I was told you people like actions

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
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DocBees · 309

So, you like having turns huh?
You think action economy is the name of the game?
Then why don't more of you play Carson?

I haven't seen many Carson decks on here and I think that's mad disappointing. I've played (on standard) a ton of different forms of Carson: Red with Dilemma Shenanigans, Yellow with Practice Makes Perfect and a boatload of skills, Purple with weirdo spells and Mythos defense. But the Carson I enjoyed the most was the one that played Guidance (1).

I mean look at that card, and look at Carson's ability. That's a 5 action turn with an All Stats Up slapped on there. Any mortal would grow hungry-eyed when you say "how many actions do you need this round?".

Seeker: "I need to advance the game state!"
Guardian: "I'm 2 locations away from the seeker!"
Mystic: "Spectral Razor, Move, Sixth Sense 3 times"
Survivor: "This will give me a full 3-4 actions with Quick Learner online!"
Rogue: "Oh nice, I needed 5 more resources. Next turn I'll be done with setup I swear!"

So I started thinking about just how many actions I could cram into one round and this is what I came up with.

Police Badge is the star of the show. I've dedicated 8 cards to making sure I can recur it somehow and shove as many actions at my friends as possible.

Well-Maintained is the first line of defense: 1 Resource Fast, Free Action to discard Police Badge, Play Police Badge Again. An easy 5 extra actions with your ability.

Tetsuo Mori Either digs out the Badge for you or lets you pull it back from the grave. Especially great if you can kill him by taking an Attack of Opportunity giving your fighter an action to peel for you, or by Toe to Toe'ing something with a Vicious Blow.

A Chance Encounter grabs Tetsuo back to hopefully get him conked again before the round ends.

Scrounge for Supplies Also grabs Tetsuo, albeit more slowly, expensively, and "permanently"

Other than the main package, there's some generically useful things in here for Carson: At a Crossroads is an easy way to draw 3 cards (Your actions are essentially meaningless, just give them away) or to give your friends an extra action to stay on theme. Scrounge can be used to pick up Toe to Toe as a panic button or Stand Together if you need more money. Safeguard is almost required to make sure that you aren't wasting time with movement. Obsidian Bracelet keeps you safe and sane and Hallowed Mirror keeps everyone alive. A few skills here and there to keep your friends actions effective.

The last thing I wanted to bring up is Stick to the Plan and Ever Vigilant (4). This is nuts, and the only thing stopping me from playing it in every Guardian is the fact that that 10xp needs to go towards making your dang deck combat ready. Your allies always need to play an asset turn 1, so let them. Eschew your physical form. Ascend to pure action economy. I typically take one for myself, usually just for the resource discount, but there have definitely been times when I've shoved two discount plays at the seeker to get them off the ground immediately. Plus, if you're playing with fewer than 4 people, It's just pure value. I've given 4 actions away to a partner before and we proceeded to demolish the game.

In conclusion:
Give Carson a try, your friends will appreciate it.

12 comments

Sep 13, 2023 BerserkCatshew · 933

“I need 5 more resources” As a rogue player I can confirm this is 100% accurate XD

Sep 14, 2023 Krysmopompas · 357

nice deck!

Sep 14, 2023 PestyDemon · 1

Great idea for a Carson deck! One thing: in the write-up it feels like it's implied that Scrounge for Supplies can recur the Police Badge.

Sep 14, 2023 NarkasisBroon · 10

It's indirect I think, both a chance encounter and scrounge can't recur police badge, but they can recur Tetsuo more, who can recur police badge. So there's extra hoops, but both can give you a copy of police badge back

Sep 15, 2023 Weges · 86

I like it, I like more actions!

Also, you mentioned you liked guidance? Let me leave this here: arkhamdb.com

Sep 15, 2023 DocBees · 309

HAH
Double Double Guidance is amazing, I'm definitely giving that a try some time.

Sep 19, 2023 HanoverFist · 708

Love this deck for the title; combined with Carson's resting-"ffs"-face it made me cackle.

Sep 19, 2023 DerBK · 1946

Rogue: "Oh nice, I needed 5 more resources. Next turn I'll be done with setup I swear!"

Listen here, you li... - actually, that's perfectly accurate.

Sep 23, 2023 idetodospoca · 1

I'm guessing this wouldn't really be that playable in a 2 player game?

Sep 23, 2023 DocBees · 309

This deck was intended to play with at least 2 other people so your actions can be spent making your friends take actions. For a 2 player game I would lean more towards skills so that when you need to take a test you can get yourself to at least a respectable 5. Here's an example of one I'm playing with my friend's Calvin Flex deck: arkhamdb.com

Between Daring and Inquiring Mind you can fight with an Enchanted Blade at 7 to make sure that your partner doesn't spend any more actions than necessary making sure you stay safe. No Stone Unturned fishes out any important pieces your friend is looking for, Shortcut and Motivational Speech compress actions, don't feel bad about using Motivational Speech on Med Student if you need to. And it always feels good to say "I've got a triple wild for you".

When you're upgrading, Girish does wonders for both you and your friend and is a high priority upgrade in most Carson's I build. Stick to the Plan and Ever Vigilant is the second priority, and then upgrading the Enchanted Blade into whatever weapon you like, be it Enchanted Blade (3) or Sledgehammer (4), or even Lightning Gun! Additionally, when you go to upgrade Safeguard I recommend only upgrading one of them: Safeguard (2) specifically activates "During another investigator's turn" which means it works for the bonus action you give, it works during their turn, but it will not work if you use Shortcut on them. Keeping around the level 0 Safeguard means you can move with them with Shortcut or if an encounter card forces a move to a connecting location.

Sep 23, 2023 idetodospoca · 1

Thanks, I'll be sure to try out your 2 player version.

Sep 14, 2024 Valaaisvala · 1

I've played this deck though Hemlock Vale, and I would say the red splash here just isn't worth it. The loop of Police Badge -> Tetsuo Mori to recur Police Badge -> Police Badge-> (one of the red cards to recur Tetsuo) -> Tetsuo Mori to recur Police Badge -> Police Badge is just too slow and expensive. Police Badge works great, and Tetsuo Mori is always great, but your cards, resources and actions are better spent on other things that help your friends, than the red suite to recur Tetsuo. I had one scenario where both copies of Tetsuo happened to be at the bottom of my deck, and hoo boy did my deck do nothing, those red cards were just dead.

Anyway, get Dynamite Blast, especially the lvl 3 version, it is so good when you're playing a support Guardian. (If you're playing Hemlock Vale, buy it before scenario 4 just saying you won't regret it).