George

Discard is card draw, discard is bonus' to checks. discards are life.

Honestly I made this deck on a dare. I was not sure about George and how he functions. He is one of my favourite Investigators.

Note the "discard deck" is the cards under George. I'm working on a good name for this

What Kind of Deck is this?

George Barnaby is a funky character but essentially you are a skill based investigator. You only get 5 lvl 0 non-survivor cards and Forced Learning is a requirement putting his deck size to 50 cards. These seems terrible but the secret is, he will go through every card in the deck with ease and this is without upgrades. In fact Gift of Nodens, the most important upgrade, slows down going through his deck which is pretty important but we'll get into that later in the late game section. With 50 cards, and the ability to consistently draw All of them its hard not to be a little flex especially when cards with are very important. See the midgame section.

Ultimately this deck can fit into any group. need combat, he can do it! throw in a couple Brute Force cards and upgrade your Improvised Weapon and you're good to go! Cluer? Sharp Vision and you're set. Flex? Simply exist.

Cluer with a side of flex is where he shines the most though. Investigations are just the most consistent check to do for using and discarding cards. Plus there is a lot of synergies like Scavenging which help keep tempo.

With slight modifications true solo is very doable aswell. I'd just remove some of the clue finding as you don't need to get 3-4 clues in a single action. typically 1 clue is all you need from a single location. Swap Sharp Vision for Brute Force and you're basically there.

Piloting this deck

Earlygame/Mulligan

During mulligan GET SOMETHING THAT ALLOWS DISCARDS! at the start Cornered, Artistic Inspiration and Nautical Charts are preferred. Then Occult Lexicon and Idol of Xanatos. they are awkward but workable. Occult is turn 1 discard which is when you need it the most. Then everything else. After upgrading the primary list will include Gift of Nodens and Bound for the Horizon. You need consistent discard as soon as possible, Forced Learning will not be enough.

Do anything you can to get that consistency going but be careful on what cards go into your discard deck or you'll have trouble in the midgame.

Midgame

Congrats you have consistent discard, Cornered, Artistic Inspiration, and/or Gift of Nodens is in your play area but you don't have your full set out and A Glimmer of Hope isn't in play for you. You got 2 main dangers.

• First your weakness Cast Adrift

Arcane Enlightenment is really nice to counter. it sucks drawing Cast Adrift after using your passive during upkeep to lose your entire hand. having 0 cards in hand kills tempo even if you have your discard engine ready. This card guarantees you'll keep atleast 1 card which will help you recover much faster.

• Second you messed up the discard deck.

What do I mean by this? You need to be able to commit cards from your discard deck. So if your entire discard deck contains only icons and monsters aren't spawning then you don't have a passive anymore because your discard deck is already full.

Discard deck seeding is why cards like Fortuitous Discovery are dangerous even though they have strong discard synergy. Too many cards with no pips or difficult to use pips like can cause issues down the road. This is another reason why cluer george is best since you can always do a check. The rest not so much.

Just remember pips are the life blood of your discard deck.

Late Game/Nuances

You got everything out congrats. If you haven't drawn your weakness playing Arcane Enlightenment can save you a turn of recovery. Don't sit on it if you can play it. At this point you probably don't need resources and youre action economy is good. 1 action is worth not losing a turn from tempo loss even if it feels hard to justify.

Don't stop using your discard deck! you should be picking up 3-4 cards just from your passive a turn Cycle Cycle Cycle! Remember Artistic Inspiration can be exhausted in any phase on any turn. It doesn't matter if you have inspiration on it or not.

There are 4 phases you can use your passive in, some phases are harder than others to discard in. Artistic Inspiration is the only card that is guaranteed to get you a discard in any phase which makes it extremely valuable. This is target #1 for Scrounge for Supplies. Anyway the other standout is Cornered which doesn't exactly exhaust making it extremely valuable since you can discard in 2 different phases with it. That card is absolutely worth In the Thick of It as you can become extremely tanky. Idol of Xanatos, and Scavenging + Protective Gear together makes you essentially unkillable.

(I just discovered # lets you search for cards... I wish I knew this when I started writing this, not on the 20th edit...)

