Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes.. Finn shootin'&lootin'

This is a quite experience and ressource hungry (of course it's a ), but once set up, very fun and versatile Finn Edwards deck that ran, quite succesfully, through Tfa (I always play standard) alongside Ursula Downs. All the stats are pushed high enough to investigate, evade and attack without throwing cards or money at tests. The 0xp version can be found here: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1022707. I'm not a native english speaker and it's my first published deck, so I'm glad to here from you what can be improved.

Enemy management:

This deck uses your free evade action(at an opimum of 7) as a bonus upkeep with 2×Pickpocketing, whilst preparing your enemies to be dealt with. That's 2 ressources and/or 2 cards plus the potential card draw with Lucky Cigarette Case and another 2 ressources if you played Sneak By. Then, if the enemy has a low fight (up to 3 or 4) you shoot it with the .25 Automatic or Finn's Trusty .38 at a 5 (6 if you got Delilah O'Rourke down). Don' even bother to shoot at enemies with high fight values, use Delilah O'Rourke's ability or Sneak Attack for testless damage. For odd health enemies there's Hatchet Man or Coup de Grâce(the latter being very handy for one health and/or aloof enemies,too). Or you just get the clues and leave, especially when dealing with non hunters. The downside here is you don't have a lot damage options against unexhausted enemies and there are not many cards you can commit to strength skill tests

Clueing:

With 4 intellect investigating at low shroud loctions is always viable, but with Lockpicks you are between 8-11 for higher shrouds. Use this at low shroud locations and you get a unlimited, once per round tutoring effect via Lucky Cigarette Case that rivals Mr. "Rook". The downside is you are limited to one clue per investigation.

Ressource mangement:

See enemy management. Beyond that, there's only Lone Wolf and "Watch this!". There are a lot of alternatives, depending on xp and deck composition you could always swap Sneak By and Lone Wolf with Pay Day. This is definitely great with Fence, Ace in the Hole and/or Borrowed Time. For me that was sufficent, but at times you might be a bit tight on ressources.

Encounter Deck management

Well, there isn't a lot. Agility tests are obviously fine, everything using a willpower test will hit you, with the only exception of your 2× you handle this one https://arkhamdb.com/card/04028. All the others you have to take on the chin. Put the horror on your investigator and your allies (Peter Sylvestre) and heal it via Liquid Courage or Logical Reasoning. If there is a terror treachery using a willpower test in your threat area, you can use Logical Reasoning, but if it's not a terror, you just have to beg your fellow investigators for help or stick with it. That's obviously not great, but hey nobody's perfect. Because Finn is an Adaptable guy, I swapped Logical Reasoning in an out, depending on what' s in the encounter deck. I often found myself playing Take Heart instead to get something out of failing. You might consider a second copy of Liquid Courage, if you find the deck space to include it.

Consistency:

If you can get your Pickpocketings and your Lucky Cigarette Case down, you draw a lot of cards, Finn's Smuggled Goods helps you finding your guns, Pickpocketing, Lockpicks, Liquid Courage, Pay Day and Fence(if you play the latter 2). It's not difficult to find all the pieces and play them, an early ally to get to 5 agility and your core setup is done.

Weakness handling:

If you got some time to breath and there's a hunter enemy at a connecting location, you could choose to draw your signature weakness Caught Red-Handed, when you see it via Lucky Cigarette Case and get it discarded. This helps you to avoid some dead draws and you can let it loose under controlled circumstances (and maybe even profit from it by saving a move or evading the hunter for ressources and cards). The latter may apply to your random basic wekness too, instead of being hit by it at the worst moment.

Other xp sinks and variations:

You might want to swap Peter Sylvestre for story allies especially in the Tfa and Dunwhich campaigns. Or ignore the second ally slot completely and drop in 2 Hard Knocks for less static boost and more flexible boosts via ressources and skill icons.

.18 Derringer instead of .25 Automatic, less potential damage, but no wasted bullets and you loose fast ( unless played with Fence).

Ace in the Hole is just great.

Fence has great synergy with Finn (at least 8 illicit cards) and can save you quite some ressources and actions, if played early. Making Finn's signature Smuggled Goods fast is very good as you can draw another fast illicit card (or make it fast with another Fence) and play it immediately. The drawback with fence is that you have to spend an action and 3 ressources, which slows your core setup down, but you gain tempo later on. This could be mitigated with Another Day, Another Dollar. The other issue might be deckspace, which leads us to

Versatile. It's not about the off class card but because 30 cards seem to be not enough. You have enough card draw and tutoring, so there shouldn't be consistency issues due to increased deck size. I tend to throw in some Overpowers at this stage.

Pay Day as mentioned above. Borrowed Time works nice with it. The problem is, I didn't have that many spare actions to put on it, with all the evading, fighting, investigating, playing cards and moving going on. But still if, you can make it happen it's great, not only regarding payday.

Finally there's the untested possibility of Relic Hunter to play both copies of Lucky Cigarette Case and get another shot at the card you need.

Hope you enjoy