Mark Harrigan: Mage Knight | Beginner's Guide

Defeat enemies using your fantasy weapons. Help out gathering clues. Support your Reporter partner against the mythos.

Introduction

This is a refined version of a deck that I've been taking through The Scarlet Keys campaign. It's designed to work alongside Darrell Simmons: Academic Photographer, and while there is some interaction between these decks, it should work well as a dedicated fighter with any investigator composition. The cardpool used is Revised Core Set, Edge, Dunwich, Carcosa, Scarlet Keys and the Investigator Starter Packs. At the end of this guide are some tips to improve this deck with a full cardpool.

Key cards

• Sophie: Allows you to boost any skill and then draw a card with Mark's ability. Be careful not to overuse it as it will bite you in the end or leave you Shell Shocked. Heal back up with Emergency Aid or your partner's Bandages.

• Runic Axe, Brand of Cthugha: Main weapon and sidearm respectively. Mulligan hard for these (or Prepared for the Worst) and get them out early. Use the Axe over the Brand if possible since it recharges itself.

• Guard Dog, Beat Cop, Vicious Blow, The Home Front: Additional sources of damage and soak are always handy when you're getting swarmed. Prioritize Guard Dog over Beat Cop at this point as you'll get more damage out of it and, with a strength of 5, the stat boost from Beat Cop is not needed at this point.

• Kicking the Hornet's Nest: When you've got your weapon out and some additional sources of damage ready and want to help out gathering clues (or could use some extra resources), this does the trick. Also useful to seek out a difficult enemy with VP at a moment where you know you'll be able to handle it.

• "Let me handle this!", Guts, Say Your Prayers: Help your low willpower partner (or yourself) defend against the mythos.

• Refine: More XP and pushing your luck is fun, and these help getting the Axe powered up sooner. Try getting one of these done every scenario as long as it doesn't significantly compromise your position.

Upgrade Path

• .32 Colt x2 --> Brand of Cthugha (1) x2 | XP: 2 | Total: 2
  The Brand only taking up an arcance slot has significantly diminished the value of hand slots for dedicated fighter Guardians. This allows us to run our main weapon and sidearm simultaneously without having to run Bandolier.

• Runic Axe: Heirloom | XP: 1 | Total: 3
  A cost reduction of 1 usually costs 1 XP (per card), but this upgrades both our copies of Runic Axe. Great value.

• Stick to the Plan | XP: 6 | Total: 9
  Amazing staple making Guardians a lot more consistent. Attach Prepared for the Worst, Refine and Kicking the Hornet's Nest to it.

• Refine --> Ever Vigilant (4) | XP: 4 | Total: 13
  With Refine attached to Stick to the Plan the second copy has no use anymore. Instead, Ever Vigilant (4) provides ridiculous value especially in a 2-player team, allowing both players to come out of the gate swinging. Attach to Stick to the Plan (instead of Kicking the Hornet's Nest), mulligan hard for your key assets, and open with this beast.

• Runic Axe: Inscription of Glory | XP: 1 | Total: 14
  With the deck's consistency on point, it is time to power up the Axe. This upgrade grants the Axe the ability to heal or draw. Healing is usually better than drawing as you can choose to take damage to boost a test and then draw anyway.

• Runic Axe: Inscription of the Elders | XP: 1 | Total: 15
  Grants the ability to discover clues. Try it if you're confident you can oversucceed on fight test, but be careful, charges are limited and you're a fighter first and foremost.

• Runic Axe: Ancient Power | XP: 3 | Total: 18
  Stack more damage in a single attack. Vital upgrade to take down bigger enemies quickly. Depending on how often you play a Refine some of these upgrades could be moved up or down the order.

• Guard Dog, Beat Cop --> Beat Cop (2) x2 | XP: 4 | Total: 22
  Going with the upgraded Beat Cop over Guard Dog allows us to be more proactive instead of reactive when dealing with enemies. Also, at this point in the campaign the extra stat bonus from Beat Cop will come in handy. Keep the cop alive using Emergency Aid, Inspiring Presence or your partner's Bandages.

• Brand of Cthugha (1) x2 --> Brand of Cthugha (4) x2 | XP: 6 | Total: 28
  Bigger numbers to deal with bigger enemies. With this and the Axe on the table you'll be shredding any enemy the mythos throws at you.

• Runic Axe: Saga | XP: 3 | Total: 31
  The Axe getting more abilities as well as bigger enemies at this point in the campaign means you will be using more charges. This keeps the Axe ready to go turn after turn. Again, depending on the timing of your Refine plays, this upgrade could be moved up or down the order. After this point, Refine will be useless so attach Kicking the Hornet's Nest or Shortcut to Stick to the Plan instead.

• Vicious Blow x2 --> Vicious Blow (2) x2 | XP: 4 | Total: 35
  A luxury upgrade. An extra icon and the possibility of even more damage.

Link to the full 35XP version

Full collection improvements

With the caveat that I haven't tested any of this, these are some safe recommendations for improving the deck with a full collection.

• Beat Cop, Flesh Ward --> Scene of the Crime x2
• Kicking the Hornet's Nest --> On the Hunt
  The Scene of the Crime plus On the Hunt package is probably a bit better than Kicking the Hornet's Nest, although you're forgoing the extra resource generation.

Any questions or comments are welcome.