Always leave a man behind (DTTF competition)

From the journal of Mitch Brown:

July 3, 1925

We've finally made it to the mouth of the Eztli ruins, but our journey has not been without its losses. The jungle has not been kind to our party but it seems misfortune is our greatest foe; an old dynamite charge unexpectedly detonated, killing several members of our expedition, though, the loss of our counterfiter was hardly a loss, untrusty worthy as she was,. It was not just her, however. One of our funders who insisted on joining our expedition was felled by a stray Shotgun blast; a risky shot that was equal parts necessary if not for the behest of our expedition leader whom insisted we draw out the local wildlife. Our early casualties have given some of our hired muscle pause to continue, or perhaps it's our lack of coin. No matter, Alejandro insists that the expedition is to continue, and fewer bodies means fewer shares of the spoils. Even so, let us hope these misfortunes do not follow us into the ruins; we venture into them tomorrow morning.

July 6, 1925

We have been journeying through these ruins for what now feels like weeks. We've made some progress, and it's only a matter of time before we find the secret chamber. Our troubles have not abated, I'm afraid. Our expedition leader ordered one of our less able bodied men to scout out the ruins; it was not longer before he was felled by a trap. The man should never have been given that task given his condition, and I'm half of mind to believe Leo was well aware of that. I've come to learn he was one the one who brought the old dynamite which continues to have untimely "reactions"; mercifully we have not had further casualties, though our depleting resources have driven off most of our treasure hunters, and it has not been without its close calls. We are now down to a skeleton crew; I fear what will come to pass when we finally do find that cursed chamber.

July 20, 1925

That bastard. After entering the chamber and locating the treasure we were immediately set upon by its protectors; it was in that moment, that Leo Anderson stabbed Alejandro's chief archaeologist in the back. While it was not enough to kill her, her blood quickly drew the attention of our attackers. It was in that moment, that Leo Anderson uttered, "I'm outta here!", and ran off with the treasure. I was blacked out shortly after that, awakening outside the ruins next to the remains of our party. I'm not sure how I survived let alone made it out of those ruins, but I have to believe fate intervened to keep me alive for a greater purpose: to find Leo Anderson, to ensure no one else suffers from his "accidents", and then, when the moment is right, kill him.

This is my entry to Drawn to the Flame's deck contest, a thematic Leo deck who tackles the Doom of Eztli. The theme, as you probably gathered, is a griefing deck that interprets Leo's past misfortunes as not mere accidents but intentional acts by Leo to avoid sharing the treasure; people are expendable, treasure is not, so to speak. With that in mind, the goals of the deck are as follows:

1. Survive rival grief decks (I'm looking at you Sefina);
2. Survive your own griefing; and
3. Kill the innocent naive.

So how do we do that, you ask? As far as survival, we can take advantage of Leo's bevy of allies to absorb the brunt of any damage/horror he may be dealt, whether from the encounter deck, fellow griefers, or just from liberal Dynamite use. Fantastically, we can drop down a Hired Muscle to completely absorb Dynamite leaving us completely unscathed. "You handle this one!" serves double duty by both protecting us from Delve Too Deep and throwing it back at our would-be griefers.

As for actually knocking people out we have a few tricks up our sleeves. Dynamite Blast is our most effective tool but we have others. Part of the problem with griefing by Fight actions is we need to find an enemy, a problem easily solved by On the Hunt. Then, you can proceed by way of Backstab (an attack that will surely fail given Leo's 1 ), or the ol' Sleight of Hand+Shotgun(5) combo. Leo's prodigious 5 makes this a little risky which is why we throw in Double or Nothing and Lucky Dice(2) into the mix.

Once the damage is done, drop Elusive or "I'm outta here!" to make your escape.

Testing for Eric (Whispers in your Head)