Down the Rabbit Hole to the Underworld

This deck is my attempt to make the finest tuned and tightest combat guardian possible.

To do this I play as small a deck as possible, I pin all my hopes on one strong item, and then I make sure I get it.

Using only single copies of customizable cards seems insane, but a FAQ answer tells us that any xp spent on a customizable card counts as an upgrade, This means we can get free upgrades from Down the Rabbit Hole. And now we are set.

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Here we go

Underworld Support reduces the starting deck size by 5, Stick to the Plan reduces it by another 4. This means that with the Cross and the two weaknesses you are looking at a 24 card deck. Then you draw and mulligan. Since you can ignore weaknesses for mulligan purposes, you essentially have a roughly 45% chance of starting with any given card in your opening hand.

Obviously the card you want is the Runic Axe. However 45% chance is not a guarantee. So we fix that by having an upgraded Backpack as a backup hit for the mulligan, Prepared for the Worst on SttP as an alternate way to dig for the Axe as well. 45% chance to just have the Axe. Then if you missed the Axe but have Backpack instead, it searches 12 of the now 19 cards in your deck, giving it a 63% chance to hit the Axe. If you hit neither the Axe nor the Backpack, you are stuck with PftW which only has a 47% to hit the Axe.

I don't really wanna bother with figuring out what the exact chance is, because it's not close enough to 100%, so we add a Sledgehammer into the mix. At that point you are basically guaranteed to have a weapon on turn 1.

Could I have achieved the same by loading my deck up with weapons? Yes sure. Would that enable me to have my turn one weapon be the Runic Axe 80+% of the time? Definitely not.

As a nice bonus this means I can include an Ace of Swords and have close 45% chance to hit that in my opening hand as well.

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So how does it play?

Well, you start at 7 resources (gotta love SttP+Astounding Revelation). Your first play is Ever Vigilant. You either play your Axe for 2 or your Backpack for 0 as the first EV play. If it's Backpack it now digs through more than half of your deck, looking for the Cross, the Armor or either of the two weapons. Any of those that you find you play with EV. When you have replaced Grete Wagner with Nephthys and gotten upgrades on your Axe and Armor your most expensive combination of 4 assets you want to play with EV would cost you 7 resources.

Now you are a Guardian with a Runic Axe and up to 4 other assets in play as well... you are now ready to fight.

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Upgrades

First off XP management:

The deck uses Down the Rabbit Hole but you bypass some of the cost of that with In the Thick of It. Picking 3 level 1 cards with this saves 3 xp down the road. Ever Vigilant and Ace of Swords are obvious inclusions. Then you have a choice of Gang Up or On the Trail. Both of which are very strong in the deck.

Stick to the Plan, Enchant Weapon, Call for Backup, Nephthys. All of the above will cost you extra xp to include in the deck because of Down the Rabbit Hole, so they are considered only because they are either essential or very very strong in the deck.

The rest of the xp can be spent on upgrades to cards already in the deck.

Step 1

Get the deck online.

Scenario one hopefully sees you get 8 xp to get SttP. And you can use 1 xp from DtRH to upgrade the Backpack. If you don't manage to get 8, save at least 3 to try to guarantee SttP for the next scenario.

Step 2

Get the Axe boosted.

Scriptweaver and Glory inscriptions will make it so that almost any time you swing it you will get card draw or healing.

Step 3

You need to survive.

Depending on your party the healing from the Axe might not be enough. Call for Backup or some upgrades on the Armor could come in handy.

Step 4

You are not alone.

Enchant Weapon+Elders Inscription allows you to participate in glue getting. Upgraded Ever Vigilant lets other people save actions when you don't have enough assets. Stand Together is overpowered as f*ck. Safeguard is just silly. Nephthys to replace Grete Wagner and you never lose a bless token again.

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Options

By this point the deck is essentially done. Any upgrade xp you get from DtRH at any point can get sunk into the Axe or the Armor if you don't have any other upgrade you are doing that you want to discount. The deck isn't particularly locked into any way to go with either the Axe or the Armor, but if you want to always be able to play all the strongest assets possible on the first turn you need the cost discounts on both of them. And changing the Armor's slot to Arcane means it no longer interferes with Backpack.

Eventually you want to remove Delve Too Deep which opens up the opportunity to add Lonnie Ritter and a Charisma to have sweet sweet interaction with Armor of Thorns on Hunters Armor.

This version has something on an emphasis on being able to participate with some clue getting. But obviously the deck can start with Gang Up instead of On the Trail. And things like Dynamite Blast are particularly interesting as alternatives to Evidence! and Scene of the Crime.

The second you have Nephthys you should seriously consider the Advanced version of her Cross and Weakness. Using the fast Engage action during the player window of a skill check means you are now removing bless tokens from the chaos bag during a skill test. That means Nephthys gets to keep them.