Skill Balanced Starter Decks - "Skids" O'Toole

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Sean arkham with friends 0 0 0 1.0

5argon · 9549

01003b.png
　 Notable skill icons
Overpower 　
Manual Dexterity 　
Unexpected Courage 　
Opportunist 　
On the Lam 　
Elder Sign Amulet •••　
Dynamite Blast 　
　

TLDR : My take of starter decks with plenty of Skill icons, to reduce frustration of failing to setup Asset cards. No longer 100% pick-and-play on any combinations, but I countered this by providing exhaustive team compositions and how to fix overlaps provided at the bottom of this page. Have fun committing cards!

ps. When you decided to purchase one more Investigator Expansion, check out my 2 Packs Deck Guide series!

Lastly, if you like the idea of my decks, it would help many more fellow new investigators like you to find these starter decks if you press the like (♥) button above. Thank you!

I like the premise of Killbray's Better Starter Decks, a Revised Core Set-based series of deck which has absolutely no overlap no matter what amount of players and team compositions ("pick-and-play"), yet better than what the official manual provided.

But going for perfect zero overlap may compromise skill commit icon density. From my experience leading a group of beginners throughout Night of the Zealot, Skill cards are delightful. It feels great to be able to instantly throw in what you just draw to pass tests, and even get some bonus draws to recover from bad starting hand. They also provide the game's most basic team play feature : By pitching a helping commit at the same location. Skill cards are satisfying to play.

I think Asset cards has too much weight on typical starter decks (and therefore highly dependent on mulligan policy). After an unfortunate spiraling down session they can barely do anything, new players often express that everything seems to depend on finding and stacking up static boost Assets and fight Asset fast enough before enemy comes, if they can't then they have no chance of comeback ever since everything takes Attack of Opportunity then.

If you are experienced player trying to get new players to join : It is unfortunate that cannot control luck of draw for anyone. The next time maybe better, but you have limited onboarding session to impress and get new players hooked with the game. Skill card is that solution to smooth out any bad start and allow more happy-go-lucky play style for everyone.

By giving up the perfect zero overlap, here's my alternate take of starter decks : Skill Balanced Starter Decks series, which each deck greedily use Skill cards without concern of sharing with the other decks in the series. (Guts, Perception, Overpower, Manual Dexterity, Unexpected Courage)

It also distributes well double-icon non-Skill cards over starting deck and through the upgrade plan. (Evidence!, Working a Hunch, First Aid (3), "I've had worse…", Scrying (3), "Look what I found!", Cunning Distraction, Elder Sign Amulet, Bulletproof Vest) Upgrade plan also try as much as possible to not replace good icon cards while adding more.

Easy deck overlap resolution

This series does care about card overlaps. Therefore even though there are some combinations that cannot be played together since they want the same cards, the resolution is simple : Just move around the Skill cards and you are ready to play.

The result is satisfactory enough for me. Compared to Killbray's Better Starter Deck mathematically perfect 10-10-5 possible combinations for 2-3-4 player count, I managed to get 9-7-2 possible combinations with zero or easy to resolve overlaps.

I have exhaustively list all those team compositions in a dedicated section at the bottom, categorized by player count, along with an overlap resolution if it has some. You can use that section to pick a team matching your party size, perform overlap resolution as suggested, and immediately start the game.

Let's go on a full campaign!

This series of deck encourages you to take them to full length 8 scenarios campaign. I do this by including an upgrade guide with enough XP spending plan for an entire campaign for each deck, and also some tips to use the upgraded decks. Cards to be swapped in are in the Side Deck section. Side Deck is designed to have zero overlap between all 5 decks in the series.

FFG has moved to new distribution format where you can buy Investigator Expansion and Campaign Expansion separately. This is a good news, it means if you try out Night of the Zealot and is eager for longer campaign to see what the game has to offer, just one more box of any Campaign Expansion is required.

That is in theory. But community is often quick to state that Revised Core Set cards are not enough for full campaign, and then something like "You will run out of options", "Dunwich Investigator Expansion is essential", or "Recommended to get some Investigator Starter Deck first". While additional products are all useful and these suggestions are becoming the norm, more and more spending requirements in addition to the Campaign Expansion box put off some players with less funding from even getting the Campaign Expansion box.

Revised Core Set is viable to have good time in a campaign on Easy or Standard. They just lacked variety and fancy combos. But in my opinion, card variety is secondary to full-length experience any new players should try out ASAP. Players may have to "put up with" using .45 Automatic and Physical Training to the end for all I care, campaign play is still insanely fun. There should be no other minimum purchases for campaign experience than : Revised Core Set + Campaign Expansion.

