The Preston Fairmont Job - The Circle Undone

Played this deck 2-player (with Diana Stanley) during full first run of The Circle Undone cycle. We managed to win practically every scenario and the campaign!

I started this attempting a "Big Money" deck, with cards like Lone Wolf, Well Connected and Cunning. However, I soon noticed that my deck was super expensive, and was mostly spending everything -- especially with Fire Axe, you usually want to get that extra damage (because Preston can't take Illicit cards, I felt like this was his best option for a weapon). So I decided to morph into a Dark Horse Preston (got Adaptable), which worked pretty well.

Towards the end, I focused in adding more passive boosts for any skills, especially (I hate failing Encounter cards tests!). Many people think this doesn't work for Preston, but I believe they are wrong! I had tons of fun with this build. Yes, there were a lot of assets, and actions used to play them, but with Leo De Luca you can definitely make this work. Towards mid/end scenario, my Preston had +4 (+5, depending on locations for Hemispheric Map), +4 (+5, because of Hemispheric Map), +1, +3. So he would start his turn with 5, 5, 2, 4 -- this helped me to save a lot of resources, so I could perform several skill tests in one round. Granted, the The Black Book was specific to the Circle Undone cycle (also, really good combo with Peter Sylvestre!).

Drawing Thin was also a good card for Preston, that I only realized mid campaign. It's basically a +1 or +1 (with Streetwise), or +2 (with Fire Axe).

Added Investments to mitigate Preston's weakness. Flare so it would be easier to find Leo De Luca and Peter Sylvestre. "You handle this one!" for Encounter cards (I played multiplayer with Diana Stanley), and later A Test of Will. Trial by Fire helped a lot in those early turns before I got stuff setup, or for a heavy combat turn.

One thing to note is that I had two copies of The Tower • XVI, so having skill cards was pointless.