Win NotZ with Roland Banks & Friends (Revised Core Set)

Roland Banks

"Shoots, Asks, and Leaves"

This multiplayer Roland Banks deck focuses on fighting enemies in order to find clues in the Night of the Zealot campaign. This is essentially an improved starter deck. It uses cards only from the Revised Core Set with no overlap when teamed up with Daisy, Agnes, or Wendy. Played next to at least one of those decks, it should be able to confidently perform in The Gathering, defeat at least four cultists in The Midnight Masks, and thereby set conditions to win The Devourer Below by disrupting the ritual. Note that you probably do not want Roland to be the lead investigator for campaign-specific reasons.

Inherent Advantages:

• Good Combat
• Excellent Health
• Fights for Clues

Your offensive capabilities are good, but not hyper-specialized. You can expect to win most fights and still be able to scoop up clues through investigation. That is, if there are any clues left after you discover a bunch by cutting down enemies and using your signature ability.

Inherent Flaws:

• Terrible Sanity
• Average Willpower
• Poor Agility

Your body is willing, but your spirit is spongy and bruised. Your painfully low sanity and middling Willpower expose you to the risk of crippling mental trauma. Low Agility also leaves you only one choice when engaged: fight. You must manage your poor defenses or risk defeat.

Game Plan:

The best defense is a good offense! That's where your weapon assets and ample Combat icons come in. Your signature ability allows you to convert combat into clues. For you, one fight action each round has the potential to also snag you a clue. Try to fight and defeat enemies in high shroud locations with clues on them.

When there are no enemies to rough up and interrogate, however, fall back to investigating. Your average Intellect should be good enough in low shroud locations. If you're working with a more specialized cluever (like Daisy), there may be times when you prefer to move ahead and leave the unguarded clues for your partner(s) to discover.

Be cautious getting too far ahead of your fellow investigator(s), however. They'll likely need you to deal with enemies (especially, again, Daisy), and you may need to lean on them for extra Willpower or Agility icons when a treachery threatens you with a tough test.

Action Priority:

• Investigate: Often
• Fight: Always
• Evade: Rarely

Deck Composition:

This section analyzes the proportion of cards in the deck before (and after) upgrades according to their primary role, as opposed to their type, cost, icons, or any other factor. The roles considered include:

• Damage: Cards that primarily help you defeat enemies.
• Discovery: Cards that primarily help you discover clues.
• Mobility: Cards that primarily help you move around and avoid enemies.
• Economy: Cards that primarily help you gain or save resources, actions, or cards.
• Support: Cards that help you or other investigators do things, but don't directly affect the state of play.

15 (-) Damage cards

• 2x .45 Automatic
• 2x Knife
• 2x Machete
• 1x Roland's .38 Special
• 2x Beat Cop (••)
• 2x Dynamite Blast
• 2x Overpower
• 2x Vicious Blow

6 Discovery cards

• 2x Flashlight
• 2x Evidence!
• 2x Working a Hunch

2 Mobility cards

• 2x Dodge

2 Economy cards

• 2x Emergency Cache

6 (-) Support cards

• [2x First Aid]
• [2x Physical Training]
• 2x Guts
• (2x "I've had worse..." ••••)
• (2x Police Badge ••)

Card Notes:

• .45 Automatic is a government issue firearm as reliable as death and taxes. Somewhat pricey, it nevertheless helps you hit and hits hard.

• Flashlight isn't now and will never be flashy, but -2 shroud makes a difference. With your average Intellect, this puts shroud value 3 locations comfortably within reach. In shroud value 2 or lower locations, this practically allows you to spend an action to automatically discover a clue.

• Knife is a very basic weapon. If it's all you've got, use it, but don't hesitate to throw it at an enemy using its second mode as soon as you can put a better weapon in your hands.

• Machete is another melee weapon, and now that's a knife. Machete lets you efficiently hack through one enemy at a time and never runs out of ammunition. Especially in multiplayer, this is your most efficient weapon.

• Roland's .38 Special is your signature card and your personal sidearm. It is effectively a cheaper .45 Automatic that aims very well when a clue is nearby. If you're already well-armed, however, don't be afraid to commit it to a test if you need the icons.

• Beat Cop has been detailed to the Bureau to help you with this case and he definitely helps. He soaks damage and horror, pumps your core stat, and you can throw him away in a pinch to land one extra damage.

• First Aid is not especially efficient damage reduction. It'll ask for 2 actions and 2 resources before it starts to relieve you or another investigator of your ails, but it also offers an icon that you need. You'll swap this out for something better in upgrades.

• Physical Training is the cornerstone of any good warrior's regimen. By playing it, you'll have to spend 1 action and 3 resources before it starts helping with even the first skill test. This is fine, but rather inefficient. In truth, this is best used as a card to commit to skill tests. At level 0, this workout isn't cutting it for long anyway, and you'll soon swap it out.

