The Jack of Diamonds [19XP Standalone]

Jack of Diamonds

Jack of Diamonds is a Standalone Joe Diamond Deck with 19XP so that I have only one additional weakness.

I like Joe for solo standalone play for 3 reasons

• He needs almost no help to investigate and fight like a boss
• His signature weakness is of no concern in standalone and doesn't even clog up the main deck
• His Hunch Deck is full of extra cards which don't cost any resources (if you're building it properly)

Joe shouldn't have a problem gaining clues or fighting, but and tests will be more difficult. I have Take the Initiative for help with both (and will hopefully get an extra use out of them with Practice Makes Perfect). Also see Logical Reasoning under NOT in the Hunch Deck and Bandolier + Well Prepared under Assets for .

Basic Weaknesses

Day of Reckoning and The 13th Vision are the random weaknesses I drew. Replace them with random ones for your own game.

NOT in the Hunch Deck

Here are the insight events in the main deck rather than the hunch deck (because ArkhamDB lists all insights as Hunches in a Joe Diamond Deck):

• Burning the Midnight Oil
• Logical Reasoning

Logical Reasoning is interesting because it's here for the icons. I'm using it rather than Guts because it's also an Insight event, so I can commit it to a test and then later put it into the hunch deck with an draw or Joe's Colts kill to play (for 0 resources) after I've accumulated some horror.

Economy

The cost curve for this deck is fairly low, so I should have plenty of economy options without wasting actions to take a resource:

• Emergency Cache
• Ever Vigilant
• Burning the Midnight Oil
• In the 29XP version below Astounding Revelation, although as mentioned in that section I really want to use this to put extra secrets on Eon Chart for more free actions.

Assets

With 13 assets Ever Vigilant is very good.

The action on .32 Colt (2) lets me return it to hand (to play later when I have Bandolier or commit it for ) when I want to play Joe's Colts. While .32 Colt doesn't add any icons to its Fight test, exhausting Well Prepared will give you 2 for it.

Magnifying Glass won't take up hand slots once you get Joe's Colts out, and with both out you'll be basic investigating at 6.

Survival Knife (2) + Guard Dog are for dealing damage during the enemy phase (saving actions).

Bandolier (2) + Well Prepared = 2 for tests:

• A full Bandolier (easy with his two-hand signature weapon) gives +1 and also has a icon...
• ...so I can exhaust Well Prepared for another +1 .

Extra Actions

Extra actions are crucial in true solo play (IMO):

• Shortcut
• Survival Knife (2) is a but it's an extra action allowing you to Fight during the enemy phase.
• Eon Chart (4). There's enough search in the deck to warrant Astounding Revelation to put extra secrets on it, but I don't have room for it without running Versatile (see 29XP deck below).

Mulligans

There's really enough search and draw in this deck to get me what I need, but what I want most in my opening hand are a .32 Colt (2) (because of its "reload" ability), Well Prepared and/or an Eon Chart (4).

I'll keep a Backpack in my opening hand but usually ditch everything else for the above mentioned.

29XP Deck

IF I was going to add 10XP to make this a 29XP deck...

• Versatile for
  • Two Eureka!: Not Practiced, but I LOVE the filtered card draw!
  • Three Astounding Revelation: Ideally for getting more secrets onto Eon Chart (i.e. more actions).
• Upgrade the following skills:
  • Both Vicious Blow >> Vicious Blow (2): Extra damage equals fewer actions (ideally).
  • Both Perception >> Perception (2): More card draw, since you're almost always going to pass these tests by 2+!
  • I wouldn't upgrade to Deduction (2) because it's pretty rare for a location to have 3 Clues on it in it True Solo.

I don't love adding five more cards to the deck, but...

• ...the ones chosen will either replace themselves (Eureka!) or (hopefully) be pulled out during a search (Astounding Revelation) and...
• ...as mentioned above, adding one more Basic Weakness isn't the end of the world because Joe's own signature weakness (Unsolved Case) has no effect in standalone play!