The internet is lacking Core 2026 starter decks that work up to 4 players with no adjustments right now, so I wanted to fill this gap.

At a 4 player count and limited to Core 2026 only, cards will be scarce and you are forced to "team build" rather than deckbuild. If someone modifies their cards, there's a high chance that it is also someone else's good card. You can't really name each individual deck as anything in this limitation, so let's think of them together as a team. This is a "No Dexter" team, with all his Mystic cards going to Isabelle Barnes and all his Rogue cards going to Trish Scarborough. Daniela Reyes and Joe Diamond do have to share with each other, as well as with those other two members.

Pre-Built Team for 4P Core 2026 : This series is about a set of 4 Core 2026 investigator decks built together, taking every advantage of the cards donated from that known one missing Core investigator stated in the team name. They are automatically compatible with 2P or 3P games as well, as long as that one investigator stays missing.

NEWS : I'm now maintaining a one-stop destination of strictly beginner-friendly starter decks over at https://arkham-starter.com/starter, and even pre-built starter teams for 2, 3, or 4 players at https://arkham-starter.com/team. (That's why the site was named that in the first place.) Special thanks to all starter deck authors' contributions for making it possible!

Members

Since this works only as a team, the guide is the same for everyone. The decks are in their 0 XP state with upgrade cards prepared in the Side Deck, which makes sure you are not colliding with anyone even in the upgrades.

• Daniela Reyes : arkhamdb.com | arkham.build
  • Enemy : Great. Clue : A bit.
• Joe Diamond : arkhamdb.com | arkham.build
  • Enemy : Good. Clue : Good.
• Trish Scarborough* : arkhamdb.com | arkham.build
  • Enemy : A bit. Clue : Great.
• Isabelle Barnes* : arkhamdb.com | arkham.build
  • Enemy : Good. Clue : Good.

* = Obtained all cards from the missing member Dexter Drake and can use them to their heart's content.

Stop! Have you played the pre-con yet?

Read this if you are a newcomer. Out of the box, the game comes with 5 playable decks, where each deck has 1 copy of every non-neutral card it can use. This is the most unopinionated, flexible way the game could make sure they work in 2, 3, or 4 player teams no matter who's picked, with no one taking each other's cards. (Even if this game went up to 5 players, that would still work.)

Obviously the performance is not ideal, and you will see cards that don't fit with what the investigator is good at, or even cards waiting for future non-Core products to fulfill their purpose, but you are forced to use them now! But performance isn't the purpose of these decks. I highly recommend that you play through Brethren of Ash at least once using the pre-con :

• Getting to know the investigators. Core Set investigators can use 2 classes, and they form a circular chain of classes. A very optimized deck might automatically lean into the primary class, and that removes the "wonders" that you could have stumbled onto. You won't know how far they can flex if you start with a deck that's too consistent.
• Table talk. Since there's only 1 copy of each class card in each deck, if your friend has overlapping class access with you, then when they see you play something, they learn as well and might get their own copy of that card soon. When a card doesn't work with your investigator, teamwork happens. You will come up with many more interesting, scrappy combos than an optimized team would.
• There's always a way out. If you play with the pre-con, you will surely be pushed toward certain less-than-ideal solutions throughout Brethren of Ash, which I think will get you hooked on the game.

That is, I wanted to make sure you know this pre-built team isn't intended to replace your first-time experience. Rather, this should be one example of an adjustment you can make. Double up copies of cards you agree with, keep one-ofs of cards you think are situational or want to share, and cut cards you don't like. That's deckbuilding / team building. Have fun!

The No Dexter Team

Since Core 2026 investigators form a ring of classes, when Dexter Drake is gone, the nutrients go to Trish Scarborough and Isabelle Barnes. For this team I've decided that :

Trish Scarborough

Is a Prestidigitation user with Olivier Bishop as her ally, of course, since she has the free evade. This allows discounting expensive hand assets like Local Map and Fingerprint Kit, while returning much cheaper Item assets like Hand-Crank Flashlight or Thieves' Kit that have been used up. I've added the fighting option M1903 Hammerless as another thing that can be used up. Magnifying Glass would have been good for this too, but I wanted Joe Diamond to have it to add to his Dorothy Simmons for unlimited decent investigation.

Isabelle Barnes

Gets the full Mystic suite of 2x Cosmic Flame + 2x Second Sight. She has the clue-cheating Will of the Cosmos technique (usually Dexter's thing) with Premonition and Jumpsuit to void away the doom, with 1x Hunter's Instinct to bring it back and cheat at more 4-shroud locations. It also brings back "Look what I found!", which, despite her pitiful 2 , becomes workable with Hand-Crank Flashlight and Timely Intervention. Her ally of choice is Jim Culver, pushing spell accuracy to 5 , with Timely Intervention to make the impossible happen, and now you draw a card with each ability use! She also has 1x Lucky Charm, both for saving her own sanity for ability use and for helping with Daniela Reyes's horror. Without Aleksey Saburov, the Lucky Charm combo is not quite immortal, but I want him on Daniela more.