Main Deck? Side Deck?

The "Side Deck" section is meant to be higher XP cards waiting to be added to your deck. The "Deck" section consists of all 0 XP cards that you start the 1st scenario with. So if you gather both Deck and Side Deck on starting the game, you don't have to go back to your big card collection to pick things between scenarios.

I have prepared some upgrade plans below to swap cards between Main Deck and Side Deck, but you are free to disagree and purchase in different orders or even different cards than suggested.

Upgrade guide

　Cost 　Total
　　 Burglary 　→　 Elder Sign Amulet ••• 3 XP 3 XP
　　 Burglary 　→　 Elder Sign Amulet ••• 3 XP 6 XP
　　 Elusive 　→　 Cat Burglar • 1 XP 7 XP
　　 Elusive 　→　 Cat Burglar • 1 XP 8 XP
　　 　→　 Charisma ••• 3 XP 11 XP
　　 Emergency Cache 　→　 Hot Streak •••• 4 XP 15 XP
　　 Emergency Cache 　→　 Hot Streak •••• 4 XP 19 XP
　　 .41 Derringer 　→　 .41 Derringer •• 2 XP 21 XP
　　 .41 Derringer 　→　 .41 Derringer •• 2 XP 23 XP

(View at arkham-starter.com)

The 19 XP point where you finally got both copies of Hot Streak can be used to try out the Standalone Scenario. Remember to add 2 Random Basic Weakness according to the standalone rule. 9 XP version is not recommended, due to Hot Streak being very fun with Dynamite Blast.

How to play

  • Pair Hard Knocks with Machete to consistently land hits vs. 4 enemies.
  • With multiple enemies, use your 4 to add in Evade action, reducing engagement count back to 1 to maintain 2 damages hit of Machete. Cat Burglar will add for plays like this. Note that if you Evade again to no engagement at all, you will not get +1 damage while attacking exhausted enemy.
  • Use Cat Burglar to perform the fade away leading to nearby-location Dynamite Blast so you do not blow yourself up.
  • On the Lam to walk around collecting enemies for Dynamite Blast. You also skip Attack of Opportunity when blasting yourself along with the enemy, if required. More often that kind of play will get you much more than 3 damage printed on the card. (And horror is so unwanted with Skids!)
  • Elder Sign Amulet is added on upgrade quite fast to help with taking horror from failed treachery. You should have at least 1 after the 1st scenario. Also because Guard Dog can't take even a bit of horror, Elder Sign Amulet is a good match so you take nothing when doing Guard Dog plays. The amulet is part of the reason I let Roland Banks have Beat Cop instead, so Skids can use the dogs.
  • He can try to resist fail-by tests with Unexpected Courage and Dynamite Blast as a commit. But sometimes the test is a hard "if fail, ..." and the commit is wasted having to boost from his low 2 . Elder Sign Amulet is better to just take the punishment and move on.
  • You can make desperate Dynamite Blast play while engaged with enemies with help of Guard Dog to intentionally take Attack of Opportunity. This play chip away 1 HP of some enemies before dealing 3 damages, resulting in 4 burst damage. But you do have to take 3 damages too in addition to stray damages from Attack of Opportunity.
  • Cat Burglar's buff benefits Backstab hit, and Pickpocketing success rate.
  • Charisma to have both Guard Dog and Cat Burglar online at the same time. 2x Guard Dog or 2x Cat Burglar are also possible due to no unique star constraint. Due to Hot Streak, it is possible to afford both allies swiftly as they are drawn.
  • Go for .41 Derringer (2) +3 over-success with some Hard Knocks + pumps and Opportunist.
  • Since you get a kind of trauma matching how you were defeated, he can essentially use Dynamite Blast to kill himself to get Physical Trauma instead of getting Mental Trauma if he has 3 or less remaining health. If you are engaged with enemies, remember that you have to survive Attacks of Opportunity first before Dynamite Blast can go off. (On the Lam can fix that!)
  • Hot Streak funds Dynamite Blast and Backstab's high play cost. Buying them maybe quite painful for 8 XP you have to spend, but remember that they are essentially more Dynamite Blast... also helps paying Hospital Debts and buying actions.
  • You can beg for resources from others on the same location as you when trying to fix Hospital Debts. This card is easier on high player count.

