Horse Doctor

Vincent may not have the godly statlines and stunning good looks of your Mark Harrigans or Mandy Thompsons. He may not have the best signature, ability or action compression in the game. But in spite of that, he's going to shrug off the worst the mythos can throw at him, reliably find clues, heal his team and take down tough enemies with nothing but a humble bonesaw and fire axe.

This deck combines a standard Dark Horse package & Practice Makes Perfect package with healing support. I really felt the limits of a 30 card deck size when building this, and we're running more singletons than you might expect to see in an "optimized" deck. Thankfully, our trusty backpack helps us find our key one-ofs like Surgical Kit or Hallowed Mirror, in addition to our hand items should we fail to find them in our opening hand. Two lvl 2 backpacks should be our first upgrade.

The asset package can be pretty expensive, and it's probably best to wait until you're properly set up to plop down a Dark Horse for the stat boosts. Emergency Cache is not the best econ option for a lot of decks, but here it synergizes with Backpack and is less conditional than Crack the Case during those key early turns where on-demand resource generation is most needed.

Surgical kit is fantastic in this deck, helping with card draw and horror healing, two areas that are a bit lacking for the starting deck. It also lets us get rid of our weakness with a clean two actions. Best to put horror directly on vincent rather than Labranche to benefit most from it.

Tinker is a pet card that lets us hold a bonesaw, axe and compass all at once. It's nice to flexibly switch between your saw and axe depending on the situation. Inspiring Presence can help you squeeze a little more out of Labranche (and more importantly, Girish once we upgrade) in one turn.

While you can PMP during an investigation if you haven't drawn your Deductions or Perception yet, fishing for a +1 damage skill to finish off an odd-health enemy is likely to be a bit more reliable.

As you upgrade the deck, the Dark Horse package goes from the centerpiece of the deck to a nice bonus that synergizes with other boosts like Girish, Crafty and Grisly Totem. Flare should be used liberally for getting Girish into play or as a panic button if you already have him. Lvl 2 backpack means we can be a bit frugal with XP and get by with one grisly totem and surgical kit. Crafty is a must-include, helping out our economy and boosting our bonesaw and compass tests without turning off Dark Horse.

Mouse Mask, Higher Education and On the Mend (with a boost from Grisly Totem) should help you through must-pass Willpower tests in the mythos phase. Your Agility is more or less beyond saving, but hey, you don't mind taking a bit of damage any way!