Opulent and Fearless Tony is a survivor

I was looking for a new investigator for playing true solo. Tony Morgan's 5 force and 3 intellect was interesting, he should be able to defend himself and investigate and playing a rogue again would be nice… but what to do with his low willpower and agility stats? (Moreover with a sanity of only 5!) These are used mainly in the skills tests that the encounter deck throw to you and combined with Tony's low sanity, only five, it is a huge weakness.

I looked how to mitigate this, and the idea of a creating big money deck came to my mind. One good thing of Tony is that the deckbuilding requirements allow you to choose a secondary class among survivor, guardian and seeker. You can include up to 10 level 0-1 events/skills cards. Another good point is that you have extra resources and actions through the bounties.

I decided to go for a big money deck taking advantage of the bounties' resources. Among the three classes to choose, I decided myself for survivor, basically because I love the class, but also because I thought that investigating and fighting was already covered by Tony's stats.

I realised that in a big money deck, first you have to generate resources. Once you have your resources engine, you have to decide what to do with them. Do you spend them or do you keep them?. In my case I decided to try the later.

Concerning resource generation, rogue aspect has a lot of cards that allow this. My idea is to hit a high amount of resources (15 to 20) as soon as possible, reason why there are many ways to reach this level:

• 2x Another day, another dollar*** in order to start directly with 9 resources.
• 2x Faustian bargain (5 resources for 2 cursed tokens)
• 1x Lone wolf (1 resource per round if no investigator in your location)
• 1x Burglary** (investigate for 2 resources + 1 if over succeeding up to a max of three)
• 2x Watch this! (commit 1-3 resources to the test, recover twice if you suceedd )
• 2x Mauser (if you succeed fighting for 2 or more, get one resource)
• 1x Red clock**** (put 1 resource on the card or recover them at the beginning of your inv. Phase)
• 2x Dario (one action if there are no enemies, get two resources)

Once you have the resources, you have different cards to take advantage without spending them:

• 1x The black fan**: hitting 15 resources will give you +1 action, and once you have 20 resources you will have +1 to all your skills
• 2x Dario: if you have more than 10 resources you have +1 to willpower and intellect
• 1x Well connected: one skill test +1 for each 5 resources you have.
• 1x High roller: spend 3 resources to get a +2, if you succeed, recover them.
• 1x Money talks: your skill for this test is half of your resources rounded down.

You see where I am going? Let's round up this:

• Back pack**: I have two cards that are exceptional and that I have only one copy, let's found it through the back pack!
• Haste**: action compression. If you have your weapon, Dario and/or Burglary on the table: You can activate the three in a row or two times the weapon + Dario/Burglary. Or you can play three cards for two actions. Worst case scenario, get three resources for two actions…
• Scrounge for supplies: recover a level 0 card from the discard.. And it could be a rogue one! This is a safeguard in reality: Have you lost Dario? You need money talks for a really difficult test? Faustian bargain for other five resources? Intel report for instant-clues? You lost well connected to a treachery card? Get them back!
• Liquid courage: sanity is an issue, but usually at the end of the scenario, when you should have a good willpower (or you can booster it). Don't forget haste! Fight, investigate & get your deserved slip of alcohol!

In long scenarios, at one point I will be swimming in resources. And by swimming, I mean to have more than twenty. Let's figure out how to spend them!

• 1x Intel report: get one/two clues without test.
• 1x Streetwise: for investigation and any annoying agility test I could face.

Surviving until hitting the resources threshold…

• Dauntless spirit: +5 to your treachery mythos phase tests based on willpower…
• Brute force: if you didn't have time to get your weapons out. Useful mainly on the first rounds, where you are piling up resources or to economize an action if the enemy has 3 health.
• Savant: it will be a +3 at the beginning, but it could become a +4 for any test or a +5 for agility at the end of the scenario if the fan and Dario are there!
• Lucky: Pass these tests you were going to fall for less. Rotten remains? The damage to your sanity will be a bit lower…
• Look what I have found! This could be helpful at the beginning, when your intellect is just average (3) or at the end, when you are at a high shroud location and you don't want to commit cards/resources and you get some action compresion.

The strategy of this deck is quite straight forward: pile up resources at the beginning in order to boost your stats and get free actions in the middle/end game.

Mulligan: I keep any card that could be useful to fuel the resources engine. Specifically the red clock and lone wolf which are interesting if they are played as soon as possible because they pay for themselves very quickly. Well connected & high resources will give you a +2 per round from the very beginning, so keep them if found on the mulligan. Keeping a weapon is a good idea also: it will slow down your resources set-up, but will economise you free actions and get you resources in case of enemies appearing (and if they appear and you do not have a weapon, they will really slow you down!)

In the mulligan I discard streetwise, intel report, black fan (yes!), burglary, haste, liquid courage, scrounge for supplies… if found in my initial hand. You need these cards later, once you have built your resources pile. I would keep Dario depending on the initial hand. If you have Faustian bargain, keep it as you can hit quickly the 14 resources threshold, get his passive bonus and use him to get resources.

Resources thresholds:

• If you get to 14 resources… I can play Dario!
• If you get to 18 resources… it is the moment to get the fan out!
• If you get to 20 resources… I figure out a way to keep them at this level while you have the fan in your hand.

It is the first time that in midnight masks I almost get the six cultists playing true solo. Testing I have been consistenly on four to five, depending on weaknesses drawn. The end game is crazy, with additional actions from the black fan, haste, bounties and red clock (sometimes), crazy stats, well connected giving huge modificators, etc. it looks like cheating!

I even considered to add the card that leave your deck on 25 cards. I think it is worth to give it a try.

Hope you enjoy playing it!