 2, but his replacement is still a good card because passive stat boosts are worth their weight in gold for dealing with the Hard token bag.

Her ability won't usually generate much in the way of resources, but that's alright because Joe will rarely be wanting for anything. When you draw a lot of cards some of those cards will be your resource generators, so card draw itself becomes a kind of indirect resource generation.

Laboratory Assistant: It took me a while to realize the value of this card (I rarely ever played big hand archetypes in Chapter 1). In the first scenario you can't have it out at the same time as Dorothy Simmons, but if you draw one before her then it's definitely worth playing even if you replace it next turn.

In the second and third scenarios they provide invaluable soak, and of course they also allow you to hold onto more of the cards you draw. There's kind of a critical mass of card draw effects you need to reach in order to maintain a large hand each turn while constantly committing cards, and this is one of the key cards which enables that.

Emergency Cache: It's not exciting but it is essential.

Gather Intel: I'm not sure how much value this card loses in solo games, but with two players there's easily enough targets to justify it. And in the second scenario there are six locations with guaranteed enemy spawns so you can even plan for its use.

Preposterous Sketches: This is kind of the gold standard for card draw and a Seeker staple.

Insidious Truths: This card is a great fit for Joe because he has a high base and he has enough cards to pitch to it to ensure you always get an 8 attack that deals three damage. That makes it a very solid performer even on Hard.

Psychoanalysis, Stakeout, Working a Hunch: I don't think I played Stakeout or Working a Hunch for their effects in any of my games, but Psychoanalysis was situationally very strong for healing horror from Tommy. The card reveal effect is also handy for him because his weakness (Loose Cannon) is particularly nasty if it shows up at the wrong time.

The reason these cards are grouped together here is because they all offer a boost, and that alone makes them worthy of inclusion.

Deduction, Perception, Unexpected Courage: As mentioned, the deck is heavy on skills because they're very easy to play. If your hand is full of assets and events you can't play and you end up discarding cards every upkeep then you're getting poor value out of your card draw effects.

Establish Motive: This new one is really solid since most of the events in this deck have the Insight trait, including Joe's signature card.

Detective's Intuition: Speaking of which, this is a fantastic card. Some cards just make you smile when you draw them, and this is one of them. It's balanced by the fact that sometimes you'll get it in your opening hand or draw it during upkeep (when it can't trigger) but when you pull it from another draw effect it feels like a real turbo boost.

Dead Ends: This is a pretty mild weakness. It's main disadvantage is that it will take up a slot in your hand for most of the game as you shouldn't play it until you've cycled your deck (otherwise you'll just draw it again). You should also wait until the last possible moment to play it too, because whatever else you could do with the five resources it costs will always make more of an impact on the game than playing this card.

Pursued: This is the basic weakness I drew for my final run through the campaign. Joe has a lot of horror soak but it can still build up quickly if you let this one sit for too long.

The Campaign

Brethren of Ash is pretty short since it's intended to be the introductory campaign. I'll make some notes about various things and then go over the upgrades.

Scenario One: Spreading Flames

• It's worth trying to do an investigate action every turn to make use of your ability. Don't force it, but by the same token, don't neglect it if you could put off playing that asset or moving for another turn.

• You shouldn't need the boost from Dorothy Simmons to clear the starting location so if you happen to have a Laboratory Assistant in hand as well you should play it to get your card draw engine started.

• The other reason you should play it is because after advancing the first act you'll need to run through the Dormitories on your way to the Miskatonic Quad. The Research Assistant is the perfect candidate between both decks to take a hit from the Servant of Flame you'll meet on the way (then you can play Dorothy).

• Dr. Henry Armitage is an amazing ally for you and, along with the Research Assistants, he provides all the soak you need for the rest of the campaign.

• Tommy should be able to do the lion's share of the work against the boss, but it should be trivial for you to grab some clues and deal damage as well. Unfortunately, without an Unexpected Courage to commit, Insidious Truths will only get you +4 against the boss, which would be fine if it didn't have retaliate. But if you can take the hit, then sure, go ahead.

Spreading Flames: 8XP gained.

Upgrades

Since this is a three-scenario campaign you only get two chances to add upgrades to your deck before the finale, and that worked out to be 16XP pretty consistently across all my playthroughs once the decks were refined.

Added:

1 x Charisma: We can now have both our allies in play at the same time, allowing us to cycle the Research Assistants (if they aren't used for soak).

1 x Magnifying Glass: This is a meaningful economic upgrade for the deck despite Joe not having too much demand on his resources.

2 x Deduction: With a Fingerprint Kit this will let you grab four clues in one action, which is a massive and highly impactful efficiency upgrade for the next scenario since it has a lot of nasty effects which try to tax your actions.

8XP spent, 0XP left.

Scenario Two: Smoke and Mirrors

• Tommy will usually go straight to Southside because he desperately needs card draw effects, and it's not a bad idea to join him there after clearing the starting location. You shouldn't split too far apart since you need him to handle most of the enemies that appear, and it's usually better to spawn the enemies under the locations together since you can handle most of them more efficiently than him.

• You should aim to clear the four VP locations sooner rather than later because the longer the game goes the more the token will scale, but you do have a fair bit of breathing room.

