Nat comes out Swinging! - Core Only

This is my take on tweaking Nat's starter deck to remove some of the "bad" cards and streamline it a bit. It's intended for a multiplayer monster-slayer role, but can discover a handful of clues via Grete and Evidence with a focus on leveraging his investigator ability and remaining close to his out-of-the-box deck.

This is a variation on my preferred NatCho deck using only cards from his pack or the Core set.

Changes from base deck

Removed Cards

Relentless is a delayed Emergency Cache. I costs the same card and action as Cache, but you have to wait around for at least three turns to get the same resources. Also, you have to spend your other cards and resources to generate the overkill damage, so you are likely losing efficiency there. It's also vulnerable to treacheries that target your assets. This is an easy swap into Emergency Cache.

Glory is probably fine. I don't think it's a bad card, but spending a card and a resource to net +1 card seems a little iffy. This could definitely stay in the deck, but I wanted to have a little more Clue potential via Evidence.

Flesh Ward is a bit too expensive and too limited in effect. It will protect you from some combination of 4 damage/horror plus the potential for it to soak 1 more of each before you discard it, but:

• it exhausts, so it's best versus chip damage and not large attacks
• it only works on attacks, so you're not protected versus the encounter deck
• True Grit, Something Worth Fighting For, and Allies do the same thing for similar costs With Core-only, this is a bit harder to replace, so I've only dropped one of them.

Safeguard is a strong card, but I think it's fine as a one-of. You'll rarely want to use two of them at once, and it's not a critical card to find early. Dropping one leaves room for a few skills to help you be more flexible.

Physical Training is a card you probably don't have the resources for. Nat's base 5 + Boxing Gloves means he's usually fine without the boost. Spending for to protect against the encounter deck would make sense, but Skill cards let you do that for free and save resources to re-play Grete or keep using Fight events.

Added Cards

Similar to the previous deck, I think replacing some of the dropped cards with Skills gives Nat a bit more flexibility. The neutral skills still let you boost for big enemies, protect against the encounter deck, and improve draw slightly, but you lose the ability to Evade or Investigate. I think this is fine for a dedicated monster slayer, but it does keep Nat fairly one-dimensional.

Piloting

You want to Mulligan for Boxing Gloves or Randall. If you found the Gloves, I would shuffle Randall back into the deck. His healing ability is only useful later in the scenario and the only Weapon you can search for are the Gloves. If you know the scenario attacks Assets, Hand slots, or Sanity particularly hard, you may want to keep both, so that Randall can find another set of gloves or provide soak. Grete is great, but I wouldn't keep her if I didn't already have Gloves and some resource generation. If you have all of that, you only have two slots left for Fight events, so make sure you find some.

Once you have Assets figured out, most of the Fight events are interchangeable. "Get over here!" is better when you know your team will spread out. OTP is best for 3-4 health enemies. Most of the other events are just to let you trigger your bonus damage with a side effect. I'd suggest trying to have at least two in your opening hand. Vicious Blow can be included in this category, as it gives you two damage on your basic Fight actions.

Your basic play strategy will be trying to maximize usage of your free damage ability while balancing cards and resources. Your Boxing Gloves are critical because they help you replace cards you spent to fight. Remember that his ability can trigger once per phase, so Counterpunch can be a good way to get value from an Attack of Opportunity while you move or draw a card, but it can also let you use your bonus damage in the Mythos or Enemy phases in addition to the Investigator phase.

For odd health enemies, use basic Fight actions, Monster Slayer + your bonus damage, or One-Two Punch to deal the time. For even health, your bonus damage lets GOH, CTO, and Counterpunch efficiently handle those enemies.

Upgrading

Nat's starter deck has a lot of great cards, so you don't have to stray outside of it to have a great deck. I believe the priority goals are improving Spirit card density, improving draw, and improving efficiency.

Given this deck works best in 3-4 player, I think "Get over here!"(2) is a top priority. Not only can it pull from two locations away, it gains Fast. This card was already great for Action efficiency by saving you Move or Engage actions, and the upgrade makes all of that better. Sign me up!

Going for Boxing Gloves(3) helps make sure you always find a card to draw. The extra bonus is helpful of course, but going from 6 to 9 cards searched helps prevent missing a draw. The worst feeling is running out of Fight events and having to spend 3 actions just basic punching a ghoul. I think this is definitely a #2-3 priority, but maybe not first pick.

Counterpunch(2) helps you kill enemies before they hit you, so you have less need for soak or healing.

Mano a Mano is a good upgrade for Monster Slayer or to replace a non-Spirit card to let you consistently draw with the Gloves. The Bold requirement of being your first action can be a downside, but 2-3 testless damage is hard to ignore.

One-Two Punch(5) is amazing! The first attack becomes testless and deals a bonus damage, but now the second attack can target a different enemy! Dealing 5-6 damage to a boss or taking out two enemies with a single action is great! As strong as this card is, I think the cost means it's hard to recommend as a first upgrade. It can work, but you need to be sure you'll get value out of it via strong Elites, high enemy density, or Swarming enemies. Those aren't always true in scenario 2-3 of a campaign, but I would definitely prioritize these after shoring up some of the draw/resource staples.

Vicious Blow is likely the only upgrade you'll look at from the Core box. The extra damage and icons are always useful.

If you want more clue power, I think Lesson Learned is a better choice than upgrading to Grete Wagner. As a fighter, you'll often get hit, so the trigger is likely to go off. The resource cost is also low, and two clues without a test or action is great. Grete(0) does a good enough job. I don't think you'll want spend many actions Investigate at 3 , and the extra health/connecting location for her ability are nice, but you already have a lot of xp to spend before you can afford her. As a late campaign buy, I think she'll be great, but Lesson Learned is just easier to play and is another Spirit card to find with Gloves. Evidence! fulfills a similar role, but is not a Spirit and the bonus clue is likely harder to trigger.

After these upgrades, you still have a number of options to try from Nat's deck. I think they all have a place. Physical Training is essentially a permanent Guts or Overpower, minus the draw. Taunt and Dynamite Blast have their places, but may not be staple cards. I think "Get over here!" is usually better than Taunt, but there are scenarios/campaigns where the opposite is probably true.

What if my collection is bigger?

Check out the more advanced version here.