Tommy & Ashcan Agency Backup Pair, Deck #1

This is the first deck of a two-player team with "Ashcan" Pete. The second deck can be found here.

The major mechanics of the team are:

1. Get Agency Backup from this deck under the control of the Ashcan player, allowing Ashcan to collect two no-test clues per turn for zero actions.
2. Use Solemn Vow to extend the life of Agency Backup, moving horror from Agency Backup to Tommy's assets (which can then be recurred for even more horror soak).

These decks have been play tested on TCU Scenario #5 (which seemed appropriate as these decks use 19 XP) on standard difficulty, and successfully completed the scenario before the first agenda advanced (admittedly with some rather good luck on card draw).

Tommy Deck Construction

The key ally for making this team work is Agency Backup. This is an amazing ally because of no-test damage (good), no-test clues (amazing), and general tanking when needed. The downside for Agency Backup is that (without tricks) it costs 5 XP and 7 resources for an ally that is difficult to reuse/maximize. Enter "Ashcan" Pete's ability allowing allies to be readied once per round, which translates into (usually) another clue per round.

Accordingly, the key upgrades for Tommy's deck is 2x Agency Backup. Other upgrades (Charisma, 2x Ever Vigilant) work to support Tommy with getting a collection of assets into play quickly. The other upgrades are 2x Reliable to support using Becky and Safeguard for action efficiency with following Ashcan around. Fundamentally, any of the non-Agency Backup upgrades could be exchanged for other upgrades, with the understanding that Tommy needs horror soaks for pairing Agency Backup with Solemn Vow.

Ashcan Deck Construction (the second deck can be found here)

The key cards in this deck are ways for finding Agency Backup and getting it into play under Ashcan's control. Specifically:

• 2x "You owe me one!"
• 2x Flare
• 2x A Chance Encounter

This suite of cards costs "only" six XP, leaving a lot of XP to play around with. The current design of the deck includes Aquinnah and Charisma for more enemy control as well as Alter Fate as a utility card. Similarly, the current design includes 2x Ward of Protection (with 2x Scrounge for Supplies for recurring) for encounter deck control and 1x Magnifying Glass to make test-required clueing more successful. None of these are required for the core mechanic, so these could be easily changed around depending on the design you want.

Mulligan

As with combo deck designs in general, getting good opening hands is key for this partnership to work. Mulligans happen in order, so Tommy should be the lead investigator with Ashcan being the second investigator.

Tommy is looking for (in order of importance):

1. Agency Backup
2. Solemn Vow
3. Ever Vigilant

After Tommy's mulligan, Ashcan should have a good idea of what he's looking for:

1. If Tommy has Agency Backup in-hand, then Ashcan wants "You owe me one!" or A Chance Encounter.
2. If Tommy does not have Agency Backup in-hand, then Ashcan wants Flare.

Playstyles

There really isn't much to write up here because the core mechanic is genuinely pretty straightforward: you're looking for Agency Backup, at least one copy of Solemn Vow, and at least one way to get Agency Backup under Ashcan's control. It really is that simple.

If you're missing pieces of the combo, then drawing cards is usually the best option to find the pieces you're missing (even if this results in you discarding some cards). Once the combo is enabled you'll likely be able to make up for lost time as two no-test (and no-action) clues per round will allow you to catch up reasonably quickly.