Preston Squanders

Ever present near the bottom of tier lists, Preston's ability does not seem like an attractive deal. There seem to be many ways to build him, but some are a trap. After some solo experimentation and a full campaign on Standard, I believe the best way to play Preston is to squander your inheritance like the rich, spoiled man-child that you are.

Mulligan

Before the game starts, mulligan hard for Fire Axe, possibly keeping an ally or other stat-boosting asset as your only card. Dark Horse is not that beneficial in the early game, as you need the resources to play your assets.

Broke against the Mythos

With a terrible stat line, you need assets and skills to get you in range of success. Apparently, all the banks are closed in the Mythos phase. Family Inheritance only helps during your turn. The best way to survive the Mythos is to have passive boosts that put you in range of success, and spend skill cards when necessary.

When you meet a Rotting Remains or Grasping Hands, you must decide:

• Use a skill card to succeed and draw a card
• Try to fail by a small amount, and take a hit for extra cards/resources (Take Heart) or future boosts (Sparrow Mask)

During your turn

It's your time to shine. Your allowance: 4 resources from your inheritance, plus resources saved in your resource pool. Your aim is to squander your inheritance and end the round with 3 resources or fewer in your pool. This should not be difficult at all - you will find that you rarely have more than 1 resource in your pool, and that's okay.

The kicker of Preston is that you can comfortably rely on Fire Axe and Mariner's Compass, not just at level 0, but for the entire campaign. They are efficient fighting and investigation options, they are cheap to play, they take only one hand slot each, and having an empty resource pool is easy, because we still have our inheritance, which doesn't count!

For intelligence and agility, we pick up In the Thick of It, 2 physical trauma, and Streetwise. This is a key piece: it turns your inheritance into 1-2 successful tests, and allows you to survive while you find your weapon.

Most of your assets are quite cheap. Play them when you can. If you are lucky and you hit Joey "The Rat" Vigil early, feel free to squander resources to get them out quickly. Otherwise, play the assets one by one with your spare cash. Towards the end of the game, you have a full board of assets, a decent stat line, and a tool for every problem. Joey makes up for some trauma with an impressive 3 health. If you are out of resources, you can spend the rest of your turn exploring, using Take Heart (combo with Track Shoes) or failing investigations to say "Look what I found!".

Let's see what we have so far:

• Willpower tests are weak, but they are less common outside of the Mythos phase. When it really matters, you can use Guts or Rise to the Occasion, but try to save them for the Mythos. If you need to pass multiple in succession, Trial By Fire is your best friend.
• Strength tests are usually Fight actions with Fire Axe. On the off chance you have to pass a regular Strength test, you usually have another option (Locked Door) and you can always opt for Overpower.
• Intelligence tests are boosted by Streetwise.
• Agility tests are boosted by Streetwise.
• Test can fail predictably and still give benefits.

Clearing your debt

Your weakness is annoying, but not a show-stopper. If you have Investments out early, you can easily get rid of it with two actions. If you don't, you have to tiptoe around the game's challenges for 1-2 rounds to get 5 resources in your pool. This is another good time to play Take Heart. With 5 resources, adding one at the end of the round, and a fresh inheritance, you're set to pay off your debts. In the worst case, you can completely ignore the card. A mental trauma is better than losing the scenario.

Deck composition

There are many cards in this deck with only 1 copy. This is because Preston is best played as a flex investigator, and sometimes you just need the right tool for the job. Having two sets of shoes, or two Intel Reports, is usually not helpful due to resource and slot restrictions. Your events (other than Trial by Fire) are quite exchangable. The chosen ones provide a variety of tools as well as 2 icons each. Thanks to the icons, they are never dead draws!

Finally, the deck may seem unreliable due to the low presence of weapons. It has turned out not to be an issue. Between the mulligan, Rabbit's Foot, Take Heart, and "Draw 1" skill cards, there is rarely an occasion where you do not have an Axe ready in the first few rounds. Streetwise, Track Shoes and Cunning Distraction allow you to survive until then. Most games, you will be able to cycle your deck, so be careful with campaingns that discourage emptying your deck...

Upgrades

Whether you're fighting, investigating, or both, you're likely best off upgrading your allies first. For full flexibility and soak, keep 1x Joey in your deck, add 1x Delilah, 1x Lola, and 1x Charisma. You should be taking some damage from failed tests, and can use the allies liberally. These allies provide another way to beat the game's challenges when a test becomes too difficult.

If the campaign assigns you additional ally assets, do pick up an additional copy of Charisma.

Next, replace Investments by the instant-reward Hot Streak. A second copy is useful for consistency and to get your assets out via Joey, but not a must-have.

Counterespionage (early scenarios) and A Test of Will (late scenarios) are optional encounter protection, which can potentially replace Sparrow Mask and Perseverance.

Finally, if you're out of ideas, there's no harm in replacing your Rabbit's Foot for The Red Clock, improving your action economy at the cost of some draw power.