Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
zozo · 2983
Partner? What partner? I work alone...
This is an explicitly solo Roland Banks deck looking to play off two ideas: cheap allies, bolstered by Charisma; leaving clues on locations.
The Basics
Roland is a great choice for solo investigating in Arkham Horror. He has a decent statline (3 is reasonable, and 3 coupled with 4 is decent). His ability, while not stellar, provides a nice compression of activities - and it's worth noting that killing enemies and getting clues are the two primary means of advancing act decks (with a couple of exceptions). It's usual to see players lean into his , with cards like Beat Cop and the standard 5 or 6 weapons. But what if... we didn't?
The Twist
If Roland's got the basics covered, does he need to lean in to those basic strengths? That was where my head went when I started toying with three cards. First was Art Student. It has a lot in common with Working a Hunch (same cost, same effect), with a drawback (it takes an action) and a boon (it leaves you a 2-sanity body on the table). Between the student following Banks and his own ability, do I need to do any investigating? And if I don't, perhaps hunch goes, as does Evidence!. Following that, if my cheap allies are there to soak damage and horror, do I even need Dodge?
Second in the clue-grabbing line is Inquiring Mind. Once Roland is setting off down the route of rarely investigating, of leaving clues on locations for the art student or his own ability to pick up, Inquiring Mind grows in potency and flexibility - and come on, it's already a 3 icon card! And third is Preposterous Sketches, a truly awesome card that turns resources into cards. It has a drawback - you need a clue on your location - but that's what this deck is about. Furthermore, given we're not playing hugely expensive cards in this iteration of the deck, you'll often be sitting at 4 to 6 resources, and happy to spend a pair for 3 cards.
The Flow
At its heart, how this deck plays is getting one or two cards down - a student and a magnifying glass, perhaps, or a machete and a dog, and playing a game around when to clear out locations by investigating normally, and when to stick and wait. Leaving a clue on a location, or ending a turn on a location with a clue (perhaps by taking a Shortcut there), turns on Inquiring Mind, Preposterous Sketches, playing a second Art Student, and Roland's .38 Special. If you don't draw an enemy, on you go. Or perhaps you've started your turn on a location without a clue but with an enemy - you can shortcut to a clued location, or move, putting the damage on your Guard Dog or student. Deduction's there for those times you really need to clear out a victory point location and can't tarry. It's flexible, mobile Roland, who sometimes wants to stick around and sometimes bugs out.
Edge cases / weirdnesses
This deck has 3 1-of events: Prepared for the Worst, Emergency Aid and "If it bleeds...". In some other card games, running 1-ofs is frowned upon. With Preposterous Sketches, drawing into these events isn't hard, and they are flexible and can be committed to tests if their utility isn't immediately apparent. Topping up a guard dog's health with aid is lovely, and if you upgrade into Brother Xavier, keeping him around can be very satisfying. Bleeds is a bit of a dead card, until you draw a Servant of the Lurker or Yithian Observer or Grappling Horror or Hunting Horror and then it's easy horror-healing for the investigator that fears horror most of all. But if you don't like edge cases, these cards could easily be swapped back into other things (Dodge perhaps? After all, if you avoid attacks, you don't need healing.)
Upgrades
Charisma comes first. Bandolier complements Prepared for the Worst - one route with this deck is then to go for a big weapon - Shotgun or Lightning Gun would be my first options. If you're not interested in going that route, the bandoliers could be swapped for something else early on. For extra mobility, Pathfinder is brilliant. And then options, options, options...
Signing off
It's not meant to be the best deck ever, but it leans onto a particular strategy and does so enjoyably. We're reaching the point of the game where there are more good cards than there are in slots in the deck, so some things had to fall by the wayside (can I mention Dodge again?). But hopefully it shows that there are options out there for our investigators. Let me know what you think!
| 6 comments |
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May 15, 2017 |
May 15, 2017
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Jul 02, 2017I brought this deck up to Blood on the Altar. When upgrading I chose Charisma, 2 Brother Xavier, 2 Extra Ammunition and Shotgun. The deck is good but has some difficulties with naked tests. For example I almost lost to Extracurricular Activity because I lost time convincing "Jazz" Mulligan to come along. On 4-shroud location, you're often hesitating between taking the test or just do something (useless) and hope to draw an enemy on the next Mythos phase. It is also difficult to cope with Roland's low sanity (which is why I chose to get Brother Xavier) : when you are dealt horror, it's rarely 1, it's often 2 (Twist of Fate, Pushed into the Beyond, Eager for Death). Each time I had Emergency Aid in my hand I was thinking "if only it could heal horror". Blood on the Altar defeated Roland : Pushed into the Beyond dealt 2 horrors, then I suffered 1 from a Whippoorwill I engaged but failed to kill (damned ) and finally drew Eager for Death when I had 5 damages on me. I had Brother Xavier in my starting hand but didn't play it because of a specific threat in this scenario. Not sure this deck will make it beyond Where Doom Awaits because of its needs for tests. |
Jul 03, 2017Hey As for horror - definitely agree. If you've not seen an Art Student early and got it into play as a horror-soaker, it can be really painful. I think I drew on a Rotting Remains one scenario and that felt b.r.u.t.a.l. Xavier is a great choice, of course, to protect in that regard. I like your choices, basically. I appreciate that this deck was at least in part about exploring the wider card pool. I've played later iterations that dropped the sketches for dodge and so on, just to return to consistent, 'Good Stuff' Roland. |
Jul 03, 2017I played U&U yesterday and only managed to get 1 Brood out of 2. Encounter deck was against me and threw 3 Avian Thrall and 1 Lupine Thrall at me ! |
Jul 03, 2017Yeah solo you're gonna get really punished if you run into something like that! Utterly brutal! Even Roland struggles against that many enemies... |
An interesting deck that's nicely different from most other Roland decks I've seen. I'd say that Dodge is probably just better than "If it bleeds..." and/or Emergency Aid, but it's good to try something different! I'm a fan of Art Student for Roland.
The reason I don't like the Guard Dog for Roland is that the Guard Dog encourages you to take attacks (so it can deal its free point of damage), but only has 1 sanity. This is a real problem, because a lot of enemies deal damage and horror at the same time. You can and should put the damage on the dog, but you can't put the horror on the dog, at least the first two times you're attacked, because the dog will die. So you have to put the horror directly on Roland, which is really dangerous for him.
I think the Beat Cop is just better. It's only 1 more resource, the +1 strength is really good, and Roland really appreciates that extra point of sanity. And it's nice that you can deal automatic damage before you get attacked, rather than afterwards.