Preston Fairmont, Favors Crystallyzed by an Old Shotgun 2.0

Preston has few weapon options: Fire Axe is easily the best starting weapon for Preston. However, this is no Dark Horse deck, so he will quickly grow out of it. Bats and Sledgehammers are not very efficient, and Preston is no athlete. Timeworn Brands (cricket bats) are boring and cost way too much resources and XP. Old Shotgun is the best non-Illicit firearm, so we need to work around its 0 ammo condition. Old Shotgun can come into play loaded with Sleight of Hand, or you can play Swift Reflexes to reload it with an attack. Scrounge for Supplies should go for Swift Reflexes. This will only do up to 6 damage to 1 to 2 targets, so you'll still need Favor events. Elusive is a great card, but Decoy allows you to stay for other actions and is better for Crystallizer icon-use. After two shotgun blasts, there's a good chance you can finish them off with Delilah or a Small Favor.

Soak: Since there can be no Underground Market, we don't have room for Lonnie and Heavy Furs (a healing engine); that combo is too slow and awkward for Preston, and Versatile can lead to not finding critical cards. Talisman of Protection keeps you from losing by 2, is gained with Backpack, easily Scrounged, and only takes an arcane slot, but prevention isn't active so strategically weak. Peter Sylvestre is great for soak since he has some horror healing and costs 3. You can build up free actions with Delilah O'Rourke and Lola Santiago which also boost your stats, and they can each soak a hit usually. However, extra actions win the game, so Leo De Luca, despite his cost, is the best ally in the game, especially solo.

General XP upgrade order: Charon's Obol (if playing solo), upgrade both Well Connected to pass 2 tests vs 1 test, replace Fire Axes with Old Shotguns to fight, add Charisma (for story allies added to your deck and for upcoming allies), one Lola Santiago (replacing a Decoy), Charisma, and one Delilah O'Rourke (replacing a Decoy). 24 XP to fight, pass tests, and soak. Decoy is removed as you need to run less as you upgrade, and you can often use Well Connected to pass an agility test in an emergency.

At this point, Double Double (replaces a Sleight of Hand and is used with Scrounge to pull a Scrounge from discard and then pull Swift Reflexes back in hand for the cost of one action), upgrade Friends in Low Places with "Ritual", one Antiquary (replaces the second Sleight of Hand). Anything left over after 37 XP can be used on Counterespionage, Salvage, or more Friends in Low Places upgrades.

Mulligans: Well Connected (or Friends in Low Places to find one) comes first, and you should be aggressive with a mulligan if you don't get it. Leo De Luca and Favor cards are important before Well Connected and a large resource pool are built. Backpacks help find the weapon, but that might not be a priority if you have a Decoy or Small Favor in your first draw.

Lucky! is normally a Survivor staple, but you're buying your successes far too often, and Lucky! only helps with a couple tests, while you need events that have test icons for Crystallizer.