Michael Shoots Illicit Words

Credit: Anders Finér

IMPORTANT NOTE There is a bug with the cost of Underworld Market which is tabooed to 6xp, instead of 8xp as it currently is on ArkhamDB. Therefore, the deck in this current form is officially 22xp, making it a Standalone friendly deck! This is confirmed by the official FAQ 2.3 article from FFG.

This year, I will propose a series of 6 investigator decks (all but Gloria), released one week apart, to help people who have little time to deckbuild, or are still getting familiar with the new cards. May these serve as a base for you to build your own decks and adapt to any other campaign or group size.

Disclaimer These decks have been play-tested in 2 teams, yet not through The Drowned City Campaign since they are published before its release. Enjoy the reading, and I hope you'll have fun with these!

Today, we are looking at Michael McGlen, the gunslinger! After many years of one-handed guns underperforming overall compared to Melee weapons, it is great to have an investigator who incentivises using as many small guns as possible. McGlen is fun, straightforward, and engaging, and I'm sure he'll become a community favourite!

Enjoy the reading, and I hope you'll have fun with these in The Drowned City!

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Choose Your Words Carefully

• Illicit Words to Hit a Nerve

• Other Cards

• Campaign Mode

• Upgrade Path

• Final Thoughts

• Step 1: Exploit the Underworld Market by hiring a Fence to make all your Firearms fast.
• Step 2: Crash some parties and Kick some Hornet's Nest to find something to kill.
• Step 3: Profit! Rob Banks fast and spend money like there's no tomorrow on testless, remote clues.

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To make the most of Michael's ability, he needs a decent amount of Firearms. And you have eight! Moreover, each different gun provides a different type of value:

• .41 Derringer (2) is one of the best Firearms for Michael because it rewards you another time for shooting. The extra action will always be appreciated.

• Mauser C96 (2) is especially good in Michael McGlen since its downside (exhausting) is alleviated by having many other guns to shoot, and its payoff coupled with your ability turns each copy into Hot Streak (4)!

• .18 Derringer (2) is just value in this deck. While Michael McGlen will prefer guns with payoffs, the low cost is perfect for a first gun or to recover from Confiscation.

• The new Luger P08 has theoretically infinite ammo, though I usually replace it when it's empty instead of spending an action. However, as long as you pass the test, it can be seen as Vicious Blow on a stick. Said like this, it suddenly sounds more interesting, doesn't it?

  • Later in the campaign, you can replace one copy with the Lupara which shines in boss fights.

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All the Firearms above have the Illicit trait. This means that they all benefit from other specials. Most importantly, the Underworld Market, even tabooed, is still absolutely worth it.

It is made of:

• Fence x2

• Bank Job x2

• .18 Derringer (2) x2

• Mauser C96 (2) x2

• "Viola" Case x1

• Hidden Pocket x1

• Instead of packing all of our weapons in the Market, we take a smart approach. Underworld Market truly shines when you have a mix of high-priority and lower-priority cards in there.

• Fence is our top priority asset in the deck, so we pack both copies in there to access one as soon as possible.

  • Fence is busted in this deck. The main issue with gunslinger decks is that it takes so many actions to play all these 1-handed weapons. Making all your Firearms fast means no more Attacks of Opportunity.

  • Since we have at least one Fence on the table, Bank Job becomes +6 resources for ONE action. I can't stress enough how insane that is.

• The second priority is to find at least one gun. We choose .18 Derringer (2) because it is cheap and reliable and Mauser C96 (2) because it's the best and longest lasting one. I would recommend leaving at least one .18 Derringer (2) in there for when you draw Confiscation.

  • .41 Derringer (2) and Luger P08 stay in the main deck because they are a lesser priority. The former needs a bit more setup to guarantee the extra action. The latter is best for odd health enemies and will probably wait for the "Viola" Case hand slots to find space on the table.

• Bank Job to pay for the Underworld Market tax.

• "Viola" Case and Hidden Pocket as later priorities.

  • Hidden Pocket allows you to have both Lucky Cigarette Case and "Viola" Case on the table, but you need Heavy Furs. Therefore, I recommend always playing Lucky Cigarette Case first, which helps finding Heavy Furs and only then play "Viola" Case.

• Even with his base 5 , Michael McGlen really appreciates a bonus for any campaign or difficulty that involves a -4 or -5 token in the bag. This is why we have Lonnie Ritter here.

• Heavy Furs are not only a mobster fashion staple, but they are also a proven strategy when paired with Lonnie Ritter to support investigators with a tiny base sanity like Michael McGlen.

  • The Heavy Furs can be dealt damage on demand whenever you pull a symbol token, which allows you to heal horror from Lonnie Ritter as often as necessary.

