Showboating with Skills

Just designed this for a run of The Forgotten Age. Feedback is welcome.

This deck is more than 60% skill cards. Of these, most provide you with a benefit beyond the skill icons (e.g., draw card, gain resource, returns to your hand). This means that, when you commit two (or more) skill cards to a test and trigger her ability, you will likely be netting quite a bit. Do this two or more times in a turn and you will cycle through your deck and get to the assets that you need.

The other third of the deck are assets that help you in your core activities (e.g., investigate, fight). There is about a 15% chance of drawing any one of these singleton assets in your opening hand and lower odds after that during your one draw per turn. This would seem to imply that you won't see a lot of these asset cards in your average game, but since you can expect to cycle through your whole deck, this isn't the case. The cost of these assets (middling to high) also isn't an issue, since the majority of your deck costs nothing.

Here are card choice explanations:

HANDS - 3x one-handed weapons and 3x one-handed investigation tools (have one of each out at all times)

.41 Derringer - cheap, solid combat boost with success-based damage - perfect candidate for an over-commit skill test

Flashlight - cheap, solid investigation boost with auto-success on low shroud locations - perfect candidate for over-commit skill test

Lockpicks - backup investigation boost, very effective but onetime (without upgrade) use per turn, so less desirable

Mauser C96 - the lower combat boost makes this less desirable than the derringer, but the greater ammo and guaranteed damage almost make up for it; the exhaust ability shouldn't matter

ACCESSORY

Lucky Cigarette Case - you will over-commit skill cards on a test, you will succeed by more than 2, you will draw one extra card per turn, this will give you more skill cards to rinse and repeat

ALLY

Leo De Luca - at worst, this ally gives you an extra card a turn which translates to more skill cards to commit; at best he can help you with a more productive action like investigating, evading, fighting, etc. - cost is high but not an issue when there aren't a lot of other high-cost cards

OTHER

Tennessee Sour Mash - 1 willpower is low, with Guts and Unexpected Courage you're up to 5, but you can't count on that; without this asset you're more likely to fail on the willpower-based encounter cards, so this can be helpful in a pinch

Lone wolf - efficient resource generation

SKILL CARDS

"Watch this!" - flexible skill card that will find plenty of opportunities for use and can help generate resources

Double or Nothing - ? skill card that should be used strategically when over-committing on skill test with clear advantage to doubling (e.g., combat test that you are winning handily to double damage or investigation on a 0 shroud location to double clues).

Guts - reliable 2x willpower boost plus draw (generally saved for encounter deck)

Manual Dexterity - reliable 2x agility boost plus draw (you're going to be evading and winning a lot)

Nimble - situational 1x agility boost plus movement, great for an evasion and exploration but generally saved for the right moment

Opportunist - bread and butter ? which can be used multiple times in over-commit tests

Overpower - reliable 2x combat boost plus draw (generally saved for fight actions)

Perception - reliable 2x combat boost plus draw (generally saved for investigate actions)

Quick Thinking - ? boost that can get you an extra action with successful over-commit

Unexpected Courage - ?? boost that will always work for you

UPGRADES

A) Ornate Bow (3) for Mauser C96 - perfect weapon for Winifred, but 2h, so may need to save it for late/mid game

B) Skeleton Key (exceptional 2 = 4) for Lockpicks - doesn't take a hand slot (so ideal for when you've got your bow out) and makes investigation a breeze

C) Momentum (1) for Nimble - another ? skill card but one that allows you to bank your win for the next (more difficult) test - a great addition and replacing an 1 agility boost with a situational benefit

D) Momentum (1) for Hatchet Man - see above

E) Pickpocketing (2) for Lone Wolf - you'll be evading a lot, you'll be winning those tests by a lot, this generates resources and more skill cards rapidly

F) All In (5) for Overpower - a ?? skill card with massive draw potential, perfect for feeding your draw-skill engine (cycling out Overpower as it is no help with fighting once the Ornate Bow is out)

G) All In (5) for Overpower - see above

H) Ace in the Hole (exceptional 3 = 6) for Manual Dexterity - 3 extra actions for 0, with deck cycling you will see this more than once

I) Opportunist (2) for Opportunist - more likely to recur with new lower threshold

J) Opportunist (2) for Opportunist - see above

K) Manual Dexterity (2) for Manual Dexterity - one more agility and one more card draw, helps fill your hand for more overcommitted skill tests

Lola Santiago (3) - more agility, more intellect, insta-clue gathering Haste (2) Delilah O'Rourke (3) - more agility and combat, insta-damage (2x when enemy is exhausted by your evasion) High Roller (2) - 2x boost to any skill on tap once per turn Streetwise (3) - place to dump your resources on over-commits Switchblade (2) for .41 Derringer - Derringer but without ammo limit