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This deck is mainly built to be a flexible support in a 3 or 4 investigator game. Roland can fight fairly well (though he eschews big guns in favor of safer melee weapons) and earn his share of clues by bouncing Art Student with Calling in Favors. The biggest draw here is using Teamwork to give the Armor of Ardennes to a more physically frail teammate (preferably one with Charisma, of course!).

Your weapons are the Blackjack in one hand for rescuing your comrades and either the Enchanted Blade or your signature gun in the other for rescuing yourself. This Roland carries no tools, preferring instead to gain clues testlessly (with his own ability and Art Student.

The deck's numerous allies are, for the most part, expendable. You play them, use them up, and then either let them die to soak or use Calling in Favors to pull in someone new. The exception is Dr. Elli Horowitz, who you ideally want to pull Armor of Ardennes for free so you can pass her off to someone squishy with Teamwork. If she draws Enchanted Blade instead (or completely whiffs), use up the charges and treat her as expendable. Thanks to Calling in Favors, you should get up to four tries for the armor (though you'd rather use it to bounce someone else).

Stick to the Plan will always start out with Ever Vigilant, Teamwork, and Emergency Cache. You'll note that every asset except the armor is cost 3 or less: That lets us maximize the value of Ever Vigilant. In an ideal world, we'll be able to play a weapon, an ally, and Something Worth Fighting For on turn one with a single resource action. In a realistic world, that's unlikely to happen without your teammates helping out (eg with Old Book of Lore or No Stone Unturned), but even settling for two out of three is a pretty good deal.

For defense, you have Something Worth Fighting For, "If it bleeds...", and Logical Reasoning to shore up your abysmal sanity. I've split the events into singletons just because they can be a little situational; if you feel more confident about consistently running into 2-horror Monsters (which is reasonable in certain standalones), double up on "If it bleeds...".

Stand Together and Crack the Case are very good economy cards. Crack the Case and Emergency Cache also have the advantage of flexibility: You can give your resources to other players if necessary. You'll usually need it more, but it's nice to have the option.

If you're playing this as a standalone, note that you've got 6 xp worth of discretionary spending. You've got plenty of options that don't really affect the makeup of the deck. Upgrading your blades is an obvious one (if you do, consider dropping the healing events for more combat skills). You could also drop Something Worth Fighting For for Elder Sign Amulet (which isn't strictly better as it can't soak for your friends, but is mostly better since your own sanity is too precious). You could also grab Charisma to make cycling your allies easier. Plenty of options!

In campaign play, you've got a bit of a problem in that Dr. Elli Horowitz doesn't really have good targets before Armor of Ardennes shows up. Your Enchanted Blades are only two cards, after all. You could have her target the Tooth of Eztli, but that's unlikely to have much of an impact. You might just have to take the 2 xp surcharge to swap her in later.

Note that drawing the Doomed weakness can easily force you to look for another build. You've got a lot of cards that reshuffle your deck, which means, barring a friend with Scroll of Secrets, you've got an unfortunate chance of drawing the upgrade as soon as you earn it.

As an additional caveat, be careful in The Circle Undone. Centuries of Secrets will bypass Elli's armor and defeat her instantly, limiting the combo's usefulness. There are, of course, other ally-hate cards that will likewise counter her, such as Claws of Steam and Snake Bite, but none so common. You might plan on playing the Armor of Ardennes directly and transferring it; it's a bit pricier and less reliable, but it's harder to get rid of and often takes up a less useful slot.