I'm playing a 4 player game with some friends, and we're about to start Dunwich. We're trying to be strict, so we're playing with *only* 2 core sets and 1 Dunwich base set.

I'm not really good at deck building, so I went and found some online, such as https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/294/zoey-samaras-the-stabbing-chef-1.0

The problem is that 4 such decks ends up with a *lot* of conflicts; several characters want Scrying, Lucky!, Fire Axe, the list goes on.

Can people suggest good "filler" cards from those sets that I can use to round out these decks, since I can't build them all as stated?

Do you know which investigators you and your friends would like to play as? It will make it a lot easier to give suggestions for cards and/or decks that would be useful to you!

Here are some "filler" cards that I use if I have conflicts:

1. Emergency Cache. Realistically, most decks probably already include this, but for any that don't, you have a lot of copies of this in the Core set, and nobody's ever going to be upset to draw this.
2. Flashlight. For certain, Like Cache, you have a lot of copies in the core set. Pretty much anyone can make use of the Flashlight, especially on locations with 2 or lower shroud value. Even if their Lore sucks, give them some flashlights.
3. Unexpected Courage. This is definitely my go-to "skill" card if I need a filler. The flexibility of this card is always worth an include.
4. Perception/Overpower/Guts. If you're out of Unexpected Courage already, I like these just fine. I'd suggest giving them to classes that have good marks in the relevant skills already (Overpower to your Guardians, Perception to your seekers, Guts to your Mystics). I don't like giving these to people who have poor skill value in their skills, as the pre-con NotZ decks do.
5. Knife or Kukri. I prefer knife, but both of these help to give weapon cards to those characters who are going to need them

So, that's a list of entirely neutral cards. With only 2 core + 1 Dunwich, you'll probably find you're using the vast majority of your "color" cards already. After these, probably just about anything is viable since you don't have many options.

The actual decks I have in mind are:

https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/294/zoey-samaras-the-stabbing-chef-1.0

https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/530/fire-bones-rex-deck-hard-core-rougarou-1.0

https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/332/skill-test-pfft-what-skill-test-v2-0-see-link-1.0

https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/381/broke-***-pete-s-spooky-adventure-3.0

The cards I would need to have to do all 4 of those that I don't actually have are:

2x Shortcut
3x Guts
4x Manual Dexterity
2x Overpower
2x Unexpected Courage
2x Fire Axe
2x Magnifying Glass
1x Perception
2x Scrying
2x "Look what I found!"
2x Lucky!

There is, bizarrely, only one flashlight in use in all 4 of those decks, so dishing out the rest of the flashlights seems like a start. I do have 2 emergency cache left, but I'm out of guts, overpower, unexpected courage, and perception. I have lots of knives left.

Using all my knifes, emergency caches, and flashlights still leaves me with 10 holes to fill.

Hmm. I'm definitely noticing that Zoey could do with a couple of the more powerful non-stabby weapons.

Oh, and there's no Teamwork in there at all.

I’ve made some modifications to the original decks you posted (hopefully I’ve got the permissions set correctly so you can see them):

• Zoey: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199853
• Rex: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199859
• Jim: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199860
• Pete: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199861

I tried to keep most of the original cards from the decks where possible. As you said in your previous post, personally I’d take 2x .45 Automatic with Zoey instead of 2x Kukri but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to keep melee-only theme of the deck.

I gave Pete the Magnifying Glasses because Rex can take the higher level versions, which I suggest he tries to pick up sooner rather than later. Rex gets the Fire Axes so that he can fight in an emergency, Pete has Duke and so isn’t reliant on them for combat.

I think Jim saw the most number of changes. First Aid and Fearless should help keep everyone healthy and sane in case his Trumpet doesn’t show up. Double or Nothing can help with clue gathering with Rite of Seeking, giving 4 clues on a single successful skill test.

I included both copies of Teamwork in case you want them. If not then Think on Your Feet and Elusive are both good cards to consider including instead.

