Harrigans Law

The upgrade path was different before Stick to the Plan was a thing. That effectively allows me to cut my copies of Prepared for the Worst down to one, although my other choices for that slot (Extra Ammo and Supply Cache) will still need to be two.

Early XP is now S2tP - Eat Lead + Extra Ammo - Shotgun - Eat Lead + Extra Ammo - Upgrades. Mainly.

After one game, one thing that is clear is that Mark is INCREDIBLY tanky in this list. Mark with two copies of True Grit and Beat Cop in play can soak an incredible 17 damage. However Mental damage is his achilles heel, but First Aid and Smoking Pipe help mitigate that somewhat. Heck, even the Beatcop has 2 Sanity. So you have a Guardian who can tank damage (from other players in the case of True Grit, and even Dodge) and who can seriously deal it out thanks to Machete or the 32. Colt. Survival Dagger in his offhand works really well with his tankyness also, as you don't have to feel so frantic to kill off an enemy in your turn, you can soak some damage, draw a card and then stab him in the face* at 7 fist and 2 Damage.

Word has to be mentioned about his ability. It specifies Once Per PHASE. PHASE. So, you drop a Dynamite at your feet? Draw a card. A Monster hits you in the monster phase? Draw a card. You take an encounter card that deals damage during the mythos phase? Card.

Marcs ability takes away one of the two big problems Guardians have in coming online: Card Draw. With Stick to the Plan (which you can almost certainly get after a single game) you have a good chance of ending up armed and ready to go by turn 1 reliably, and anything your missing will get added to your hand soon enough.

His big weakness, as always however, is cash-flow. Putting a Cache in Stick to the Plan helps, but mid-campaign you want a Shotgun. There are no ifs or buts about that, and they don't come cheap.

*where applicable