• Easy Mark is great at thinning the deck and giving a little money surge out of an action when there is nothing else to do. As always, your objective should be playing 2 copies at once, and not wait for the third to come.

• Unexpected Courage, Guts and Manual Dexterity are here to push your defensive stats to 5 for scenario tests.

• "Where's the party?" and Kicking the Hornet's Nest help you deal with the enemies of the Encounter Deck at your own pace.

• Scout Ahead is a great one-off. Go collect an annoying Spawn, save your adventurous squishy partner, fly to a Locked Door... There is often a reason to want a little extra movement.

• Finally, with all the resources generated, you can save the day by using a full-blown Intel Report, collecting 2 testless, remote clues.

  • Alternatives to Intel Report are Well Connected to be able to pass investigation and scenario tests, and Embezzled Treasure to save resources for the early turns of next scenario, which can be extremely helpful for consistency.

• Following Intel Report, we have Counterespionage to use some of these extra resources to dodge game-defining treachery.

The current deck is tailored for Standalone scenarios to help future players netdecking. However, if you plan on using this deck in any campaign, here are the changes I would make. Note that the following cards have been added to the Upgrade Path below.

• "Let God sort them out..." can really shine in this deck! Setting up for it can be a fun mini-game, which is greatly helped by "Where's the party?", The reward is much appreciated for upgrading all your mini guns.

  • Try to save a .41 Derringer (2) ammo and a Quick Thinking for a turn when you have 6 worth of damage, so you can secure the extra experience point.

  • Note that you don't have to deal the 6 damage on the same turn. If you pull a 6-health enemy with "Where's the party?", it spawns exhausted, and so you can deal it 4 damage this turn, then 2 the next turn, followed by a "Let God sort them out...".

• Embezzled Treasure is also a good option, since it's free and fast with Fence, so you can place some of your late savings into an easier setup next scenario.

• To make space for "Let God sort them out...", we exclude Kicking the Hornet's Nest. It sucks, but it is, in my opinion, the most excludable card in this deck.

Early Deck

The deck is a lot more bare-bone since there are 10 cards missing from the Underworld Market. Try to use the moments with no enemies to power draw, aiming for Fence, Lonnie Ritter and some guns.

Late Campaign Deck

As any good main deck, there are loads of good options to spend your experience. Based on how much the campaign gives, I would recommend prioritising as follows:

1. Get the Underworld Market. This is your key to consistency and finding Fence early in every following scenario.
2. Upgrade your guns. Shooting is fine, hitting is better. The Lupara can wait for a little later in the campaign.
3. Now, you can invest in increasing the consistency of your main deck with Black Market and Lucky Cigarette Case (3).
4. Your last weakness is Scenario tests. Get a Moxie (3) so you can pay to pass these tests, and later Double Down for a strong, but one-time effect, or Counterespionage to ignore the treachery altogether.
5. Finally, you can invest in some permanents for some smoother starts with Another Day, Another Dollar and a little value increase on each gun with Locked and Loaded.

Notable exclusions

• Well Connected may seem really promising for a Rogue investigator with a resource-gaining ability. However, the reality is that our resources fluctuate a lot throughout a scenario as we rotate through our Firearms, and play our events. As opposed to big money decks, this build benefits from spending the resources rather than stacking them. For this reason, after trying many games with Well Connected in the deck, I ended up removing it for more consistent options.

• Custom Modifications and .45 Thompson (3) are fun, but I already explored this build in a Mark deck, and in my opinion this is not a great use of Michael's unique ability.

• Robert Castaigne (4) and Remington Model 1858 (4) are both great cards. However, both are nonbo with Michael McGlen's ability. Therefore I chose to exclude them. If you want to try the new toys, then feel free to add them. They are strong cards, and I'm sure they will still perform well!

  • "Ignoring all costs" on both cards means that you do not spend the ammo on the firearm, so you do not gain a resource with Michael McGlen's ability.

Link to the 0xp deck

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Link to the full xp deck

A gunslinger investigator has been a community dream for a long time now, the main reason being that there are a lot of 1-handed guns in the game, but no one seemed able to pull out a deck centred around them that wasn't summarised by "I'd be much better spamming Machete or Switchblade (2)"

There have been some attempts in the past, with Sharpshooter, Quickdraw Holster, Trigger Man... But it never felt like the payoff was worth the effort.

Michael McGlen addresses this by rewarding you for not only shooting with guns, but shooting with many different guns each turn. This is perfect to incentivise this million-gun sort of build. I personally love how smart it is that the reward is resources. Because of the versatile nature of resources, it's perfect to not corner Michael McGlen in a boring Goon role, opening doors to some options for your off turns, like buying clues.

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