I thought the same regarding Patsy. Either he is a "win more" card (=useless) or too little too late. Dropped him out of my early Syndicate experiments pretty quickly. I would seriously recommend Expendable Muscle and Triggerman in the deck 3x, as they are some of the best characters in the faction. Brazen Hoodlum has also proven to be very good occasionally. Syndicate get overwhelmed easily under superior numbers so his ability to keep some of the characters out of stories can be very useful in those situations.
Syndicate deck brainstorming
I originally put in Patsy just because I was looking for a 1-cost character and his ability seemed more useful to me than Clover Club Bouncer. But yeah, he hasn't proven to be much of an asset. Maybe more useful in a mixed faction deck?
I want to like Demented Caretaker, but I just don't know how often I'll have a skill 4+ enemy character around to play him. Plus, the main reason I want a cost-1 guy is to throw him down early, which is exactly when you're least likely to see someone with really high skill.
Just noticed Triggerman also has one more skill than Anarchist, I may make that swap (or use both). Standalone I'd been preferring Fast over Willpower but extra skill tips the scales a bit more. Plus, I'm starting to come to a viewpoint that Fast isn't really needed. If you're COMPETING for a story as Syndicate, then you're probably doing it wrong or things aren't going well. Normally you should have most of the enemies exhausted or otherwise factored out and any few that are left you ought to be able to handle without cutting it so closely. That's not a guarantee, but I think it makes Fast a lot more situational than it is for most factions that are actually fighting. Willpower on the other hand helps against a specific weakness Syndicate has - Terror. You can now deal with Terror characters that are poor in Combat. It's not OMG, but those guys are out there, particularly in Hastur, and you can tie some of the Yog Terror characters one on one in combat too. I think I just convinced myself.
It's for the same reason that I'm wondering if I should rethink Tattoo Artist. Have you been getting good use from her?
I'd like to think a little more about Brazen Hoodlum and family (Arcane Grifter, Fugitive Scientist). You don't keep them out of the story, but you stop their skill contribution. I can see them being useful but I feel like I want to think through the implications and what sort of decks they're best against.
Alright, I think this is the next version I want to test out:
Characters: 30
2xThief for Hire
3xAnarchist
3xDanny O'Bannion's Crony
3xExpendable Muscle
2xExtortionist
2xHard Case
3xJohnny V's Dame
2xLady Lu Chu
3xTattoo Artist
2xTriggerman
3xFixer
2xMr. David Pan
Events: 11
3xIntimidate
3xForcing the Truth
3xKidnapping 101
2xPanic
Support: 9
3xBound and Gagged
2xDutch Courage
2xGun Runner's Club
2xMeat Wagon
I ordered the Kingsport Dreams pack and sometime I really need to get around to picking up a 3rd Core set, but this should do for now. It'll give me a chance to try out some of the newly-added cards and get a sense of what I want to pull out when the new stuff arrives. Most of it's conventional. Thief for Hire is sort of a test to see how he does, whether stealing attachments pays off enough or not. I suspect maybe not but I'd rather know for sure than guess and I won't know until I try.
The other experiment is Meat Wagon. Most of my characters are Criminals and therefore eligible for it. Actually, once I get another Core set probably even more of them will be Criminals because I'll probably drop a Tattoo Artist for more Extortionist/Hard Case. Anyway, it doesn't take a domain to use so it's potentially one more exhaustion I can throw out each turn.
There's one more card I'm interested in trying that's not in here yet because I wanted to ask you guys about it first. The card is Sleepin' Wit' da Fishes. You reveal the top four cards of your opponent's deck and put any characters found on the bottom of his deck and the rest on top in any order. I guess what I'm thinking is that my overall goal is keeping his characters away from the stories and this is another way to do it. You don't have to Exhaust a character that never gets drawn. What do you guys think? Now, it's fairly bad at bailing out of trouble if you're already IN it, but getting one early could stall your opponent from drawing characters for a bit.