Thorny Leo's Dogs

Oh dogs? Sure, I like dogs.

Possible Lvl0: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/3523022

Upgrade Priorities: The Star • XVII, Charisma(Just 1 early), Guard Dog, Survival Knife

Played this build through 3p Dream Eaters dream side with hard bag. It basically never cared how many enemies were in play. And that campaign has our friend Lumbering Gug. Might be a pain in Innsmouth with the number of enemey engage , but I played a couple stand alone Innsmouth scenarios without much fuss. And definitely don't bring this into Forgotten Age, Arrows from the Trees.

Basically you get hit and win. Your Guard Dog will easily clean up many enemies that swing at you, and you can finish any beefy enemies up with more Dogs or during enemy phase with your Survival Knife . With the The Star • XVII you will have a mountain of health and sanity available to you in the form of Many Dog. As your allies get weak you have Calling in Favors to refresh their health and sanity. Calling in Favors will also help keep an ally in your hand for Leo's . If your team has any sort of heal or damage redirection you become even beefier.

Getting The Star • XVII as one of your earliest upgrades will greatly increase the tank and function of your dogs. I only had one in my deck and never felt like I was wanting for it, but a second copy would sky rocket your early game consistency.

The name of the game is draw though. You wanna be drawing and getting allies out and into your hand, most of the events are to help facilitate the draw. Making use of Leo's is basically 2 if you wanna count the 1 reduced resource as an .

Passing tests can occasionally be a pain since you aren't generally boosting your outside of fights. Keeping Wolf Mask charges and Overpower for these situations will trick your group into thinking you're a goon that can test effectively. Later on adding in Combat Training and Beat Cop will help bolster your , more tank, and get you some more of that testless damage we crave.

What about mythos? How do you pass non enemy encounters? You probably don't, but that's what your soak is for. You will often have a good chance at passing tests. Is there a test that needs to be passed? Hope you have "You handle this one!".

Medical Student exists for Bought in Blood fodder. Along with a nice cheap health and sanity heal. With The Star • XVII the student also gets to better eat some damage. In a pinch you can lose a heavily damaged Guard Dog to Bought in Blood.

Glory is easily replaced for basically any preferred event, such as Prepared for the Worst, or Motivational Speech. Otherwise you could fit in Inspiring Presence but this is less useful unless you plan to go for something big like Agency Backup. Steadfast is nice if you do wanna have a better chance at passing those encounter tests. Other events like First Watch, Second Wind, and On the Hunt have a place too. Or more economy, you do have the splash, so Faustian Bargain and Bank Job exist.

What about Lucid Dreaming? I had a copy of it in my deck and used it once and otherwise was annoyed I spent the experience.

Black Market could also be a gimmick but I found it fun to use and fairly consistent in hitting at least a couple cards that I would wanna see in it such as allies or an Easy Mark copy. Also let me temporarily dodge a couple weakness draws. Timing wise it is important to note that Black Market is played prior to resolving Leo's . If your hand doesn't have any Allies for this investigation phase the market gives you a chance to not lose out on the .

Backpack > Prepared for the Worst, let's you find your Mask, and Rod, and Knife

Double Charisma is technically not necessary with Mitch Brown and Rod of Animalism, but with 2 copies it helps avoid any awkward but unlikely situations where you don't have either Rod or Mitch in play.

Where's Safeguard? Had it, dropped it, if I needed to be somewhere I had Sled Dogs. Since a lot of the damage you deal is actionless, along with free engages, fight reactions in enemy phase, and attacks of opportunity are actually useful, moving manually, especially up to 4 locations, doesn't feel terrible.

Other consistency and team protection/support would be the classic Stick to the Plan with cards like Heroic Rescue, Taunt, and Ever Vigilant. Who doesn't want more testless damage and draw.

To be truly thorny this build should be using Hunter's Armor, but the experience is a tough sell.