Professor Charlie

Rogue and Survivor Solo Charlie.

The main goal of this deck is to constantly cycle Art Student using Hit and Run, A Chance Encounter, and Calling in Favors (as well as Resourceful to get A Chance Encounter back into your hand). Ideally this is where most of your clues come from but you can make use of the skill icons on Madame Labranche and Leo De Luca in a pinch if you need to investigate normally.

Enemies

You have flexible options when it comes to dealing with enemies. Stray Cat and Elusive enable quick evasion of enemies while you go somewhere else to get clues using your Art Student combo (the extra action from Leo is extremely useful for getting this playstyle online). Additionally, Sled Dog and Guard Dog give you the option to kill some enemies in a pinch. The extra ally slots from Sled Dogs is incredible with Charlie, if you're not using the dogs to move or attack they can still be used as +. Remember, you don't need to use the attack action on Sled Dog. If you only need one damage, exhausting each adds + instead of the normal + from their ability.

Economy

This can become an issue with this one, you have Madame Labranche and "Watch this!", which I've found both fit into the deck nicely. You'll often have one massive skill check each turn as Charlie, so don't be afraid to gamble with "Watch this!". Upgrading Leo early on can help too, it feels terrible spending actions to get him out and that small drop from 6-cost to 5-cost feels much better.

Burden of Leadership

Charlie's weakness is VERY scary with this deck. Don't be tempted to let Bonnie or Leo take 1 damage or 1 horror. You're better off soaking it directly (or ideally letting your Art Student take it!). There's no need to exhaust allies to over-commit on tests either in the off-chance you draw your weakness.

Skills

Rise to the Occasion is a no-brainer for Charlie given his base stats. You can quickly upgrade to Strength in Numbers (In exchange for Guts) which consistently gets to +, giving you four + skills in the deck (which you can then fish out again with Resourceful!). These are brilliant when facing tricky cards out of the encounter deck.

Upgrades

I've tossed in lots of other options you can upgrade into. There are some economy cards like Rod of Animalism, Cheat the System, or The Red Clock (this one feels trivially strong, regardless of the fact you can't access it's level 5 version). You can add in some of the dual-class allies to bump up Strength in Numbers or Cheat the System. The + on Professor William Webb feels brilliant to play with Charlie. Michael Leigh and Gené Beauregard are listed as options too if you feel you need the stats and want to hit enemies harder or avoid them easier. Keep in mind many of these allies are unique. Given the high number of ally slots Charlie has you can consider getting one of each, allowing you to have both in play at once.

Ice Pick is just a great card if you have the exp to spare, it makes some of your tests more comfortable as well as helping the synergy cards if you don't have your Art Students out. Close Call is in there just for the sheer power with Stray Cat or Elusive (Don't forget you can get it back with Resourceful!).

What I really enjoyed about this deck is the versatility it has when upgrading. You have Cat Burglar for more evasion or Guard Dog for more damage. You can stick to the Beast theme with Rod of Animalism or stick with strong single allies like Gené Beauregard or Professor William Webb.

There are some candidate cards omitted that I couldn't find much success with. Namely A Chance Encounter, Peter Sylvestre, Charisma or Dr. Milan Christopher. Commonly I found you would look to play A Chance Encounter multiple times and having wait for them to die to bring them back slowed down your engine. Not to mention the higher cost ruining the card's flexibility. Peter has the issue of +1 Willpower and +1 Agility instead of +2 of one or the other, making him tricky for skill tests. Add in Charisma if you'd like, but I never found ally slots to be a bottleneck. You're more likely to run into trouble with resources or card draw first. Finally with Milan, you're not actively looking to get clues by investigating with this deck. By the time his resource generation comes into effect, you often don't really need it anymore. By all means try them out though. On paper they all looked pretty good to me, so if you find they slot well into the deck go for it!