12 hours ago, Assussanni said:

I’ve made some modifications to the original decks you posted (hopefully I’ve got the permissions set correctly so you can see them):

• Zoey: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199853
• Rex: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199859
• Jim: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199860
• Pete: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/199861

Oh, my goodness! That is way more work than I expected, thank you!

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I tried to keep most of the original cards from the decks where possible. As you said in your previous post, personally I’d take 2x .45 Automatic with Zoey instead of 2x Kukri but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to keep melee-only theme of the deck.

I really don't.

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I gave Pete the Magnifying Glasses because Rex can take the higher level versions, which I suggest he tries to pick up sooner rather than later. Rex gets the Fire Axes so that he can fight in an emergency, Pete has Duke and so isn’t reliant on them for combat.

Ooooh, I hadn't thought about the subtlety that with Dunwich characters, you can give somebody something they can't upgrade. That's helpful, thank you.

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I think Jim saw the most number of changes. First Aid and Fearless should help keep everyone healthy and sane in case his Trumpet doesn’t show up. Double or Nothing can help with clue gathering with Rite of Seeking, giving 4 clues on a single successful skill test.

So, I saw in another deck ( https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/1202/here-s-zoey-1-core-dunwich-multiplayer-1.0 ) the idea of using Fire Axe and Double Or Nothing for hard enemies; do you think there's enough damage dealing floating around that it's OK to use that trick for clues instead of damage?

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I included both copies of Teamwork in case you want them. If not then Think on Your Feet and Elusive are both good cards to consider including instead.

Teamwork seems like a pretty appropriate thing to have in a 4 person game.

Also, I feel I should point out, give rex a knife instead of fire axe, in a 4 player game if he has to fight anything stronger than a rat and/or something as strong as a ghoul minion your back up fighters/guardian isn't doing their job right, unless you are playing on hard or expert. Also if you have two cores someone should be taking Elusive, probably zoey and jim since in your current deck build restrictions they don't have access to move cards. Elusive is probably still the best level 0 card in the game.

21 hours ago, rlpowell said:

So, I saw in another deck ( https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/1202/here-s-zoey-1-core-dunwich-multiplayer-1.0 ) the idea of using Fire Axe and Double Or Nothing for hard enemies; do you think there's enough damage dealing floating around that it's OK to use that trick for clues instead of damage?

I’d say it’s your call to make based on the scenario and how things are going. With 4 players there are a lot of clues to get, but Rex should be a lot of help with that! I’d keep Double or Nothing on Jim though, don’t forget that he can commit it to other investigators’ tests. You could give Fire Axe to Zoey (drop Kukri) and give Pete Knife instead. If Jim can get Shrivelling out I reckon you should be good for damage. I should say that I’ve only played with 4 players once though!

I’ve also updated the decks by adding Elusive to Zoey and Jim as per @Starbreaker1 ‘s suggestion. It’s a great event, although I’m not sure it would be my pick for best level 0 card!

Just curious @Assussanni what is your pick for best level 0 card? I say Elusive because fast, disengage, go anywhere you have gone before. Not disengage each non-elite, not move to a connecting location just get out of dodge and poof you are at a new location, that is my reasoning. Curious to hear your best card and why

I mean it's all situational, sometimes Elusive is a star, and sometimes it isn't. I think the only way to think of it is what has the best impact on the game, most of the time. To me there is a whole laundry list of cards that are way more impressive than Elusive.

Milan because: well, obviously
Scavenging: combos into getting you all the stuff back you need to continually win more at scavenging. Also leather coats, discs of itzamna, a good scavenging build is extremely hard to kill.
Lone Wolf: This card is free money.
Leo: I guess extra actions are good.
Lucky: When I hold this card, I know I have an ace up my sleeve. This is a savior, especially on higher difficulties.
I've Got a Plan: Allows seekers to drop a nuke on an enemy.
Delve too Deep: Free.. experience.
Ward of Protection: the utility of this card is fantastic.