• You should also aim to knock on only four doors because during multiple playthroughs I was never able to get five. It's generally better to spend your clues as you get them (depending upon how busy you and Tommy are with other things) because there are a few effects which punish you for holding too many clues.

• As with Tommy, the dreaded Downpour is such a threat it breaks my standard "no commits" rule, and it's worth saving Unexpected Courage for it. Losing actions is incredibly punishing, and being even +1 against this test makes a meaningful difference.

• You can try to outmaneuver the birds (Whippoorwill) but events often conspire against you such that you'll wonder how you got into whatever mess you find yourself in. Hopefully Tommy has time to hunt them down.

• It's usually worth clearing the Arcane Lock when it appears because, once again, you can dig yourself a hole if you leave it up for long. If you never have to return to its location you can get away with leaving it up, but it should be pretty easy to clear and you'd spend the action on moving anyway.

Smoke and Mirrors: 8XP gained.

Upgrades

Removed:

2 x Unexpected Courage: We need to make room for some new cards and this is the best place to find it.

2 x Dorothy Simmons: Same as above, but this one might require an additional line of explanation. In the next scenario Dr. Henry Armitage takes up an ally slot and we would never play Dorothy over him, and we need the Laboratory Assistant to power our draw engine.

Also, we're pretty much guaranteed to find Dr Armitage fairly quickly, either by hard mulliganing for him or through our card draw.

1 x Stakeout: We need one more slot for a new card and this is the next best place to find it.

Added:

2 x Hypnotize: Being a parley effect, it doesn't care if the target is aloof, so it's an efficient way to deal with the Zealot enemies in the finale.

2 x Police Dog: With only one copy of Charisma we can still afford to cycle other allies through the Research Assistant slot, in particular because that position doesn't have a particularly high life expectancy in the sewers of Arkham (and neither does Head Librarian, for that matter).

This card is here because its a reliable way to boost Tommy's Winchester Model 12, which is what he's going to use to destroy the Ancient One.

1 x Physical Fitness: The finale has a lot more damage-dealing treacheries and effects than horror, and in my playtesting it was surprisingly capable of ruining Joe's life with a bad streak. This card goes a long way towards mitigating that outcome.

8XP spent, 0XP left.

Scenario Three: Queen of Ash

• Try to find a Fingerprint Kit as soon as you can, as some of the sewer locations are places you don't want to end your turn at if at all possible (so ducking in, investigating, then ducking out is the optimal play).

• Make sure you're the one to enter each sewer location first (Tommy will sit around trying to build his kit). This is because if Tommy enters the Infested Pipes first he won't be able to grab the clues, so you'll have to enter afterwards anyway and spawn another enemy, which is a big tempo hit.

  This is where Hypnotize comes in very handy, because for the price of one action it can neatly deal with any enemy that can spawn here.

• Your Magnifying Glass is a good target for Unnatural Decay since you can just flip it back to hand. You can also put doom on an empty Fingerprint Kit or a Research Assistant you're about to replace.

• Once you have six clues and the Servant of Flame is dead (if it wasn't already) you can enter the Underground Cistern and spawn the boss. You can either move from the Sewer Culvert and end your turn at the boss, or start from the Flooded Crypt or Toxic Waste Pit (whichever one you can afford to end your previous turn at) which will let you perform two actions before the boss attacks instead of one.

• At this point, it's mostly up to Tommy. It can be hard to leverage the Police Dog because you can't really afford to take more than one hit from the boss (which you would need to if you're going to be there when Tommy takes his turn) but every boost helps when it comes to getting the most out of the shotgun.

  It's fine to let Dr Armitage take the hit since you won't be needing clues anymore, except to clear the Fire! for a turn or two.

Final Thoughts

When I first looked at Joe I thought he might be a bit boring to play, like Harvey Walters, but it turns out he's really fun. It helps a lot that his signature card is exciting when it procs, and he has Guardian access as well, not that I made much use of it.

I mentioned this in my Tommy article but I think the finale would've had an overall higher clearance rate if I'd let Joe handle the boss instead of Tommy, but I wanted to take the shotgun path first because I just love big guns in this game.

The main differences would have been taking the Thompson Submachine Gun for Tommy, which is better at dealing with multiple small enemies than one big one, and I would have swapped Counterattack into Joe's deck. It allows you to cancel the boss's attack for a turn, so Joe could sit there and just spam clues for two turns in a row. And he also would've had a much greater chance of having one or both copies in hand thanks to his card draw.

I would've swapped the Police Dog for something else, too, but I'm not sure what. I tried Studious a few times before settling on more impactful upgrades. It's still a great card but it has a slight anti-synergy with Detective's Intuition, and Hypnotize was a critical inclusion.

Joe feels like a really strong investigator, but then most Seekers do. I'm looking forward to playing Carolyn Fern next because she's one of my favourites and I love that she's now a Seeker too, but I might see how some of the other classes fare in the core campaign first. Even with a small card pool there's still a lot of fun choices to make when building a deck, and I haven't even looked at Children of Blood yet.

Joe Diamond vs Brethren of Ash - 16XP