C.I.A. - Covert International Axe-wielder

Roland travels light on his globe trotting adventure - two backpacks fit his axe, his armor and his handcuffs. No time for checked baggage when you're tracking down secret societies!

I built this deck for my second run through the Scarlet Keys. My first run through was with Darrell Simmons, with my partner playing Amina Zidane. Naturally, I didn't do much of the enemy management in that campaign.

But this time I wanted to pack a punch. When sleeving the campaign, Runic Axe stood out - so that was automatically in. I've never played Roland before, but my partner and I recently bought all of the paralell investigator packs - so I thought I'd give him a try. And, playing to theme, I looked at what "Police" cards might fit the bill.

Now, I'm not going to claim this is the first Handcuffs Roland build on here - I was heavily inspired by Emyriad's Handcuffs Roland Is The Key deck, which looks excellent. But this is my attempt to match up the benefits of Handcuffs Roland with a giant magical axe. It's also a bit more built for two player, and makes some different choices around how you manage Roland's low sanity - in particular the use of Hunter's Armor.

Directives

I chose the following Directives:

• Due Dilligence. This is key to give you a bonus when slapping on those handcuffs or interrogating. Once you've got those handcuffs on, you can then re-engage the enemy and drag it around the board with you, giving you a +2 bonus to investigates, evades and parleys once per turn. And the downside of the directive isn't too bad - with the axe and Alice being able to deal damage, an extra fight action shouldn't be needed.
• Red Tape. The deck is heavily built around this directive. The aim is for each turn to play a fast tactic or insight event, ideally to pick up a few testless clues, get some easy resources, or draw out an enemy. The downside is that it leaves you with only one action per turn to play any assets. But luckily there aren't too many of those to get down.
• Seek The Truth. Once you have a handcuffed enemy, this should provide solid card draw. And if you're playing a fast Scene of the Crime, Interrogate, or Drawn to the Flame at the beginning of your turn, the restriction around committing cards shouldn't bite too much when you want to commit for tests on your Axe or for other tests on locations or story assets and the like. The main way it'll hurt is around managing trecheries in the encounter phase - but with your Hunter's Armor you can tank any pain, and On The Hunt can mean you get something you can kill.

Strategy

Your mulligan priorities are all your assets, in this order:

• Backpack
• Alice Luxley
• Handcuffs
• Runic Axe
• Hunter's Armor
• Ace of Swords

If you get your backpack, you should be able to find most of the other assets you need turn one (even if you have to put your backpack in another backpack). If you don't find your backpack, you should still have a few other assets in your hand.

After that, you'll need to take a few turns to get everything out. Make yourself useful by using your one non-play action each turn to open up locations, or draw cards if you're yet to find your key assets.

Once you have your handcuffs out, you can go arrest some people. Kick the Hornets Nest or go On The Hunt. Ideally, then play Scene of the Crime, Mysteries Remain or Drawn to the Flame to allow you to commit cards, and then make sure you succeed with your handcuffs test (using your bonus on Due Dilligence).

Then you're set to go. Drag around your detainee, and use them to boost your clue and damage dealing abilities. Use the axe to kill everything else (potentially handcuffing another enemy if able, to really buff yourself with Due Dilligence).

Upgrades:

This deck works right out of the box - there isn't a strong need for exp to make it sing. That said, you can definitiely improve your chopping and clueing efficency.

First up: your customizables

Runic Axe

Must have upgrades are:

• Saga (3) - those additional charges mean you can tailor the axe's skill value and damage to be exactly what you need for the moment, while still using it multiple times/turns in a row
• Inscription of the Hunt (1) - spend less time taking move actions, more time axe swinging.

Hunter's Armor

The must have upgrade is Hallowed (2) - protect against Roland's fragile brain, and add some more horror soak to the armor.

The axe is heavy, the armor thick - what next?

2 x Handcuffs 2 x Handcuffs (2)

Makes them cheaper, means they remove doom (great for pesky cultists and some particular concealed enemies), but most importantly makes them fast. This means you can keep them in hand until you need them, and don't have to use one of your two play actions a round earlier in the game.

Scout Ahead + "Let me handle this!" 2 x On the Trail (3)

If you're gonna move, you may as well get clues while you're at it. Wait until an enemy spawns on your parther, or leave one of your handcuffed enemies in a prime location, and then hop-skip-jump over to them getting a few testless clues while you're at it. Keep in mind that you collect the clues after you move twice, so if you've arrived at an enemy you can draw a card from Directive and Alice can punch it.

Ok, ok, I can see how this all works, what next?

Hunter's Armor - Hexdrinker (3) - the armor is going to be mainly used to tank encounter card effects. Why not get a card when it does?

Runic Axe - Inscription of the Elders (1) - when you're on a low shroud location, buff that and you might just get a clue (which, with Alice and Directive, also means an extra damage and a card).

Stick to the Plan (3)

Attach Kicking the Hornet's Nest, Interrogate and On the Hunt, and you're ready to go as soon as your assets are in play.

2 x Drawn to the Flame 2 x Lesson Learned (2) or 2 x Stirring Up Trouble (1)

Save yourself the pain of those encounter cards, and just tank an enemy attack to get those clues. Or, alternatlivey, just add some . It's not like those -2s are going to hurt you that much.

Keen Eye (3)

Make use of all that resource generation. Make sure your tests on Handcuffs and Interrogate succeed, save some charges on Runic Axe, and if you really need to, succeed some basic investigate actions.

Guidance Guidance (1)

Make your partner's turn even more special.

You have too much xp what on earth do you do with it?

Runic Axe - Heirloom (1) - save yourself one resource in setup.

2 x Evidence! 2 x Evidence! (1)

Honestly, its rare to dispatch more than one enemy per turn, but why not have this just in case you do? Not a priority though.

Overpower Overpower (2)

More icons, more card draw!

Cryptic Writings or Overpower At a Crossroads

If you find that you're getting too many resources than you know how to use, but not enough cards, consider putting in At a Crossroads.

2 x Cryptic Writings 2 x Cryptic Writings (2)

Now it's basically a fast Emergency Cache! With other upgrades to Hunter's Armor, At a Crossroads and Overpower (2) you're also likely to get more card draw, which means you may just get it for free mid-turn.