Desperate Pete

Wait, where's Miskatonic's Quarterback?..

This deck utilises the new ally Yaotl, one of the new XP cards from the Forgotten Age. As such this decks experience requirement is 2 to begin with. Start with Peter Sylvestre replace with Yaotl after your first scenario.

Standard "Ashcan" Pete deck's utilise Peter Sylvestre as a buffer to compensate for his low sanity. This enables desperate skill cards to shine in this deck. His sits squarely in the average category so a boost to your goes along way.

Peter Sylvestre is a staple in any Survivor deck. This deck utiilises Yaotl instead of Peter Sylvestre. Yaotl's ability has many remarkable combo abilities in correlation with "Ashcan" Pete's main ability and Desperate skill card's four skill icons. As such you do not require to be less than 3 sanity for most tests. It will help in the committing of Desperate cards, but as you will see this isn't the way you'll always be playing them...

Here are just some of the examples of this combo's ability...

1- Making a check using Duke's , you can then Exhaust Yaotl to gain the skill icons on the top card of your discard pile. For example lets say a Shrivelling. Thus you skill value is currently at 5. At this point you could discard any card in your hand to refresh Yaotl. For example, you discard a copy of Reckless Assault. Thus you can now use Yaotl again in the same trigger window. If you do, your skill value is now at 9 as Reckless Assault is now at the top of your discard pile.

2- With the 4 icons on Desperate cards and both Yaotl and Duke in play, you can ensure that your 3 actions per turn with a desperate card in hand that your skill check will be above 4 icons. 5 if your Dark Horse is active.

3- You can use both timing windows in a skill check to your advantage. Using the first example, you can exhaust Yaotl the first time for Shrivelling's icon. Then commit a Vicious Blow. Your skill value is now at 6. Then in your second timing window, discard another card for example. Say a Reckless Assault in your hand (if 2 copies are included). With Yaotl refreshed, you can then trigger his ability to gain the 4 icons from the top of the discard pile. Your skill value is now at 10.

4- The most ludicrous amount you could get in one test would be to full pump Fire Axe, building into an active Dark Horse. You have a Reckless Assault on the top of your discard pile. You activate Yaotl, increasing your skill value to 13. You then commit an Inspiring Presence from your hand. You then discard another Reckless Assault from your hand to refresh Yaotl. You then finally activate Yaotl's ability one last time. Your final skill value is a whopping 18!!! And to top it off, Yaotl is refreshed from Inspiring Presence, if successful. Ready to use again on the following action. The dream. But in reality, HIGHLY unfeasible.

There are other small benefits to this deck that help this combo...

Other benefits this deck has is that it is not slot competitive. 2 Shrivelling slot easy into "Ashcan" Pete's build. Leather Coat has no competition, Cherished Keepsake has no competition, and Machete is only competing against Fire Axe in order to get your deck's weapon amount to a sustainable draw chance.

Another benefit this deck has is it has only icons appearing on Unexpected Courage And Emergency Cache being the only cards that contribute no icons. While this may seem detrimental, envision a test you make with Yaotl ready and there is an Unexpected Courage on top of the discard pile. This deck needs a well maintained discard pile in order to suceed. One card that assists in this mechanic is Resourceful. This card allows you to remove a discarded card from the top of your deck in order to have a +1 bonus to all , and tests when you next use Yaotl as long as no following card is discarded beforehand. To further assist with is, there is a small amount of events in this deck in order to help this hindrance.

What should you build into?..

You want to increase your static skill values as far as possible. To increase your static skill values, Charisma and 2 copies of Peter Sylvestre at 7XP (9XP including Yaotl) are a good purchase to further mitigate taking large amount of accumulating horror. Replace 1 Cherished Keepsake and 1 Leather Coat with Peter Sylvestre. Following this purchase, Key of Ys is an absolute must buy in this deck, perhaps even prior to the purchases above. The amount of static values that you can get "Ashcan" Pete to with this accessory in play is ludicrous. This takes you to 14XP. Replace 1 Cherished Keepsake with Key of Ys.

Survival Instinct is a good replacement for Hiding Spot. Hiding spot may seem like an odd include in an "Ashcan" Pete deck. In this deck though it is an almost necessity as it one of the only level 0 card with 2 icons. A neat little bonus is that after playing Hiding Spot at a location you intend to move to, using Duke's to investigate at a connecting location can allow you to investigate with no attacks of opportunity made if an enemy is present. At this point, if you choose not to contribute any card during the next Mythos phase or another Investigator can contribute to your test in multiplayer: You have 2 on top of the discard pile with which to use with Yaotl's ability to evade the enemy that turn. While gimmicky, it is viable strategy to fly across the map with a smaller amount of repercussions. Survival Instinct allows this with greater flexibility as you can commit the card in between your 2 free trigger windows and it won't appear on top of your discard pile until after the test resolves. This takes you to 16XP.

You may be inclined to include Exile cards in this deck build. Although quite incredible in their abilities, they are detrimental to this build, as these icons will never appear on top of your discard pile. Instead they can also be treated as test stalling mechanics. Playing a card like A Test of Will will allow you to avoid committing a card to your discard pile, if your certain the Reckless Assault that is already on top of your discard pile is required for the next fight test you will be conducting on your turn. Replace Dumb Luck with A Test of Will. This takes you to 17XP if not a constant purchase.

Why Guts and Manual Dexterity, but no Overpower or Perception?..

The Innate trait. Which brings to another key XP purchase, True Survivor! No better card for this deck. It enables redraw of some crucial skill cards in your deck such as Resourceful in order to get your True Survivor's back. And Inspiring Presence in order to keep Yaotl in the game. If order to minimise the card's exposure, it would be beneficial to really focus on getting the right skill card's back to your hand, as True Survivor has no icons on it and would be detrimental if left at the top of your discard pile. This takes you to 20XP. Replace 1 copy of Resourceful if you aim to constantly draw it back from the discard to replace itself.