High Frequency Trading Bob|Deck Guide

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Bobby J. Gets Reassigned 1 0 0 1.0
Bob Jenkins - Archivo Arcano BCN 2022 0 0 0 2.0
Bob jenkins_19xp 0 0 0 1.0
Bob Invests in Friendship 1 1 0 1.0

Valentin1331 · 55083

Bob Jenkins moves, investigates and trades faster than the of light

Cristi-B-Bob-Jenkins.jpg

Artwork: Cristi Balanescu

-

Bob seems to be the last new Investigator that does not have a Full Guide yet. So here's my take on it.

Feel free to give it a ♥︎ if you like this deck, or comment if you have any suggestions!

-

Intro:

The first run-through of the Edge of the Earth campaign gave us two insights: there is a lot of XP, and moving is heavily needed. On the other hand, healing Partners is not as necessary as initially thought. Here is a Bob Jenkins deck that accumulates actions to go fast and far.

This deck is one of the 2 main options for Bob Jenkins and is adapted to Easy/Standard and for 2 or a maximum of 3 people, to be the main clue-getter.

For Solo, Hard/Expert and 3 or more people, check the first section of Make your own deck!


Table of Content:

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Get Extra Actions

• Take full advantage of Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3)

• Manage your resources

• Increase your movement

• Damage Support

• Mulligan

• Upgrade Path

• Make your own deck!


Overview:

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Enemy Management: ★★★☆☆

Clue-getting: ★★★★☆

Encounter protection: ★★☆☆☆

Survivability: ★★★☆☆

Economy: ★★★★★

Card Drawing: ★★★★★


Main Strategy:

• Get as many actions as possible to increase your chances to trigger Scavenging and travel across the vast maps to where the clues are.

• Sell your empty Items to The Rat to make a profit out of Scavenging and re-using them.


Get Extra Actions:

• Bob 's Passive allow you to play 1 item without an action each turn

• The good ol' Mississipi Lion gives you another one.

• The Black Fan rewards you for your deals with Joey "The Rat" Vigil.

• Eon Chart (4) that you can empty, sell, scavenge and play again while making a little profit.

• Haste for even more juicy Investigate, Fight or even Play actions for all your assets. Use your passive, play another card, and you have a 3rd for free.

• Quickdraw Holster if an enemy shows up to prevent you from doing your job.

• The Red Clock gives you one action every 4 turns

Track Shoes that can also give you a welcome boost every once in a while (and open a window during a Move action to use Joey "The Rat" Vigil ability).

• Borrowed Time can also be interesting here to store some of these extra Actions for later

• You will regularly take 6 actions per turn and up to 16 actions in one round if the stars are aligned!

• Quick mention to The Gold Pocket Watch that is an Item so it can be played but cannot be Scavenged once you've used it.


Take full advantage of Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3)

• The first ability is icing on the cake, we can play another Item , but with Bob Jenkins' Passive, we will not need it that much. Note that as Joey "The Rat" Vigil allows you to play a card , it doesn't count for triggering Haste.

•• The only case when I've found it helpful was to play Leather Coat/Cherished Keepsake fast for 1 resource right after pulling a scary Encounter Card that involves a test ( for example) to absorb the potential failure.

The 2nd ability is the cornerstone of this deck.

Circle your items that have Uses:

• Empty your Flashlight, your .18 Derringer, your Eon Chart

• Sell them to Mr Vigil

• Then go and Scavenge his hiding place to get them back

• Play them with your Passive or Joey "The Rat" Vigil's 1st Ability, and repeat!

•• Bonus for Eon Chart that you can use, discard, scavenge and use again in the same round.

•• Important to note that once you have The Rat in play, you can use the last supply of your Flashlight, sell it and Scavenge it immediately. This means that technically you only need 1 Flashlight to cycle. Here, I added 2 Old Keyring for consistency, the same way as you add 4 weapons in any deck.

Use your Passive to generate 2 Resources when you have nothing to play:

• Play Leather Coat/Cherished Keepsake using your Passive action

• Throw it immediately for 2 resources

• Use Scavenging later to get it back during a round when you don't need to scavenge anything else

• Repeat. Once you have Shrewd Dealings down, it applies to many more cards.

