Finn for the Win (Hard, 2-player)

Finn with cards up to The Feast of Hemlock Vale. He is in general best played in tandem with a mystic or someone with willpower of 4 and upwards as he needs to be able to use "You handle this one!" without causing a stir.

There are two upgrade path options for this Finn: “Shotgun Finn for the Win Upgraded” or “Speedy Finn for the Win Upgraded”. Both upgrades have links below and are described here.

Option 1: “Shotgun Finn for the Win Upgraded”: This is a fun version where I wanted to use Sawed-Off Shotgun, a card often deemed hard to find a use for, hence a challenge to pull off, but is paired together with Quickdraw Holster and a few other supporting tricks. Once this future combination is reached, Finn has a couple of free high skill shots that can easily deal 5-6 damage. Note: The side deck above is for Shotgun Finn’s upgrade path.

Option 2: “Speedy Finn for the Win Upgraded”: This is the slightly more sensible upgrade path that doesn’t get maxed out with the shotgun but which will get Finn to have many actions.

But back to talking about this core version, the whys, and how to use and upgrade it:

This Finn starts out as a flex but becomes more of a fighter in the end as Shotgun Finn, and more as a flex cluever as Speedy Finn.

Survivability: To protect him from damage and horror, primarily the latter due to his low willpower, he has several cards at his disposal: "You handle this one!", Logical Reasoning, CV and Say Your Prayers. Consider two logical reasoning if your partner has no healing. Damage protection otherwise comes mainly from high agility and thus a free evade.

Clue gathering: He has a core of 4 intellect and 3 tools to help him search, with Deduction adding some action compression as well as Pilfer, which he should have a good chance to be able to get off with a high skill. Remember to use Smuggled Goods on your deck to prime in on lockpicks for repeated use.

Enemy management: With few weapons, the .18 Derringer is particularly useful as you can try to hit high fight value enemies early to stock up extra ammo if you miss, then evade and escape. But really Finn is excellent at just using his evade ability early game to effectively get rid of enemies. Disguise is a powerful card to help you be left at peace longer while you are going about your clue gathering and scenario beating.

Economy: The number of skills make the deck cheaper to use. Lone Wolf was chosen over Faustian Bargain because of how this deck is planned to be upgraded; Lone Wolf is (obviously) more useful the longer you have it and The Red Clock will soon be added as a similar long term economy card, increasing the likelihood of one of the three in your starting hand or having one early on. And as powerful as Faustian can be, especially if used early on in a scenario, it is not unlikely it will be the cause of a failed test or two later on, but just as importantly, any curse token will decrease the range of success for Shotgun Finn using his Sawed-Off Shotgun or any of the two Finn’s range of success with the upgraded Pilfer. "I'll take that!" is a good starting economy card for Finn with his high evade and investigation success rates (the latter especially with lockpicks), and being a fast event. Optionally, you can add another "I'll take that!" to boost economy and remove a Manual Dexterity. Later Pickpocketing will start adding money as well.

Card draw: Remember to use Smuggled Goods on your deck for potentially repeated card draw. The two Manual Dexterity will soon be replaced with the upgraded Pickpocketing, which are a fantastic cards for Finn. I have also opted to add Thorough Inquiry for a massive emergency card boost. Again, this is in part to avoid any curse tokens from Deep Knowledge, and for some variation from that otherwise very useful card I too often play.

Intangibles: Fox Mask is particularly strong with Finn because his free evade action and easy refill, hence two copies.

Besides for the enjoyment of going off staple with a gambling card that suits his smuggler profile, "Hit me!" can provide the rare big save for Finn in a hard scenario against a nasty willpower treachery - it can convert -3 or -5 to +3 or +5. It is a card that improves on hard and expert scenarios in general in any kind of use. Hit me! becomes significantly worse playing against a partner with curse (or bless) deck. Consider replacing it with Elusive or Sneak Attack if that’s the case.

Starting hand: Try to get at least one economy card in your starting hand, as well as a clue card. Smuggled Goods is great for finding key cards. After that, bonus points for “You Handle This One!” or Logical Reasoning (or keep any one skill) when you mulligan, if reasonable, as it will be tough to get out too many assets anyway.

Upgrade paths: Upgrade paths are scenario dependent but priorities should initially be:

Priority one: Charon's Obol Get this after the first scenario and not with In the Thick of It. Two trauma is not worth two extra experience here.

Priority two(s): Buy these below in any order depending on the campaign, but they are listed from top to bottom as a mild suggestion of order of purchase:

2xLockpicks

1xSavant To replace [Say Your Prayers] for more flexibility.

2xPickpocketing Replaces the two Manual Dexterity. Great cards for Finn, keep them if you get them in your starting hand.

2xSharpshooter 2xDelilah O'Rourke For Shotgun Finn. Sharpshooter will help your weapons be more effective, in particular your shotgun. Usually the big baddies in the end have equal or less in evade compared to fight. Either way your agility will be higher than your fight, much higher after boosting it. Delilah will help you become a more reliable damage dealer even without your shotgun, and will easily be able to deal with some enemies either engaged with your partner or being aloof.

2xDirty Fighting 2xLola Santiago For Speedy Finn. These will make you the action and evade king, while stealing clues.

1xThe Red Clock A fantastic card for these builds, especially for Shotgun Finn, who can make use of the free +3 bonus and do some damage even if he is yet to draw Sharpshooter. But apart from that, it is a strategic, complex card that allows for both creativity, planning and some happy frustration when it doesn’t quite give you what you want when you want it.

The rest of the cards are in priority three, and so depend on both campaign and experience earned in terms of which order to purchase them. And also when you want to try them. Perhaps you want to try the shotgun+quickdraw holster combination sooner rather than later. Remember, both of them can be found with Smuggled Goods.