Mythos

This is the second hardest. phase to discard in. it can require some luck. Encounter cards can just give you the discard or they could be something you can't interact with. Tools for discarding in this phase

• Gift of Nodens - skill encounters only
• Cornered - skill encounters only
• Idol of Xanatos - damage dealing encounters
• Artistic Inspiration

Investigator

Second Easiest to discard Tools for discarding in this phase

• see above list
• Bound for the Horizon

Enemy

This is the hardest. there are only 2 cards that can discard without scenario shenanigans. Luckily one of those cards is really good and a huge priority for this deck. Tools for discarding in this phase

• Idol of Xanatos
• Artistic Inspiration

Upkeep

You have Forced Learning. if you have room in your discard deck this is a freebie. George should never leave home without this card unless you don't have access to the card from some game in deck creation you're playing. George is a lot harder to use without it.

Draw Tempo

you will probably find resources/card draw to be an issue at some point especially after getting your weakness or before upgrading your deck. A Glimmer of Hope is extremely important as a "Put 2+ cards in hand" action giving you fuel for discarding and using your passive. Its also fantastic tempo recovery after Cast Adrift. One of the biggest issues after Cast Adrift is not having decent/safe cards to discard.

When your library is running low you likely have all your assets in play or accessible especially after you get Gift of Nodens and more so with Scavenging. So its really helpful to stall your card draw. This will avoid weaknesses and keep you versatile/strong with Nodens. Use it every turn along with as many improvised events as possible plus Persistence if you have it yet. Use your passive in moderation and DO NOT put your improvised events in your discard pile. This can keep you at your strongest for a while.

At some point you will need to reset your deck though. Make sure all your A Glimmer of Hopes are in hand or your discard deck when this happens. Then seed as many important skills/events to you as you can. The goal is to not lose momentum and keep your discard healthy for your abilities while you burn through your deck again.

Upgrading/Modifying

Tips

• What you remove is highly dependent on your group and how you are flexing. if your team is good on damage drop some damage. (a single Improvised Weapon especially when upgraded or Brute Force can go a long way though to handle your own problems.)
• pips are LIFE! They are vital to keeping your discard deck healthy.

Preferences

This section is about my personal preferences but a few cards that I'd strongly also consider as alternatives to my choices.

Accessories.

There are 3 standouts for George lets go over all 3.

Idol of Xanatos - this provides discard which is vital but its unwieldy discard. Only consistent with monster and usually inefficient for your passive... but it is discard and very strong for survivability. This to me is an important include for those 2 reasons as there is very limited survivability in this deck outside of just avoiding it.

Moonstone - +1 to and with no action required to play. Yes please! This is pure stat boost for defensive stats with only a resource cost. its hard for me personally to say no to this.

Grisly Totem - +1 to a check this round you commit a card to. You are at the end of the day a skill investigator so this card will always have a home in your deck... but it can only be used on 1 check and doesn't give you discard, plus it requires an action and 3 resources to play. Don't get me wrong, its good but actions are resources are tight initially in this deck plus a single pip isn't great for this deck

Resources

There are 4 main options in my mind for resources plus Lawrence Carlisle but hes an auto include. Baseline as always is Emergency Cache. This is a hard no for me. no pips, 3 resources costs an action but I'm an emergency cash hater. Burning the Midnight Oil, very solid choice and what I've used in my decks. 2 resources, good pips and an action you want to do anyway. best option for early game. Take Heart, I don't like this one. You need to fail and with your stat line the only likely failure could be very costly. Additionally you don't need the draw usually but I don't like this card as much as my friends. Finally Out the Door Solid! 2 resources, no action, great pips. you do risk losing the resources. This is a great midgame to late game option but you don't need resources in the late game after getting Ample Supplies. I haven't tried using Out the Door yet so I'm not sure how it feels in the early game but definitely a very strong choice.

Movement

Bound for the Horizon this is a really good card for George who wants to discard. No action discarding plus movement. Downside XP cost. the discard is less useful late game but not much of a downside.

Track Shoes always a solid card. bonus to stats, recur-able and even playable with Scavenging. check for discard deck filtering plus bonus movement. downsides, expensive and requires an action.

Loner can be pulled from discard with Resourceful. No discarding which is worse in early game but nice in late game when you have other means to discard and no actions. Additionally George is extremely self sufficient being on his own is not a downside.

The pips on these cards are difficult to use reliably. Bound for the horizon is a good card for discarding but the xp cost makes it difficult to justify 2 especially when only 1 can be used at a time. I'd recommend 1 Bound for the Horizon plus one of either the other 2. This gives safety from short supply so you can grab a movement from your discard. Plus horizon and loner both are limited to 1 per investigator anyway.

