Hypertempo Roland Banks

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
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Trickster · 604

GC.jpg

OVERVIEW

Hello fellow investigators, this is Trickster, and today i bring you the most vanilla deck for the most vanilla investigator in Arkham Horror: Roland Banks , the Fed. I love vanilla, everybody does, but sometime it can get boring, that's why we add cookie dough, or bourbon, or in this case we put more vanilla into the vanilla and sprinkle some more on top and God, what have i created?

This deck is all about pinpointing what is good about Roland and only focusing on that: action compression and testless clues. Started as a meme for me, turns out the deck was real good, breezing through Dream-Eaters in standard paired with a seeker, which ended up getting less clues than I.

PILOTING

Don't move, don't investigate, just trail and kill things. No action shall be wasted on JUST ONE thing. Let teammates get you where your services are needed via Safeguard , try to always finish your turn in a place where clues remain, that way you can try to get a lucky monster in your place for efficient clueing with your and Grete Wagner . If you can afford the deck space take On the Hunt since it'll make it guaranteed, much better in solo. If you have a shortcut in hand don't worry about this, but Inquiring Mind will only protect you from treacheries if there are clues on your spot and you're kind of a clueing machine. Otherwise, it's standard stuff: Glory on kills for 2 clues, 2 cards, and whatever you can get out of Crack the Case , don't forget to scream "Hypertempo" every time you manage to play two cards in a row so that you can earn the scorn of your teammates.

For Solo

Piloting in solo play is different from multi. You no longer have the cushion of your teammates carrying you around, and you need to fit even more efficiency into each of your actions! Individual adjustments are covered below, but you should account for:

  1. The loss of mobility due to no safeguard.
  2. Extra resource generation fit into your investigate/fight actions.
  3. Ways to spawn enemies when you need them.
  4. Encounter protection in some shape or form.

Since the goal of this deck was going fast and getting testless clues, it should be good solo since you want to go very fast and not test a lot as well, but keep in mind that this deck depends on having Grete Wagner and a weapon to function, so if mulligan doesn't go well, it can get sort of stuck in limbo a few rounds.

The tempo cards

  • Grete Wagner: This lady gives you the stats you need, doubles down on your clueing potential and makes you better at what you already did fine. The level 3 one is much better, but specially for solo play since you can purposefully leave locations with one clue to save actions.

  • Safeguard : I think it's obvious but just in case: never take this solo. You can use your mates as an Über, asking them to take you where the monsters are, saving your precious actions for important stuff such as looking around, smashing baddies and annoying your friends. It's best to let them start playing in the investigators phase so they can take you where your services are needed.

  • Practice Makes Perfect : Since i forgot to add it in my first rodeo, i'll say that you don't need it. But you should really take it since it nets you two uses of your Deduction and Vicious Blow and it'll fish out the only Astounding Revelation before you can afford Stick to the Plan .

  • Evidence! / Scene of the Crime : Scene of the crime is better for 3 players, but since i tested this deck in two players, it ended pretty much being overkill. The combination of this card plus a monster can net you 4 testless clues for 2 actions. If going solo, maybe don't take either, for two players, Evidence! is more than enough and will usually be saved for The Dirge of Reason .

  • Hallowed Mirror : You don't have a strong accessory, you are fragile, Grete needs healing, at least get a card for it. Let's you stay frosty without losing much tempo.

Weapons

  • Enchanted Blade : Doesn't do as much damage, in fact, this build wasn't designed for big guns, but honestly you do you; they can work. This however excels on tempo gain via draw, gives you a good boost and heals your frail sanity, that's why i went for it.
  • Machete : For some cycles it's everything you'll need. The taboo XP hurts because if you can't start with it i'm not sure it's worth it.
  • .45 Automatic : It's fine, really don't have much to say. It's an alright weapon but it lacks the oomph of magic swords.

Luxury Upgrades

Level 0 Deck

  • Machete for .45 Automatic if you play with taboos. Enchanted Blade can substitute the higher level one.

  • Grete Wagner is actually quite good, but the higher level one has always been my first upgrade.

  • Safeguard is already good, that extra movement can be clutch if you play it soon. Try to take advantage of that extra movement every round otherwise is a resource waste.

