Silas Marsh Superb Sailor Hard 4players

At the beginning I need to tell you that Silas is extremely fun, extremely good, amazingly good! You will have so much fun playing this character! You need to pass (10) test of fight, investigate, evade? Hold my harpoon! You need to save your friends by buffing their shamefully low skills – oh-yeah! You need to soak bizzilion of horror? Gimme more! Your investigators found themselves not able to gather clues – I have harvested few, here they are! You need to rescue friends from fatal encounter cards when they cry their characters goodbye? No worry my landmen – Silas incoming.

Silas is a pure Survivor in all that word’s sense, doing all above + surviving, in outstanding fashion. Basically, he is there to counter ANY trick game throws at your investigators and guardians. Obviously your “blue” friend will want to shine in all the glory for killing the monsters, but you know the truth – it is you who kept them all alive throughout the campaign. As said, there is no other character in the game giving so much fun! What an adventure!

First let me explain my strategy of deckbuilding for multiplayer game. Difficulty: Hard.

1. Clues are the things that push you towards victory, if there is any way for auto-picking clues – you should take it. This build allows you to pick 8-10 clues every scenario. Is it much? Good investigator takes ~22, but you will find this 8-10 are 2 turns closer to victory. It saved our backs in at least 3 scenarios.
2. The deck, especially the final version, is designed to be cheap! You should be able to run with Take Heart executed as many times as you need, and maybe 1-2 actions throughout scenario for resources. Hence no Emergency Cache.
3. Silas can take Innate cards from any color. But the starting deck will not only not include any non-red cards but will also miss some key neutral or red cards (like Lucky!). There are 2 valid reasons behind: Firstly, your deck runs great enough with anything, there are just a few KEY CARDS to make your deck roll and they are not extremely popular. Hence whenever your colleague cries: I need card X or Y (like Lucky!) for my deck – just calmly say - take it, I can live without. You are survivor at the end, you live with what life gives you. That is why starting deck is free from cool popular cards, I assumed your friends took it and that is fine. In contrast to above, your key cards, you should not give away are: Baseball Bat, Winging It + "Look what I found!", Peter Sylvestre, Resourceful, Unexpected Courage and Take Heart; and at least one copy of Perseverance and Guts. Keep them at all cost! Anything else can be given away. Secondly, even that Silas deck is fun from start, it gets better with the exp. As campaign progress, you will take missed upgraded Lucky! or whatever 0exp innate you want, that your colleagues dropped, as they have now upgraded versions.
4. There are some cards which are very situational, there is usually 1 copy of it. One because “the situation” usually occurs late in the game, hence you most probably have it; in case “the situation” reappears, just recall the card from the discard.
5. Silas deck (starting or final) runs best if you have: 16 skill cards + Nautical Prowess + Dreams of the Deep.
6. This build is based on: Core + Dunwich + Carcosa + Age.

After what you have read at the beginning, lets be honest what Silas cannot do. Silas is a support, hence he runs great, if there is a good investigator and a fighter in the team. Silas cannot dig extremely well; theoretically you could Winging It + "Look what I found!" + Any Skill buff indefinitely, but anything over 8-10 clues is substantial effort far from being optimal. With no good red weapons, Silas does not clear well any monster above 4HP, even over 2HP is risky due to bat’s breaking. You can free your investigators if needed, but you will not massacre elite monsters (still you will evade them easily). Finally, Silas is very vulnerable to Willpower tests, you need Guts and Unexpected Courage for low Willpower tests and Rise to the Occasion and Nautical Prowess for difficult ones. So what do you do?

• you start your game (first 2 rounds) preferably making you have 6-8 cards on hand with simple draw or Take Heart,
• gather your clues, any location up to 4 shroud is okay,
• free your investigators from monsters, by killing smaller and evading larger, with so much buffs, you can often risk hitting them through your friends,
• evade bosses,
• if your team can arrange encounter deck, take all most difficult or damaging tests,
• clear annoying encounters staying in the game,
• buff your colleagues for Willpower and Agility,
• counter scenarios, this is subtle but let me explain: normal characters takes some cards to counter each obstacle (monsters to fight, monsters to evade, encounter cards, high tests etc), but those cards runs out pretty fast. Red one can recuperate those which are essential indefinitely. You encounter annoying encounter cards all the scenario: rotate Alter Fate; you encounter mobs to evade: rotate Stunning Blow, Manual Dexterity, etc etc etc.

Silas Ability: Once per round you can recuperate a skill card for a test. This has 3 uses:

• most obvious one, when you fail a test and take the committed card back;
• when you consciously commit too many cards, after a test depending on the chaos token and effect of each, you decide which stays and which recuperates;
• your special Nautical Prowess gives you free card even if you recuperate the skill. You will have so much fun with so much draw with Nautical Prowess, until you find yourself in need to sacrifice it for ??.. But don’t worry, you can get it back from the discard easily.. In short – Silas will always pass a test if needed. Really. Always…
• remember as you are a support you will often need to help your colleagues with events and skills committed. Remember you can neither recuperate events, nor skills committed to your colleague’s tests.

