Dinkleberg's Better Joe Diamond Starter Deck

Introduction

Core 2026 for Chapter 2 is here, and much like Chapter 1, it shipped with investigator starter decks evenly split between their primary and secondary class. While this is great for getting broader exposure to the card pool, it also makes for less consistent and focused decks. Chapter 1 famously had a line of "Better Starter Decks" guides by Killbray, which offer an alternative deck structure closer to the theme embraced by the Standalone/Evergreen Investigator starter decks: two copies of a smaller selection of cards, to increase consistency.

These deck guides are provided in the same spirit for Chapter 2. You are encouraged to tweak them if you have multiple Chapter 2 Core sets, are playing with a low player count, or otherwise just want to put your own spin on them! Suggestions for some of the first items to consider will be described in the "Substitutions" section of the deck guide below.

Note

These deck guides are written assuming you desire to have a set of ready-to-play decks for each investigator in the Core Set, without having overlap or needing to proxy cards. The other decks in this series can be found at the following links:

Daniela Reyes

Trish Scarborough

Dexter Drake

Isabelle Barnes

Your Role and Your Cards

Joe is the chief clue finder in the Core set. Thus, the core of his kit focuses on compressing his clue discovery, so he can clear locations off with ease, with action economy to spare to move along or help dispatch smaller enemies in the area. Fingerprint Kit and Deduction enable Joe to pick up multiple clues per investigation, with support from cards like Hand-Crank Flashlight, Magnifying Glass, Sharp Rhetoric, and Perception making him more likely to pass his tests. Once he does, he gains the additional benefit of built-in card draw via his investigator ability, which will pull Detective's Intuition if you are lucky!

For long-term sustainment, cards like Resilience, Laboratory Assistant, and even Fedora give Joe more physical soak, and Detective's Intuition provides for some timely healing that can be played regardless of his available resources.

Economically, Emergency Cache and (albeit somewhat inconsistently) Dorothy Simmons provide the income he needs to pay for his expensive assets. Laboratory Assistant and Perception increase your odds of drawing Detective's Intuition during your turn, resulting in additional bonus card draw!

Every investigator should have a plan for how they will handle enemies. If Joe ends up engaged with smaller enemies, his base combat stat, especially combined with Machete, lets him dispatch them with relative ease. That said, he doesn't want to get bogged down handling large or multiple enemies, hence the inclusion of Through the Cracks (which can be preemptively boosted via cards like Working a Hunch, though be mindful of your total resources due to Dead Ends!), which can be used to get him out of a pinch.

For your skills, the venerable Deduction remains present for doing both helping pass investigations, particularly at high shroud locations, and reducing the number of investigations at said locations by netting you additional clues. Unexpected Courage helps him dynamically sustain against encounter cards, whether they feature willpower or agility tests, while Perception provides additional card mill early, or more certain investigations against high shroud locations late in the game.

Your Challenges

Both Willpower and Agility are important stats when it comes to encounter cards in Chapter 2, and Joe's base statline struggles here. Endurance and Sharp Rhetoric are present to allow for the occasional test boost, particularly against encounter cards, but it will cost you precious resources. Similarly, Endurance can help you evade Doomed or Elusive enemies as needed, while Sharp Rhetoric can make a Parley action much more certain to succeed.

Additionally, Joe's deck is asset heavy, and these assets are not cheap. Emergency Cache and Dorothy Simmons are your solution to this, meaning you want them in your hand earlier rather than later. Detective's Intuition might help you in a pinch, but you can't rely on it for resource generation, meaning you might find yourself often taking resource actions with the action economy gained from your clue discovery compression.

Substitutions

Local Map can help give Joe more mobility, and M1911, Logan Hastings, Vicious Blow, and Overpower can help give Joe a little more bite if you find yourself needing to dispatch enemies more often. Endurance or Sharp Rhetoric are both reasonable choices depending on how you tend to play. Scene of the Crime and Right Tool for the Job might also make sense to include depending on your team composition, if you find that enemies tend to stick around, or that you need to take a more active roll in dispatching them, respectively.