Mark Harrigan Shoots First

Card draw simulator

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Hypnonavy · 150

This is intended to be more of a fun build than an optimized one. It's built around getting the Guardian version of the .45 Thompson early in a campaign, and on spending those resources on high explosives.

I'm running two Dynamite Blasts, which I plan to upgrade, and I plan to run Mk 1 Grenades as well. If enemies cluster on him, Warning Shot moves them all (most of them - Elite ones are a problem) to an adjacent location, followed by a Dynamite Blast. (Which is a lot of resources for one trick, I know. Don't crush my dreams.) In the alternative, I can Shortcut my partner OUT of the location and drop grenades. Is this expensive and unlikely? Of course it is. Is it fun? I can't imagine it won't be!

Hopefully, dedicating the card slots to these shenanigans won't hurt me the 99% of the time I am playing and NOT blowing things up.

1 comments

Jan 15, 2020 Lucaxiom · 3960

A fun idea to be sure, and it's good that you are aware of it's drawbacks, because imagining the outcome is a lot easier than pulling it off. Fortunately for you, there is an optimised way of playing a high explosive guardian, which I'll share below:

First, you're playing with the wrong investigator. Mark's always an enticing pick, but he really doesn't want to take any more damage than absolutely necessary, for fear of his weaknesses Sophie and Shell Shock, and handling explosives is a surefire way of getting burned. Plus, he will struggle to pay for your whopping 7 resource plan (honestly what were you thinking not running some economy like Emergency Cache and Act of Desperation?).

No, the best guardian for this job? Zoey Samaras. Zoey also has a 9 damage threshold, but has no downside to taking damage, and her built in economy makes your 60 resource costing deck well within her means.

Now, Zoey can have 5 lvl 0 non-guardian cards of her choice, and the ones you will be interested in are the suite of survivor's automatic evade cards: two copies of Stunning Blow, two copies of Stray Cat, and one copy of Cunning Distraction. These cards serve two purposes; first, they will force enemies to have to engage you a second time, which will trigger Zoey's ability a second time, which acts as a sort of rebate for playing those cards, further boosting her economy. Second, they'll provide you the opportunity to move into a connecting location and lob a Dynamite behind you as you do.

As an added bonus, all those auto-evade work on enemies engaged with other investigators, so you can provide a means of escape for a fellow investigator.

Zoey does have one downside when compared to Mark; she has no draw engine, meaning the combination of card you need to perform an impactful explosion may not be in your hand when the opportunity comes knocking. Fortunately for you, there's a perfect solution for this problem, and it's name is Stick to the Plan. Turns out, both Dynamite Blast and Cunning Distraction are tactics cards. So as soon as you get 6xp, you should immediately grab a copy of Stick to the Plan and then you will spend that rest of the campaign sticking two clumps of dynamite and a frozen chicken into a bag, available to you from the start.

And should allow to pull off at least one good explosion every scenario. Hope that all makes sense.