Long after TSK release at last I have found a very good low-budget Vincent deck that perform above average on Standard difficulty. His splash cards (, Lv. 0~1, up to 15 cards) plus in-faction access, covers so wide that he can pick MANY timeless Core Set cards while most investigators can only pick some, either due to restriction or incompatible stat line.

Once Lucky! and Vicious Blow meets on 3 investigator, 5 Melee Asset that all adds accuracy and damage including Machete which is so good it got in Taboo list before, with usable 4 for "Look what I found!" and Dr. Milan Christopher's resource-earning, you get an all in one "Core Set All-Stars" deck. Not even getting to Scarlet Keys cards just yet, this is enabled just with Vincent's stat line and deckbuilding requirement! You can play him similar to Roland Banks at 0 XP, BUT with omnipotent power of Lucky!, can Evade with Stray Cat, and even an extra sanity point.

Getting to the healing part to distribute On the Mend, this deck devoted hand for Alchemical Distillation so no Magnifying Glass. The idea is to reach Perfected (a 5 XP customization that needs 2 over-success) working with help from the +2 offering boost from Soul Sanctification / Map the Area, which grants you more offerings to push your limit you can make Lucky! / "Look what I found!" / Vicious Blow work on everything you do. This combo is complete at 19 XP.

This deck got high consistency covered on all 3 aspects : Fighting, Investigating, and Healing. Then Lucky! + Map the Area + On the Mend + Soul Sanctification boosts everything. In my test run with The Path to Carcosa, this deck managed to get good setup in all scenarios, covering at least 2 aspects in early rounds with Lucky! / offering cushion, and transitions well to the full setup a few rounds later.

Accolades : This deck helped my team won The Path to Carcosa Standard, the first victory after many tries!

► About "2 Packs Deck Guide"
　A series of decks made with the new distribution model in mind, requiring a Revised Core Set box + just 1 more Investigator Expansion box. ƴ character on the deck's name means the additional box it uses is The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion.
　It maximizes the chance of newcomers being able to build and learn to play the game, enjoying the story on Standard difficulty ASAP. They can then get into deck-building later if they wished to do so. See other decks in the "2 Packs Deck Guide" series here.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

19 XP deals with the main Soul Sanctification offering farming. 29 XP deals with adding more evasion to round out this deck.

After 2x Surgical Kit are all in, we can fix Wounded Bystander with that instead so I removed 2x Bizarre Diagnosis. I want to keep 2x Guts to make use of his 3 (+ Lucky! / On the Mend / offerings) to pass things.

There is one "Core Set All-Stars" card missing : Deduction. I included Deduction in the Side Deck just in case you want to modify before starting the campaign. Guts and Knife aren't recommended to remove. Knife is good in this deck. Read more in its section below.

Chances that your non- / friend is mad because this Vincent hogs all the good core cards. If someone need Vicious Blow, you can give them those and add 2x Deduction instead.

Or probably you can swap out two or one Stray Cat, Scavenging, or Grievous Wound for Deduction + Vicious Blow at the same time if you want.

Refine problem!

This Refine card is tricky, they are like personal training weight stuck in your deck.

2x of them are here so Alchemical Distillation gets ☑ Mending Distillate right inside 1st scenario so Vincent can start handing out On the Mend, otherwise just Bizarre Diagnosis works. (I don't have deck space for First Aid or Medical Texts in the starting deck. But in my test play, it is fine for the 1st scenario to not even giving out any On the Mend. Just fight and investigate.)

However the "XP logistic" is complicated. After the 1st scenario where you ticked 1 box successfully, I want to throw 2x Refine all out ASAP, however the replacement is planned to be 2x Surgical Kit. With 3 XP or higher from the 1st scenario, (considering you can use Refine) you switch one Refine out.

The 2nd copy of Surgical Kit to swap Refine out comes after Soul Sanctification's 6 XP. This make you stuck with at least 1x Refine for one or two more scenarios.

Adding only 1x Refine in the first place is an option, but you may not see it in the 1st scenario, defeating its purpose. (Use XP gained from 1st scenario to tick ☑ Mending Distillate instead then.)

I ended up with 2 copies anyway. So if you happened to find that 1x Refine, use it to get ☑ Calming Distillate or contribute to ☑☑☑☑☑ Perfected, only if you have free time.

Scavenge

Scavenging is mainly trying to capitalize on all that XP poured into Alchemical Distillation (Item), committed Surgical Kit, and later the luxury upgrade Flashlight (3) as well. But it is by no mean the main focus of this deck. Feel free to commit it for for your "Look what I found!" attempt on 4 shroud.

The enablers to get 2-over are : Dr. Milan Christopher, Map the Area, On the Mend, and Soul Sanctification offerings.

The hand asset has a permanent - temporary dynamics on each hand :

• Bonesaw
• Machete

...should be permanent. Whichever you found first.

• Knife
• Flashlight / Flashlight •••
• Alchemical Distillation

...are temporary.

The temporary hand should keep knocking each other out for Scavenging. The cost of all temporary Item are either 1 or 2, that should help replaying as often as possible. ☑☑ Refined lowers the need to scavenge Alchemical Distillation, but in 3 players play testing I still used up all 10 supplies across 2 coppies in one Carcosa scenario, by the way!

You don't even have to play Surgical Kit if you got Alchemical Distillation setup already for healing. Just commit for if you are going to work on low shroud location which Scavenging can get it back for more icons. (The "Item-as-Skill" tech.)