  • Inquiring Mind for Well Prepared and Ever Vigilant since it's good for encounter protection.

  • Inspiring Presence maybe? Grete loves it, can't see why it wouldn't work but the deck is already crowded.

Why the book assets?

Oh my, because Cover Up is atrocious and Roland's .38 Special doesn't even come close to making up for it. The Dirge of Reason is a nasty bump and tempo loss, but all it takes is one enemy to recover from it (if you had the clues) and Cover Up can be the end of you if drawn late. I don't have fun playing with that weakness so yeah, that's on me i guess. Mysteries Remain can be quite clutch for Inquiring Mind , your procs and can break certain scenarios. Is it great? No, but neither is the Roland's .38 Special so all in all my advice is book signatures.

9 comments

Jun 07, 2021 choerry · 1

This is a pretty standard deck, good thing to show newer players, but nothing innovative. most of these ideas have already been published on arkhamdb. I will point out that Practice Makes Perfect is not built correctly here. Even though you have 7 targets, its split down 4 intellect based skills and 3 combat based skills. When it comes to consistency its better to include Take the Initiative in Roland and Joe deck thats straddle dual-usage of PMP for different kinds of tests.

Jun 07, 2021 Trickster · 604

@choerry I haven't looked at other Roland builds here so i don't know what the average Roland build looks like. That said, i start by saying it's the most vanilla deck possible so i don't know why you have to point out that's not very imaginative. This deck was just me building in a way i have the most fun: trying to max action compression to see if it worked, nothing more ambitious than that. The point about take the initiative is valid and i hadn't realized but i reckon your intention wasn't to be constructive.

Jun 07, 2021 chirubime · 25319

Taking the ounce of knowledge from that comment, I think Plan of Action is also a viable consideration as a good backup if you want to use 2 different kind of tests for your Practice Makes Perfect, if that's your preference over Take the Initiative. Choose to use it as your 2nd action to draw, choose to use as 3rd action for the double int or combat boosts.

Jun 08, 2021 Lord Triloth · 1890

@TricksterWhat do you think of "Get over here!" instead of Shortcut. I was thinking about what to put on SttP. And Shortcut feels a bit counterintuitive. And it fits the theme of doing more than one thing at a time. Plus the upgraded version is almost broken.

And the deck also seems a bit light on upgrades, so Timeworn Brand as a late-game Machete upgrade seems also not bad. Considering it gives you static +2.

Jun 08, 2021 Graham · 111

@Lord Triloth the big advantage of Shortcut for this particular deck is that because it's fast, you can use it to move yourself and any engaged monsters from the location you're at to a location with the appropriate number of clues before you kill it. With Get Over Here you have to already be where you want to be. I think you're right about Get Over Here in most cases, though.

Jun 08, 2021 Trickster · 604

@chirubime Thanks for the tip! I'll think about which of the two would be more advantageous to cover Roland's weaknesses. Also what are the odds, i'm currently playing onw of your decks, great work!

Jun 08, 2021 Trickster · 604

@Lord Triloth On one hand, i love how efficient "Get over here!" is tempo-wise, just because of that it should be an auto include. On the other hand, as @Graham pointed out, Shortcut is there to allow you to move to where the clues are and sweep them up. With "Get over here!" you'd need to be in a location with clues and have another teammate draw an enemy so you could pull it to your place. It can work and be crazy powerful but this deck tails other investigators a lot and it would be more complicated to set up than: drawing an enemy and using Safeguard or shortcutting away.

Jun 08, 2021 Lord Triloth · 1890

Yeah, I guess there's the thing with moving with an enemy. GoH also works on aloof enemies and ones that spawn on other locations, so I think you should find enough opportunities to use it? It's also just better then a normal engage action, so ...
This deck also seems to have allot of resource tools. Crack the Case, Emergency Cache (Astounding Revelation/Ever Vigilant) and Stand Together feel like quite allot even though you can also have your teammates benefit from them. Maybe cut one of those for "Get over here!"?

Oct 21, 2021 ZeroK57 · 1

I like this concept a lot. Thanks for sharing.