There was a night when winds from unknown spaces whirled us irresistibly into limitless vacuum beyond all thought and entity.
–H.P. Lovecraft, “Hypnos”
Across the five cycles of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, you’ve encountered new investigators in each deluxe expansion, giving you more and more options for building your decks and exploring the mythos. Now, for the first time, you have the chance to invite five new faces to your games with a new type of product—Investigator Starter Decks!
Each Investigator Starter Deck includes a fully pre-built and ready-to-play 34-card investigator deck, as well as 26 additional cards that can be used to upgrade your deck as you play through a campaign. Perhaps you’re entirely new to the game—if your friend has a Arkham Horror: The Card Game collection, no longer do you need to buy your own Core Set or build your own deck to join in a campaign. You can simply pick out your favorite Investigator Starter Deck and start playing immediately.
Even if you’re a veteran player, there are plenty of reasons to pick up these Investigator Starter Decks. All five of these investigators are brand-new to Arkham Horror: The Card Game, and three of them are completely new to the Arkham Horror Files universe! Every starter deck is primarily composed of new cards entering the game for the first time, making these expansions the ideal way to quickly grow your player card collection and discover new ways to play. And of course, they’re perfect for helping a friend get started on their first campaign of Arkham Horror: The Card Game!
Nathaniel Cho thought he had a career as a prize fighter, but after a run-in with the O’Bannion gang, Nathaniel puts his fists to better use, patrolling the streets and defending others from harm. As a Guardian, Nathaniel Cho (Nathaniel Cho Investigator Starter Deck, 1) is a fearless defender, eager to protect his fellow investigators and bludgeon the monsters of the mythos to a pulp with his bare fists. In fact, whenever Nathaniel deals damage to an enemy with an event or a fight ability on an event, he deals one additional damage.
Accordingly, Nathaniel’s deck is packed with combat-centric events. Cards like Counterpunch (Nathaniel Cho Investigator Starter Deck, 12) let you snap back after an enemy attack, while One-Two Punch (Nathaniel Cho Investigator Starter Deck, 17) has the potential to give you two attacks for a single action! And of course, you’ll want Nathaniel to strap on his Boxing Gloves (Nathaniel Cho Investigator Starter Deck, 5) to boost your combat and help you find these Spirit events every time you KO another enemy.
As Nathaniel gains more experience throughout the campaign, this starter deck offers a full suite of cards that invite you to upgrade your deck. For example, you may choose to shore up your weaknesses by bringing in a card like Lesson Learned (Nathaniel Cho Investigator Starter Deck, 24) that helps you quickly pick up some clues from your location.
No matter what campaign you’re playing, you’ll start gaining more experience and you may decide that Stella needs more ways to take down the monsters in her way. If that’s true, you could do much worse than picking up an .18 Derringer (Stella Clark Investigator Starter Deck, 22). This trusty little pistol deals good damage, and if you ever fail your test, you reload the spent ammo and increase your combat for your next attack! Stella Clark is also well suited to invest in Quick Learner (Stella Clark Investigator Starter Deck, 30), a permanent asset that increases the difficulty of your earlier actions in exchange for decreasing the difficulty of your later actions. Naturally, this card is best if you’re getting more than three actions, and it also doesn’t hurt to have plenty of ways to reward yourself for failure.