Discard your Items before they do it themselves:

Old Keyring and Colt Vest Pocket (2) are interesting in this deck as they both self-discard and, before doing so, trigger a test.

Use the window during these tests to sell these Items to Joey "The Rat" Vigil during their last Use and get money back before they "burn". It's a little less interesting on the Old Keyring as you will have to sell it before you know if you succeed or not, and therefore if you had to burn the last Key or not.


Manage your resources:

This deck heavily rewards you for being Rich.

• Greed becomes much less of a scary weakness

• The Black Fan asks you to go big, really big.

• Dario El-Amin gives you a static boost too

• Well Connected and Well Connected (3) do the same

• Unscrupulous Loan rewards you for ending your scenario with 10+

• Black Market gives you way more chances to play all 5 cards if you have a good amount of money upfront.

Though this deck does not have Emergency Cache, Faustian Bargain or all the lvl 0 basic economy cards...

How to make money in this deck?

Joey "The Rat" Vigil is your primary source of income. Especially while using Schoffner's Catalogue and Shrewd Dealings, the resources will stack rapidly.

• Unscrupulous Loan will bring you a lot of money that you can use immediately to set up your game (Playing Unscrupulous Loan and an Item using your Passive will trigger Haste allowing you to play one extra Asset without using an Action.

• Feel free to use the money from the Unscrupulous Loan for Black Market as you will get it back rapidly.

• Lone Wolf and The Red Clock will give you the equivalent of 3 resources per Upkeep Phase

Joey "The Rat" Vigil and Shrewd Dealings will make you profit from most of your Items that you recur with Scavenging.

Dario El-Amin is like an unlimited Emergency Cache. It's 2 resources for 1 Action (based on the fact that you play him for the static boosts anyways). Emergency Cache is 3 resources but costs 1 card.


Increase your movement:

The maps of this campaign are notoriously huge. Moving around the map will make the difference between success and failure.

• Anything that gives you an extra action, including Eon Chart, can be used to Move.

Scout Ahead could be Adaptabled in, but I don't think that's the best use of your slots.

• Track Shoes can give you good chances to move further. I wouldn't use it in Hard/Expert, where pulling Symbol tokens could be extremely and unnecessarily damaging.


Damage Support:

• This deck takes a weapon because even as the main clue getter, it's always good to have a way to handle yourself if your Damage dealer is not near and to save them a lot of Move actions. With such a Stat-line, you can afford to handle yourself, so why not? The .18 Derringer is the most obvious choice, +2 and you don’t spend ammo when you fail. It's a bit on the expensive side, but if you can sell it to The Rat when it is empty, it becomes much more affordable.

Fight or Flight is a good bet here, as In the Thick of It and Greed will give you a tough time horror-wise, and therefore Fight or Flight will boost your Enemy Management when it is the most appreciated.

• Later, the Colt Vest Pocket (2) will be your main weapon. We take this one especially for its combo with Joey "The Rat" Vigil; indeed, you can use it and sell it to him before it self-discards.

• Finally, Quickdraw Holster is essential as you need your 2 Hand Slots for the The Black Fan and your Investigation Item. It allows you to play your Colt Vest Pocket and store it warmly for the first enemy that shows up and literally burst it to the ground. You will often use all 5 bullets in the round if needed.


Mulligan:

It is simple: you are Lookin' Out for #1. The only thing that you may keep beside him is Lucky Cigarette Case (3).

Then once you start searching your deck, in order, it's nice to chase for:

Lucky Cigarette Case > Unscrupulous Loan > Black Market > Shrewd Dealings > Investigation Assets > Gun > Geas > The Red Clock > Scavenging > Schoffner's Catalogue > Leo De Luca > Eon Chart > Haste > Quickdraw Holster > The Black Fan > Well Connected, etc...


Upgrade Path:

After the first necessary upgrades, there is not necessarily a strict order to upgrade. Just go with the card you want to play the most. Bear in mind that some upgrades follow one another, though, like Unscrupulous Loan that enables The Black Fan.


