Faceplant Calvin (Standard/Hard Mode)

This is a deck ive been testing and refining over a handful of TFA hard mode runs paired with a few different other decks im also developing. I havent taken it far into a campaign so I dont consider it to be a finished job per se, but i dont plan to tweak it further until we have seen quite a bit more of the campaign so i thought i would share now.

Happy to hear thoughts or experiences.

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OVERVIEW

This is what im calling a 'horror route' Calvin (as opposed to a 'damage route' if there is such a thing) . Here we're aiming to take 3 or 4 horror early. Explore hard to dig out encounter cards voluntarily. This takes the harm out of the deck for others and sets you up for later on. Feel free to scream the name of a god of your choice as you literally apply your face to some plants! and take mental trauma like you saw a cool kid doing it. Painkillers allow us to transfer damage to horror if you took the wrong sort of harm. The allies and Until the End of Time then cover us for any future san hits, particularly Peter Sylvestre who also lets you use any left over Painkiller charges to heal off damage later in the scenario if weve taken a little more than planned. Once we have the horror, it enables Fight or Flight and desperate cards which let us go high on tough/important tests as needed.

Fire Axe lets us pay to boost on even if we have yet to take the damage. Madame Labranche or Fight or Flight offer us additional swings if needed. It can be swung neat if weve reached 5 or 6 base late game. Dark Horse is not treated as a keystone card. Play it asap if it turns up, but anytime you have Ward of Protection or Fight or Flight in hand be prepared to float 1 resource unless youve managed to get Madame Labranche down. With xp we add Scrapper later on to let you pitch that penny during any test (you can boost the wrong stat, it just doesnt benefit you to do so normally). Or we swap Dark Horse for the Key of ease if instead if you like.

Muligan away any card that isnt an asset or has a duplicate. Early game Madame Labranche is better than The Big Man, late game the opposite is true. Anytime you have a spare action and nothing more important to do, draw.

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UPGRADES

Priorities:

1. Charisma x1 - no ally dilema.
2. (2a) Dark Horse Key of Ys. Discuss with your group if you want anyone to take this it is somewhat OP and can warp your experience. Then again Calvin isnt a bad char to have taken this in. He has other issues to compensate, for example it almost entirely shuts down taking horror on your ID before it’s lost (ie further / expansion), and he doesnt get much in the way of action compression to abuse the key the way others can, OR
3. (2b) Scrapper - Lets you activate Dark Horse as described in the overview if you didnt swap it out for the Key of Ease.

Later (Order of choice):

• Peter Sylvestre (2) - The second San slot is VERY useful here. The boost is a bonus.
• Ward of Protection (2) - Team support and the opportunity to take horror earlier in a multi player group.
• Against All Odds once its out - I havent tried it but it looks very good
• (maybe) Madame Labranche Yaotl - Again I havent used him yet, but he looks very strong with the desperate set. Losing the option to gain a penny on demand suggests this will probably suit the Key of Ys route rather than the Scrapper route.

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MORE DETAILED PILOTING ... SORT OF

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In truth i normally have more to write in these sections, but if im honest there isnt much more to say than was said in the overview. The only warning i guess is that Calvin is very much an ID designed for experienced players, newcomers will have enough to learn. Please dont scare them off!

TAKE 3 or 4 HORROR EARLY

• Not 5. 5 is scary. 5 is dangerous. Put your soaks down asap, but take the horror on your ID upto 3 or 4. With Dark Horse down this gets you to upt 5 and which is plenty to clue well, and minimise encounter deck horror. We dont go to 5 by choice. It will probably happen at somepoint, but you want that 1 horror grace for any surprises or cards that do things like reduce your hp/san by 1.

• EXPLORE ASAP - Easy ways to take early horror in Untamed Wilds: (SPOILERS IN TEXT). Ideally get an ally and/or Painkillers down, then just draw explore cards. Several of these give physical damage (Painkiller-able over to horror) and or horror. The ally just protects from potential poison, though if you have Ward of Protection you can both cancel it and get that juicy horror. If you are unlucky enough to find an actual location, do not fear! two of these give options for self harm. Throw yourself willingly off the bridge or into some thorns. Sorted! The other bad thing that can happen is overgrowth. At which point you may need another player to clear it unless you get (un)lucky with an encounter card next mythos phase. While you're doing this just thematically imagine him screaming at the top of his voice and running madly into the thicket as his comrades look on bewildered. Thats what i do. It also clears all the risk out of the explore deck for them essentially letting them just move to a location safe in the knowledge they wont get harmed doing so.

SOAKS

• Self explanatory. Get these down asap. Leather Coat and Painkillers cover us for damage, Peter Sylvestre, offers potentially limitless horror soak once we want to turn it off almost completely. Madame Labranche and Until the End of Time cover us for a little of both.
• Let Labranche die. Shes here primarily as a double soak. The cash is a bonus and you`ll almost never use the draw unless something serious has happened.
• Use Painkillers & Peter Sylvestre to heal yourself Once you have 3/4 horror, use the combo to keep yourself at 4 damage. Again dont go to 5. You ideally dont want to kill off the big man if you take 2 damage.

SKILL CARDS

• Cantrips Use Perception and Guts liberally. These can compensate until you have the horror you need or just to self replace. Keep Manual Dexterity to evade or clear any potentially nasty encounters. This will still get used soon enough.

• Go Big or Go Home The rest of the skill cards are just BIG one shot boosts. Rise to the Occasion should be saved for any crucial tests in this stage. Note that it is based off you base stats not your boosted stats. So essentially it can be played on any test of strength 2 or more no matter what your current stats are.

• Wheres the ? skills? they were cut for Fire Axe and Fight or Flight which do a similar thing.

TRAUMA MANAGEMENT AND USE

• Balance to 4/4/4/4 with . With TFAs slightly smaller chaos bag of only 14 starting tokens, we expect to see this at least once in the scenario. Basically use this to take horror/damage upto the target of 4 in each, Horror first ofc, or heal back if you've gone higher.

• Aiming to get 3 and 3 trauma base, Horror first A little trauma for Calvin helps kick start that early 3 horror/damage. However lots of trauma is bad as it makes you vulnerable before youve had a chance to draw/play your soaks. Im still getting my head around it, but from what I have seen so far it looks like you dont go out of your way to get yourself defeated unless you are sure of what you are doing long term (more than happy to hear other peoples experiences on this). Voice of the Messenger and random campaign shocks look like they will offer you plenty over the campaign and you can only take at max 10 trauma (5/5) before being lost for good. There are also advantages to the team of wanting to faceplant that explore deck since it thins it out. You ideally want to use Voice of the Messenger on mental trauma for the first 3, but whether you are safe to do so or not will depend on game state at the time you draw it. Remember you can put the direct damage/horror that you take on Until the End of Time rather than putting yourself in a compromised position.

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YEP. THATS ALL IVE GOT

Thanks for reading