Roland Banks: Antiquities Inspector | A Tenacious Deck Guide

"When they told Roland he was being reassigned to a desk job, he thought he'd finally get a much needed reprieve from the occult undertone that always plagued his assignments; how wrong he'd been. When they told him that he would be assigned a civilian assistant from Arkham, he should have known then and there that trouble was gonna find him again. The bureau contracted a Ms.Whitton Greene for the task of deciphering and labeling a number of Relic Assets currently in the bureau's possession. Roland was tasked with monitoring and recording the work, as well as "provide protective assistance should anyone or anything interfere with the assignment". That was the exact moment the knot formed in his stomach; whatever eldritch horrors are awaiting him, Roland knew that unlocking the power of these Relic is the key to stopping it."

Piloting Difficulty 2.5/5 | Clue Gathering 3.5/5 | Enemy Management 3.5/5 | Encounter Deck Management 2.5/5 | Economy 3/5 | Survivability 3.5/5 | Tempo 4/5 | Consistency 4/5 | deck designed with the Taboo List in mind

-Deck Summary-

I originally designed this deck as a way to play Pendant of the Queen multiple times in a scenario before it was errata'd to be Removed From Play, The idea being to hard mulligan for Whitton Greene to get her into play as early as possible to trigger her ability in order to continuously Search for Segment of Onyx as well as other Relics that are critical to the core of the build. This version has been updated to incorporate new cards released since then (up to Edge of the Earth).

Along with the core Relic engine, the deck is supplemented with Research cards to provide extra Resources, Secrets, and skill test Boost Icons without using . In addition to this, there are a set of Event and Skill cards designed to synergize with, and augment Rolands' combat and Clue gathering abilities. Finally to top the design off, there is a small Selection of cards intended to boost Rolands' survivability especially against Horror damage.

All of this comes together to create a Roland deck that is capable of quickly setting up its board while simultaneously maintaining Resource gain and Card Draw. And once he is set up, Roland is capable oh holding his own against just about any Enemy a scenario has to throw at him, as well as cluevering with the best of them. This allows Roland to sprint trough a scenario before his Sanity can be seriously threatened.

-Design & Description-

Behind Any Successful Man There Is A Woman -

The Key piece to this whole build is Whitton Greene, getting her into play before moving out ensures that you get as many searches as possible, and provides the central engine of the deck. The idea to incorporate Forced Learning into the deck may seem somewhat counter synergistic, as doing so makes finding her in your initial draw more difficult. This is however mitigated by fact that Forced Learning allows you filter trough your deck faster.

Providing greater consistently in finding all of your key assets, or events and skill cards such as Eureka!, No Stone Unturned, and Prepared for the Worst, that allow you to Search for those assets; these Search tech cards provide an auxiliary way to trigger Research cards along with Whitton Greene, in order to be able to constantly make use of Astounding Revelation and Surprising Find.

Carry A big Stick-

The majority of the Assets that are critical to the deck are Relic Assets making them viable targets for Whitton Greene. The most important of these targets are perhaps Enchanted Blade and Timeworn Brand, as either of them provide Roland with a means for dealing with Enemies more effectively, a crucial part of how Roland effectively Discovers Clues. Prepared for the Worst is included as an additional way to Search for either of them or Roland's .38 Special.

Enchanted Blade provides some supplemental Card Draw and Horror healing as a reward for Defeating Enemies. On the other Hand Timeworn Brand is an extremely powerful anti-Elite weapon, allowing you to deal with any big bad a scenario might throw at him, and providing a more powerful Card Draw when you do so. Roland's .38 Special is only competing with them when the Enemy is at a Location with Clues.

Accessorizing-

The 3rd most important Search targets are the 3 Segment of Onyx, as using Pendant of the Queen was the original inspiration for the build. Being able to pickup up to 3 Clues from a high Shroud Location without even needing to be there provides immense tempo value as well as saves Skill cards which would otherwise have to be used to get those Clues off of those high Shroud Location.

Along with this, the ability to either Move to any revealed Location, or Evade an Enemy that otherwise cant be Defeated provide some extra niche but powerful abilities. The only issue is that Pendant of the Queen will be competing for the Accessory Slot with both Eon Chart and Hallowed Mirror. Correctly juggling these Accessories is key to running this deck successfully. The addition of one Relic Hunter makes the juggle significantly easier.

The crux of the strategy for this hinges on the fact that the Segment of Onyx are not Accessory cards, this allows you to put 2 of them into play and decide whether you want to get the last one into play as soon as possible in order to use the Charges up and let it be removed from play to open up the slot, or to let up to 2 of the Segment of Onyx sit on the table, as the accessory slot(s) is currently being occupied. With 2 Accessory Slots Hallowed Mirror can permanently occupy one of the slots in order to keep Soothing Melody in the deck.

