Arkham Deck Tech: Dirty Flex - Finn Edwards

This Finn Edwards deck is what we call a Flex Deck, it is not specialized, it can do a bit of everything: eliminate enemies, get some clues, evade. I think this investigator is well suited for this type of deck with three high stats (4 book, 3 might, 4 agility) and with a little splash of Survivor and/or Seeker cards to boost his Rogue archetype.

Link to the full deck.

This deck requires 4 XP and is based around Dirty Fighting. With a bonus action exclusively available to evade, you're going to do a lot of it and this card provides two important benefits: a free fight action and a +2 bonus to your skill. At level 0xp, you can replace Dirty Fighting with your favorite Rogue cards, it doesn't really matter. I used Hatchet Man, which in theory sounds great when you evade than fight enemies, but I never seem to get the full benefit out of it. This also nicely fits with his signature card, Finn's Trusty .38.

Since the general idea is to fight exhausted enemies, I have included a few tools:

• .25 Automatic You really need to evade first before using this weapon. It's fast, so you could technically play it even while engaged.
• Sneak Attack 2 damage for 2 resources sounds nice.
• .18 Derringer For the moments you need more firepower and might not have time to evade.

Remaining on the topic of evasion, Disguise is such a strong card, it is difficult to not include it. Pickpocketing should allow us one more card draw per turn on our free action, this sounds fantastic. You will be gathering clues in three ways:

• Lockpicks. Succeeding by at least 2 when you are investigating with 8 should be easy.
• Old Keyring Good to get clues from low-level shroud locations.
• Breaking and Entering. Sneaked in another way to evade enemies 😉

You might have noticed two elements at this point. Firstly, all these tools and weapons are one-handed. The general idea is two have one of each ready to do both roles. Secondly, the downside of this flex deck is that you're a bit underpowered to be the main fighter or the main cluer. This deck should probably be further specialized at lower player count, but for a 3 or 4 players games, it should work wonderfully. I play 3 players game occasionally, I usually start with a flex deck and use the experience points to specialize in the area our group is lacking.

Three cards should help with the economy in this deck. "I'll take that" should help get your tools into play after an evasion or investigation, two actions you're going to do anyway. In most decks, playing cards require two actions like Bank Job can be tricky and even penalizing. However, Finn has regularly four actions per turn, which should make it a smoother process. You could easily replace this card with your favorite moneymaker. Decorated Skull is circumstantial, you really need to stick to your main fighter to make it worthwhile. I'm currently playing this deck in a team with Leo Anderson, I gambled I could benefit from his many allies dying. 😆 This could be the next card you upgrade out if you don't get many uses out of it or straight up replace it at level 0 with Lucky Cigarette Case or an ally like Lonnie Ritter.

I have avoided talking about the elephant in the room until now: Finn has terrible mythos protection with 1 brain stat. We could either YOLO it and live with the consequences of failing all willpower tests or add a few cards to possibly succeed a few key tests. That's where Sparrow Mask, Tennessee Sour Mash and Unexpected Courage come into play. I have picked these three because they all have a secondary usage to round up the deck.

Suggested XP Upgrades

• Lockpicks-1 and Pickpocketing-2 are obvious choices.
• Manual Dexterity-2 if you think more card draw could be useful.
• Breaking and Entering-2 It makes it easier to trigger the evade action, and you can possibly get it back to your hand. I tend to view these cases as a free card you will be able to commit to another test more than reusing the event itself.
• I don't think the free fight action added to .25 Automatic-2 is worth spending the xp.
• With the amount of evasion you'll be doing, I don't think upgrading Sneak Attack is worth it.

Suggested XP replacement

• Flashlight-3 over the Old Key Ring
• British Bull Dog-2 over .18 Derringer. If your team really need more firepower, you could go for the Beretta M1918 or the Chicago Typewriter, just be aware these take two hand slots.
• Lola Santiago could replace any of your guns if your team needs you to get more clues.
• On the flip side, if you need to do more fighting, getting Delilah O'Rourke over an investigating asset could be very useful.
• Easy Mark-1 over Bank Job
• Fence-1 seems to be made for this deck, although I'm not sure what it should replace.