Calvin Wright: Your Hands Are Full of Blood

Introduction

Here is the final version of a Calvin deck for a Standard Carcosa campaign, partnered with Rex. It was meant to be primarily enemy control, with a bit of clue-getting, if situations allowed. Mostly, they didn't. Mostly, I want to encourage people to play Calvin -- he is stressful, but exciting and very very fun to play. As always, comments and suggestions welcome.

Notable Cards

Assets

• Meat Cleaver -- it's a great card for managing horror and dealing damage. Doubly good with Peter Sylvestre. After the first few scenarios, you will always be at +2
• Mysterious Raven -- A very good card for early campaign Calvin, swapped out later for Jessica Hyde
• Spirit of Humanity -- very good for Calvin. Early on, it can get you set up very fast, and, towards the end of a scenario, it can mean the difference between trauma and victory
• Five of Pentacles -- I don't love tarot, but this really made a difference in the campaign

Events

• Perseverance -- To be fair, I never played this, but I often had one in hand as an extra bit of insurance
• Stand Together -- I always wanted to upgrade this, never found the XP. This cam up awfully frequently in the first turn and really gave an extra boost at the start of a scenario
• Trial by Fire -- Helped out with investigation and killing. A little pricey, but good things often are

Skills

• Brute Force -- once Calvin gets to 4-5 damage, this almost always lands
• Rise to the Occasion -- Very flexible in Calvin, where virtually every test meets the requirements

Weaknesses

• Unspeakable Oath (Bloodthirst) -- This thing! It is surprisingly hard for Calving to overkill in a campaign with a lot of even health enemies!

Piloting

I think Calvin is suited to a fairly simple and direct kind of deck building, because you are always sort of teetering along, trying to maintain that sweet spot of 4-5 damage and horror. The balancing act is enough stress, without trying to get the parts of combos in place. You hope for a situation where all your cards are generally useful, so you can apply the tools as you need them to the problems You face. This deck did some amazing combats, where multiple enemies were evaded for multiple turns with one or two good hits getting landed as opportunities arose. This particular build is meant for Calvin to be the punching bag and murder machine while his partner got all the clues.

Mulligan A perfect starting hand: Stand Together, Spirit of Humanity, Meat Cleaver, Five of Pentacles, Peter Sylvestre. Mulligan to get as many of those as you can. Early in the campaign, Trial by Fire will help you be effective. All of the cards are good, so even in scenarios where the assets were buried, he was able to do his job as long as he had a weapon.

Upgrades

In rough order

• 2x Take Heart --> 2x Five of Pentacles
• 2x Fine Clothes --> 2x Spirit of Humanity (after scenario 2)
• 2x Peter Sylvestre --> 2x Peter Sylvestre (2)
• 2x Mysterious Raven --> 2x Jessica Hyde
• Charisma
• 2x Fight or Flight --> 2x Brute Force
• 2x .18 Derringer --> 2x .18 Derringer (2)
• 2x Rise to the Occasion --> 2x Rise to the Occasion (3)

I never got to the last two, mostly because Unspeakable Oath (Bloodthirst) kept stealing VP....