Green machines to Green 5's (Preston's Hard Knock Life)

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Gamblin' Preston Fairmont 5 1 0 1.0

smoorecrux · 147

Poor old Preston. Just scraping by, you know, living in hard knocks. But just like Jay-Z, Preston knows he'll be on top whether he performs or not. Lukewarm to hot/ Sleepin' on futons and cots to King Size/, Green machines, to green 5's.

I've been testing this deck before jumping into a blind run of The Circle Undone with my wife, and I've found that Preston can really be a ton of fun, he just needs his money to work for him. Here's a couple key points:

1) I've found Well Connected to be really nice in this 0 XP deck, when you won't have Streetwise out. If you can't spend the money reliably, Well Connected at least will boost a test each turn just for having some money. Same goes for Money Talks, which is a great card to drop when you're up around 20 resources just for the fun factor if nothing else.

2) Leo De Luca is a staple in so many Rogue decks, but he fills a very specific role here. That extra action is meant for banking money off your Inheritance so you can have those big bursts with Hard Knocks or Money Talks. Obviously a generic extra action is always good, but I think it's important in this deck to do your best to either a) spend all the money on Family Inheritance, or b) bank it. Think of wasted money at the end of your turn like wasted actions. Time is money!

One other point I wanted to make is that I initially tried Dario in place of Leo, but the +1/+1 / just didn't seem worth it. I haven't had success running Preston with static boosts like that, because going from 1 to 2 before any other boosts basically does nothing. What's better is to just spend that one extra resource that you definitely have to get the same boost, and have Leo in the Ally slot instead. TL;DR: Preston works best when you're spending your money or using your money. And that's the real hard knock life.

5 comments

Feb 10, 2019 StartWithTheName · 63551

Im yet to play preston at all, but im curious about the value of Hard Knocks vs Dig Deep. My instinct is that in this build you are rarely boosting combat unless using Fire Axe. Where Dig Deep covers encounter checks, which ofc may not be progressive. Do you use Hard Knocks on single damage attacks much? Inheritance cash ofc isnt available in the mythos phase unless you banked it on a previous round like. Just wondering f this is something you have played about with?

Feb 10, 2019 smoorecrux · 147

Yeah, so part of the choice to leave out Dig Deep is that Family Inheritance is offline during the mythos phase. The other part is that I've run Finn before with basically no cards for boosting and just taking those tests on the chin, and have had fine experiences there. I haven't in truth tried it with Dig Deep though, and I can totally see swapping it in for some scenarios.

Feb 11, 2019 smoorecrux · 147

An update on Dig Deep: I was wrong! Haha, it's so much better. I realize now the difference between Preston's 1 and Finn's 1 is that with Finn it feels like too much investment in deck space and resources to effectively boost his , so he just takes it on the chin and heals later. With Preston, he really does just need Dig Deep down, as he always has the money.

Also, if anyone's wondering, I plugged Backstab in here (replacing one Rabbit's Foot and one Cunning Distraction, I think) as Fire Axe is basically never going to deal more than one damage with this Preston build (I still think it's the best 0xp weapon ya boy has access to, though).

Feb 12, 2019 The_Wall · 275

I have some experience with Preston, and can confidently say that his best 0 XP ally is easily Joey "The Rat" Vigil. Not only does he hit the efficiency sweet spot of 4 resources, but his soak is the best of the 0 XP allies, he saves time on setting up (making Gravedigger's Shovel a great card too), and lets you use your inheritance in very fluid ways. He also gets even better as you start to sink XP into the exceptional item suite (The Skeleton Key, Lucky Dice, The Gold Pocket Watch).

I also agree that Dig Deep is a staple card for him. I keep mine long after getting Streetwise. His combat is binary, either you are set up to kill things or you cannot, and his evasion and clue finding and fairly easy to prop up already, so the remaining decks slots should go to alleviate the 1 .

In multiplayer he can shore himself up effectively by using "You handle this one!" to donate problem encounter cards to whichever other investigator can best handle them, for example by letting a mystic roll those Rotting Remains.

Feb 14, 2019 cheddargoblin · 86

I'm enjoying Winging It over Flashlight currently. Streetwise and Double or Nothing can get a lot of work out of it.