• In the Thick of It + Charon's Obol - 2xp - Total 2xp

•• You will get a lot of XP, but you need MORE

Warning: Be careful with taking Charon's Obol on your first playthrough of any campaign as some campaigns will need you to be defeated and EotE can be one of them.

__

• Leo De Luca x1 + Guts x1 - Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3) x2 + Charisma - 9xp - Total 11xp

•• From there, the deck starts. As soon as Joey "The Rat" Vigil is down, he will enable the best combos.


• Lucky Cigarette Case x2 Lucky Cigarette Case x2 + Relic Hunter - 9xp - Total 20xp

•• Once you have Lucky Cigarette Case on the table, you will be able to fish out the cards you need quickly. And as you are going to buy Relic Hunter anyways, better get it early to play 2 Lucky Cigarette Case at the same time and increase the consistency even more!


• Leather Coat x1 Unscrupulous Loan x1 - 3xp - Total 23xp

•• The first big-money card you get will be an enabler for the rest of the deck.


Leather Coat x1 The Black Fan x1 - 6xp - Total 29xp

•• After Unscrupulous Loan, you should be able to reach at least the extra action in every scenario.


• Adaptable x1 - 1xp - Total 30xp

• Guts x1 Dario El-Amin x1 - 0xp - Total 30xp

• Charisma x1 - 3xp - Total 33xp

•• You're about to store resources anyways, so better do it for 2 reasons.


• .18 Derringer x2 Colt Vest Pocket x1 + Quickdraw Holster x1 - 6xp - Total 39xp

•• Now that you own a Black Fan, you need a free hand slot for your weapon, which is gladly brought by Quickdraw Holster.


• Perception x1 Eon Chart x1 - 4xp - Total 43xp

•• More Investigate actions mean that you can try multiple times instead of trying harder


Perception x1 Haste x1 - 2xp - Total 45xp

•• Spend 2 actions and get 1 free. Works with your Passive, the Quickdraw Holster, Play actions during the setup, to compensate a failed shot with your .18 Derringer, to take a 3rd Move on the 2nd charge of your The Red Clock.


• Overpower x1 The Red Clock + Relic Hunter - 7xp - Total 52xp

•• Collect one extra resource every round and get benefits for doing so.


• Live and Learn x2 Pay Day x2 - 2xp - Total 54xp

•• Now that you purchased all your action generating cards, you can use Pay Day. This brings you extra money with your Passive, Haste, Quickdraw Holster, Eon Chart, the extra actions from The Black Fan, The Red Clock, Leo De Luca for often 6 and up to 11 resources. This purchase is purely optional, but that's the one money card that I would invest in.


Take Heart x2 Black Market x2 - 4xp - Total 58xp

•• Speed up your Setup time by playing Black Market right after Unscrupulous Loan and Haste for the best return on investment.


Fight or Flight x1 Well Connected x1 - 3xp - Total 61xp

•• Now that you probably make more money than you need for your The Black Fan, you can spend some readying your Well Connected to make sure that you trigger your Scavenging once per round.


• Overpower x1 Geas x1 - 4xp - Total 65xp

•• Now that you do not have any skills anymore, you can take advantage of them.


• Another Day, Another Dollar x2 - 6xp - Total 71xp

•• More money at the start means earlier bonuses from The Black Fan and Dario El-Amin. The money you don't need can now be spent in Well Connected.

__

Talisman of Protection x1 Borrowed Time x1 - 6xp - Total 77xp

•• With all those extra actions, you will often have 2 spares, and if you didn't trigger Haste this round yet, then use it on Borrowed Time to get 3 clicks out of 2 actions. This is even better if you plan on using Pay Day soon.


• Lone Wolf x1 Crafty x1 - 3xp - Total 80 xp

•• As you are cycling your Tools, Crafty will give you twice the amount of resources for cycling your Flashlight/Old Keyring.


The full XP version of this deck is accessible here: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1616705


It is very likely that you will not get access to all these updates in one campaign, so just pick the ones you think are going to be the most fun to play with, and take Bob on a couple of Standalones to get more XP during your campaign!


