The Skids Surprise

Card draw simulator

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yohhighness · 40

This is my scenario ready parallel Skids deck. It is incredibly fun to play! Also it is very easy to build! Once the Dream Eaters releases under the new format, all you need to build this deck are it, the revised Core Set, and the Winifred Habbamock starter deck (and download the print n play cards).

One thing that makes me particularly excited is when I get to use unlikely cards to great advantage. The obvious example here is Surprising Find. It has been truly surprising how useful that card is in this deck. The only searches are Practice Makes Perfect and Lucky Cigarette Case. But with parallel Skids' thin deck, it’s really easy to stumble upon a copy. I will say, this deck could be compared to a fine-tuned precision engine. If something goes wrong, it can become hard to pilot. The weakness Through the Gates is particularly dangerous. When I took this deck to GenCon to fight the Blob, he devoured one of my Mausers, and it became really hard to “reload” the other one. It required playing both Lockpicks so the empty Mauser would discard and then cycling the deck.

Cycling the deck comes easier to this one than anything I’ve ever played. Three cycles is a low number in any given scenario. This means two things: you’ll get to play/commit the same awesome cards over and over and over again, and you’ll take a certain amount of horror… My first draft of this deck did not have the Liquid Courage, and I only survived the scenario because one of the other players had some heal. Liquid Courage plays well into this deck tho. On a lucky pull you get to draw another card, and we really like drawing cards. Also, it has pips, and so does the upgraded Cigarette Case, that means that Skids becomes really consistent in passing tests! My friend played a Silas deck in a scenario where we had to pass a certain number of tests, and despite our low stats, we did so with ease!

Otherwise, it’s quite straightforward. Leo De Luca gives you the extra action to have a leg up on the scenario, you kill things with Mausers and investigate with Lockpicks. Usually you succeed because you have a plethora of cards to commit, and succeeding leads to further draws, which leads to more cards to commit. If your Mauser runs out of bullets you play another one. And by the time that one runs out, the old one should be back in your thin deck, ready to be found on a Cigarette Case trigger. Ensure you get to search your whole deck by playing Daring Maneuver (or reuse the Mauser on the same turn if you got a rough token). And in a pinch, when you have few cards in your hand, use parallel Skids’s ability to get a skill test. It lets you commit Manual Dex for draw, or use Practice Makes Perfect to find Momentum, make your next test easier and trigger the Cigarette Case or a Surprising Find in your deck in the process. That should refresh your hand, and you still get to take your four actions that turn.

It’s min-max-y but very powerful! Let me know if you have any stories of using Surprising Find or any other underrated card to great success!

PS, if you want to play a Lv0 version of this deck, I suggest replacing Surprising Find with Fortuitous Discovery, Momentum with Nimble, and Liquid Courage with Lucky. Downgrade everything else and prioritize upgrading back to Momentum asap because it’s an important target for Practice Makes Perfect. (Mausers next, then Cig Cases and Surprising Finds. Save Daring Maneuver and Liquid Courage for last.)

2 comments
Sep 13, 2023 PJFrigate · 272 Thank you for sharing this. I can attest that the Parallel Skids Surprising Find concept is very fun to play, and that Solo Parallel Skids is super fun! I have run a 3xp version (Surprising Find, Three Aces, Easy Mark) that uses Backpack early and then upgrades to Lucid Dreaming and the LCC (3) to help trigger the Surprising Finds. I used a one-of Dario El Amin and the big money hoarding cards. Once the Three Aces were removed and the "I'll Take That"s were attached to assets in play, on my second pass through the deck I was hitting mostly skills and fast events, and any discarded assets would return to hand very quickly. I essentially never had to take a draw or resource action, which made me miss Leo's fourth action less than I otherwise might have. I like Dario's boosts and the soak is the same as Leo's for 33% less cost. PMP can hit the Three Aces on the first deck cycle and by then my draw pile is so thin that I don't need as many Practiced targets. I think your deck is fantastic at 19xp but I mention my version as an alternative starting point to end up in roughly the same place.
Sep 13, 2023 yohhighness · 40 `@PJFrigate` thank you so much! Your deck sounds awesome! I would love to try that! I have actually run into the “problem” of having more actions than I know what to do with on occasion in this deck. And I don’t play Dario enough! This might merit a change! Leo’s cost is hardly prohibitive with Skids’ ability tho I find. But for some reason, what pushed it over the edge for me wanting to post about this deck, was realizing that it takes only such few packs to assemble, (especially with repackaged Dream-Eaters most likely being around the corner). I still don’t have a complete collection of player cards, but I do have the ones you are mentioning save for Lv0 backpack (I only have the upgraded version because I love Return to’s and figure I’ll eventually buy all the campaign boxes).

2 comments

Sep 13, 2023 PJFrigate · 272

Thank you for sharing this. I can attest that the Parallel Skids Surprising Find concept is very fun to play, and that Solo Parallel Skids is super fun! I have run a 3xp version (Surprising Find, Three Aces, Easy Mark) that uses Backpack early and then upgrades to Lucid Dreaming and the LCC (3) to help trigger the Surprising Finds. I used a one-of Dario El Amin and the big money hoarding cards. Once the Three Aces were removed and the "I'll Take That"s were attached to assets in play, on my second pass through the deck I was hitting mostly skills and fast events, and any discarded assets would return to hand very quickly.

I essentially never had to take a draw or resource action, which made me miss Leo's fourth action less than I otherwise might have. I like Dario's boosts and the soak is the same as Leo's for 33% less cost.

PMP can hit the Three Aces on the first deck cycle and by then my draw pile is so thin that I don't need as many Practiced targets.

I think your deck is fantastic at 19xp but I mention my version as an alternative starting point to end up in roughly the same place.

Sep 13, 2023 yohhighness · 40

@PJFrigate thank you so much! Your deck sounds awesome! I would love to try that!

I have actually run into the “problem” of having more actions than I know what to do with on occasion in this deck. And I don’t play Dario enough! This might merit a change! Leo’s cost is hardly prohibitive with Skids’ ability tho I find.

But for some reason, what pushed it over the edge for me wanting to post about this deck, was realizing that it takes only such few packs to assemble, (especially with repackaged Dream-Eaters most likely being around the corner). I still don’t have a complete collection of player cards, but I do have the ones you are mentioning save for Lv0 backpack (I only have the upgraded version because I love Return to’s and figure I’ll eventually buy all the campaign boxes).