Skill icons

　 Notable skill icons
Overpower 　
Manual Dexterity 　
Unexpected Courage 　
Opportunist 　
On the Lam 　
Elder Sign Amulet •••　
Dynamite Blast 　
　

Compared to Roland Banks, Skids doesn't have many double icons to make use of. Passing test is also quite hopeless, which I hope Elder Sign Amulet can soak up the horror. (Sometimes not that simple, more info below.) You can try resisting with Unexpected Courage.

I choose Unexpected Courage for Skids instead of Guts because Skids would just fail-by-less when trying to resist tests, not enough to get Guts's draw effect on pass. What you get from Unexpected Courage is that you can shoot guns, do Backstab, Evade, Flashlight, etc. all with that icons.

2x Manual Dexterity can be an offensive card due to Backstab. Since Backstab is very costly and has no built-in boost, you should aim to pair Manual Dexterity with it as much as possible. (May as well throw in Opportunist.)

2x Overpower are for landing Machete with 6 and farm some cards in the process. .41 Derringer is also more likely to deal the same damage as Machete as he boosts up to 7 , but you can also gun down exhausted enemy you just Evade (Skid's specialty is that he can Evade then Fight, removing Retaliate in the process) or playing hero by shooting enemies spawned on helpless investigator without engaging first for 2 damage. Machete loses the +1 damage on unengaged enemy, on these cases the gun is better. The gun is "safe" to kill-steal in the sense that high makes it unlikely to cause friendly-fire, and if the bag hands you or -4? The +1 damage is conveniently removed in the process and your friend hurt less than something like .45 Automatic.

Later on the upgrade that .41 Derringer (2) joins in, 2x Overpower became even more potent by giving him an extra action! Just make sure to try this on low enemy (like 2 ) to improve the over-success number, and perhaps add Opportunist.

Skid lacks double icons. Single one only available on Elusive. Elusive is likely a card you hold on hand for long time "just in case", I recommend you commit it for when you have got Flashlight and is going to tackle 4 shroud location to help out. (Would make 4 vs. 2 shroud.)

Now we arrive at the very annoying problem for Skids.

I have added Elder Sign Amulet very early to "just fail" all the tests and take horror head-on. But sticky treachery cards like Frozen in Fear that gives a chance to fix with once per turn, is an another matter. This is hell on Skids as it is not a matter of taking horror, he just get stuck with it seemingly forever.

Hold onto Unexpected Courage for this kind of thing, but that is not enough, the key is also adding Dynamite Blast or Elder Sign Amulet . (You may feel bad that you have to throw away Elder Sign Amulet that is supposed to be equipped, but imagine if you cannot fix the sticky treachery forever... Yes. Commit it.) You should ask for from your friend as well. On the Lam is an another other than Unexpected Courage.

Otherwise, try using Cat Burglar's to move around to avoid extra action cost of Frozen in Fear. (This is an Activate action, not Move.)

Investigator synergy

With other decks of my Skill Balanced Starter Deck series :

Team composition

All teams possible within my Skill Balanced Starter Deck series, including and not including this deck as a member.

Trivia! : These reduced combinations are due to how my Daisy and Agnes deck need the same cards, there is no possible team with Daisy and Agnes at the same time. I can't managed make both fun to play without major overlaps.

Also I discovered if I choose to give up just Daisy + Agnes pair, all other pairs are suddenly viable. Daisy + Agnes kind of causing butterfly effect throughout all the decks. e.g. Once you share Agnes's Spell for Daisy's self defense, then Agnes need more Survivor card from Wendy, then Wendy need more Rogue cards from Skids, and so on.

Try out Killbray's Better Starter Decks instead if you would like to play with Daisy and Agnes together.

2 Players

9 teams to choose from, all with 0 card overlaps :

3 Players

7 teams to choose from :

4 Players

2 teams to choose from :

2 comments

Dec 27, 2022 Pirkavlinho · 1

what about De Lucas??

Dec 27, 2022 5argon · 9549

@Pirkavlinho Hi! Leo De Luca is given to Wendy Adams in the same deck series, because I wanted the synergy with Will to Survive (3).

I decided that Skids can instead play with Cat Burglar Ally, to make use of Dynamite Blast + Hot Streak. (Skids can also use Hot Streak money to get actions.) This way when both Wendy and Skids are together in the same team they both have good Ally. Leo De Luca is also unable to be doubled up with Charisma in this deck's planned upgrade, due to unique () constraint.

If Wendy Adams is not in use and you want Leo with Skids, feel free to try it, or if Roland Banks is not in use and you want actions, you can use Police Badge instead of Elder Sign Amulet in the upgrades.

But all 5 decks in the series are currently arranged such that card overlaps fixing instruction are easy to follow by moving a few neutral Skill cards, not touching any other colored class cards.