Dinkleberg's Better Trish Scarborough Starter Deck

Introduction

Core 2026 for Chapter 2 is here, and much like Chapter 1, it shipped with investigator starter decks evenly split between their primary and secondary class. While this is great for getting broader exposure to the card pool, it also makes for less consistent and focused decks. Chapter 1 famously had a line of "Better Starter Decks" guides by Killbray, which offer an alternative deck structure closer to the theme embraced by the Standalone/Evergreen Investigator starter decks: two copies of a smaller selection of cards, to increase consistency.

These deck guides are provided in the same spirit for Chapter 2. You are encouraged to tweak them if you have multiple Chapter 2 Core sets, are playing with a low player count, or otherwise just want to put your own spin on them! Suggestions for some of the first items to consider will be described in the "Substitutions" section of the deck guide below.

Note

These deck guides are written assuming you desire to have a set of ready-to-play decks for each investigator in the Core Set, without having overlap or needing to proxy cards. The other decks in this series can be found at the following links:

Daniela Reyes

Joe Diamond

Dexter Drake

Isabelle Barnes

Your Role and Your Cards

Trish is the secondary clue finder in the Core set, and the primary enemy evader, both in terms of her base agility stat and her investigator ability of receiving a spare action for evasion each round. Thus, the core of her kit revolves around map mobility and cards that benefit from evasion, so she can hop back and forth between locations to chase Elusive enemies and stomp out fires, all while picking up a few clues along the way. Olivier Bishop is a key asset to find and play early, as in addition to boosting Trish's core stat, he enables her to have a five-action round, every round, with his movement ability (that can also be used to drag engaged enemies along with Trish without provoking an attack of opportunity)! Local Map unlocks additional free movement economy, especially when combined with Perception to increase the chance of success.

Trish doesn't have many options for long-term sustainment, as she wants Olivier Bishop to stick around, so she will likely use her movement economy to return to the same location as a fighter at the end of her turn. On the plus side, this makes it more likely she can trigger Gather Intel scot free. If she's in an overwhelming situation with enemies at her location, Out of Sight serves as her eject button, regardless of whether she's evading, using her Thieves' Kit, or firing her M1903 Hammerless.

Economically, Emergency Cache, Thieves' Kit, and Sticky Fingers utterly shower Trish in resources, allowing her to easily pay for her assets as well as make use of Sharp Rhetoric and Silver Tongue to consistently succeed on her investigations and evasions. Covert Ops also provides movement or card draw upon successful evasion, making it a nice economy complement to her overall kit.

Every investigator should be able to pick up at least a couple clues, and have a plan for how they will handle enemies. Breaking and Entering lets Trish accomplish both simultaneously without provoking an attack of opportunity. Additionally, Prestidigitation and M1903 Hammerless make for a devastating pair, allowing Trish to mag dump her gun into enemies large and small (at a discount thanks to Prestidigitation, returning the card to her hand at the end of her turn. This frees up her hands and ensures she has that much more ammo to dispatch other enemies in the future.

For your skills, the classic Perception remains present for helping pass investigations, particularly at high shroud locations. Manual Dexterity is useful for most of her kit at all points during the scenario. As previously mentioned, Out of Sight is a helpful, albeit contextually useful, panic button when enemies overwhelm her alone.

Your Challenges

Willpower is an important stat when it comes to encounter cards in Chapter 2, and Trish's base statline struggles here. Expect to dump a large amount of the resources gained across the rest of her kit into Sharp Rhetoric for the occasional test boost, particularly against encounter cards. Further, you might need to keep that Prestidigitation and M1903 Hammerless combo in reserve for helping to dispatch the Black Chamber Operative if you can't or don't want to drop a clue or take an attack.

Trish also only has two hands, meaning her hand slots will be competitive given how many hand assets are in her deck. Judicious use of Prestidigitation, combined with a willingness to kick partially used assets out of her hand slots as the needs of the team change, will make or break her effectiveness beyond enemy evasion.

Substitutions

Though Trish is not at all hurting for resources, Paint the Town Red can help more reliably trigger Gather Intel in a way that is less likely to put Trish's health and sanity at risk during the enemy phase. Cards like Lucky Cigarette Case and Laboratory Assistant can also both help Trish mill through her deck, with Laboratory Assistant giving the added benefit of a little damage and horror soak. If Trish needs to take on a more formal clue gathering role due to team composition, Fingerprint Kit, Magnifying Glass, and Deduction are all reasonable additions to consider (though mind Trish's hand slots!). A second copy of Sharp Rhetoric or Silver Tongue are both reasonable choices depending on how you tend to play. Both Guts and Unexpected Courage are worth considering including if you tend to find yourself struggling with tests on encounter cards.