General Idea

I was starting a blind run of Path of Carcosa and I wanted to play the designated fighter for our team. (Spoilers: we won)

I wanted to play Mark Harrigan because of how incredibly strong he is

• 5
• +2 to any stats on demand, an effective of 5, 5 and 4 when needed. (You will be using intellect the least though since you are ultimately a dedicated fighter.
• I got bullied by enemies my last campaign so I wanted to get some big guns to kill them with.

While looking through the Guardian card list, I figured I really wanted to play Relentless with Mark Harrigan because the synergy just sounds too good to be true. You get resources and card draw when you do overkill damage?

Since I wanted to play around with big guns, Relentless also help us counteract a main flaw of big guns, the fact that it often feels like waste when using ammo on small enemies. With relentless, you can feel free to Shotgun the heck out anyone you see as the overkill damage would go a long way to fuel more big guns.

How do we deal overkill damage? In classic Mark Harrigan style, one way to do this is by providing as many sources of 2 or more damage as possible. With that many sources, we don't punch our enemies ever, unless we are really really unlucky. We don't want to include weapons that might optionally do 1 damage because we are likely to end up saving the charges which defeats the purpose of this deck damn it.

Since we want overkill damage, I figured we can throw in a Versatile with Double or Nothing as our off-class card, doing something like 10 damage to a 4 health VP enemy also nets us around 6 extra resources for use later. With two upgraded Vicious Blow and the The Home Front, we can potentially deal 20 damage as well.

Core Cards

Core Engine

• Relentless

This card provides us with card draw and resources whenever we perform an overkill. We don't have to deliberately seek out overkill as doing 2 damage consistently would give us overkill damage eventually. With some XP, we are able to gain resources in huge increments due to the big damage cards we will be adding to the deck.

• Shotgun

One main weakness of using big guns is that sometimes it feels horrible to overkill small enemies with them. Shotgun allows us to do up to 5 damage, which would grant us like a bunch of resources since most enemies have less than 5 health.

With other supporting cards such as, Extra Ammunition, Well-Maintained and a second copy of Shotgun, we are able to use the Shotgun throughout the campaign as well.

• Mk 1 Grenades

While situational, AOE damage is also a great source of overkill damage. Grenades are cool and provides action-compression especially in a multiplayer game. I was able to deal (6 + 6 + 4) damage with 4 actions during my last scenario with them.

• .45 Thompson

.45 Thompson is our primary weapon that we would use from scenario 1 before we get our big guns. It has lots of ammo (5 ammo), lets us fight at 7 and does 2 damage consistently. While it is expensive, with Relentless and Act of Desperation, as well as the many supporting Guardian cards that grant us resources once we earn some XP, the cost of the gun no longer matters.

Big Gun Support

• Double or Nothing combo with Versatile

Double Or Nothing can be used to trivialize a boss, or can be used to generate potentially 8 or even more resources if you know the scenario has no tough enemies. With Mark Harrigan's incredible draw power, the resources can definitely be useful throughout the scenario. Can also be used on Mk 1 Grenades to inflict 4 damage to all enemies with you. Sometimes I will just use with it with a single The Home Front for a 2-Health heal and 4 damage. The full wombo-combo is a dream but you can't dream if you are dead. (I was only able to achieve a partial combo of 14 damage in my run.)

Versatile causes some deck dilution, but it is not an issue since Mark Harrigan's ability allows us to draw cards incredibly fast. We have many cantrips in our cards as well.

When adding Versatile, I will add 1 "Eat lead!" to enable our wombo-combo without us having to fear the . (A man can dream)

The other three cards can be up to you and you can just add cards that addresses your current concerns in your current campaign run. You can add:

• Clue cards if you think that you have nothing to do
• More skill cards to deal with treacheries
• More resource cards if you are feeling poor
• More situational cards for memes

• Extra Ammunition

More ammo for Shotgun and Mk 1 Grenades, in fact it's even more cost-effective than Shotgun itself due to it's low ammunition count. I will keep one copy under Stick to the Plan so I will always have at least 5 ammo on my Shotgun when I draw it

• Well-Maintained

This allows us to replay our big guns when we run out of ammo. It's fast, doesn't waste any action. A single copy is enough since a replayed Shotgun still only has two ammo. However, this works well with other weapons as well.

