"Extra Actions" O'Toole (Parallel back, OG front)

"Extra Actions" O'Toole

Original Front + Parallel Back

While I do think that Parallel front + back Skids is a bit more fun to play, overall, I think that there's a lot of potential to classic front + Parallel back. I'm not sure if this deck fulfills all of that potential, but hopefully it will inspire better deck builders than myself to come up with something. I did have a pretty good run of a fan-made campaign (Alice in Wonderland) with a deck that was very similar to this (I have made some adjustments according to the performance of that deck). It did struggle with L0 Rogue syndrome in the first couple scenarios, though.

The reason why I think that classic front "Skids" O'Toole is worth considering is that extra actions are actually crazy good in true solo. If you take 2 extra actions per turn you'll be seeing something like 2/3 as many encounters, and have 2/3 more rounds to accomplish your goals.

The Parallel back, on the other hand offers you Fortune and Gambit cards instead of guardian cards, which gives him some useful options. The other big advantage of the back is allowing you to retain copies of powerful cards (in this case Lucky! and Hot Streak) when upgrading. With 4 copies of Hot Streak, you have a very good chance of getting one in your opening hand, allowing you to start taking extra actions from the get-go and get Leo De Luca out without taking a huge tempo hit. The benefit of having 4x Lucky! should be obvious, but if it's not, you can succeed at tests that you have no business succeeding at, and you run into a lot of those in a solo campaign.

A few explanations for specific cards:

Why Delilah O'Rourke? Well, I'm not 100% sure of this choice in this deck, either, as there is a bit of anti-synergy between spending your resources on extra actions and spending your resources on assassinations. In general, I really like Delilah in true solo because she allows you to focus most of your deck on things that aren't fighting enemies. This is important because Rogues normally aren't great at fighting out of the gates (though most of them can at least step on a Rat, which is more than you can say of Ursula Downs). It's also true that you can get away with just evading enemies a lot more easily in true solo, but there will always be corner cases where this isn't viable like when you get swarmed or when enemies are collecting doom. I think a big part of why I like Delilah O'Rourke is because she is basically a hard-counter to the Dark Cult encounter set. Wizards and Acolytes can be assassinated cheaply with few or no actions. If you add in Hatchet Man she can even deal with 3-healthers, which are incredibly common in certain campaigns *cough* Forgotten Age *cough*. In order to deal with these things, otherwise, you'll need either stat boosts and weapons or damage events, both of which will take up more space than Delilah O'Rourke. I would probably recommend spending the money sparingly to allow for more extra actions, and depend on evasion and kiting as much as possible. The actual version of this deck that I played had 2x Sneak Attack and 1x Backstab (for 3-healthers, not as common in Wonderland, as it turns out). I tended to need to use the events sparingly anyway because they are far more limited than Delilah's ability (you can Scrounge them, though). There were times when it was hard to deal with enemies and especially bosses in the campaign.

Trench Coat is here so that you don't have to go too long without a static boost. I've always strongly believed that 5 is way better than 4. Don't want to have to use up your Luckies too fast. In the actual campaign I ran 2x The Moon • XVIII, and actually managed to get it in my opening hand quite a few times, but it's not really necessary to have a proper boost if you aren't running Backstab, unless you're playing like... Heart of the Elders Pt. 1 or something.

Say Your Prayers is for potentially game-ending tests, but I don't think I used it a single time. With 2, Lucky! and/or a few or icons I didn't actually fail very many tests. This probably varies from campaign to campaign, though. However, you will see a lot fewer Mythos phases when you're taking 5 action turns. I can't stress how powerful that is in solo!

Lockpicks and Intel Report are usually adequate to get enough clues for solo, but I did get super unlucky quite a few times and had both Lockpicks in the bottom half of my deck. Sometimes I would still draw Intel Report, but a lot of times it was before I had gained enough resources to be able to afford it (this deck, and original front Skids in general, are insanely money-hungry). In such cases, I was usually able to get clues with some combination of committing Intel Report or UC to tests, and Lucky!. Scrounge for Supplies is especially useful for these cases.

