Slash like a butterfly, Skid like a bee

Deck goal: find the Butterfly Swords, use the Butterfly Swords, don't die along the way, don't get tempted to oversucceed or overspend until you have a comfortable board state.

Along with a Daisy deck focused on clue acceleration and skills (as payoff from Big Hand cards), this deck had a near-perfect NotZ Standard run. Skids killed the Ghoul Priest in The Gathering, got 6/6 cultists in Midnight Masks (first time I ever managed it!), and kept the enemies busy in Devourer so that Daisy could interrupt the ritual during the first turn of Agenda 3.

What was I thinking here?

I ask myself with every deck, why is this deck better in this investigator than someone else? For example, I feel like a lot of people underrate Harvey since his starter deck is just better when played with Daisy. And similarly with Skids, a lot of decks (read: every prior Skids deck I made) fail because we see the statline and Guardian access and just try to build him like a weird Silas that uses blue weapons and a lot of skills to mitigate his statline. Sometimes you focus too on giving him money to take advantage of his ability, add some Rogue money payoff cards when you get XP. But it just ends up awkward and inconsistent - you can't grab skills enough to make up for how much you need to commit, your extra actions just go into failing tests, and you end up poor more often than not.

But this deck finally feels like it uses Skids as intended (at least in 2-player). The idea is to focus on reliability, not big plays. The statline is already enough of a risk, especially at level 0, so you need to avoid taking the additional risks that Rogue cards can suggest. Playing this deck felt a lot more like playing Roland or Wendy than it feels to play Finn or Winifred - I'm taking relatively safe plays to change the board state in small consistent steps, making it easier for my team to take bigger risks.

In this context, On the Lam even feels like a good card - it makes it even easier to just have a Good Round where you don't need to worry about failing some fights or evades. If you're anything like me, when Daisy has Crack the Case and Deduction(2) in hand ready to clear that 4 shroud location, that's the turn she draws some big tough monster - and you'll say "hahaha, nice try game". It's like Ancient Evils - doesn't seem too impactful on its own, but it makes a huge difference when you think about how much it affects your overall tempo.

Piloting

Ideal board state is to have the Swords, Lonnie, a Jacket, and a Lucky Cigarette Case (non-upgraded is fine if you find it first) - overall 4+2+4+3=13 resource cost, 17-19 if you need to play a gun and/or PFTW before you can find the swords. Afterwards, you

While you're building up board state, use Skids's ability sparingly, like when you need to replace a gun that ran out of ammo, retry a critical evade test, or need just one more action to kill an enemy with Doom. A gun or Enchanted Blade is a stopgap until you find the swords - replace it ASAP to have more reliable fights.

Don't get tempted into Rogue oversuccess nonsense if you have the Beretta, let those happen naturally and just keep drawing cards with small successes, as skill cards should be conserved for 3 damage Butterfly plays or Encounter deck defense (especially if Lonnie and the Jacket aren't both out).