Preston: "Money CAN buy happiness"

NOTE: This list has a couple cards that, when it was made, hadn't been officially released yet and as such has placeholders using other cards. They are:

Hatchet Man = Decoy
Last Chance = Trial by Fire

This is my attempt at a big money Preston deck using all the cards that we currently know about from Circle Undone. Its applications at level 0 are somewhat limited (perhaps a bit moreso then level 0 Rogue lists tend to be) but there's potential for some explosive turns and there's some solid utility that allow you to be useful in situations where your allies might struggle. Additionally as the campaign goes on this deck greatly benefits from Rogue's powerful XP cards, using Preston's crazy high finances to fuel Streetwise as well as allowing liberal use of Lola Santiago's powerful clue-gaining ability. As a whole this list focuses largely on gaining clues and evading enemies with a bit of utility as well as some megaturns with Trial By Fire + extra actions. For teammates, you should be looking for more combat-oriented characters that can help protect him early on in scenarios when he's getting set up and just early in the campaign in general as you pick up xp cards to help the deck run smoother.

General Gameplan: Use all the Survivor "fail to succeed" cards to quickly draw through your deck as well as generate resources. Get Well Connected set up and then use it plus stat boosting cards to pass key tests. Use Flashlight and the other clue cards to get clues.

Card explanations:

Fail package (Rabbit's Foot, Drawing Think, Take Heart): The backbone of the deck and the 3 big cards you should be mulliganing for. (I would argue that they're even more important then Well Connected and Leo) As Preston you're going to find no shortage of tests that you don't stand a chance at passing unless you heavily commit for them, so fitting all these cards into his gameplan feels very natural. Moreover they can draw into his other key cards and help him get set up smoothly. Preston at his core is about turning cards and resources into good things, and these cards help you with both.

Clue package (Flashlight, Intel Report, "Look what I found!"): These are your big contributions to the game until you start getting XP cards like Streetwise and Lola Santiago. Flashlight should be saved for either 2 shroud locations, 3/4 shroud locations when you have "Look what I found," or higher shroud locations when combined with Trial by Fire. Intel Report is very flexible and depending on the locations can be very valuable due to it ignoring testing and any costs that might have.

"Help me actually pass skill tests" package (Well Connected, Money Talks, Cunning, Rise to the Occasion, Trial by Fire): Due to Preston's dismal base stats he needs a lot of help actually passing skill tests, so often you need to combine two of these to actually pass the test you're looking to beat. Well Connected and Money Talks are both pretty self-explanatory. Cunning is very easy for you to turn on fully, and unlike all your other cards can actually be used to help allies if need be. Rise to the Occasion on Preston is basically a better Unexpected Courage that you can only commit to your tests as you will rarely find test with value of 2 or less. Trial by Fire gives you +4 to any stat you want for a whole turn, and the resource cost it has is practically nothing for you. You can use it to punch an enemy to death or evade a ton of enemies if need be, but more likely then not you're probably just going to name intellect and try and score some clues with it.

Everything else: Leo's biggest weakness is his resource cost, but for Preston it's a minor speedbump. 2 Health and Sanity is also nice soak, especially important given that you should be expecting to fail a lot of treacheries as Preston. Swift Reflexes is maybe not something I'll keep, but conceptually it combos well with Trial by Fire and the cost is basically nothing. Elusive is probably the best event in the deck, it allows him to leverage his resources to move across the board instantly as well as provide him a way to deal with enemies spawning on top of you.

Popular cards omitted:

Dario El-Amin: He doesn't actually do much for you and takes up a valuable ally slot that can be better spent on Leo or later on Lola. This deck has so much draw power that you'll find either of those sooner rather then later, so you don't need another ally to occupy the slot in the meantime.

Lone Wolf: This deck already has a ton of low costing assets that you need to play to get set up, this one does far less then the other cards, especially given that Lone Wolf may be turned off when playing with 4 players. Plus 1 extra resource a turn just doesn't matter that much to Preston when you're already getting so many.

Lucky!/Live and Learn: Most tests with this list you either intentionally fail or overcommit for to insure that you pass. Lucky might be alright, it means you can commit less to tests and cover the worst token pulls with Lucky, but Live and Learn seems bad. None of the boosts apply to the retry (such as Well Connected and your skill cards) so it would only be useful in Trial by Fire turns.

"You Handle This": Didn't have room for it, also this list can generally pass the tests that it really needs to and can trigger it's failure package on the ones it can't so I don't feel like it's needed.

Upgrade plans:

After the first scenario pick up Adaptable if you feel like you can use it well. You can also really use the XP off of Charon's Obol, if you're feeling lucky or have allies that can protect you it can pay off in spades.

If you need more help evading:
1x Streetwise (3xp)

If you need more clues:
2x Cunning -> 2x Lola Santiago (6xp) 1x Charisma (3xp)

Once you get one of those options, go back and pick up the other one. I would get 1x Lola and 1x Charisma before picking up the second Lola. Both of those paths together basically make up the core of the deck, and once you get that you're free to go for more luxury-oriented upgrades. I don't have a ton of experience with these, but here's some ideas for things to spend XP on:

High Roller (2xp): Less powerful Well Connected, but is another repeatable asset to help you pass tests, allows for 2 to be out, and the downside of losing resources isn't as backbreaking with Preston.

The Skeleton Key (3xp Exceptional): Combos with Trial by Fire, also just generally good support and you can afford to keep replaying it.

Ace in the Hole (3xp Exceptional): Combos with Trial by Fire, generally amazing card overall

Borrowed Time (3xp Exceptional): If you really want to lean into the megaturn gimmick, this is a good card for that. Don't get before Ace in the Hole though.

Against All Odds (2xp): Helps insure you pass tests

The Gold Pocket Watch (4xp Exceptional): Crazy pricey but is extremely powerful in 3/4 player games.

All In (5xp): I'm sure there's some broken combo with this, Money Talks, and Double or Nothing. You can get Adaptable early and then swap in some Quick Thinkings and Double or Nothings later on in the campaign.

This deck and the Taboo list: As you can probably tell by the base list and the strategy of rushing for Streetwise quickly, this list is hit pretty hard by the Taboo list. It makes this deck's already shaky early-campaign performance and makes it even worse. Due to how useful Elusive is you're forced to spend xp early on to get a playset of those as well. And that's not to even mention that this deck is very reliant on Drawing Thin to fuel the deck cards and resources to power it up, which is a card that is almost assuredly going to be hit by the next Taboo list. If you insist on playing with the Taboo list, I'd probably make some pretty significant changes to it.