One Eon Chart is included into the deck to provide extra turn compression in the form of Movement and Investigation . Since it is a one of in the deck, Truth from Fiction is a recommended late game upgrade to get more secrets along with Astounding Revelation triggers; it also Commits for 3 Icons allowing Rolland to secure Investigation checks on high Shroud Locations when Eon Chart is not in play.

Alternatively Hallowed Mirror is the backbone of the defensive capabilities of the deck. It provides a consistent source of healing for both Health and Sanity by continuously shuffling Soothing Melody back into your deck. Augmenting this, Flesh Ward provides long term damage mitigation allowing you to tank more hits as you deal with Enemies. and Lastly Logical Reasoning provides some Sanity healing as well as a way to remove Terror cards in the threat area which can often be quite the nuisance to deal with, not to mention that is Commits for 2 icons.

Finally while it does not occupy the Accessory slot, Hawk-Eye Folding Camera can take up a Hand slot not being used for a Weapon Asset; it provides a solid set of stat buffs for Roland, +1 for treacheries, +1 for Investigations, and +1 Sanity for his less than average sanity pool. The only caveat is in order to gain the buffs you need to be present when the last Clue on a Location is Discovered, once for each buff; so it is important to try to get this card as early as possible into play. This is easier said than done however as Hawk-Eye Folding Camera is the least targetable Asset necessary for the build with the Search options for the deck; if it shows up from a Search triggered by either Eureka! or No Stone Unturned it is best to take it then, as your other Search triggers can target the other options.

Elementary My Dear Whitton...We Kill It...And We'll Get Paid To Do IT!-

Whitton Greene provides the same stat bumps as Hawk-Eye Folding Camera's bringing Roland's stat line to 5/5/4/2. Using Fieldwork puts Roland at a base 6 for Fight, and a base 7 for Investigate. When you Commit Deduction you are Investigating with 9; making Roland very capable at guaranteeing Clues by having one strong Investigation check every turn he moves before his last . This isn't the only way Roland can get Clues, along with basic Investigations and the additional provided by Eon Chart and Pendant of the Queen, Roland is also capable of gaining Clues by Defeating Enemies.

By combining Roland Banks's ability with either Evidence! or Scene of the Crime Roland can Discover multiple Clues as he Defeats Enemies. Just like with Pendant of the Queen, doing so at a high Shroud Location allows Roland to save cards that would other wise be Committed to a higher difficulty test in order to use them on lower Shroud Locations to all but ensure success on the basic Investigation checks Roland makes. As a cherry on top Mysteries Remain, can pick up a Clue at your Location for free, test-less, and at speed, or generate a Clue on your Location in the event that doing so would be relevant, making it a very good "Get Out of Jail Free" card to save for crucial moments.

To supplement Astounding Revelation, Crack the Case and On the Hunt, provide you with Resources for doing what you were already going to do. On the Hunt being especially potent, as it is the best way the deck can try to spawn an Enemy at a high Shroud Location when you're ready to deal with it, allowing you to combo off of Roland Banks's built in synergy.

Weakness Management-

Both Cover Up and The Dirge of Reason target your Clue gathering and threaten your Sanity, however each card executes that threat in its own way. Cover Up is a tempo sink that if you fail to complete by the end of the scenario you suffer 1 Mental Trauma. Because of this, it is preferable to encounter it as early as possible. This way you can mitigate the tempo loss over time, whereas if you encounter it late enough in the scenario you may not have the time to deal with it.

This Weakness is countered by the fact that the deck is designed to cycle at least once trough, meaning that it should show up early to mid game giving you enough time to address it. And since Cover Up is not Discarded after the last Clue is removed from it, you only need to worry about it the one time.

The Dirge of Reason on the other hand is a tax on your pool of Discovered Clues. If you are unable to pay it in full (2 of your Clues go to your current Location), you pay half (1 Clue), and take 1 horror and it shuffles back into the deck. Because of this, the best way to counter this Weakness is floating 2 extra Clues whenever possible, which sounds more crazy than it is when you're actually playing the deck. This will let you pay the tax and discard the Weakness, hopefully never to be seen again.

When dealing with both these Weaknesses combined, focusing on making sure you can pay the tax should it pop up is more important than clearing out Cover Up. The one exception to this being towards then end of a scenario, where making sure you don't get the Mental Trauma is more important than taking 1 Horror. Unless of course you find yourself in the she situation that taking 1 Horror from failing to pay for The Dirge of Reason would cause you to be Defeated preventing you from clearing out Cover Up; thus resulting in you gaining 2 Mental Trauma....this situation is classified so no more information is given at this time.

Linked bellow is the Decks build at lv0, as well as Mulligan & piloting instructions, and a Upgrade Path guide.

https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1396859

Linked bellow is a sans Forced Learning version of the deck that illustrates the original design (still updated to (insert current set here) set).

https://arkhamdb.com/deck/edit/2265306