Grease Man: Sneak in and Get Out

This is the build to get you in and make things happen. You'll set yourself up as quickly as possible and promptly move from one location to the next, never staying in one place too long, grabbing the clues along the way. If a hostile shows up, lose 'em; but if they give you too much trouble take care of 'em. That's the plan anyway; you will frequently have to adjust it on the fly. It is designed for solo and low player count games, but can perhaps do an admirable job scouting and picking off some clues/enemies in multiplayer.

Important note on Fine Clothes!

Fine Clothes is not strictly necessary unless you are playing Carcosa; if so, do not drop it. If you are playing any other campaign/scenario, then it will not do much for you besides 1 health/sanity; feel free to swap in other cards (I recommend an extra Pickpocketing and/or Dynamite Blast).

Piloting Instructions

Mulligan Guide

Our ideal opening hand would consist of the following; everything else should be mulligan'd (* = upgrade):

1. *Ever Vigilant
2. Flashlight/*Lockpicks
3. Lone Wolf
4. Think on Your Feet/*Cat Burglar
5. Physical Training
6. Pickpocketing

These cards will enable us to setup quickly. Ever Vigilant, in particular, provides amazing action compression in Skids; we can spend 2/3 resources saved to get the action back and have a full 3 action turn with our assets out (that's almost as good as a The Gold Pocket Watch or Ace in the Hole). The rest are pretty clear why we need them. Lockpicks to investigate, Lone Wolf to fuel our economy, Cat Burglar to run away from enemies, and Physical Training so we have chance at passing a test.

Pickpocketing is also a great starting card to help us draw cards. We will be evading enemies so we might as well gain from it.

Playing the Deck

Our goal is to shed any enemies as quickly as possible, then move to a location and empty it of clues before the turn ends; that way if an enemy shows up we can Cat Burglar away from it. If you draw an enemy, only kill it if (a) has Victory Points, (b) has unacceptable Doom, (c) it can be easily dispatched, (d) it's a very pesky Hunter enemy. Don't be afraid to take a hit if the gain is worth it. You have Machete/Switchblade(2), Backstab, Vicious Blow. and Double or Nothing to kill what needs to be killed.

Otherwise, evade the sucker (ideally triggering Pickpocketing) or run away via Cat Burglar. Then, begin investigating the new location, hopefully emptying it of clues so we can rinse and repeat. Flashlight/Lockpicks and Streetwise is there to investigate, and if we don't need it for enemies then we can pitch Double or Nothing + Quick Thinking to grab clues a little faster.

If you need an additional action to do any of this, trigger Skids to gain an action. Otherwise, save the 2 resources to spend on Physical Training and boosts; you're gonna need them.

Surviving Treacheries

Obviously Skids has a second signature weakness, his 2 . Whenever you start any scenario, immediately familiarize yourself with what tests you might need to do and which ones actually matter. The Striking Fear set, for example, is awful; so keep an eye out for Rotting Remains and Frozen in Fear*. Always try to keep a Guts/Unexpected Courage and/or resources to pump Physical Training around just in case, and keep enough to sufficiently boost the skill check (eg 2-3 on standard). This may mean not even attempting to pass less impactful skill tests and just taking the fail on the chin.

*A note on Frozen in Fear. Rather than trying to pay through the nose via Physical Training to pass it, it may be cheaper to just eat it and pay 2 resources for an extra action via Skids' . You can always move via Cat Burglar's to avoid Frozen in Fear's effect.

Upgrade Guide

The following is the recommended upgraded path. Somewhere along the way (preferably after having 2xEver Vigilant or Switchblade(2)) pickup Streetwise.

1. Flashlight x2 Lockpicks(1) x2

2. Think on Your Feet x2 Cat Burglar(1) x2

3. Elusive x1 Ever Vigilant(1) x1

4. Emergency Cache or Fine Clothes x1 Ever Vigilant(1) x1

5. Machete x2 Switchblade(2) x2

6. Vicious Blow x2 Vicious Blow(2) x2

7. Emergency Cache x1 Hot Streak(4) x1

8. Emergency Cache or Fine Clothes x1 Hot Streak(4) x1

9. Pickpocketing x1 *Pickpocketing(2) x1

*Not released at this time

Additional options

10. Quick Thinking x2 and/or Unexpected Courage x2 into some combination of:

• Elder Sign Amulet(3)
• Police Badge(3)
• Moment of Respite(3)
• The Gold Pocket Watch(4)
• Ace in the Hole(3)

11. Physical Training Moxie(1)

Commentary

The order here is not a hard and fast rule. For example, going into The Last King (scenario 2 of Path to Carcosa), Lockpicks and even Cat Burglar may do much for you, but Ever Vigilant and Streetwise would.

On the hodge podge of cards to turn Quick Thinking and Unexpected Courage into, it will really depend on your circumstances. Depending on how much horror pressure you are under from trauma and will be under for the remaining campaign, grab Elder Sign Amulet or Moment of Respite. Otherwise, take Police Badge. You may desire both Police Badge and Elder Sign Amulet simply because their icons and utility are often superior to both Quick Thinking and Unexpected Courage (because, lets face it, Unexpected Courage's icons may as well be ).

The Gold Pocket Watch is a fantastic alternative in that it can save you from a Mythos round. Consider it if you can budget it, especially in multiplayer.

As for Physical Training vs. Moxie, it will really come down to preference. The latter is somewhat superior to Physical Training but unless you have an Elder Sign Amulet available you must avoid taking any horror whatsoever.

Multiplayer Considerations

This deck is primarily designed to work solo or low player counts. The paired deck should be similarly balanced to deal with enemies, get clues, and resist treacheries. The reason why it works best at low player counts is the lower number of clues (and less frequent enemies) reduces the need to camp at one location for too long, something this deck doesn't want (and may not be able) to do.

At higher player counts (3-4 players), this deck could theoretically work to scout out the map and move quickly across the board. While untested, maybe it could form an interesting combo with a Seeker with Deciphered Reality and/or In the Know.

Why Not X Card?

So why aren't we using some of the Rogue and Guardian's favourite cards?

• Leo De Luca: an amazing ally for sure, but by pure math it will take 4 turns before we see a return on him in Skids (6 resources = 3 actions). Considering (a) his enormous resource cost will likely deprive our ability to play anything else for a few turns, and (b) he tends to dominate our mulligans, he often won't be worth it in this deck if not Skids in general.
• Burglary: again, math. It will take 2 successful uses before we see a net action/resource profit. Because (a) we can't use lockpicks/flashlights with it, (b) there aren't many low shroud locations, and (c) we don't want to camp in one spot too long, it's just too slow and we don't have time for those shenanigans.
• Chicago Typewriter: we need our hands for other things, and our combat cards are usually sufficient to deal with most threats in solo.
• Opportunist(2): ideally we could make room for this one, if only to avoid losing our Lockpicks (which we can't afford to do) However, we just don't have the room for it and we really need Unexpected Courage for tests.
• Dario El-Amin: he was originally the inspiration for this deck but he just didn't pan out. We often won't be able to afford to keep 10 resources just lying around, and his ability to "bank" actions for Skids is limited by Skids' once per turn limitation.
• Brother Xavier: yes, we desperately need , but he is quite expensive and will thrust upon us another purchase (Charisma) when we may not have that much XP to go around. Most of the time he will just slow us down.