Forced It (0xp, Pre-Release)

"Oh, come on. I put all of that effort in making someone work with Forced Learning, and you just make it that easy?"

Overview

0 XP, Taboo 24-10-23

• Clue: ★★★★☆
• Enemy Management: ★★★☆☆
• Resilience: ★★★☆☆
• Support: ★★☆☆☆
• Consistency: ★★★★☆

Summary

I've done a bit of testing, and as it turns out, someone who can effectively get two bonus cards with low effort every round is pretty good. What's that? George Barnaby can do that just by running Forced Learning, putting one skill to commit underneath and drawing a card to make up for it every round? And then he can get even more, because his ability is once per phase? And the main downside is a small hand limit, when you can often discard cards or commit more skills? Shocking.

This was a more well-rounded version of George which was built for a two investigator game, making him reasonably capable of fighting. It's possible to do a harder pivot towards pure investigation without much trouble - just switch some of the damaging options with more skills, since you can't really go wrong with them. This was built without any new cards (other than George), to test how strong he is even without additional discard support. (As it turns out - pretty strong.)

Strategy

Get plenty of skills. Use plenty of skills. If the draw lines up, optionally use the Dark Horse package to add a bit more consistency.

Details

• In general, keep the more unusual tools you might need - Fire Axe and any ally are helpful for being able to fight from the start. Anything else is optional, since you can force most tests with skills.
• Every turn, Forced Learning will come up. Try to discard a skill if possible, since these have the best effect when played with George. If you need the hand size, you can avoid using them. Remember that if your hand limit is small, you'll have two instances to discard every upkeep - one from Forced Learning, and one during the Hand Size Check. Only use your during the first instance if you're fine with potentially discarding the card you draw. And remember, don't use your reaction on Improvised Weapon or Winging It - it'll be a struggle to get those into the right place after.
• This still runs the usual Dark Horse package, so feel free to fight with Fire Axe or discover clues with Mariner's Compass. Dark Horse is a nice occasional benefit, but it's better to stay at 2 resources to play cards if you need them.
• Remember that your ability is per phase. As a result, feel free to use Idol of Xanatos during the Mythos/Enemy Phase and Blood-Rite/Act of Desperation/Occult Invocation during the investigator phase.

Mulligan

As a reminder, your starting hand will actually be smaller

Always Keep:

• Fire Axe: If you plan at fighting at all, Fire Axe remains a very powerful tool for doing so. It works best with Madame Labranche, but sometimes, you just need one good swing.
• Idol of Xanatos: The other thing that there are few substitutes for.
• Dr. Milan Christopher/Madame Labranche: At least one ally is very helpful, both as early soak and as an early economy boost to help play all of your cards.

Sometimes keep:

• One enemy management tool: If you don't have Fire Axe, you'll want a fallback. Occult Lexicon, Act of Desperation, Occult Invocation or even a good evasion commit such as Last Chance or Unexpected Courage can help give a little security until you're able to draw into it.
• Dark Horse: If you can afford it and don't have other early plays, Dark Horse is one of the only things that's hard to find a substitute for. However, it's also not strictly necessary from the start.
• Skills: If you have enough important cards, you can keep any leftover skills with the intention of putting them under George.

Never keep:

• Improvised Weapon/Winging It. These are meant for either Forced Learning discards, Short Supply discards, or other miscellaneous discards.

Upgrades

Remember, the deck size from Forced Learning means the consistency of your deck is a little off. You're likely to see a lot of your cards throughout the game, but none are guaranteed to come early. As a result, if you're making any high-XP purchases, they should be permanent or worth it.

High Priority

• Cornered: Until the release and access to Artistic Inspiration, this is the best discard enabler available. A +2 to put a skill under you and draw a card to make up for it? And you can still do whatever you want with the skill? And you can repeatedly using it during both the Mythos and Investigator phase? Yes, please.
• Dark Horse (5): Consistency and effective free cash in a deck which really wants it.
• Salvage: Flexible asset play or money gain.
• Sharp Vision/Brute Force: Depending on what you need, these are still very good general cards for squeezing out extra effect, and George is happy to have access to more skills.

Lower Priority

• Scrapper (3): Sometimes, you just want a way to make sure Dark Horse is active when you need it. While Fire Axe will always be preferable, this is a fairly low cost for a little bit more flexibility.
• Charisma: This runs multiple allies for consistency, but they're all useful.

Thanks

Thanks for reading, and for joining me on my pause between experimenting on Forced Learning decks that don't work to explore one that works far too easily, even before more support starts flooding in. Thoughts and comments are appreciated!