Weird Flex, But Okay Preston

This is a generic Flex role, big money, level 0 Preston, designed for any campaign. It is particularly for multiplayer. The idea behind this deck is Preston can do pretty much anything the team needs at an acceptable level, so long as certain conditions are met. He ends up being a jack of all trades, master of none investigator. With XP, Preston can become a powerhouse with Streetwise, Lola Santiago, and Hot Streaks, and use Adaptable to switch the tools he uses to support his new purchases (such as swapping for Backstab once we have Streetwise). With clear sources of power, he can also become more focused. Before then though, we want to just not be useless while the rest of the team does their thing. This deck is designed with that in mind.

NOTE: This is a big money deck. We are running pumps, yes, but we don't want to just dump all our money out for no reason, because Money Talks and Well Connected are key to the flexibility of this deck.

COMBAT:

Fighting with Fire Axe allows you to hit at max with 7 Combat when spending 3r per axe swing. Keep in mind that you will often be hitting for 1 damage at a time, since you don't particularly want to dump all your money for the bonus damage. (Note: Since he hits with great accuracy, Preston is REALLY good at killing things with 1 health.) However, if he has to dump his resource pool into Fire Axe for the +1 damage, because that's what he needs to do to kill big things, then yes, be useful and do that. If you need to deal 2 damage, Sneak Attack is also available. And, if that leaves something at one health, Fire Axe it. Hard Knocks allows you to pump for Strength, but if you are fighting with Fire Axe already, this is less efficient. (However, you can manipulate this to reduce yourself to 0 for the bonus damage.)

EVASION:

Cunning Distraction and Stray Cat are available to automatically evade enemies. Otherwise, Dig Deep and Hard Knocks both allow you to pump for Agility. Hiding Spot is a niche pick that allows you to give enemies Aloof, which can help you out enormously if you can make a plan with the rest of the team. Otherwise, you can just commit it for 2 Agility icons.

CLUES:

Flashlight allows you to investigate safely on 2 shroud locations. Look what I found! can also help you on those locations, if you don't use Flashlight. Note that on a 4 shroud location, you can use Flashlight to drop it by 2, fail with an ending skill of 0, and then play LWIF to get 2 clues. Preston doesn't mind doing this, since he often has money and actions to spare for this.

PARLEY:

It's pretty rare that you come across a Parley test, but I included 1 copy of Fine Clothes just in case. If you have pretty good knowledge of the scenarios you are going into, and know there aren't Parley tests, then you can switch this.

Those are the basic tools you have to help you achieve things from the outset, but we are including a lot of tools that allow you to pass ANY test.

PASSING TESTS:

1) Only one copy of Lucky!, so use it well.

2) Well Connected can raise any skill by a few points depending on how much money you have. My most frequent use of this is against treacheries! If you've been managing your money well, you can often have +2-3 Will going into treacheries, which can save you at the very least a few failure points, if not allow you to escape by the skin of your teeth. This is an anti-combo with Fire Axe.

3) Money Talks is a similar deal. It's not hard to test with a skill of 5 or more on a Money Talks test, if you have been managing your money properly. Time these tests well, and you can sneak out success on tests with high thresholds. This is an anti-combo with Fire Axe.

4) Mentioned before, but you have 2 pumps available in Dig Deep and Hard Knocks. With the other tools you have, you don't need really need 2 copies of either of these. You have enough things going on that you honestly are going to be fine even if you never seen them (although they are nice for Preston!).

5) Rise to the Occasion gives you +3 Wild, which is a lot of Wild. You can start committing these to any test with a threshold of at least 3 or higher, and Rise by itself puts you one point up. You typically will want to pump a little bit extra for safety. I typically use these on treacheries, as a safety against "take a bad thing for each point you fail by" tests.

And finally, here are some parting comments:

Lone Wolf is here, because every R is a bonus pump and we like that very much!

"You handle this one!" is, of course, for dumping a treachery challenge Preston can't handle with his 1 will or otherwise a big enemy he can't deal with. The bonus 1 resource on it is pretty nice, too.

Leo De Luca is just really strong on anyone, but Preston can always pay his high cost. His extra action is going to help you so much throughout the game.

The Double or Nothing doesn't have to be used by you, but if you do use it on yourself, you can use it against a test you have reduced to 0, such as by a Flashlight, and have everyone attach skill cards they want to see doubled (such as Enraptured) to the test, or on a Fire Axe test that is pumped up really high to do 4 damage in one swing.

Lastly, the Unexpected Courages aren't particularly for you as much as they for you to commit to your allies. But if you have to use them on yourself, then do it.