Silas Elder Sign Token: Is insane! It lets you commit card from a discard; then take it to hand and resolve its effect. Best with: Nautical Prowess (extra draw) or Resourceful (extra card from discard).

Weapons: As you don’t need a free hand, Baseball Bat is your best friend. I tried Fire Axe, but as your deck is such resources stretch – losing money for an axe – just does not work well.

Investigation: Winging It + "Look what I found!" + Any Skill – all you need. Expecially Winging It played from the discard.

Survivability: Peter Sylvestre gives you all horror soak you need. Funny is with that guy in play you will easier die of health damage (9+1) than mental damage. Perseverance provides ultimate survive, you will most probably never use it, but having it at hand makes your decisions much wider and allows you play on the edge – as you should as a Survivor. And you can alwasys get it back. Stunning Blow is your backup plan for extremely hard enemies, or really crisis situations.

Discard digging: You will start with great Resourceful later you will add True Survivor

Money: Take Heart on some difficult investigate is the best use. The best combo is to use it on 1st round as you can recuperate it with no pain (in case you unluckily success and get a clue). Hopefully 2 failed tests (2x Take Heart) = 4 extra resources should be enough for the game. If not – you can recuperate Take Heart from discard and use again.

Upgrade path:

1. 4EXP: 2x Peter Sylvestre => 2x Peter Sylvestre ; this give you horror survivability you really need.
2. 3EXP: 1x True Survivor ; this combos fantastically to get your Nautical Prowess and Resourceful back. One is enough.
3. 6EXP: 2x Rise to the Occasion => 2x Rise to the Occasion ; for difficult Willpower tests, but not only
4. 4EXP: 2x Lucky! ; as it is just great
5. 3EXP: 1-2x Alter Fate ; to save the team from the nastiest encounter cards. One is enough. You can always bring it back from the discard if needed.
6. 3EXP: Old Hunting Rifle ; one is enough.
7. For campaign’s grand finale: Perseverance => Devil's Luck and Stroke of Luck and A Test of Will in any combination and number.

One combo you love is: True Survivor to take your key cards (like Nautical Prowess) and Resourceful; then use Resourceful to take True Survivor. With it you can bring any card you need (skill or event!) and pass anything you encounter. I found the final deck runs great with 1x True Survivor and 2x Resourceful.

Two three words; first the fillers, the cards that are in the starting deck but are first to fly away:

• Cunning Distraction - looks like great "last resort" card, but way too expensive for this deck,
• Waylay - I am not big fan of cards that does not work for Elite enemies, in most cases the Elite ones are the ones which cause problems and should have some cards dedicated to counter them. What saves this card is 2 good icons that my in some way replace Manual Dexterity,
• Fire Axe - you really need to bank those 3 resources for combos,
• Survival Instinct - I did not find good use throughout the campaign but still hesitate if one maybe should be in the deck. Maybe an upgraded version? Still not sure.

The sideboard, the cards which I was ready to take:

• 2nd Old Hunting Rifle - you need to observe, if your Guardian fails (mine did not) you may want to turn more into fighting,
• True Understanding - you need to observe, if your Investigator fails (mine did not) you may want to turn more into clue gathering,
• Eureka! - but your colleague most probably have taken both copies,
• 2nd Alter Fate - one proven enough, with recuperation, still I think this is awesome card,
• Try and Try Again - looks good, but it just replicates Silas natural properties, but you rarely need to "save" 2 skills, on the other hand it has a goo icons..
• Infighting - this is one great card that should be included but there was never anything to throw away; it lets you survive which is nice, but much nicer are it's icons. I think the decision was it is not a skill, hence any other red should auto-include, but Silas.. hm..

Cards I found interesting, but they dont work,

• Quick Thinking - great card that works great but not if you play on Hard difficulty. It is really hard to beat test by 2 without sacrificing redundant card,
• Cherished Keepsake - Peter Sylvestre solves all your problems
• Dig Deep - you never have "spare" resources in this deck
• Madame Labranche - you never have extra resources, so you will never play her, you always have 6-8 cards on hand and 1-3 resources in the pool
• Rabbit's Foot - Silas dont fail the tests, unless twice for Take Heart
• Scavenging - you dont use items
• "any ally" - Peter Sylvestre is better than any other option
• Cornered - you have enough ?? skills, hence I never found a desperate need for this card + it costs 2 resources
• Scrapper - fantastic card as it is a permanent, still it will not be used more than twice in the whole game, hence redundant unless you have extra EXP to spend,
• Live and Learn - you rarely fail the tests, unless it is an investigation, hence I dont think it is good to sacrifice space in your deck to boost something that is your side role in the team
• Will to Survive - way to expensive

Here is my deck for 25EXP: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/22127/silas-marsh-superb-sailor-hard-4players-final-25exp-1.0

I tell you, you will have so much fun passing impossible tests, saving your friends from inevitable doom and twirling your discard like maniac. This sailor is definitely not a failor.