Mark Harrigan, the tragically compelling lover boy

This is a general purpose deck - largely chosen because my daughter was choosing my character for me and felt that Mark was a "tragically compelling lover boy" (her words). Since I hate one dimensional characters, a lot of thought was put into making Mark more well-rounded from a clue-finding perspective.

The core mechanic for this deck is to use Sophie's ability rather than skill cards to give Mark a +2 for a skill checks (at the cost of 1 damage). The damage will trigger Mark's ability to draw a card. This will give Mark great card draw. That allows Mark to load up on allies (and later gear) that will help him soak that damage.

Like all guardians, Mark is first and foremost a damage dealer. If there are enemies around, he should typically be hunting them down and killing them with extreme prejudice.

However, when he is not being a kill-crazed maniac, even with a 2 stat , Mark can provide effective clue support to a group in two ways.

1. In low/medium shroud areas, 2 base + 2 Sophie + Flashlight + Inspiring Presence will give Mark the equivalent of a 7-stat test. (UPDATE - replacing First Aid with Painkillers allows horror to be assigned to resources like Elder Sign Amulet that will be an early upgrade).
2. In high shroud areas, Mark can use the combo of On the Hunt and Scene of the Crime to pick up 2 clues for 3 resources without any test at all. He'll have to kill something - but enemies are usually a much better draw for Mark than treachery cards. This also helps when fishing for victory point enemies.

When he gets into trouble with damage, First Aid or Smoking Pipe, can be used as stop gap measures. These are a bit sub-optimal from an action point usage, but will be upgraded later. Mark wants to mulligan for weapons, ally, and flashlights. As long as he has a weapon, a flashlight, and a way to soak damage (ally or True Grit), he is pretty much at full effectiveness right out the gate.

Upgrades, first 5 XP

• Inspiring Presence --> 2x Ever Vigilant. Being able to bring out 3 items, at reduced cost, provides great action compression and helps Mark afford his gear/allies.
• Dodge --> Elder Sign Amulet.

Then, the next couple of upgrades (by 14 xp):

• Smoking Pipe --> Elder Sign Amulet
• True Grit x2 --> Bulletproof Vest x2

Finally, by the time 20 xp is reached:

• Stick to the Plan. The Ever Vigilant and remaining Dodge will be stored in Stick to the Plan. Mark's card draw (from constantly pinging himself for damage), should load up his hand with replacement gear pretty quickly. This will help Mark bring it out and/or replace it as needed. The #Dodge in his back pocket makes the second one superfluous.