Collect offerings

It is straightforward to get offerings for Soul Sanctification, but for completeness I'll summarize where can you get them :

• Bizarre Diagnosis : Soon removed however.
• Surgical Kit ••• : Note that is unlimited use. But the can help getting the overheal on damage or horror. Therefore on yourself has potential to earn 4 offerings. (Don't forget that offering can be earned on horror side too.)
• Alchemical Distillation :
  • Many times your health will start slipping away (e.g. Due to Bonesaw +1 damage usage.) the horror healing (Calming Distillate) can be used to still pump offerings from your still-fine 6 sanity later in the scenario.
  • If you are both fine in health and sanity, Perfected activation and choose both 2 damage + 2 horror to get more offerings. (But don't forget the draw two or two resources option, they are also excellent to choose on perfected distillation.)
• Bonesaw : If you are healthy, you can saw your own bone for 5 offerings once per scenario! Physical trauma may not matter with Vincent's 9 health.
• : At least you can distribute On the Mend for sure, if you are lucky to have someone healthy around you also get an offering!

I found that I used 2~5 offerings total on average per scenario.

Mastering Knife

I didn't retain this card just for surgery theme!

It is easy to underestimate the Knife, but the Knife throw + Vicious Blow + Lucky! is very, very effective. Just Vicious Blow Vincent has 6 at 3 damage, an effect similar to a use of pre-Taboo Strange Solution: Acidic Ichor.

If you are just starting out this humble "Core Set Combo" may not look like anything special, but even in bigger card pool only few investigators has access to Lucky! and Vicious Blow at the same time, while being a clue finder (4 +) AND having 3 to make it land on Standard. Though this deck is low budget I want to make sure the combo is truly a Vincent's thing.

(e.g. Rex Murphy has 2 , can splash Vicious Blow, but due to his lore can't get Lucky!. William Yorick/Daniela Reyes both not as smart as Vincent. Joe Diamond can't get Lucky!. Survivor Carson Sinclair don't want to fight.)

The 1 cost of Knife is important, usually you need to play Dr. Milan Christopher and you don't have luxury to quickly setup Machete as well until you can work with Milan longer. For starting hand : 4 cost Dr. Milan Christopher + 1 cost Knife / Stray Cat is good!

Everything about Knife (Vicious Blow, Lucky!, Grievous Wound) applies to Bonesaw if you can find it, it has the same +2 2 damage but cost your health instead of discard. Knife are great to use before you get to Bonesaw, retaining the same fighting ability with low sunk cost. (Compared to playing Machete, only to find Bonesaw right after.)

Not to say Machete is bad. But in this deck Knife is kind of better from my gut feeling test playing it! (Machete is still great to pair with Flashlight / Alchemical Distillation in the starting hand for 5 resources.)

Grievous Wound?

You may have heard that this card is not popular. That doesn't change in this deck. To be honest, Grievous Wound is mainly here for and rarely you wanna pay 1 to use the effect.

I just want TSK owners to try something new and not Overpower again, now that Vincent has spare splash slot to do so, and 5 Melee weapons to use it. (Also bonus for dark surgeon theme!)

You can apply Grievous Wound (play after success). But ideally you need Stray Cat too so you can disengage and left it to die. Grievous Wound is cool for enemy with annoying criteria to fight each time.

Performing the impossible : Evade

In general, Vincent that can distribute On the Mend back as soon as they are used is good. But messy situation will leave less openings for Vincent to throw On the Mend back. Therefore, exhausting and disengaging an enemy will give you openings to use Surgical Kit or Alchemical Distillation without AoO. Perfected + Quickening Distillation in particular can GTFO and also get heal!

Due to Grievous Wound, able to Evade and walk away might save you time dealing with non-Elite enemies with annoying effect each time you fight (like Retaliate, or other nastier custom effect). You can also continue fighting to the next round.

• Stray Cat : Contests with Dr. Milan Christopher since I don't add Charisma here so use it up liberally. Excellent value for his 1 . But a dead card on hand when you already has Dr. Milan Christopher as committing for won't do anything interesting, unless combined with offerings or On the Mend.
• Existential Riddle • : By choosing "Draw 2 cards" on Perfected Alchemical Distillation, you likely have enough cards to reduce the difficulty to close to zero. Use Map the Area to help reaching zero.
• Flashlight ••• : Combine with Map the Area to get a 0 difficulty on 3 so he succeed even when he has just 1 ! However this combo is added very late in the upgrade plan. Flashlight (3) gets more value via Scavenging.

Tips

• Dr. Milan Christopher + Map the Area : Vincent has 5 + 3 = 8 for this test and Milan's can activate as well. Moreover, you are fighting with shroud which the max is commonly 4, and token maxes out at -4 on Standard. So often Dr. Milan Christopher = map win.
• Map the Area + Alchemical Distillation : "Setup hospital". Can't fail when difficulty is reduced to 0. Ideal in later scenario where tokens get crazy and you are planning for at least 1 effect activated even when Perfected is not reached. (Able to plan ahead is very good.)
• Lifeline • : It maybe hard to look for someone to fail more than once in a turn, but remember that it can be tossed from anywhere in the map. Just 1 extra action is cool when you have no more XP usage left. (And you get to see your friend's delighted face.)
• Existential Riddle • : It can Evade an enemy currently engaging on the other investigator. Combined with dropping Quickening Distillate your team don't have to deal with pointless enemies and can march forward immediately.