Jenny Barnes - Tomb Raider

Intro and overview

She's tough, she's smart, she's dangerous; she's Jenny Barnes: Tomb Raider (not to be confused with a certain other rich, gun-wielding lady adventurer).

This is meant to be an alternative to the "talented Jenny Barnes" archetype for solo play. You'll still run Streetwise (because it's an awesome card) - but as a supplement, not the corner-stone of the build. This allows you to focus less on gathering resources to burn on talents and more on some of the other cool toys available to Jenny.

I’ve successfully run it through all of The Dunwich Legacy as well as Carnivale of Horrors and Dim Carcosa.

This is the deck in its final form at 28 XP. The 0-XP version along with a short guide to playing it can be found here: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/5170/jenny-barnes-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-1.0

Strengths and weaknesses : The deck doesn't need a lot of setup, so you can begin gathering clues almost immediately and handle problems as they appear. You’ll be able to reliably gather one clue each turn (more if you have the resources) and you can kill or evade pretty much anything the game throws at you.

On the other hand, the deck doesn’t have a ton of clue-gathering acceleration, so you may struggle in scenarios that throw a ton of clues at you. You also have finite ways to boost your and and limited horror and damage soak, so you may find Jenny running low on sanity and life if you stick around too long. Remember: speed is life.

---

Playing

Setup

Your first priority is a weapon - preferably a Lupara or a .41 Derringer and Sleight of Hand so you don't have to play the gun until you need it, which frees up your starting resources for something else.

Secondly you want some help finding clues in the form of Lockpicks, Dr. Milan Christopher or Key of Ys (in that order of priority). If you don't get any of those, you can get by for a short while by using Streetwise, but your economy won't be able to sustain it indefinitely .

As long as those two things are in place, you should be able to handle most situations.

Early game

The deck is very straight-forward. Lockpick will take you to six on investigate tests before boosting, so you should be able to progress fairly smoothly. Use Streetwise as needed but don’t bankrupt yourself.

If you only have .41 Derringer (and no Sleight of Hand) you might want to play it if you have a bit of time and resources to spare. You can always evade or Elusive away if you encounter something really nasty, but getting a gun on the table might be worthwhile for the added security. Otherwise, keep your weapons in hand along with enough resources to play them.

You do have a limited supply of ammunition, so always consider if evading an enemy isn’t more effective than shooting it. It goes without saying that Sleight of Hand is a great way of getting the most uses out of your two Lupara.

Double or Nothing can be used to speed investigation on low-shroud, high-clue locations.

Mid to late game

By now you should have most of the pieces you need in play or in hand, as well as a couple of damage and/or horror. If you’ve played carefully (and possibly gotten Lone Wolf or Dr. Milan Christopher down earlier) you should have plenty of resources for Streetwise and maybe a Key of Ys, so this might be the time to play Jenny's Twin .45s and ditch the Lockpicks.

A note on Key of Ys: Don’t fall into the trap of assigning the first three horror you see to it. We all know that the encounter deck will hand you a direct horror the second you to that.
The key is just as much here to keep Jenny sane as to supply skill bonuses, and remember that putting even a single horror on it will take you to above-average stats in everything (and a very impressive eight when investigating using Lockpicks), so don’t get greedy.

Experience

Getting there

Getting to this build in time for the final scenario requires an average of four XP per scenario. To this end it runs Charon's Obol.
I realize that this is very much a playstyle card. If you don’t want to risk it, you only need 26 XP without, which should be possible with bold play throughout an eight-scenario campaign. I personally find it to be less stressful with the Obol, because I like not having to chase every single card that’s worth victory points.

Upgrade path

You can refer to the suggested 0-XP deck here: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/5170/jenny-barnes-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-1.0
Notice that you’ll eventually want [Adaptable](/card/02110) anyway, so you have a fair bit of leeway regarding your choice of starting cards.

First priority upgrades:

The first Lupara (replaces a Knife)

Charon's Obol

The deck starts out a little weak in the combat department (the two Backstab help slightly, but don't mitigate this weakness entirely), so getting a good weapon is important. It also gives you another target for Sleight of Hand besides Flashlight.

You should also get Charon's Obol within the first two scenarios if you are going to run it.

Second priority upgrades:

Streetwise

The rest of your weapons

Streetwise will add a huge amount of reliability to your investigating and getting the rest of the upgraded weapons will make you able to handle almost every enemy you're likely to encounter at this stage.

Third priority upgrades:

Lockpicks (replaces Flashlight)

Key of Ys (replaces St. Hubert's Key)

Adaptable

Lockpicks are very good, but until you get enough alternative targets for Sleight of Hand, they aren't really that much of an improvement over Flashlight. They are slower and don't give you a near-automatic investigate in one and two shroud locations. At this point, however, you really want to use Sleight of Hand with your guns, so Lockpicks become comparativly better.

Key of Ys is your late-campaign catch-up card. Skill tests are getting harder so it's nice to have a way to boost your skills across the board. Adaptable will save you some XP when you shuffle 0-XP cards after replacing the two St. Hubert's Key.

At this point you should also replace the "I'm outta here!" with something else. The card can be a life-saver (especially when running Charon's Obol), but so far it's been useless in the last two scenarios of the long campaigns. I've put in a Quick Thinking instead.

Off-class splashes:

Dr. Milan Christopher is fairly integral to the build as he boosts both your economy and investigating as well as providing a bit of soak.

You have a little more leeway with other three cards. I personally rarely leave home without a Dynamite Blast. Three test-less damage against everything in a location solves a lot of problems and you can afford the resource cost, which is why I include it from the start of the campaign.
I've split the last two between a combat and a clue-gathering card.

Fight or Flight will give you a round of potentially two-digit attacks (in one particular scenario it can get downright insane - if you know what I mean), which gives you a realistic chance to land a Double or Nothing'd Lupara hit against pretty much anything.

I like Working a Hunch for the action compression and potential to get a clue without triggering an attack of opportunity. "Look what I found!" or Drawn to the Flame are both viable alternatives with their own up- and downsides.

Uses for extra XP

A few suggestions for additional upgrades if you find youself getting ahead of the four-XP-per-scenario curve:

Hot Streak to replace a Lone Wolf. While Lone Wolf will gain you more resources in the long run, if you draw it late in the scenario it might not even be worth playing. Additionally, the second copy is basically only worth a , so replacing a single copy can be very useful.

Sure Gamble or Ace in the Hole to replace a skill card or Narrow Escape. Both cards are really useful if you have the extra XP.

Chicago Typewriter instead of a .41 Derringer. The "Typewriter" will give you an additional way to deal with high-combat enemies (and higher damage-output in general) at the cost of slightly less synergy with Sleight of Hand and discarding your Lockpicks. Not my personal first purchase, but it may be worth it in certain scenarios.

Cheat Death is expensive but nice to have. Probably replaces a Narrow Escape if you get it early in the campaign and "I'm outta here!" if you get it late.

---

Alternative card choices

Double or Nothing can be great or it can be a dead card in your hand. I find it most useful as a clue-gathering accelerator in low-shroud locations, but it also works great against Conglomeration of Spheres (and I hate those things). I won't deny, however, that Quick Thinking will often achieve the same results without the massive drawback of doubling the difficulty.

Lone Wolf is great when you draw it early - and not so much when you draw it late (or draw both copies). If you cannot afford Hot Streak, you might consider replacing at least one copy with "Watch this!". The economy is weaker, but Jennys natural ability (plus Dr. Milan Christopher) already goes a long way towards meeting your needs, and the additional icons are a welcome addition to the deck.