A no-frills Joe Diamond deck that uses minimum card pool yet delivers consistently. What can an inverted card access to Roland Banks do? It's drawing cards! 2x Cryptic Research (4) is the key to setup fast, getting a lot of answers on hand, or recover from failures.

Other than that, this deck got effective health / sanity via 2x "I've had worse…" + 2x Delay the Inevitable, and good resources to fund the guns via 2x Dr. Milan Christopher + 2x "I've had worse…" + 2x Crack the Case. He has 5 guns and 4 investigate tools that can transition via 1x Detective's Colt 1911s or 2x Magnifying Glass (1) (Lv.1 glass also fix .45 Thompson's hand problem).

There are many Skill cards to commit with Grisly Totem and can make up for lack of accuracy, or even get through test without "I've had worse…"/Delay the Inevitable cheese using one-evidence Hawk-Eye Folding Camera. It is one of the most well-rounded 2 packs deck I've made in a while, I've successfully setup in all 8 scenarios I tested this deck with. (Return to The Dunwich Legacy Standard)

► About "2 Packs Deck Guide"
　A series of decks made with the new distribution model in mind, requiring a Revised Core Set box + just 1 more Investigator Expansion box. ∞ character on the deck's name means the additional box it uses is The Circle Undone Investigator Expansion.
　It maximizes the chance of newcomers being able to build and learn to play the game, enjoying the story on Standard difficulty ASAP. They can then get into deck-building later if they wished to do so. See other decks in the "2 Packs Deck Guide" series here.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Due to his 2 and 2 , we need to get 2x "I've had worse…" (2) for the first 4 XP to fix that before getting to the fun stuff so he can skip more treacheries of both kinds. This card is THE GLUE. Cryptic Research that follows will hoard you both copies of "I've had worse…", you will then not die, and get more resources, more thompsons and dynamites. Sucks for original release players they get this awesome card only in the final TCU scenario, we now can get them ASAP!

To make modifications to the starting deck, you can add what you want in place of 2x Something Worth Fighting For. Then when "I've had worse…" came into the deck remove Emergency Cache instead. In my test play majority of time "I've had worse…" + Dr. Milan Christopher carried the economy and Emergency Cache ended up being discarded due to hand overflow, but there were some crunch time moment that Emergency Cache -> .45 Thompson / Dynamite Blast became handy ; )

Using open information on the Hunch Deck

The Hunch Deck includes Cryptic Research, Crack the Case, Barricade, and Delay the Inevitable, all have some sort of team-effect. When they are revealed, make sure to let your team mates know if they are interested in using the effect or not.

(If having "play only during your turn" then others that go first must be within Joe's reach when his turn begins. Plan your turn order accordingly.)

Some combo involves closed information, like Barricade being revealed on Hunch Deck while you have Warning Shot on hand. You can simply say you are going to play with Barricade (so don't move away from this location this turn if you are taking turn later).

How to use...

• Grisly Totem / Grisly Totem ••• : Take advantage of Joe's access to both Vicious Blow and Deduction, which matches his stats even more than Roland Banks, which then likely gets him the bonus draw on the Lv. 3 totem as well as high speed game progress. Note that Deduction is also handy to trigger Crack the Case / Hawk-Eye Folding Camera. Unexpected Courage is obviously a good card with this.

• Delay the Inevitable : It is not just for treachery defense, it works against any damage or horror. (If they have boosts like Dunwich Spoiler you cancel them all.) It is Fast and cost is reduced to 0, so you can use it to do anything requires taking Attack of Opportunity (play cards, moving out of Massive enemy, etc.) or simply surviving Enemy Phase like Dodge's effect. Oh, and don't forget about something that might happen on the back of Agenda card, so if this came up right before that consider putting it down instead of letting it go back to the hunch.

• Cryptic Research •••• : Though you don't get any hunch discount, it being in Hunch Deck is handy as it is like you get 4 draws! (Normally if you draw this in Upkeep it is replaced by 3 cards. Now you even get something else in Upkeep Phase.)

  More cards mean more things to keep feeding to Grisly Totem (3). So 8 XP for 2 copies of these gives you good value to even the base version Grisly Totem you have already. Suddenly you will have many Vicious Blow and Deduction on hand.

  When he gets or kill things with Detective's Colt 1911s, this can came back once more. Even if you have enough cards, you can use it on your friends!

  How it is revealed on the Hunch Deck + being Fast + with team-play effect is very powerful. You basically says to everyone on the table that as long as they are standing besides Joe they can request 3 cards in emergency in Joe's turn.

• Barricade : This stops being laughing stock when you have Warning Shot on hand. The combo can fix losing situation when you got enemy directly spawns on you and your friends and they keep adding up, and you all need to setup or do things that can't skip Attack of Opportunity. Normally Warning Shot is good as a mass-disengage but you can't stay still after using it on Hunter enemy since they would come back in and whack you, but with Barricade it changes! (Only non-Elite, of course.) When you go out of Barricade the other way than you sent them out with Warning Shot, you also make 2 locations distance from them.

• Dynamite Blast : You can force some optimal grouping of enemies with Warning Shot or prevent a "blow yourself" situation. (Need 5 + 2 = 7 resources.) Sometimes works wonder while you stay in Barricade but that's too much of a combo to ask for enemies to be right outside, it likely won't happen.

• Magnifying Glass • : The ability to pick up is important when you draws .45 Thompson later than the glass, so they comes quite earlier in the upgrade plan. You can keep the glass to put down again after .45 Thompson runs out, or even when you run into Detective's Colt 1911s which let you hold Tool for free. At least you can pick up then commit it for with Grisly Totem to get a net +1 better than just holding the glass, and a chance to draw.

