Roland Banks Solo Night of The Zealot

Card draw simulator

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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
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McDeth · 38

Having play-tested Roland numerous times I have found that 5x Weapon Assets in the deck is essential, or at least suits my style of play. This set up gives me a 63% chance of drawing a weapon and with Prepared for the worst rises to a 70% chance of one of those 6 cards being in the opening hand. Mulliganing for one is essential for one of these and even if I had one weapon asset but no machete I would still mulligan the non-weapon assets for the chance of a machete. This diverse range of weapons also makes it easier to make use of Roland’s signature ability. •
1x Roland's .38 Special Roland’s unique weapon. If you can get to use it in a location with a clue you can utilise its full use it in a location with at least one clue to profit from it's full +3 bonus. Also comes with a nice +1 Attack and +1 damage. Unfortunately limited to 4 uses. •
2x .45 Automatic A standard weapon but a nice +1 attack and +1 damage Unfortunately limited to 4 uses, •
2x Machete For me the best weapon in the deck. +1 attack and +1 damage and never runs out of resources, unlike the gun weapons. •
1x Prepared for the Worstt A failsafe if no weapons are drawn, and a godsend mid to late game if you need an emergency weapon draw. •
2x Art Student Great low resource card, to instantly pick up a clue from high shroud areas, and its 2 sanity helps it soak up two horror damage. •
1x Beat Cop Cheap low cost ally, great for an instant 1 damage if needed, but another great card for absorbing 2 points of horror from Roland •
2x Flashlight Great Asset that reduces the Shroud value of those high shroud locations by 2. For when you can’t get them with Art Student or Roland’s signature ability. •
2x Dodge Fast Event which I keep to avoid any high horror or damage attacks. •
2x Vicious Blow Skill choice to commit to a test when you need that extra attack and more importantly another +1 Damage. Great for finishing of an opponent with 3 health left •
2x Working a Hunch Fast Event, so it doesn’t use an action to discover a clue in high shroud areas •
2x Guts One of Roland’s weakneses is his low sanity. So this is a great skill to help reduce the impact of Horror checks •
2x Emergency Cache Always useful especially as the weapons cost a lot osf resources to get into play •
2x Shortcut Fast Event gets you out of any sticky situation without attracting an attack of opportunity. •
2x Unexpected Courage Skill you can commit to any test •
2x Manual Dexterity Another deficiency in Roland's make up. You will prefer to fight than evade, but there are always those nasty agility checks to save these for •
2x Overpower Great skill when you do need to ensure a successful attack •
2x Perception Failsafe skill when there are no enemies to help you hoover up clues

9 comments

Mar 06, 2018 Zuntir · 613

Nice, what on what difficulty did you playtest? I'm testing various Roland builds right now and from my experience Logical Reasoning is far superior to Guts - same skill icons, but option to heal 2 horror or discard a threat like Frozen in Fear. Also i'd swap Manual Dexterity for Preposterous Sketches, i never found Manual Dexterity useful beyond Grasping Hands test, but YMMV. :)

Mar 06, 2018 McDeth · 38

Only Easy and Standard. manual dexterity gets upgraded after the first scenario to get 2 Elder Sign in and an upgraded beat cop. Depending on my Sanity situation guts gets swapped out for Say your prayers for the scenario three big horror check. May need some tweaking for Hard and above perhaps but i'm not sure if i'm hardcore enough or mad enough to go there ;-)

Mar 06, 2018 McDeth · 38

Logical reasoning is a good call, i will try it in place of guts, somehow i missed that one. The manual Dexterity probably wont use in Dunwich but it just worked here for me

Mar 08, 2018 Zuntir · 613

How Dodge is working out for you? I gave your build a spin and it's good but everytime i had Dodge in my hand i wished i had "If it bleeds..." instead.

Mar 09, 2018 McDeth · 38

Dodge works well for me the way i play the game i think. Its main purpose if i have it in hand is to avoid any nasty suprises and comes into its own more on the second and third scenarios when i may be running out of time and have to encounter something earlier than i would like. I also have enough Horor mitigation to not need to utilise "If it bleeds...". Especially as my upgrades would be Elder Sign Amulet & Beat Cop by then. Again its all about personal choice though i think as to how to manage and play your decks, i tend to be a bit gung ho at times especially in the second scenario as Doom always seems to tick down quicker than you think and i always seem to draw vards that advance doom on quicker than id like ;-)

Mar 12, 2018 McDeth · 38

i did a full playtest last night to make sure i was happy with how the cards interact. The Gathering is normally a cakewalk for Roland. As per normal even with an above 70% chance of a weapon draw in the opening hand i failed again, and mulligan only get me Prepared for the Worst, which got me a .45 Automatic out. I drew Cover Up early but without any chance of mitigating out, carried on Rushed through to The end game took out the Ghoul Priest the .45 Automatic and [Overpower] 7 Vicious Blow(/card/01091). With already now one sanity down due to Cover Up. I forewent Lita, and used 6 victory points to upgrade 2 Elder Sign Amulet

Mar 12, 2018 Zuntir · 613

Nice report, Cover Up can be really devastating, although i love Roland's .38 Special i think using his replacement signature cards is much better and safer. Mysteries Remain is a fantastic card as well and The Dirge of Reason is much more managable than Cover Up.

Mar 12, 2018 McDeth · 38

Forgot to add Removed 2 Manual Dexterity Midnight Masks again saw me have to mulligan for a weapon and luckily got the .45 Automatic Again. Once again no machete and the whole first and second scenario didn't see one, so i knew i was going to run out of ammo if i didn't get one. Dodge prooved invaluable as twice i had to use it to avoid Night Gaunts and my lack of weapons restricted me to choosing carefully who to engage. I did pick up a second .45 Automatic and with the help of Art Student and [Elder Sign Amulet(/card/01095) was able to snaffle enough clues and kill just enough of the cultists and a last gasp Shortcut to get to the Graveyard where i traded cards to get Herman. Had to resign with only Wolfman unclaimed and once again Drew Cover up so menat i was now two sanity down. Devourer Below proved a nightmare. I had now taken 2 [Say Your Prayers] (/card/03116) Upgraded Beat Cop, 2 First Aid and 2 Extra Ammunition for 2 Guts 2 Emergency Cache, Beat Cop and 2 Flashlight. I finally drew machete in my first hand, but basically spend the whole scenario trying to mitigate the two points of sanity i had lost, so wasted too much time getting First Aid into play and then got stuck for two turns in one of the woods. I pulled autofail out of the bag seven times!!!. Even then using shortcut i managed to get to the ritual site , but only in time for Umhordoth to spawn. Miraculously using Dodge and Roland's .38 Special somehow got 6 attacks on the Boss but got two autofails and missed another, and with a Vicious Blow managed to get 7 Damage on him. However not enough as he took me out with a second hit.

However i did get two queries Once Umhordoth spawns do you keep advancing the Doom and encounter deck?. if so i would have gone mad with only 5 Damage on the Boss,as i succombed to a final horror check

Mar 12, 2018 McDeth · 38

The other query was The Yellow Sign if i have no madness weakness card just other basic weaknesses then i assume this cards effect isn't activated