General Guardian/Mark Harrigan Needs

Economy Cards

• Ever Vigilant

This card potentially saves us 3-resources and 2 actions. The action compression is what really makes this card shine, don't feel too bad about using it to play Relentless. One action saved is still one action saved. I usually keep both copies under Stick to the Plan becaues the action compression is just too good.

• "I've had worse…"

Soak + 2 resources. It is fast as well, providing us with even more action compression.

• Act of Desperation

Refunds the resources when we don't need our big guns anymore. We almost always succeed with it as we are often throwing our 6-cost .45 Thompson and 5-cost Shotgun at our enemies. Allows replaying the same guns right after if we happen to have Well-Maintained. Another source for us to deal 2 damage with.

Healing + Soak Cards

Mark Harrigan decks often needs loads of healing so that we are able to have more uses of Sophie's ability in our scenario. Healing also helps us mitigate the effects of Shell Shock

• Hallowed Mirror

We draw through our deck extremely fast so the delayed healing is not an issue. 4 actions for 6 heal and 3 draw is pretty good value. This is our only horror healing card unless you choose to tech in Enchanted Blade or other cards.

• Second Wind

2 health and 1 draw for 1 action is too good. A little harder to use so do remember to use them when you happen to be in a position where you can use them. Often times you will trigger Sophie's ability for treacheries so you will often naturally be in a good position to use this card when your round starts next.

• Guard Dog

Soak that does testless damage

• Beat Cop

+1 , testless damage, and can be healed by Soothing Melody as well. Our only reliable horror soak unfortunately.

Others

• Stick to the Plan

Thins your hand and ensure that Ever Vigilant is usually in your starting hand. I always put 2 Ever Vigilant, and 1 Extra Ammunition. You can go with 1 of each and another card of your choice if you like.

• Prepared for the Worst

This card is there for you to find your weapons before you get enough XP to get all your desired weapons. Will replace this with upgraded weapons as I progress through the campaign.

Situational Cards

Sidearms

With Bandolier or Bandolier, we are able to use some sidearms in our deck that might prove useful in the campaign

• Bandolier

Gives you more hands to equip 2 big guns or 1 big gun with situational sidearms.

• Survival Knife

Action-compression and allows you to kill enemies before they hit you.

• Enchanted Blade

Can include this card when you are in Carcosa... Also provides Horror healing. Deals 1 damage by default which is a little unfortunate.

Rejected Cards

• Machete

Used it for a while but the 2 damage is not consistent enough for me to want to use it over the big guns in general

• .32 Colt

With Relentless and some resource-generating cards, I think the cheaper gun is not worth losing the 2 fist from a proper gun.

Skill Cards

• Vicious Blow

More damage

• Take the Initiative

Works very well in the Mythos Phase

More Situational Cards

• Shortcut

Action-compression + You get lots of card draw anyway

• Elusive

This card is OP and I am already playing Double or Nothing.

• Evidence!

You can now tell your teammates that you are contributing to the game state.

• Taunt or Taunt

Action-Compression, can upgrade it if you have the XP to spare. The upgraded versions synergizes with Mk 1 Grenades

FAQs

• Why so many one-ofs?

You draw non-stop as Mark Harrigan.

• You can't build a deck around so many situational cards!!

Haha big shotgun goes boom

• How come your deck has so many XP?

My team likes to Delve Too Deep + You can stick "Let God sort them out..." under Stick to the Plan for the memes.

• What do I tell teammates after I use my shotgun ammo on an Swarm of Rats?

"Don't worry, it's my resource engine"