"Knockout" Pete 19xp

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
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DrMChristopher · 338

=== This standalone deck is similar to the Pete I used in Weaver of the Cosmos, minus a few XP ==

Pete was once a spirited boxer! But while he was never the best, he had an innate skill in the sport and won far more than he lost. That was, at least, until he hit an unlucky streak. After losing 12 in a row he decided to throw in the towel. He'd take one final match but secretly bet everything he had on himself to lose. But as luck would have it, the other boxer was being paid to throw the match! As Pete's first real blow of Round One struck, the other man went down for the count.

Pete lost everything but his dog, his gloves, and an old leather coat and became a drifter. He can still be seen walking around Arkham with Duke, his glory days long past. Despite his rotten luck Pete holds out hope that he may be useful to society again some day...

== Thoughts ==

Edit 9/21/21: If you don't like the Boxer theme you can make Pete a former Archeologist by replacing Boxing Gloves with Fieldwork and Glory with either Eureka! or Quick Thinking. You can replace Moonstone with Dig Deep which is not only thematic for an archeologist but also easy to fuel because you're spending so few resources to keep this deck going.

Something else I've been testing is replacing Leather Coat with A Chance Encounter (2) (reverting both copies of A Test of Will to level 0). This lets you use Duke for maximum soak, then return him completely healed for free by exhausting On Your Own.

I like Boxing Gloves for Pete because it doesn't have an Fight trigger. The +1 while fighting adds to both Duke and Brute Force, and because I was going to play True Survivor anyway it seemed like a great fit (despite only having four other Spirit cards, and then only after buying Versatile to get a second Glory). You won't always hit a Spirit card BUT it saved me a few times from a Weakness on top of the deck.

On Your Own isn't 100% needed (which is why I didn't include the Permanent version) but when it's out it feels really good to pay for Glimmers or A Test of Will for free, or True Survivor for only one resource. It may be worth looking into a Dark Horse + On Your Own (Perm) build of this deck.

There are 15 Innate skills in the deck for True Survivor, but "high priority" targets are Resourceful (obviously, because it feeds your loop), Inspiring Presence, Sharp Vision and Brute Force.

Edit 9/18/21: I mentioned it in the comments below, but it bears repeating here that you don't commit Sharp Vision and Brute Force to Duke actions. You commit them to basic Investigate and Fight actions for +3 and 2 clues or 3 damage, respectively. You often only need 1 or 2 more icons, which are easy to come by in this deck.

It seems odd to have a 19xp deck with so many of the neutral "boring" skill cards, but they fit here because they replace themselves (minus U.E. of course). Between them, Glory, Unrelenting (oh how I wish it was an Innate skill), Take Heart (sometimes it's worth tanking a High Shroud location for the gain), the occasional hit from Boxing Gloves and "drawing" three cards with True Survivor I never had a problem keeping four to six cards in my hand. Drawing Thin might be a good include for card draw in this deck because I usually had plenty of icons to throw.

9 comments

Sep 18, 2021 unremb · 237

Do note that Brute Force and Sharp Vision doesn't work with Duke's s.

Sep 18, 2021 DrMChristopher · 338

@unrembCorrect! Don't commit Brute Force and Sharp Vision to Duke actions. Commit them to basic Investigate and Attack actions for +3 (getting you to 5) when you need to pull 2 clues or deal 3 damage, or when Duke is exhausted.

Sep 19, 2021 Doomstar · 1

Wait, but this does mean that Duke is wearing the Boxing Gloves?

No need to answer; in my head he is definitely wearing the gloves and fighting on hind legs.

Sep 19, 2021 DrMChristopher · 338

@Doomstar That's hilarious and now I can't "unsee" it!!

Sep 21, 2021 MythosManiac · 1

Can you suggest so

Sep 21, 2021 MythosManiac · 1

Sorry... Can you suggest some alternate card choices? I don't have a lot of these cards.

Sep 21, 2021 DrMChristopher · 338

@MythosManiacwithout knowing what you have it would be hard to offer suggestions. Many cards in this list (Moonstone, Versatile, A Glimmer of Hope, Brute Force and Sharp Vision) come from the Dream-Eaters cycle, the recursion loop (True Survivor, Resourceful and (most importantly for Duke) Inspiring Presence) comes from the Carcosa cycle, and The Boxing Gloves and Glory come from the Nathaniel Cho investigator deck.

At a minimum I think you'll want the Carcosa cycle for the recursion loop and a few other replacements.

Replace Moonstone with Dig Deep. It's not as good, but it's in the Core Set.

Don't take Versatile and you can skip out on the Second Glory (I'll get to that shortly), Brute Force and Sharp Vision.

Replace both Able Bodied with a second Guts and a second Manual Dexterity (both from core). You don't get the same icons, but get more "replacement" draws.

A Glimmer of Hope will be hard to replace, BUT a core card you may look at is Opportunist. This can also take up two of the non-survivor cards you're losing by dropping the Nathaniel Cho cards. Replace the third Glimmer with Eureka!. It's in The Pallid Mask mythos pack with Inspiring Presence.

Without Brute Force your only good option for fighting is with Duke. Carcosa has Gravedigger's Shovel which can fight and grab a clue in a pinch.

As I said in the write-up On Your Own isn't necessary but really nice to have.

Unrelenting is hard to replace too, and I can't think of anything off the top of my head that will do.

I don't know how well this deck will do with these changes, but I hope it helps!

Sep 21, 2021 MythosManiac · 1

@DrMChristopher thank for the quick reply it does help! I have everything in Carcosa EXCEPT for The Pallid Mask and Dark Stars Rise but thats easy to remedy! I don't have On Your Own but I do have Madame Labranche who might be good with Dig Deep and Peter Sylvestre. Thanks again!

Sep 21, 2021 DrMChristopher · 338

@MythosManiac no problem! Yeah without On Your Own you're free to play allies without a problem. Black Stars Rise also has "Not without a fight!" which would be a decent replacement for Able Bodied.