Pres-ton of money Fair(ish)mont!

This is a fine and fancy Preston Fairmont deck that plays to his wealth and privilege but without using the cards from Circle Undone which require Preston to keep drawing on his inheritance to keep increasing those stats and keeping those palms greasy.

The first things to mention about this build are the cards that require cash (resources) to power their abilities; hard knocks might seem tempting for the fight but dig deep gives you evade and will and fire axes can be fueled from Preston’s family inheritance, trust me it’s sweet when you land a couple of 7 fight, 2 damage attacks. The knives are for dealing with rats and the like but will be early targets for upgrading out. Speaking of rats, Joey “The Rat” Vigil makes a lot of sense with this build as both a meat shield and an economy card for Preston who can exploit the free actions to get his weapons or his flashlights out. Whilst we are on Allies - Leo De Luca is a must in this build as is a Charisma upgrade later on. Through Return To The Dunwhich Legacy Preston hasn’t minded killing off either Joey once he’s served his purpose or one of the scenario’s other accumulated allies or indeed just to replacing Leo or Joey with themselves as Preston can afford to do this. There’s an argument for Aquinnah but I’ve not yet found the card I want to give up for her in this deck.

Ok let’s talk Survivor cards! Preston is a perfect candidate for Rise To The Occasion as this works off his BASE stats so for any skills test of 3 or more. This will always put you one over a 3 skill value test so for will and evasion tests to get two over for standard mode would merely take one of your many resources, just throw some cash at it. RTTO also works well with Flashlights and Double or Nothing for extra clues. If your not yet in business with your build it's useful to have a lucky rabbits foot about for the extra card draw and because you can pay a measly 2 resources to play it without using an action if Joey is about. Superstition is a card that Preston prefers to play close to his chest and I like keeping both Rabbit's feet, upgrading the knives to a lucky dice and Key of Ys and getting Relic hunter at some point so that Preston can really make the most of fine collection of adornments. The elephant in the drawing room here is cunning distraction, too expensive for most cash strapped survivors but our Preston is a survivor that has his cloth cut, and tailored, a bit differently. What does it matter if it costs 5 resources to evade even one enemy, there’s plenty more in the bank.

How does a silver palmed, gold plated bachelor go about dispatching his enemies when he’s no fire axe to hand? With more money of course! Ok I haven’t done the math, I have an accountant for that, but with Backstab and cheap shot being easily payed for through digging deep into your very, very deep pockets, if you’ve managed to evade your enemies why not do a a good old fashioned sneak attack! I would definitely consider upgrading Backstab for multiplayer games, or for dealing with Whippoorwills, but this combo really shines once our finely fathered friend gets a bit more streetwise.

We all know Preston is a high roller but he has no problems putting all his chips on red and going double or nothing when using his fire axes or with a quick thinking backstab to rise to the occasion and really do something spectacular - just don’t pull a tentacle, please god, nooo! In all seriousness you can pretty much guarantee when your going to succeed so taking quick thinking makes so much sense. I have found that cheap shot works quite nicely with double or nothing later in this build once you get your Key of Ys , you can easily evade and do 2 damage with one spin of the wheel.

Ok lets talk upgrades:

No.1 Charon's Obel -Preston can fall foul to his Lodge debts and sometimes has to spend the last 2 turns of the game getting rid of this and resigning (at least in solo play anyway) and the ferryman's coin gives him chance to do this and still get some decent XP.

No.2 Streetwise, once you have this you can start upgrading away your dig deep or you can get rid of the knives first depending on the needs of your scenario. Don't worry too much about the encounter deck, we want to get horror to power up No.3 upgrade.

No.3 Key of Ys, so powerful in this build and worth keeping both rabbit's feet about for as this makes you more likely to be able to draw through your deck if this doesn't come out early on.

No.4 Devil's luck, why? -because it helps keep your one 5XP Keys of Y's in play and is only 1XP. It can also set up some really nice plays, help deal with Beyond The Veil, and is handy in a boss fights. I'd take a second copy of this at some point, even if you've not exiled your first yet. I swapped out a Backstab for this as I favor the combo of Cheap shot and Sneak attack.

No.5/No.6 Relic Hunter/Charisma in an order to suite your scenarios.

More XP? I upgraded my Sneak attacks to help with whipowills in solo but also useful for team play. Lucky dice is also a nice addition as is an upgraded Rise to the Occasion.