Make your own deck!

• If you are playing Hard/Expert, Solo or in a group of 3 people or more, it is worth thinking about the The Skeleton Key. Yes, it takes a bit of time to put and take the Key, but you will undoubtedly save time by failing fewer tests, and you get a lot of time to investigate anyways with Eon Chart and Leo De Luca 's bonus actions. This is interesting also in higher player counts as you have more clues per location, and therefore the ratio of attaching/investigating is lower. This is a different deck that does not need necessarily needs to run Joey "The Rat" Vigil as the Flashlight is only used on 2-Shroud locations (or less). I made an example of how that deck could look like here for the 0xp version and here for the full XP version

If you want me to write a guide for it with my broken English, let me know in the comments! :)

• If you are not the main clue-getter of your party, meaning the other Investigator is a Flex, or there is another person fully dedicated to clues, then it is interesting to look at the Lonnie Ritter and Heavy Furs combo. It is a great way to cancel a lot of bad tokens, especially in Hard/Expert when symbols make you wish you pulled the . It is also a great way to absorb the Horror from Greed. This is the setup I would also use to use Dark Horse. See the above alternative 0xp deck to see how it could look like.

• If you do not have Return to The Forgotten Age and therefore you cannot play Colt Vest Pocket, then Lupara is an option though it has more limitations. Otherwise, I would simply keep the .18 Derringer, or even give up with Fighting and look at Evasion with cards like Survival Instinct, Moxie, Stray Cat, Trench Coat, Breaking and Entering, Slip Away and so on.

You can do a classic Big Money Deck with Faustian Bargain, Hot Streak and Cheat the System. This gives you more chances to benefit rapidly from The Black Fan and Dario El-Amin, as well as enables cards like Cunning. I didn't go this path here because it is a lot of cards invested for little benefit. Once you're rich, half of your deck is not so useful anymore.

• Liquid Courage (1) if you are taking a lot of Horror Trauma, it heals you well but gives you chances to throw away important cards.

• Cheat the System is good as you technically have the 5 Classes in your deck. But I don't add it here because the moment when you get the most out of it is also the moment when you're fully set up...

• Crafty that can save a lot of resources in this deck as you will often play at least one Flashlight per turn, turning this card into a +2 resource per turn.

Lockpicks x2 if you want to go on a journey with Monterey Jack and he's going for a Succeed By X journey.


Now that you know everything about him, go and enjoy the Entrepreneur!

49 comments

Nov 29, 2021 Green_Cedar · 1

What did you get with your 3rd XP from In the Thick of It?

Nov 29, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@Green_Cedar thanks for the interest in the deck :)

I chose not to use the 3rd XP before the end of the scenario to buy my first set of Joeys.

I could have gotten Adaptable but it’s a bit too early or Liquid Courage (1) to face the consequences of my Greed, but to be honest at that point I thought better just save it.

Nov 29, 2021 Lord Triloth · 1890

This deck so greedy and I love it. I was really looking for ideas to build Bob and I really like this engine heavy style that just completely spirals out of control.

I was also thinking about a Bless/Curse kinda of idea. Mainly becasuse of the new Lucky Dice that go back to your hand. Eye of the Djinn helps with fighting. What you think?

Nov 29, 2021 clydelucy · 5

Sorry, why exactly can't you Scavenge Gold Pocket Watch? It's definitely an Item, and so if it winds up in your discard pile (through, say, Short Supply), it seems like the perfect Item to get back through Scavenge.

Nov 29, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@clydelucy I was referring to the fact that once used it is removed from the game rather than just discarded, so you can’t use it every turn with Scavenging.

But you could indeed get it back if you commit it to a skill test or discard it via any other mean (Short Supply, Liquid Courage, etc…). I will edit the text to make it clearer :)

Nov 29, 2021 acotgreave · 782

Thanks for this guide! I've been thoroughly enjoying Bob in multiplayer - it's so much fun throwing items around for all players at reduced cost. The upgraded Rat has been fantastic in his deck.

Nov 29, 2021 Eruantalon · 104

You are not getting the interaction between Skeleton Key and Lantern correctly. Lantern won't put shroud at 0 as it is permanently fixed at 1 by the key.

(Great deck and all, but my internal lawyer made me post this comment)

Nov 29, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@Eruantalon Yes, when I was working on the side deck, I was reminded of that fact too, I am going to work on that little paragraph. I don't think that deck is actually going to be worth it at all. I can rise the Fight to a good level, but the Investigation is heavily impacted. Maybe I'll just replace Lantern by a Flashlight to gain actions for every location with Shroud 2 or less, and play the The Skeleton Key on every other location.

@Lord Triloth I'm glad you like it! It was super fun to work on this Investigator! Often after 30-40 XP, I don't really know what to change, or I reach a point when any upgrade would decrease the efficiency of the deck. Here I could spend 100 XP and still add value to the deck ahahah

I think by the time I would reach that XP I would have way too many traumas/weaknesses though...

@acotgreave Thanks for the feedback! What was your take on Bob + Joey? What cards have you been playing differently? That could help anyone trying to build their own deck with a different collection or simple that would like to look at it from a different angle :)

Nov 29, 2021 isuscbrmid · 38

this is spoiler.. please add the tag => The first run-through of the Edge of the Earth campaign gave us two insights: there is a lot of XP, and moving is heavily needed. On the other hand, healing Partners is not as necessary as initially thought. Here is a Bob Jenkins deck that accumulates actions to go fast and far.

Nov 30, 2021 acotgreave · 782

@Valentin1331 here's the Bob Deck I used: arkhamdb.com

Joey was amazing: with Shrewd Dealings, the ability to get assets in other players' hands in times of need saved the scenario.

Dec 01, 2021 Tirindor · 7

Hi ! I love this deck guide and the idea behind it on how to play our businessman. I wonder how you would build this deck in a 4-player run as the main cluer. I looked you're link when you say "Make your own deck! • If you are playing Hard/Expert, Solo or in a group of 3 people or more, it is worth thinking about the The Skeleton Key. [...] " but it looks more like a true solo deck rather than a multiplayer-cluer deck. Thank you again for this guide!

Dec 01, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

Hey @Tirindor, I'm happy you love the deck!

High shroud locations are the biggest struggle for the Main cluever of a 4ppl group as you will often have a 5-Shroud location that holds 8 clues, so you need a consistent way of harvesting those places. I would basically take this deck and purchase really early, The Skeleton Key to attach it to any location that is 4-Shroud or more.

If you have good fighters in your group, then you probably don't need the .18 Derringer. You can replace it with an extra Emergency Cache and probably add "Look what I found!"

You may also replace some cards with other items that some of your teammates may want like an extra pair of Shoes, some Teddy Bears and so on.

Dec 01, 2021 Tirindor · 7

This is exactly the type of changes I was thinking about ! Thank you. I'd even include Intel Report as money shouldn't be a problem but the lvl 0 rogue-slots are already taken. Would it be difficult to start without Lone Wolf according to your experience on this deck and how he behaves regarding ressources management?

Dec 01, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

Intel Report is not so good in higher player counts as it only takes a fraction of the clues on a location.

Think about NotZ with 4 players, for example, the Attic is 2 Shroud and has 8 clues, and the Cellar is 4 Shroud with also 8 clues. You need 12 clues to advance. You will most likely want to grab 8 in the Attic and 4 in the Cellar. Now if you play Intel Report, getting 1, or even 2 clues may be quite insufficient. I would prioritise on this combo: Investigate, if you succeed, good, if not, "Look what I found!", Live and Learn, Perception + Resourceful to get "Look what I found!". 1 Action, 3 clues, 2 resources, 2 cards.

And be careful, this lvl 0 deck does not generate that much resource, especially with Leo De Luca who is an expensive lad.

Dec 01, 2021 Tirindor · 7

Thank your for your answer. I have the feeling that playing Bob as the main cluer isn't the best idea if you can't find The Skeleton Key soon enough in the game... It appears that your combo, even if it is really good at the moment, looks like something quite hard to repeat during the whole game. I guess it has something to do with the lack of seeker-cards access... Overall, except thanks to the "Look what I found!", Live and Learn, Perception and Resourceful combo you discribed, this deck can't really grab a lof of clues in the same action... But at the end of the day, I suppose it is still find because you have a ton of actions thanks to Leo De Luca, Borrowed Time, The Black Fan and The Red Clock. I wonder what is the more efficient between grabbing a lot of clues in the same action or grabbing a lot of clues because of extra-actions. What do you think ?

Dec 01, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

With so many items, if you want to find The Skeleton Key fast, you can also invest in 2 beautiful Backpacks that will even make you earn money when you throw them away.

Combo: play Backpack with your Passive, then one of the cards on it, and then Haste gives you an extra action to play another one.

Backpack is a great way to compensate for the situation where you would be stuck at a location with a high shroud early in a scenario and you can't activate your Lucky Cigarette Case. In most situations though, Lucky Cigarette Case will be enough to find all your major cards very quickly.


Usually, I would consider action compression > more actions because:

• Action compression cards often come with boosts: Deduction makes it more likely to succeed and rewards you for doing so.

• more tests = more symbol tokens and they often have bad consequences (even more in Hard/Expert). Pulling more tokens is also annoying if one of your teammate is trying to have a strategy based on /.

Now in this deck and this campaign, you will move a lot, more actions can compensate attaching and taking back The Skeleton Key, playing a lot of assets, drawing if you do not have what you want. So actions are also much more versatile than having the possibility to get an extra clue, because sometimes that's not what you need.

Dec 01, 2021 Wolf · 73

This is awesome.

Dec 01, 2021 gg88811 · 1

Bob is an investigator who offers a lot of interesting possibilities for synergy within a group - can you name a few investigators that you'd consider strong pairings with him?

Dec 02, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@gg88811 I am not the one expert of Bob so I'm sure other people will also have an opinion, but I'd say: look at the items available to you and think: who would love any of these? It's almost like you add Bob's card pool to any of your other investigators!

Track Shoes are amazing in any high agility investigator that does not have access to , like Winifred Habbamock or Ursula Downs.

Who wouldn't want a Lucky Cigarette Case, most likely the best drawing-engine lvl 0 card? That is why by the way this deck uses 2 Lucky Cigarette Case (3), so that you find your 1st copy ASAP, and you can potentially play 2 at the beginning, but once you have Eon Chart and The Red Clock out, give the 2nd Lucky Cigarette Case (3) to a teammate!

Why not some good soak like Leather Coat / Cherished Keepsake for our guardian friends like Mark Harrigan.

It also highly depends on how you build Bob if you're planning on being Flex, or the main cluever. But eventually I'm sure that besides a few exceptions like Preston Fairmont that shares roughly the same card pool, any investigator could see benefit from the support role of Bob in a campaign.

Dec 02, 2021 Tirindor · 7

After reading Joey "The Rat" Vigil, I was thinking about his second ability. Are you allowed to discard an item from a fellow teammate play area ? It doesn't say if it has to be in your play area or not.

Dec 02, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

That is true, and that is an even much better synergy with Bob Jenkins as you can pay for other people's items like their guns, sell them when they are out of ammo and buy them another one.

That makes this deck also incredible at support for setup time and potentially resource support. That also means that with 4 players, you'll be even more likely to activate the The Black Fan early.

The only sad part is that you cannot scavenge other people's discard piles ahah

Dec 02, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

Oh and one last thing, from play doesn't even give any location restriction! And can be during any investigator's turn.

I will edit that in the Deck Guide as it was not clearly mentioned, so thanks!

Dec 02, 2021 Tirindor · 7

(I'd like to share the "inspired-by-yours" deck I tried to make and discuss it with you. Do you have any idea if there are private mails we can send on this database? Or shall I copy/paste the link in the comment section?)

Dec 02, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

You can come to Mythos Buster's Discord to find a great community to talk about Arkham (including me). You can go to the Channel Deck-Tech to ask for some reviews of your decks ;)

Here's the link :)

Dec 02, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@Tirindor nevermind Joey cannot discard another player's card :( The rule for Costs says: “ Only the controller of a card or ability may pay its costs. Game elements another player controls may not be used to pay a cost.” you cannot discard assets someone else controls to get the money benefit here, unfortunately. That would have been great fun!

Dec 03, 2021 KaiserKlaus · 8

It is absolute madness and I love it ! An upgrade path up to 80 XP is really sick. :) I remain doubtful about his stat line for the skill test (investigate or fight) but I'll figure it out trying him.

Dec 06, 2021 dazong · 7

Hi @Valentin1331, thanks for sharing this insightful deck! I have a question regarding the Scavenging - Joey "The Rat" Vigil - Flashlight combo.

Say I have only one use left on my flashlight, both Scavenging and Joey "The Rat" Vigil out, and nothing in my discard pile. If I sell my Flashlight to Joey using the player window during the test, and I succeeded by 2, can I use Scavenging to get back the Flashlight I just discarded?

I know from the FAQ of Scavenging that you can't get back a committed item because they don't get discarded until Step 8. But here Joey's second ability is a cost, so I guess the Flashlight should be already in the discard pile by then?

If yes, this would be very powerful because I only need one Flashlight to keep me going forever. I would be tempted to lose the two Old Keyrings and run The Skeleton Key and Backpack instead, to increase the probability of successfully Scavenging and drawing them.

Dec 06, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

Hey @dazong, that is correct, you could run this situation with 1 Flashlight as long as both Scavenging and Joey "The Rat" Vigil are in play!

The reason why I've added 2 Flashlights and 2 Old Keyrings are to improve reliability. If you're the main cluever, your teammates cannot wait for you to draw your cards to start. Now indeed Backpack would help, and I agree that the The Skeleton Key is absolutely insane! I will update the upgrade path indeed to suggest this. I mean it's only 6 more XP to the already 80 XP ahah

Dec 08, 2021 dazong · 7

@Valentin1331 Thanks for your reply! As a follow up, I wonder what's your take on Underworld Support -- looking at your full XP deck I realized most of the great upgrades are either exceptional or "limited 1 per investigator".

Dec 09, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@dazong thanks for your answer :)

The main reason why I chose not to go with Underworld Support is because I wanted to use 2 copies of Scavenging to get more items back for Joey "The Rat" Vigil to munch and bring me money.

I think you could use it with great success, maybe adding a Backpack (2) to make sure that you pull your Lucky Cigarette Case (3) faster (2 copies in 30 cards is 1 card out of 15 being LCC3, when with Underworld Support it is 1/25 card being LCC3).

Dec 09, 2021 clydelucy · 5

With Short Supply and Scavenging the odds are much better than that!

Dec 09, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@clydelucy That is true though now this is completely different, if you take both Underworld Support and Short Supply, you take the (rather big) risk of having Scrounge for Supplies, Resourceful and Scavenging. Same, if you discard "The Rat", then you need A Chance Encounter (2) to balance it out, but if it is also in the trash...

Long story short, I think that it makes the deck clunky as you need to invest so much to accommodate for this for little return, especially as it works well like this already in my opinion.

You can also very well use these extra actions on frenetically drawing: with Haste and Eon Chart (4) down, you'd draw 3 cards a turn, while still having the 3 actions to move/investigate.

And if I want to increase consistency at one point, I'd replace Old Keyring by Lockpicks (1) and add All In somewhere.

Dec 10, 2021 Millenhero · 1

How do you make a sideboard? I can't for the life of me figure out how to do that :p

Dec 10, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@Millenhero I can't really show you but when I edit my deck, I click on the card that I want to add to the list, and when choosing the quantity, I can decide between adding to my deck or the Side Deck. Maybe try using a different device or browser (I checked on my phone and I could do it too).

Dec 14, 2021 Krysmopompas · 350

There were other deck guides before this one, but I like the use of Borrowed Time

Dec 22, 2021 Notter · 1

What do you think about changing Lucky Cigarette Case to Rabbit's Foot, and later upgrading to LCC 3 later?

I found it to be pretty troublesome to pass by 2, while failing happened a lot.