• Studious ••• : The nuance of this inclusion right after 2x Magnifying Glass (1) is that if your opening hand widens and you get Magnifying Glass (1), it's a "free" opening since it is Fast and 0 cost! Getting more draw-1 Skill cards are also good.

  Don't forget you are now mulliganing with 6 cards, so this +1 opening hand improves your ability to tailor your starting hand to be perfect by a lot.

• Vicious Blow : If you have a choice to finish off 2 HP enemy between shooting and Totem-blow with bare fist, remember that Warning Shot uses 1 ammo and you may use Vicious Blow to conserve that.

• Relic Hunter ••• : This is just a fluff final upgrade for that slim chance to have juicy 2x Grisly Totem (3) on board. Don't worry if you can't reach 29 XP in your campaign to get this. But you have high card draw, the chance of getting both totems in play is not as low as you think.

Joe problems to look out for

Unsolved Case

The review page says you don't need to have a clue to play this card since two clauses aren't connected by "then", so actually it is better when you don't have any clue at all.

However this card still has plenty of threat other than that 1 more clue to work on or XP lost if that lands on VP location that you already cleared : You need 2 resources AND an action right at the moment it shows up. This action provokes AoO, there are multiple times I had to sacrifice 2 XP because this came up while I am still fighting with critical health / sanity, or in extreme hurry to get clues.

The 2 XP lost is tempting since it has no immediate effect, a lot of time you will choose the success of your team than personal growth.

Also you can't Hawk-Eye Folding Camera the same location that now has a new clue via Unsolved Case effect, the card remembers each unique location.

2 Will, 2 Agi

At first glance it looks only a bit worse than Roland Banks but being attacked constantly from both sides of popular treachery stats is rough. Sticky treacheries like Frozen in Fear are especially annoying.

Hawk-Eye Folding Camera can up his back to Roland Banks level. (And so committing Guts might remove Frozen in Fear in Standard.) But we need more.

This is why "I've had worse…" (2) is the first 4 XP priority upgrade. They let Joe just not bother boosting for test of both and (that deals damage or horror) and gain resources instead! And resources are important in this deck having 2x Dynamite Blast and 2x .45 Thompson to play.

Other than this, I've prepared 2x Guts and 2x Unexpected Courage never removed, that can get you or via Grisly Totem / Grisly Totem (3). Later when you get 2x Cryptic Research to add to Hunch Deck, you will have these skill cards ready earlier with totem setup faster.

Lastly, Delay the Inevitable can be played at 0 cost and no action from the Hunch Deck. You are now more likely surviving the Enemy / Mythos Phase or Agenda flip tests with no damage. Most of the time you don't want to play 2 resources to extend Delay the Inevitable to make best use of your hunch discount, but late in the scenario you might be loaded with resources and can keep it going for a bit more.

Stuck Hunches

I had seen my brother and my friend runs something like Connect the Dots in the Hunch deck. While 4 cost is begging to be discounted, the situation that you can play that card is very limited.

This eventually lead to 2x Connect the Dots cycling inside 4~5 cards hunch deck. You really want to get the other cards but you keep getting Connect the Dots which either can't be played or you don't want the clues anymore.

It's just an example but Barricade, Evidence! and Crack the Case are kinda the same case. They are useful, but having many conditional cards inside the Hunch Deck is not so productive when the deck eventually thins down.

This deck removes Evidence! on purchasing Cryptic Research, and don't have Connect the Dots in the first place. Leaving just Crack the Case that you should take care of looking for opportunity to use it.

Luckily this Crack the Case card doesn't say "you" so you can use it when anyone in your team discovered the last clue for you, unlike Connect the Dots. Hunch goes away after the end of Investigation Phase, not the end of your turn. So basically you put up a bounty of clearing the location for anyone playing after you visibly on the Hunch Deck. (It is not the same if you have Crack the Case on hand which are closed information, unless you play with your hand open to others.)

Barricade is unfortunate. I really want it in the main deck also for Grisly Totem synergy (it is almost icon). But I have no deck space left I have to keep it in the hunch.

Not enough

With Dr. Milan Christopher, Hawk-Eye Folding Camera, and Magnifying Glass, Joe has enough to work with. The problem is more on the other side.

Joe's access only reaches Lv. 2 and so he can't use more accurate guns. This makes .45 Thompson the most accurate bonus he can get at +2 . I want resources from Dr. Milan Christopher to use Dynamite Blast, so no Beat Cop (2) to help either.

But after the middle of campaign you will no longer want to go 6 vs. 4 anymore when there are more -3 in the bag, sometimes with side effects on failing. (Or enemy simply having Retaliate.)

We can make up with Grisly Totem (3) to gain temporary accuracy. Here are where you can find the icons.

• Overpower
• Unexpected Courage : With 1 evidence on Hawk-Eye Folding Camera getting here is possible to pass checks, so you might not want to use this for test.
• Vicious Blow : Adding an icon is excellent for 2 damage punch without the guns too vs. 3 .
• Warning Shot : Quite handy to keep for commit with totem since this card is situationally useful. With totem now it is more universally useful to just hit something accurately.
• .45 Thompson : You might get a copy after you had already setup with Hawk-Eye Folding Camera + .45 Automatic, or a 2nd copy while you have one already. So it is handy for adding icon with totem. (A shame that .45 Automatic is icon.)

Other draw cards like Cryptic Research are used to prop up Joe's hand to be full of cards to commit to Grisly Totem.