Lucky Cigarette Case is at the center of the draw engine for this deck. It will usually only get triggered by Lockpicks. This deck isn't very good at overachieving. While you'll probably get the first Hot Streak or two pretty early on, you do burn through them pretty quickly playing assets and taking extra actions, so it's important that you can draw through your deck to keep taking extra actions. I was a little dissatisfied with the amount of draw in this deck, but I have a few ideas of what to try next time (see Upgrades section)

Lone Wolf More money = more actions. 'Nuff said. Same story with "Watch this!".

Downgrades

Hot Streak started as Emergency Cache, but you're not going to be taking many extra actions with only that. Hot Streak x4 should be pretty early upgrades

Without Delilah O'Rourke, I would probably try to fit Backstab (for 3-healthers), and Sneak Attack. The number of each will largely depend on how many 3-healthers you expect to see. In TFA, don't bother with Sneak Attack (well, maybe for scenarios with Dark Cult), but Alice in Wonderland had a lot more 2 and 4 health enemies than 3 and 5. Hatchet Man is probably one of the things you cut for this.

Lockpicks was Flashlight, though Lockpicks (0) might be worth consideration as it can be Scrounged if you lose it.

Upgrades

You'll probably want Charon's Obol and Adaptable

I actually originally built this deck with the intent of running Double, Double to make Lucky!, Hot Streak, and Scrounge for Supplies better. I did this, although it's a bit difficult to find the single copy in your deck, and I actually only got to double Scrounge once, as it got discarded from my hand by an encounter card before I could use it more than once. The Double, Double + Hot Streak combo helped me get to 55 resources in All or Nothing, which is not too shabby considering that this is a money-hungry campaign deck rather than a deck specifically teched to that scenario.

A second copy of Delilah O'Rourke (if you choose to go that way) is probably a good plan for consistency. Probably over Trench Coat.

Leo De Luca (1) is worthwhile to get effectively 0.5 more actions over the course of a scenario.

Ace in the Hole definitely plays into what this deck is all about. You could even Double it if you're not playing taboo.

Lucky! (3) is bonkers good. I think I went with the full 6 Luckies, but it felt like I could have gotten away with only 4. It probably depends a lot on what campaign you're playing. Note also that Lucky! (0) can be Scrounged, and that taking 6 Luckies will give you two more cards that you need to draw to get to your Lockpicks or Hot Streaks, or whatever you most need at the time.

Lucky Cigarette Case (3) adds a lot of consistency, but you will probably only be triggering it off of lucky token pulls and Lockpicks. This was a card that I upgraded to, but it might actually be better to go with Pickpocketing (2) in this deck, both because it doesn't require overachieving, and because you can choose to get resources instead. It might be even better to take Pickpocketing in addition to LCC, but then the L3 is a little less crucial.

Eucatastrophe succeed at even more tests you have no business succeeding at! As a bonus, your immediately refunds the cost. This probably replaces Say Your Prayers, as I didn't end up using that much.

All In is also a great consistency multiplier. The only drawback being, again, that this deck isn't great at overachieving. This could replace either Scrounge for Supplies, because it serves a similar role, or Unexpected Courage because it's strictly better.

Switchblade (2) could be a subsitution for Sneak Attack or Delilah O'Rourke, but you don't have a good way to succeed by 2 on the test, as a general rule. It probably is worth considering a weapon for a final scenario, as most of those will have boss fights.

Easy Mark Might be worth considering, probably over "Watch this!" and one other card. It would improve draw a tiny bit, and give you more resources.

Daring Maneuver could be an interesting inclusion in this deck if you decided to take All In and Lucky Cigarette Case (3). I could see getting rid of UC and Scrounge, then putting in All In and 4x Daring Maneuver (with Adaptable) for a significantly different take on this deck that would struggle much less with card draw. It's also an excellent Double, Double target.

Mulligan

Lockpicks > Lucky Cigarette Case > Lone Wolf > Hot Streak > Delilah O'Rourke > Leo De Luca

Leo is low down because the extra actions won't do you much good if you go down to 0 resources and have no draw. Lockpicks and LCC are high because they'll help you find the cards that you need even if you don't get them in your opening hand. Lone Wolf > Hot Streak, because you have 4 Hot Streaks in the deck, so you'll probably find it pretty early even if it's not in your opening hand, and Lone Wolf gets better the earlier you play it, while Hot Streak is always about the same unless you're really late in the game or have gone down to 0 resources.

I'm not 100% sure about that order, though.