I have been trying to create a viable Desperate Skills Solo Deck for quite some time. And here we are!

Core concept of this deck is easy: play St. Hubert's Key to be in a range of Desperate Skills. Reuse Desperate Skills with Yaotl. Use Yaotl even if your sanity is too high for Desperate Skills. Rinse and repeat.

Piloting of this deck is rather difficult. You have to pay attention to your discard pile and plan your rounds pretty well to make a good use of skill cards and Yaotl. Once you manage to do so you become a rock solid investigator.

Zero experience deck

• Remove Charisma
• Use Peter Sylvestre (0) instead of Peter Sylvestre (2)
• Use Perseverance instead of Yaotl

... and you're ready to go.

Core upgrades

• 2 x Perseverance 2 x Yaotl
• Charisma
• 2 x Peter Sylvestre (0) 2 x Peter Sylvestre (2)

Optional upgrades

Optional upgrades come in no particular order.

• Scrapper
• Winging It Plucky
• Second Charisma and Leather Coat Jessica Hyde
• Calling in Favors Flare
• Key of Ys

Scrapper + Plucky are very good together. In a mid/late game you should have plenty of resources to spend thanks to Lone Wolf. These two cards can boost any skill you need.

Jessica Hyde is a much better and more expensive Leather Coat.

Card Discussion

St. Hubert's Key

The core of this deck. Puts Ashcan on 3 sanity enabling desperate skills. Boost to and is always nice.

Yaotl

Another core card. Yaotl makes it possible to use desperate skills without reducing Ashcan's sanity to 3 because you can discard any desperate card using "Ashcan" Pete's ability to ready an asset.

It's even possible to reuse the same skill card multiple times.

Peter Sylvestre (2)

We need a solid horror soaking mechanism because of St. Hubert's Key, desperate skills and Ashcan's low sanity in general. This is why Peter is here.

His boost to and helps with treacheries.

Lone Wolf

Resource pumping machine. In the beginning it helps to set everything up. In the end it creates a fuel for the Fire Axe.

Track Shoes

Base DEX + Peter Sylvestre (2) + Track Shoes gives 5 . It shouldn't be hard to get a free move action from time to time. In addition: shoes work with Duke's investigate action.

Winging It

Discard it to ready Duke or Yaotl and then play it from a discard pile. Boost with desperate skills if needed.

Desperate skills / standard skills

Use everything except Say Your Prayers. Ashcan's is going to be at level 5 or 6, he is not afraid of treacheries.

Inspiring Presence

Free "ready your asset" bonus is pretty good in this deck, isn't it?

Calling in Favors

Nice "heal your ally" and "play another ally with a discount" card. Remember you can use it on Duke!

The best opening hand

• St. Hubert's Key
• Fire Axe
• Lone Wolf
• Peter Sylvestre
• Yaotl

With such setup Ashcan is ready to fight, investigate, evade and bypass treacheries using skill cards to their limits.

General tips

• You can discard Desperate Skill card using Ashcan's ability and the use it via Yaotl's ability. You don't have to meet any sanity requirements to do so!
• If you don't find St. Hubert's Key early feel free to put 2 horror tokens on Ashcan if you can. It enables Desperate Skills and leaves a space for any future St. Hubert's Key.
• St. Hubert's Key can be used as a "heal 2 horror" card.
• Yaotl's second ability has an erratum. It is limited to once per phase, not a turn.
• Always think about your future round to make the best use of your skill cards and Yaotl.
• Track Shoes work with Duke. It means double movement before investigation!
• Avoid cards with - they are useless with Yaotl.
• Sometimes it's better to avoid an enemy rather than fight.
• Remember what is in the chaos bag. Do not overcommit to skill tests.