Nice stuff! As we've discussed decks a bit already in the run-up to TDC, I only saw an earlier version of this lacking Underworld Market. I think it's inclusion post-taboo is ballsy and inspired - and a great way of accessing guns persistently and side-stepping much of the penalty of Confiscation. Definitely a fresh take on Michael that I can't imagine anyway else taking - I like it!

(anyway = anyone, I curse the lack of an edit button...!)

Crack shot seems to be missing:
arkhamdb.com

@serpnt Crack Shot seems a bit excessive when you're already testing at 7-8 most of the time.

A great deck and a great write up!

Q: Given that your weakness makes it wise for you to be holding 1+ guns in hand a fair proportion of the time, Robert Castaigne(4) seems to be very synergistic/attractive even given the anti-synergy of not getting resources from the bullets he fires. Can I ask whether you tried him out and cut him? Or just cut him on principal?

Hey @serpnt thanks for the recommendation! As @Wittebaard already said it, the base skill value is already high enough that you don’t need skill cards that don’t bring payoff value (as opposed to "Watch this!" or Quick Thinking). However I can see Crack Shot being used in Wini or Tony decks in the future!

@RichardPlunkett that’s a good point! However thanks to the Underworld Market this never felt like an issue. After you pull the most important cards out of your Market you will end up with a couple of guns there that you won’t need anymore. This way they stay available for when you draw Confiscation.

Also, you can spend a resource to draw at least one gun even if you don’t need it immediately, to prepare for your weakness, but be careful not to overshoot your hand limit.

Why does the 0xp version have 2 random basic weaknesses?

@Grahamers Good catch! That's definitely a mistake from my side, when duplicating decks. All other decks from the series have the same I suppose so I'll go and correct it right now :)

i’m probably missing something, but the 0XP deck says 3XP required?

@mcd1982 The 0XP deck has In the Thick of It.

I do quite enjoy Fence with Michael. There's plenty of assets to play out which really let it shine. And yeah, I agree 100%- playing a Bank Job with it feels glorious.

Thanks for sharing, Valentin, it's always a pleasure to read the wombo combos you have found ! :) I know this is quite some exp, but have you tried the Robert Castaigne / Mob Connections cycling ? Since we put Lonnie Ritter aside, we could also use Joey "The Rat" Vigil + Stylish Coat to get a 5th star economy and play the big money instead.

@KaiserKlaus I didn't use Mob Connections because of the tax every time you want to draw one of your guns again. Combined with the fact that you have to find that one copy in your deck and play it before you can start using it. I suppose that having Haste to have an extra activation for free after shooting 2 guns could really help. If I wanted to use it, it would most likely be with Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3) to also get back the resources to draw the card.

And speaking of the devil, my first testing was with Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3) instead of Lonnie, and even without Stylish Coat, the resources generated were insane, however, the deck became too dependant on finding Well Connected, and big money decks work a lot better with decks that do a lot with little actions, like Pilfer or Sawed-Off Shotgun.
Michael McGlen on the other hand wants to shoot small guns multiple times per turn, making a not ideal candidate for Well Connected.
So it ended up costing a lot of experience that I would have rather used to upgrade my guns, helping with payoffs and reliability. Also I realised that Fence would solve the fast play issue without using a slot!

Did you ever try sleight of hand in any of your previous builds? Seems like a good fit for all these level 0-3 weapons?

Charisma+Leo for more pew-pew?

I’m also probably missing something but the 0xp deck seems to include a total of 5 xp cards. 3xEasy Mark plus 2xFence. In the thick of it accounts for 3 xp only.

Ignore my comment above about xp. Realized Easy Mark is a myriad card.

Hey @Sidfreeze, I did have Sleight of Hand until late in my testing, but I cut it off because it is a bit off with Michael McGlen's ability.
The best use of Sleight of Hand is usually to put a weapon in play, empty all the ammo in one round, and get it back. Michael McGlen on the other hand wants you to shoot as many different weapons as possible in the same round. So since Sleight of Hand is already a good card that I played a lot, I was happy to set it aside and use other cards in this deck!

@kriger I wasn't a big fan because LdL comes with a massive upfront cost, and as many other weapon-based investigators, the setup cost is steep. So adding another 6 resources to the early stage of a scenario felt a bit intense. But there is a plethora of options to get more pew-pew available to Michael McGlen.

• Haste is a good one consider his ability that wants you to do a lot of small attacks
• Borrowed Time is also a very interesting one to dust off and give space in this deck, even though it technically doesn't give you net actions.
• Finally, Quickdraw Holster is Illicit and gives you an extra hand slot. So it should have been great here, because this deck is exactly what it was designed for, but it remains ridiculously overpriced, both in XP and Resources.

I believe these 3 options are somehow slightly better or at least more fun than Leo De Luca, but feel free to add him as he can also be turned into resources or a card on your off turns, which is not the case for most of the above cards.

@akhosam It is because Easy Mark is Myriad, so all 3 copies only cost 1xp!

Using Bank Job with Fence wouldn’t trigger an AoO, right? Cause you’re not taking an action, you’re paying one?

Just want to give you top star kudos for your deck building and analysis. So incredibly helpful and fun! Playing George and Michael in Drowned City campaign based on your info and having a blast. Cheers!

Hi, thanks for the deck! I'm wondering if there is a way to play around the weakness apart from the market. Would the free trigger action from the upgraded .32 Colt work before the revelation effect of Confiscation?