Others

I am typically a seeker player to be honest. so my preferences and knowledge leans in that direction. Deduction is a very strong card for any cluer. In a 4 player game this is usually what gets me the 4th clue to clear a location in a single action. Having said that Eureka! is really nice for deck fixing. You're going to draw every card so it doesn't feel terribly important to me for George but its also a great support tool and a way to get on your feet faster. Analysis is a strong pick aswell. I usually run 1 of these in a deck because eventually there will be a check you afford to fail. More resources with another Out the Door or Burning the Midnight Oil honestly would be very helpful. With 50 cards its good to get resources a bit more consistently. This will fall off a bit when you pick up Ample Supplies though. If you lean into combat Polished Cane is a cracked card for consistent damage which is something George can lack.

Remove

• Perception - really don't need the card draw
• Scrounge for Supplies - I strongly recommend keeping 1. This is protection from a bad Short Supply. if you lose both Resourcefuls and Gift of Nodens your screwed.
• Impromptu Barrier - really depends on what you are going for. its nice but you don't want too many improvised events. they can mess with your early game/weakness recovery.
• Anchor Chain
• Hand Hook - Improvised Weapon and Brute Force hit the same niche but better unless you are going combat focused flex.
• Unexpected Courage - this is a good card but Gift of Nodens and Resourceful can't target it, making Strength in Numbers, which has a base of 3 due to permanents so much better even, so much better.
• Jumpsuit - honestly not bad. tank 1-2 damage with the power to draw any of your tools anytime they may be useful to play as an event, event or simply a discard after losing tempo but it quickly becomes less important. it can get you infinite health and more fuel though from scavenging.
• Track Shoes - Not really necessary especially with Bound for the Horizon but it can help with discard deck fixing. (reliable check)

I would probably keep atleast 1 anchor and nautical chart as they are decent as events, and can help if you have a particularly bad start.

Adding Priority

Discarding is extremely important. Consistent discards are top priority

Core upgrades

• Gift of Nodens - 5xp - discard/skill recursion - Vital

This is the most important upgrade. (only 1 of these. you have ridiculous card draw and recursion save the XP)

• Bound for the Horizon - 2xp - discard/movement

Not every turn has checks to discard in, also can be used while engaged with no aop.

• Strength in Numbers - 1xp - 3pips/discard deck/Nodens usable
• Persistence - 1xp - free shuffle for Nodens/library seeding
• Relic Hunter - 3xp - survival synergies - see accessory section
• Scavenging - 2xp- (fuel)
• Ample Supplies - 1xp - resources
• Sharp Vision - 1xp - clues/Nodens usable.

A Glimmer of Hope is an upgrade I love for the deck as it helps a lot with survivability and random encounter checks but falls just shy of a core upgrade.

Upgraded Scavenging is really good if you get Protective Gear as you will be unkillable or if you take Heavy Furs as an alt for Jumpsuit. But its not quite worth unless that is your plan. Action saving is nice for Idol of Xanatos and the Occult Lexicon plus 1-2 of your other hand slots but the other hand slots are just as good as events. Honestly adding cards to your hand is usually most useful anyway so you can discard it for a variety of benefits.

For combat Brute Force and Improvised Weapon are both really good. Honestly they are cheap and after getting the rest of my core upgrades I'll upgrade a weapon and through in a brute force to help be self sufficient.

Do-or-Die is a really good card but I feel like I'm cheating if I run it along side Resourceful which is why I don't have both.

Conclusion

George is one of the strongest most flexible characters I've played. He can do anything and he can do it very well. His card draw is so strong that you don't feel his deck size and his deck size lets him be highly versatile especially with his ability to utilize so many cards in the discard.

Spoiler for Queen of Ash

if you get Collector I have a very strong recommendation.

so first off whats 5 more cards to this deck?

• upgraded Dream Diary Which upgraded version doesn't really matter... but probably not the one for hand size. This is a bonus discardable card every turn regardless of your hand size. This is a tempo life saver and synergies very strongly. Its basically better Arcane Enlightenment and could be played with Scavenging
• The Chthonian Stone, so weird thing about George after you get some upgrades, hand slots don't really matter... so this is actually pretty solid. Don't even bother upgrading the stone, Scavenging will let you basically do the same thing and so much more.

Honestly if you have access to collector I think its probably just worth taking but it can make your starts harder as mulligans will be less effective.