Tricky Trish (8xp infinite combo)

I think this makes you the winner of the race to break Friends in Low Places!

Also, well done with pointing out the interactions with Hit and Run! It's almost as if fast actions are inherently problematic!

Holy *&&¨#&! Well done haha

Are the assets like Switchblade just like fast-cheap cards that you want in your play area and out of your deck? If so, maybe Hidden Pocket + I'll Take That too? xD

Awesome thank though :D

Wow, good job putting this together. What's even more fascinating is that it only takes 8xp and with a few more XP you can do some really bonkers stuff. You can get Versatile on Friends to exponentially increase the possibilities of what you can do. I can see a pretty easy infinite action loop by choosing Gambit and picking up Swift Reflexes on every loop. Pair that with Experienced to play a full 9 cards per loop, including Hit and Run to soak the horror from reshuffling the deck. This doesn't even need to be Trish either, since all the core cards are Rogue, although I think she does this the best by taking advantage of fast Seeker cards that progress the game quickly like Working a Hunch and Shortcut. Once again, well done!

From a game balance perspective, I'm conflicted. I disagree that the devs try to break any infinite combo when it's pointed out, I think it's a question of how easy it is to pull off, how much it breaks the game and how much traction it gets in the community. There's a few examples of infinite action loops you can do right now that aren't even that hard, have been posted or brought up in the community but remain intact. Some of them even include cards that probably should have been taboo'd a long time ago but have weirdly remained untouched. Like the aforementioned Swift Reflexes (despite the newer Honed Instinct inherently having a safeguard) as well as Cryptic Research and others. Many of those combos involve going down to a really low amount of cards in deck + discard and then just looping those cards, so maybe this is fine? The low XP, and ability for any Rogue to use it does have me worried though.

On the suggested taboo, it'd be unfortunate to completely disallow two Friends in Low Places to be played in one turn since one can find the other if you go for Favor as an additional trait, but maybe that's just the consequence of this card existing in today's metagame. I agree @mattastrophic that free actions are too good and Hit and Run is both free action and resource cheating, but I think the boat has sailed on making free actions limited. Like I mentioned, Working a Hunch, Shortcut, etc all exist and I don't think it's feasible to expect a taboo on all of them.

Could you elaborate a bit more on how the loop works? Namely I don't think the discard pile can be empty after the third Easy Mark is played.
The third copy of Easy Mark should not be able to shuffle itself into the deck because it is still in Limbo and not in the discard pile when it's being resolved, so after it's resolved, drawing from an empty deck and triggering a reshuffle and placed in the discard pile after all that, there should be 1-2 Easy Marks in your deck, 0-1 in your hand and 1 in your discard pile. Test-ran a bit and it seemed the loop would break down if you can't get all three copies of Easy Mark in your hand after playing Friends.

@mattastrophic I'm not sure I'd say that all fast actions are inherently problematic. I think that one's like this with no requirement on when they're played can be an issue, but fast cards with more restrictive play conditions are fine.

@chirubime Pretty much, yes. The problem with "I'll take that!" is it requires the player to take an action during the build up stage of the deck for it to be useful, and that would potentially slow down getting to the loop. Hidden Pocket is a good idea though if you want to run this with fewer ways to increase hand size.

@davilimap There are definitely ways to make it more efficient with more XP spent. My original build was I think around 17xp. This is just the version with the lowest XP spend.

Maybe I am wrong about the dev's tabooing this kind of thing. It's just been my observation, but as you say Swift Reflexes is still in the game so what do I know? :)

On the suggested taboo, maybe I wasn't clear in what I said, I'd just disallow two fast Friends in Low Places being played in the same turn. One fast and one normal speed play would still be doable.

@koaexe You could be right actually. I misread the FAQ entry about being in the discard when its ability triggers. The loop absolutely would break down without all three copies.

It would then be necessary to spend an extra 2xp on Friends in Low Places to add Versatile choosing 'Favor' so you can pick up the previous loops copy of Friends and leave just one card in the discard pile. That would also reduce the resource profit per loop by 3.

What's the answer to Shadow Agents? Do you just have to have a teammate babysit them before you start looping? Leaving them on you blocks you from actually using Art Student.

@SSW Good point. Ask for the teammates to bring those Handcuffs + Mind Wipe. :)

spicy deck!

@SSW Various options. When testing I used a Yorick deck that runs Handcuffs, which is the easiest option. But if that's not an option, Disc of Itzamna is there for when you draw them on your first run through the deck, and Think on Your Feet for when you draw them when you start looping. If there are clues on their location you'll have to Shortcut your bodyguard into their location before you go back in.

@Seamus But Handcuffs evades Shadow Agents, who has a forced ability that discards itself when it is evaded. It just slips out of the handcuffs. That's why people are suggesting the mind wipe on top of the handcuffs.

Could use In the Shadows or even Elusive to disengage from them.

@chirubime Good point. I misplayed that in one of my test runs so. Bury Them Deep still works on them (which is part of why I used Yorick). Leaving them in the discard pile when running through the deck first and then using Think on Your Feet to offload them to the bodyguard of choice also works, and is the default option as built.

@mattastrophic I prefer Think on Your Feet over Elusive as it is a Trick. But yes those both work. :)

Keep the decks coming!