Tanky Mark Harrigan

Hi guys! This is a deck idea I had about Mark Harrigan and I'd like to share it. Let's see the upgrades before we talk about it:

1. 2x "If it bleeds..." --> 2x Elder Sign Amulet

2. Stick to the Plan

3. 1x Prepared for the Worst --> 1x Ever Vigilant (Stick Prepared for the Worst, Ever Vigilant and Emergency Cache under Stick to the Plan)

4. 1x .32 Colt --> 1x Shotgun

5. 1x Guts --> 1x Extra Ammunition

6. 1x Guts --> 1x Custom Ammunition

7. 1x Dodge --> 1x "I've had worse…"

8. 2x Vicious Blow --> 2x Vicious Blow (2)

So, the point of the deck is to do the classic Guardian stuff, ie. kill enemies, while throwing Survival Knife in the mix for more fun and effectiveness on our job. But in order to be able to use Survival Knife effectively we need to be able to take hits. True Grit and Guard Dog will serve as damage soak and Elder Sign Amulet will serve as horror soak. Being able to take horror hits is very important for Mark Harrigan, because his weakness can be lethal at times, so Elder Sign Amulet is the most important card in the deck. "If it bleeds..." serves as a janky horror soak before we get to Elder Sign Amulet, which will be our very first upgrade.

This deck also has a lot of damage healing. With 2 copies of Emergency Aid and Second Wind, you should be able to take plenty of health hits, as well as use Sophie without reaching the 5 damage threshold that makes Sophie flip.

As you progress in the Campaign, you will get Stick to the Plan and Ever Vigilant, which will help a ton with your economy. This will allow you to play more assets and/or events that will help you tank the enemies, and it will be very important later in the campaign, when you will have picked up Shotgun with Extra and Custom Ammunition. Ideally, you want to play your Shotgun with Bandolier to keep Survival Knife in play, so that you wreck those bosses harder. With strong early economy and those cards at your disposal, late in the campaign you should be a force to be reckoned with.

Specific card inclusions:

Take the Initiative: I like this card on Mark Harrigan. Sophie allows him to buff ANY test so this card is a good complement to this ablity. If you use Sophie ONCE, plus throw this card, you get a glaring +5 to any test!! That's useful as hell!! Plus it's great to buff Shotgun!

Shortcut: I find myself in situations sometimes where my actions aren't enough to do what I want to do. This card is useful for such situations. I would really want to add a second one, but deckslots aren't enough. Feel free to swap it out for an Elusive or whatever else you feel like adding.

Dodge/"I've had worse…": While these cards do not synergize very well with Survival Knife, I would never play a Mark Harrigan deck without at least one copy of them. Things might get rough and if Mark gets a lot of health and horror hits he won't be in a good spot, so these cards can be a real lifesaver.

Bandolier: While this is not a top-tier card, I like its utility. Yes it can be too expensive to actually play this card + Shotgun + Extra or Custom Ammunition, but I really want the third weapon slot. Shotgun will eventually run out of ammo, so I want to have a back-up.

Custom Ammunition: This card is expensive XP-wise, but it's really good if you can get it. Most strong enemies in the game have the Monster trait and this card helps an awful lot. This deck is not very demanding in XP, so you can get it without setting you back from getting other important upgrades. Feel free to swap it for a second Extra Ammunition if you have different preferences.

Other Notes:

• Mark Harrigan is prone to his signature weakness. If drawn at a bad time, it can actually kill him. So, at the early stages of the campaign, where you won't have Elder Sign Amulet yet, it's important to keep your sanity at high levels. "If it bleeds..." helps with that, but it's not reliable. So, other cards that heal horror included in your teammate decks are welcome. I will refer specifically to Logical Reasoning. This card helps this deck a ton. Not only can it heal horror, but it can also remove Frozen in Fear, which is a card that Mark will struggle to remove later in the campaign when Guts will have gone out of the deck. That's mainly because Take the Initiative does not help with Frozen in Fear at all, because the test will occur at the end of your turn, when Take the Initiative will be a dead card. That means, your only defense against it is Unexpected Courage and Sophie, which could be sufficient at times, but, depending on the situation, it could be troublesome. So, Logical Reasoning is a very welcome support card for this deck.

• Interestingly enough, instead of Elder Sign Amulet, you can pick up Key of Ys. It occupies the same slot and has the same amount of horror soak as the Elder Sign Amulet, though it comes with a very powerful effect. I prefer Elder Sign Amulet though, because it's cheaper XP-wise and I want to speed up on getting other XP cards which i feel are important in the deck, like Stick to the Plan and Shotgun. Plus Key of Ys is better when you have other horror-soak cards to protect it from getting discarded. The only other horror soak this deck has is Guard Dog, so it can't really serve as protection to Key of Ys.

In the end, this deck will serve as a classic Guardian deck that wrecks enemies while having the ability up to a grade to sustain its operator from the evils faced from the Mythos. Not too unique, but it's something. Hope you liked it.