IMO, all of these are better than Elusive. But if I were to pick a single best card level-0, I'd probably say Milan.

4 hours ago, Starbreaker1 said:

Just curious @Assussanni what is your pick for best level 0 card? I say Elusive because fast, disengage, go anywhere you have gone before. Not disengage each non-elite, not move to a connecting location just get out of dodge and poof you are at a new location, that is my reasoning. Curious to hear your best card and why

I'll start by saying that my only first hand experience with Elusive was in a solo Jenny run of Dunwich (I don't usually play Rogues) - more players might increase it's value by virtue of there being more revealed locations. Anyway, I noticed that somewhat frequently if I wanted to use it to for its disengage then my only options were places that I'd already visited and had no particular desire to return to. In these cases I would have preferred to have Think on your Feet, which would at least allow me to move into a new location. Don't get me wrong, the mobility is amazing in some scenarios and this card single-handedly saved my entire campaign in Where Doom Awaits - it's definitely one of my highest rated level 0 cards - but for all the great things it can do I also feel that the restrictions (already revealed location with no enemies) can sometimes be a severe drawback.

I think I would be boring and also pick Dr. Milan for best level 0 card. Sure he takes up the Ally slot but the flat +1 intellect makes Seekers better at what they should already be doing and on top of that he rewards them for what they should already be doing. Granted you have to successfully investigate four times before he's paid for himself, but Seekers will typically be investigating more than four times in a scenario anyway.

Other level 0 cards I like:

• Vicious Blow: +1 damage while also boosting your chances of success during a fight action is nice,
• Deduction: ditto, but for clues,
• Prepared for the Worst (a Guardian without a weapon is just sad, and this decreases the number of weapons you need in your deck freeing up space for other things),
• Think on your Feet: in the right circumstances it's an actionless Evade + Move,
• Double or Nothing: action compression and essentially get an extra use of a skill card... if you can handle it,
• Peter Sylvestre: horror, what horror?
• Storm of Spirits: great if there is more than one enemy around, but the more the merrier,

Lone Wolf is amazing for solo but otherwise very player count/map dependent, and Machete is always held up as the gold standard for weapons (although as player count increases I think it loses a little of its shine).

Blew through Extracurricular Activity with no trouble.

The big bad monster was pretty scary when it showed up, but by putting everyone except Rex on it we managed to kill it in 2 turns!

Thanks everyone for all the help!

You are Welcome, the more helpful and friendly this community is the more people will play ArkhamLCG, and I personally would like this game to continue for as long as possible.

As for those that say Dr. Milan is the best level 0 card, he is certainly very high in the list of best level 0 cards, some of the reasons are curious to me simply because my idea why he is close to the best is he gets you almost free resources, more than once a turn often. Sure he gives a +1 intellect but a surprising amount of cards perform that function, in seeker at least. Maybe I will take a closer look at hired muscle/Treasure hunter for my skids deck. That is interesting. Also Delve I Agree with, it is at least in my book tied with Elusive, I am currently running a 3 player group through Dunwich to see just how much xp we can suck out of it, we just finished EA with HAW first and have a total of 19 xp, so far doing pretty well. As always thank you for sharing your views

5 hours ago, rlpowell said:

Blew through Extracurricular Activity with no trouble.

The big bad monster was pretty scary when it showed up, but by putting everyone except Rex on it we managed to kill it in 2 turns!

Thanks everyone for all the help!

Nice work! Don't worry if you find The House Always Wins more difficult. I think it is a tougher scenario than Extracurricular Activities, especially if played second.

40 minutes ago, Starbreaker1 said:

Also Delve I Agree with, it is at least in my book tied with Elusive, I am currently running a 3 player group through Dunwich to see just how much xp we can suck out of it, we just finished EA with HAW first and have a total of 19 xp, so far doing pretty well. As always thank you for sharing your views

Wow, 19xp after two scenarios is amazing! That must be close to the maximum possible. Possible spoilers for the amount of xp available in The Dunwich Legacy: