I Studied the Gun - Fighter Amanda Sharpe

Card draw simulator

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Derived from
Caught Red-Handed Amanda - Insanely Overpowered [Deck Guide] 393 333 43 1.0
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Acedentprone · 327

Amanda

Overview

Clues: 3.5/5 | Enemies: 5/5 | Flexibility: 5/5 | Mobility: 4/5 | Mythos: 4/5 | Teamwork: 4.5/5


TLDR: Based on kinzuuu's Red-Handed Amanda Deck we're going to draw half our deck every turn with a ton of soak. Instead of focusing con clues, we're our team's dedicated fighter


This deck guide is a variant of kinzuuu's The Red-Gloved Man Amanda Sharpe build. The original is completely busted, even with the latest taboo. This version takes that concept and goes from a dedicated cluever to one of the most consistent fighters around. Using Amanda's forced ability we can super charge our card draw and compress our actions to efficiently deal with threats.

We abuse how good off-color Practiced skills are with to hunt monsters far larger or numerous than most dedicated fighters. One area we discovered was a potential weakness was consistent multi-damage. Since Brute Force is not Practiced, our only skill that buffs damage is Vicious Blow. Having only 2 in the deck meant that at most we have 2 turns of 2 damage per attack which wouldn't get the job done. Enter Hyperphysical Shotcaster. This jack-of-all-trades comes to us from the Scarlet Keys expansion and it opens up the ability to fight with the best. It is a firearm weapon like any other (worth taking) that deals +1 damage. More importantly it offers 2 unique upsides compared to most other firearms. First, it is neutral which allows to take it. Second, it discards itself when out of ammo (aether). Having shuffle back in every time we cycle through our deck. We then get to replay it and have access to 4 fresh shots. It does require starting with In the Thick of It of it to have access to ☑☑ Railshooter on our Hyperphysical Shotcaster, but we then get to start with 1 Unrelenting.

Just like kinzuu's deck, our main goal is abusing high-powered skills like Unrelenting, Overpower, Vicious Blow, and Momentum with Amanda's forced ability. Pairing assets Dream-Enhancing Serum and The Red-Gloved Man with events like Cryptic Research and Cryptic Writings we aim to easily pass test and cycle through our deck many times a scenario.

Similar again to kinzuu's deck, we don't even need The Red-Gloved Man to work. The number of skill icons our skills lets us pass most tests. What The Red-Gloved Man gives us is an insane amount of 4/4 soak (that is constantly being replayed).


Upgrade Plan

 Cost  Total
   Deep Knowledge  →  Cryptic Research •••• 4 XP 4 XP
   Deep Knowledge  →  Cryptic Research •••• 4 XP 8 XP
   Stunning Blow  →  Unrelenting 1 XP 9 XP
   Medical Student  →  The Red-Gloved Man ••••• 5 XP 14 XP
   Medical Student  →  The Red-Gloved Man ••••• 5 XP 19 XP
   Overpower    Overpower •• 2 XP 21 XP
   Overpower    Overpower •• 2 XP 23 XP
   Vicious Blow    Vicious Blow •• 2 XP 25 XP
   Vicious Blow    Vicious Blow •• 2 XP 27 XP
   Hyperphysical Shotcaster    ☑☑☑☑ Empowered Configuration 4 XP 31 XP
   Take the Initiative  →  Momentum 1 XP 32 XP
   Take the Initiative  →  Momentum 1 XP 33 XP

Upgrade Priority Explainations

  1. Cryptic Research x2 - 8xp
    +Fast card draw is essential since we are taking In the Thick of It to start with ☑☑ Railshooter on our Hyperphysical Shotcaster we are afforded one Unrelenting. That makes upgrading our slow Deep Knowledges into a fast draw 3 more important.
  2. Unrelenting x1 - 1xp
    +Hyper flexible skill that is the second backbone to our card drawing engine. Using Amanda's forced ability and slotting this in and attempting 3 test can net us up to 6 cards in a turn. Further, when stakes are dire, we can just remove the worst offenders out of the chaos bag before testing.
  3. The Red-Gloved Man x2 - 10xp
    +I prefer to get The Red-Gloved Man here. With all of our major card draw sorted out we want to be consistently passing test. Its far easier to do that when starting at base skill 6. Additionally, he soaks the 1 horror we get each time we cycle our deck and we can reliably play him by drawing Cryptic Writings.
  4. Overpower x2 - 4xp
    +Hitting at higher numbers is always good. Being rewarded with more card draw is even better.
  5. Vicious Blow x2 - 4xp
    +If we're constantly hitting higher numbers, then we need to chunk down those large health pools faster too.
  6. ☑☑☑☑ Empowered Configuration - 4xp
    +There are times we don't draw Promise of Power, Overpower, The Red-Gloved Man,or Fighting Lessons and we want to still high reliably. This is skippable if you feel consistent enough or replaceable with ☑☑☑☑ Aetheric Link for more ammo.
  7. Momentum x2 - 2xp
    +"You can fit these in any time if you have the extra experience. These will allow you to do any skill test at -3 difficulty or -6 if you commit two (not sure if that's allowed to be honest), which will allow you to flex into any skill test needed whether it be parleys, on treacheries or locations, so as long as you over-succeed on the first test." -kinzuuu

Luxury Upgrades (in no particular order)

  1. Cryptic Writings x2 - 4xp
    +More money is good.
  2. Miskatonic Archaeology Funding x1 - 4xp
    +We can keep both Laboratory Assistants in play and play a The Red-Gloved Man. Does mean we cant callously discard them as freely.
  3. Ancestral Knowledge x2 - 6xp
    +More skills is always better in Amanda. This is an awkward one though, as we want a high density of Practiced skills for Practice Makes Perfect.
  4. Signum Crucis x2 - 0-2xp
    +Makes Unrelenting a cakewalk for card draw. Is great for synergy in your team. Doesn't synergize with The Red-Gloved Man. With the taboo, it's now a 0xp, so I'd probably only add it if you're also adding Ancestral Knowledge.
  5. Blasphemous Covenant - 2xp
    +We do fill the bag up with a fair number of tokens. Also better if you're also getting Signum Crucis and playing with a / synergy team or if someone is playing Tempt Fate.
  6. Studious x2 - 6xp
    +Starting with more cards in hand means we can set up faster.
  7. Scroll of Secrets x1 - 3xp
    +More card draw.

Playstyle

Mulligan Priority:

  1. Cryptic Research (Deep Knowledge for lvl 0)
  2. Laboratory Assistant
  3. Hyperphysical Shotcaster
  4. Unrelenting
  5. Dream-Enhancing Serum / Scroll of Secrets
  6. Overpower
  7. The Red-Gloved Man

We want to churn through our deck as fast as possible and get our key assets into play. Hyperphysical Shotcaster needs to be out for consistent damage unless you have Vicious Blow at hand. Dream-Enhancing Serum or Scroll of Secrets gives us further boosts to our card draw.

From here we play every Laboratory Assistant and Cryptic Research (or commit Unrelenting) to fill our hand, netting us Overpowers, Fighting Lessons, Promise of Powers, and Vicious Blows to spend on taking down bad guys. The Red-Gloved Man can sub in for / enhance any of those. We use Shortcut to efficiently engage enemies and can use Obscure Studies to buyback a key other skill to reuse again next turn.


Multiplayer or Solo

kinzuuu designed their version for 3 player Hard Campaigns. Similarly, there is no reason this cannot follow suit as it has been very good in multiplayer.

With a couple tweakings (Perception, Deduction) it can easily flex into a true solo run as well.


Strengths

Can carry the load for killing monsters

  • Can easily dispatch 3, 2-3 health monsters a turn or it can power through up to 12 health on a single baddy.

Consistency

  • Card draw on turbo mode. Once Cryptic Research is added, you can easily cycle your deck 3+ times a scenario.

Resilient

  • There is a fair number of symbols on our skills which makes tackling the mythos phase easier. The Red-Gloved Man makes it trivial.

Experience Curve

  • You're basically ready off the bat. 9xp for x2 Cryptic Research and the second Unrelenting is all it takes from here to get to peak performance. Every upgrade from there gets exponentially better.

Setup

  • We rely mostly on skill cards. Unlike most fighters we aren't reliant on our weapon. It's effectively just extra copies of Vicious Blow. With our card draw, we'll see it quickly enough anyway.

Weaknesses:

Whispers from the Deep

  • Our signature weakness isn't that bad. It can make certain turns problematic, but if we draw it mid turn or during upkeep we can pitch it to random skill checks. If we draw it as part of the start of turn forced ability, then we're stuck.

Basic Weakness that kills us

Tokens

  • We're going to flood the bag, especially level 0 with Promise of Power and Deep Knowledge. This can be a benefit for your teammates but sometimes you'll just hit runners and lose a test you should pass.

Damage and Horror

  • Weird weakness to have, but we can get beat up pretty easily. Level 0 I am running Medical Students to help soak and heal some of what we take, but sometimes you just take 3 horror and die.

Conclusion:

Thank you kinzuuu for your deck. Check it out (link at the top). Amanda quickly became one of my favorite investigators to play after playing your deck. My group just came off a run with the new Scarlet Keys investigators and are doing an all Seeker run. Since we just saw Vincent Lee be our fighter for that campaign we wanted to mix it up a bit. After tinkering with Joe Diamond and not being satisfied with his options we switched focus to Amanda and it has exceeded our expectations. If you love drawing cards and test with "NUMBER GO BIG" some variation of this or kinzuuu's deck are for you.

10 comments

Nov 21, 2022 drjones87 · 165

Fun idea. Red Gloved Man and ammo dependency I think make it not viable for TSK with all the concealed cards. I'm sure you can work around that though. Definitely the most interesting build I've seen using a custom asset.

Nov 21, 2022 Bakedsloth · 11

the second unrelenting should be the first upgrade, the card draw it provides is insane.

Dec 01, 2022 Innsmouth Conspirator · 56

Yeah, the inspiration behind this deck (kinzuuu's The Red-Gloved Man Amanda Sharpe) is one of my favorite decks of all-time. Extremely overpowered and makes speedruns a breeze. This version looks fun, but if you're going as a fighter, why not make room for Seeker enemy management cards such as Strange Solution?

Dec 01, 2022 Acedentprone · 327

@Innsmouth Conspirator My original draft included Dream Diary to have access to Dream Diary (Dreams of a Madman) for the skill while engaged and Occult Lexicon (and a 1 of Research Librarian to help find them).

The problem I ran into was that it was very slow to get those set up. I never had the time to play and translate Dream Diary. I would have to often choose between doing tests with Overpower or Unrelenting and playing Blood-Rite, and it was always better to just do the test.

I think that is per campaign variations you make on the fly. For example I am running this through Call of the Plaguebearer. We eahc have a weakness that deals 2 direct to us which can't be canceled or ignored, so the usual play patterns for this deck would just kill me. I ended up having to spend an XP to swap in a Bizarre Diagnosis and change my play to grab a random clue every now and then to consistently heal myself.

Mar 24, 2023 Pr1celess · 1

If it is a fighter build, how are you planning fight when the charges run out? Not sarcasm.

Mar 24, 2023 Innsmouth Conspirator · 56

@Pr1celess I agree, this is a nice attempt. But you can make a fighting Amanda deck much better.

Mar 24, 2023 Acedentprone · 327

@Pr1celess How do you gain clues as Amanda as a cluever? Her ability + Deduction. Same concept here. She is a skills based investigator. Her strength is being able to use the same skill on every test in a round. Your damage comes from using her ability with Vicious Blow, not Hyperphysical Shotcaster. Hyperphysical Shotcaster is just a back up for the +1 damage when you need to do 3+ damage in a single attack when you don't have access to a Vicious Blow. You're generally cycling through your deck fast enough that you have them available when needed. As I mentioned in the description, the Hyperphysical Shotcaster discards itself when out of Aether so generally you just play a second and when you're out on that one you'll like have drawn another from cycling your deck.

@Innsmouth Conspirator Perhaps? The normal Seeker enemy management tools are still awkward. Strange Solution is still limited by uses, but doesn't auto discard so you have to rely on having another hand slot item to replace it. Strange Solution requires you to use to research, Occult Lexicon burns your your hand and resources very quickly, so it really taxes her draw and semipassive economy (Cryptic Writings). Knowledge is Power is not worth the taboo'd 2xp to make Occult Lexicon more efficient. I've played this deck through 3 campaigns so far, Innsmouth, Scarlet Keys, and Call of the Plaguebearer. In all three this deck performed admirally. Scarlet Keys taught me that The Red-Gloved Man is definitely not required. We even lost Call of the Plaguebearer on the final act of the final scenario but that wasn't due to any deficiency in Amanda's ability to kill enemies. Can you build a better Amanda fighter deck? Probably, but this has been a blast to play and does it job well.

Mar 26, 2023 Pr1celess · 1

@Acedentprone So "Enemies: 5/5" is not real in this deck? I think this is the main thing that is misleading. No offense.

Mar 26, 2023 Acedentprone · 327

@Pr1celessthat seems needlessly antagonistic. Would you care to explain? In my experience the deck handled the role of main fighter just as well as many other traditional investigators. In my time playing this deck there wasn't a single enemy I couldn't deal with when I needed to. In fact, she even has a leg up on fighters like Tony Morgan because she actually evade enemies that are not about to be killed in one round (ones with 12+ health, or those immune to taking damage or being attacked).

Mar 26, 2024 RFreitas · 5

Thank you for sharing this deck! Having not yet played Amanda, reading your guide gave me quite some insight about what I should look for with her.