Joe Diamond

It's better to look at Joe before Daniela to see how many of the Guardian cards he took. Due to Daniela's tendency to attack out of the blue when others are hurt, and since that attack is often without engagement, the Machete is given to Joe so Daniela can have the M1911. Since I left all the Seeker toys for Trish to have fun with her Prestidigitation, I intend Joe to hold Magnifying Glass permanently. Or double it up, and you can do a one-way transition to Machete later. Endurance has the potential to be super good in the endgame, when he has too many resources from Dorothy Simmons, and suddenly Joe is evading at 6 by paying 2. I want Daniela to have this power too with her Logan Hastings cash, so let's share 1x each. Joe will be a Charisma user after upgrading, so Bodyguard allows a little bit of splitting up. Joe is quite card-starved, so 2x Sharp Rhetoric, which I don't really want, are there, but I still don't want to add the 2x Through the Cracks and 2x Fedora that are left in the collection no matter what. 2x Broken Bottle + 2x Hand-Crank Flashlight match both of his 4 stats, so it's quite sound.

Daniela Reyes

She gets both Logan Hastings and Aleksey Saburov and will be the other Charisma user of this team. Meat Cleaver is a powerful asset that reaches the +2 range quickly, and for +1 damage, you can keep healing back if it's not a boss fight. For that, you need lots of soak so you aren't accidentally defeated by horror. The 1x Hunter's Instinct that's shared with Isabelle Barnes is a cool one-off that allows you to replay Emergency Cache and Lesson Learned. More caches mean more ally refreshes and more soak for more counterattacks. Bandages can be used to cover Isabelle Barnes's Breaking Point, which works for each "then". (You can trigger on each "then", but the effects queue up to occur after all the "then"s, so Isabelle does need to survive the whole thing before being healed.)

Upgrades

Trish Scarborough

2x Another Day, Another Dollar sounds boring, but it allows her to set up and play expensive hand assets like Fingerprint Kit / Local Map with Olivier Bishop without any tricks like Prestidigitation. It's really good. Out of Sight (3) can be thought of as a way to help your friend with , since the game lets you commit just one card to others. The text is a bonus that most of the time might not matter. Sticky Fingers (2) is a cool extra that saves you an action and lets you play it even with engaged enemies, along with duplicates that can be committed for .

Isabelle Barnes

Hand-Crank Flashlight and "Look what I found!" are the same package and so are removed together, while the Will of the Cosmos + Premonition + Jumpsuit + Hunter's Instinct package remains to cheat clues. You'll get more use of your ability and more willingness to siphon horror from others with Lucky Charm by purchasing Fearless (2) (while still having 2x Guts in the deck too), and Scrape By stacks on top of Timely Intervention's safety. The Meat Cleaver (3) gives you 5 , equal to the spells with Jim Culver, but with a setup cost of only 2. There's also an interesting synergy : when Isabelle's Twin .45s bumps it out, you can use Jumpsuit to bring it back for a commit. 2x On the Brink (2) would have been a nice combo with "Look what I found!", which is now removed, but there are no other cards Isabelle could get otherwise. You can try that next time, when Dexter is in the team and Will of the Cosmos is not available.

Joe Diamond

As soon as the first 3 XP goes to Charisma, Joe will feel much bulkier with Laboratory Assistant + Laboratory Assistant now possible, and any combination with one Dorothy Simmons or one Bodyguard (2). So you should aim for 5 XP in the first scenario. I really like this sharing of 1x Bodyguard (2) with Daniela Reyes, since in multiplayer you can split up to gather clues over a wider area, rather than being a deathball of 4 players attempting to proc Daniela's , Bandages, or Lucky Charm and not getting as much work done. Through the Cracks (2) gets you power similar to the Endurance payment at a cheaper price, and now you can become Trish temporarily. Studious lets you mulligan wider, and lastly Counterattack is here because it's a non-bo with Daniela's . You can also perform an investigate to trigger an attack of opportunity and cancel it with Counterattack. If that defeats the enemy, it'll look like you have compressed a bunch of actions!

Daniela Reyes

The first 3 XP for Charisma gets you the Aleksey Saburov + Logan Hastings combo, or if that's not happening, you might have 1x Bodyguard (2), which is happy to die so you can transition to the unique ally pair later. Sledgehammer (3)'s appeal is the repeated, unlimited +1 damage with no accuracy boost, so Daniela with her starting 5 is good for this. Daniela's can be used with the as well, but you do need to be able to pay one . Winchester Model 12 should be paired with Overpower so you get a lot of over-success. Note that this has the potential for an obscene amount of burst damage if you use her to attack one more time, even if you just spent your own turn to play it and fight once or twice already. Let your friends get hurt and shoot! The Jumpsuit revival of this gun would be juicy, but maybe you can try that next time, as I need them on Isabelle Barnes to put Will of the Cosmos doom on.