Dec 23, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@Notter that is actually a good one, with all these Actions you are intending to not succeed some of them on a regular basis, so Rabbit's Foot could do the job as well, being cheaper and not using a slot.

Maybe we could use Faustian Bargain then? That would also fuel the Rabbit's Foot thanks to the tokens.

Dec 27, 2021 Sers · 599

Great deck! Ran the first 2 Innsouth mission solo with it and had great succes and fun. I tweaked a few things for solo:

I swapped Leo De Luca and Leather Coat for the Lonnie Ritter / Heavy Furs Combo, because I wanted a bit more fighting power and survivability. Honestly, Heavy Furs felt like the MVP in so many situations. I just love it. ANd you are insanely tankie with both of them.

I also swapped Guts for Gravedigger's Shovel, because I wanted more weapons that only used one hand. Also, Gravedigger's Shovel can get high shroud clues for solo if needed. And since I ran solo, I couldn't play Guts for my allies' tests and I would probabily fail alot of them even with it.

All in all, great deck and tons of fun!

Dec 28, 2021 Sollamance · 1

Loved the deck and all that you have done with it! I would love to see a write up for your solo Bob decks with the Skeleton Key and such!

Dec 29, 2021 jgslc · 19

Curious how you took your initial damage with In the Thick of It. Also curious how you soak horror without keepsake. Thanks!

Dec 29, 2021 jgslc · 19

Also curious how you make track shoes helpful as a starting card when you're only going to be up one on the test and so many of the recent scenarios penalize you for failing tests. Seems like you either want to be very confident you're going to pass or very confident you won't so you can play Take Heart? I've been avoiding tests where I'm up one.

Dec 29, 2021 Valentin1331 · 55083

@jgslc thanks for your feedback! This deck is definitely not intended for the Hard/Expert mode because a lot of actions mean a lot of token pull, which can be dramatic with the symbol tokens at those difficulties. So I intend here to simply absorb as much as I can and the Talisman of Protection takes the role of the Cherished Keepsake, being an item so compatible with Scavenging but not using the competitive slot.

And in lower difficulty, the consequences of failure are usually lower, so the shoes are intended here as a « it works 50% of the time when I get lucky » but if there are consequences to failure you want to avoid then feel free to replace them !

Jan 06, 2022 jgslc · 19

I was loving this deck, but I'd warn against taking Charon's Obol into Edge of the Earth the first time through. I don't want to spoil anything, but we just did a scenario that I suspect is very commonly going to end in defeat. We got defeated and I'm so sick that Bob is killed and now I have to start a new investigator right in the middle of a campaign. I thought I was so safe because I had so much soak, but there really wasn't anything we could do at the end to not both be defeated. Beware.

Jan 06, 2022 Valentin1331 · 55083

@jgslc thanks for the feedback, I will add a line on this to prevent anyone from having the same harsh situation without any warnings. Happy you enjoyed the deck during the first part of the playthrough though!

Apr 29, 2022 Kaldaran · 1

@Valentin1331 Great guide man. One of the most comprehensive and best formatted I've seen on this site yet!

One question though. You say in your "Upgrade" section of the guide to:

• Fight or Flight x1 > Well Connected x1

But Fight or Flight is never in the deck and barely mentioned in the guide aside from the "Damage Support"

Seeing that this is coming after most of the money makers enter the deck, is it not supposed to be:

• Emergency Cahce x1 > Well Connected x1 ?

Aug 14, 2022 raddoc16 · 1

Very interested to try this deck out, but I’m missing track shoes. Any good suggestions for a substitute? I have most of the card pool, but skipped Dream-Eaters and Circle Undone

Aug 16, 2022 captainsqually · 398

Correct me if I'm wrong but Quickdraw Holster hardly seems worth it. You have to exhaust it to use the Firearm it is holding, so that means only one shot from your Colt in a round.

Aug 16, 2022 captainsqually · 398

Oh ignore my previous comment, I didn't realize you could just freely use the attached Colt without using the Holster free-trigger

May 22, 2023 sedlak87 · 1

what is your trauma choice from In The Thick of It ?