@Nene Unfortunately that wouldn't work. There is no player window between drawing Confiscation and its resolution to activate the .32 Colt's ability.

@PanicMoon You are right, it won't.

Of course, there may be something I don't understand, but it seems to me that there are a lot of questionable cards in the deck.

1. Skills. Why would a detective with 3 need dexterity and willpower cards like Manual Dexterity and Guts? These cards will only bring your will or dexterity up to 5, which is not very reliable. It's easier to just soak up Lonnie Ritter's damage or take "You handle this one!" Unexpected Courage just doesn't give you anything other than +2. Why is there no Overpower, which works on your main stat, and will almost always give you a card. Besides, it will work well together with Quick Thinking and Watch this!

2. "Where's the party?" and Kicking the Hornet's Nest. As if they were too expensive in terms of actions. You have to spend 1 action for the card itself and then hit the enemy 1.2 more times.

3. One-handed guns are fun, but I don't really understand the meaning of them in this deck. You can also take Robert Castaigne (4) and Remington Model 1858 (4). Because you have a lot of pistols and you will be able to shoot from your hand, and you will often rearm, so you can use the Remington Model 1858 (4) abilities.

@Obozheee

Not Valentin, but my thinking on your points:

1. Skills: essentially these are defensive picks against the Mythos phase. Guts and Man Dex are both amazing because they replace themselves once you use them. There are lots of 3 or 4 Willpower/Dex tests in the encounter deck, and running into those at +1 or +2 will give you a meaningful increase in success rate vs. running in at 0 or -1. Unexpected Courage is great early in any campaign with an investigator with 3s for same reason; its going to put you 2 up on the bag to a lot of the basic stuff the encounter deck will throw at you, and thats a good place to be.

2. Both these cards play better than they read, especially 'Where's the party?' that brings the Enemy in exhausted. Michael wants a target rich environment to do his thing, and these cards provide value while supplying you with things to shoot at. Fringe benefits also in thinning threats from the deck and engaging otherwise tricky enemies.

3. Valentin covered in the thread above why he's not gone for Robert, essentially Underworld Market is proving similar benefits. That said, I think Robert is an amazing card, and I can see him making a lot of Michael decks, but this list does make me want to try this build without him.

I really like "Where's the party?", and I think the notional 2 player build target probably makes this even more attactive, because not enough enemies typically get drawn to keep a near-pure fighter busy in 2p.

Hornet's Nest is a lot less reliable, but according to the comments is near first on the cut list. Apart from avoiding idle turns, cards like these can also be very good at finding VP enemies that haven't naturally turned up by mid-late game.

With the Remington Model 1858, I suspect the main issue is that it's not Illicit. A central deck idea here seems to be that sticking ~8 guns in the Underworld Market deck means you will essentially be offered one every turn, creating incredible reliability both start-up and post weakness. The 1858 is a great gun and I am sure many decks will run it, especially if running Sleight of Hand, but I can see why this one didn't and I think its the right choice.

But really for your points 1 & 2, maybe it's just taste, and YMMV? I, for one, never play net-decks untweaked.

Thanks all for your input, I didn't react immediately because I liked the discussion!

I won't go into much details, but I think @RichardPlunkett puts it perfectly. These dekcs are made to be a base for understanding a new investigator's ability, highlighting some synergies, and helping players when they don't have much time to deckbuild. It is fortunately not a definitive list of everything that is possible. What you mention @Obozheee with Robert Castaigne (4) is probably good, but it is an entirely different build. It's a bit like in an RPG, a warrior asking a mage why they prefer a staff over a 2-handed claymore.

I get a lot of comments "what about this card, or that card", and I always say that players should absolutely tweak these decks if they want to, and maybe even come back with feedback on things that worked, or not so we can all learn from it. I'm always happy to publish changelogs or more details in existing decks!

And finally there is the playstyle. I love @HungryColquhoun's decks because they are radically different from mine, and it shows that different people have different ways of enjoying the game. Take the tarot cards, for example, which are often present in their decks and almost never in mine. I don't think that one is necessarily better or stronger than another, or maybe it is, but it's a coop game, so does it even matter that much? I publish decks that reflect my way of enjoying the game, and some have called this specific deck "too fiddly". That's totally valid if it's not their style! I suppose they then tweaked it to their liking, and as long as they saw a couple of things they found interesting in this guide, then my goal is achieved :)

Hello,

That's a great deck. Unfortunately, I'm having a few problems understanding it.

We've been playing the game for ages, but we usually build our own decks. Since we usually lose a lot with that - because we simply can't keep track of all the cards anymore - we were looking for a source of inspiration. I'd love to try this deck in the next campaign and have already put together the 0 XP version.

Unfortunately, I don't understand some of the points in this tool. 1.) What is meant by "side deck"? 2.) Why are there 10 cards in the upgrade path in the Black Market step that are essentially free?

Perhaps someone can help me with that. or is there a page where the db tool is explained? I think it is more like a fundamental problem with the site other then with the deck ;)

Sorry... no editing posible it is the Underworldmarket step in question 2. Translation tool mixed up the terms.

art -

1) The side deck is just a place to keep cards that you haven’t added to your deck yet. They can be cards that you plan on adding as you upgrade your deck or they could be cards that you’re contemplating adding as you build your deck. It’s just a separate stack of cards that’s not your deck.

2) underworld market increases your deck size by 10. When you upgrade to it, you need to add 10 more cards to your deck. The 10 listed cards are the cards that you would add when you add underworld market.