• Dodge is your insurance against an attack from a horror-causing enemy (or protection for another investigator) that also offers a Willpower icon relevant to supporting your main defensive gap.

• Dynamite Blast is an expensive card to play, but one that can potentially dish out a lot of damage when you do. This may be a viable backup plan to help you eek out a victory if things don't go well in The Midnight Masks, but realistically, you'll mostly use this for its Willpower icon.

• Emergency Cache is useful for many investigators, effectively constituting a single use ": Gain 3 resources". You'll need these resources to cover the cost of a weapon or two, fuel Physical Training, and perhaps play Dynamite Blast.

• Evidence! is your signature ability in a card. Drop an enemy and double up on the payoff by playing this for 1 resource. If there's nothing to fight, you can always investigate and commit it to the test.

• Working a Hunch is your only Seeker class card in this deck (Roland can run as many level 0-2 Seeker cards as he wants), but it's a good one. Use it to discover a clue at a high shroud location without an enemy present. You can do so either by playing Working a Hunch for 2 resources or spend an action to investigate and commit its icons the test.

• Guts is a much needed skill to commit to the treacheries you know are coming.

• Overpower aims right at the heart of your game plan, ensuring your attack lands and replacing itself with a card when it does. Save this to commit to a fight against an enemy with fight value 4 or higher.

• Vicious Blow is a finisher, letting you tack on yet another point of damage to what is hopefully already a bruising attack. One point of damage may not seem like much, but if it lands, the effect saves you almost another full fight action. Try not to commit this unless the extra point of damage it provides will be meaningful.

• Cover Up is your signature weakness. In a sense, you have to feed this thing 3 clues or it slaps a point of mental trauma on you at the end of the scenario. That trauma is not to be ignored. It can wreck you. Note that Cover Up's reaction trigger isn't forced. You may choose to trigger it or not when you discover a clue. Also, other investigators may trigger it for you if they are at your location, so you can get help with the Cover Up. Notably, in the last scenario of a campaign, you could ignore this entirely. It's negative effect in such a situation is limited to blanking one card draw.

• Silver Twilight Acolyte is the basic weakness included in the original Roland starter deck in the Core Set. For you, this isn't much of a weakness, as it contributes to your game plan by providing another enemy to defeat. If you can't deal with it, however, it will accelerate the agenda.

Mulligan Targets:

These are the cards you most hope to see in your opening hand and should consider mulliganing something else in hopes of drawing.

• (Weapon) Machete, .45 Automatic, or Roland's .38 Special: These are your weapons and you want to see one in your opening hand. Without a weapon you aren't ready to enact your game plan. Mulligan the entire 5-card hand if you don't see one of these in it.

• (Combat) Beat Cop and Emergency Cache: He may be a detailee, but this guy is your buddy. He can go through that door or down that dark alley first. He can distract that thing while you reload. He can do all the paperwork. What this Beat Cop is doing most for you is providing a static boost to your most important stat. You really want to see this guy in your opening hand. And then, in order to actually play him, you want to see the Cache. Keep both for sure. Keep either if that's all you can get.

• (Defense) Guts, Dodge, or Police Badge: Willpower icons are your first line of defense against the terrors of the encounter deck that you aren't built to handle. Dodge has a very useful second mode that lets you avoid horror (or damage) from an attack. You need one of these starting out. After upgrades, Police Badge is first pick.

Ideal Hand:

You probably don't mulligan anything if you see an opening hand like this:

• Machete
• Beat Cop
• Emergency Cache
• Evidence!
• Guts

Upgrade Path:

Night of the Zealot is a short three-scenario campaign. You're only going to pick up a spare handful of XP before reaching the finale. At most, you might be able to earn 16XP or so if you're especially successful in The Gathering and The Midnight Masks. This leaves fairly little room to evolve the deck, so these upgrades focus instead on gaining incremental value, emphasizing a key strength or shoring up a weakness. Buy these in any order you wish.

• 2x First Aid → 2x "I've had worse…" •••• gives you great flexibility in dealing with a single shot of damage or horror thrown your way. On top of that, it pays you for the trouble. It also includes a useful second Willpower icon if you need to commit it to a tough test instead, and there are a few to worry about toward the end of the campaign... Its main drawback is the high XP cost to purchase.

• 2x Beat Cop → 2x Beat Cop •• is a promotion for your intrepid detailee. He can soak more damage for you and now repeatably damages enemies himself. His ability to defeat two or even three 1-health enemies all on his own is not to to be underestimated.

• 2x Physical Training → 2x Police Badge •• is a shift from a resource-prohibitive support card to a much needed defensive card with the potential to make a big splash. Police Badge gives you a static boost to Willpower and can be cashed in for two additional actions for any investigator during a key round. In a pinch, it's also yet another copy of Guts.