Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
DerBK · 1992
(This deck is covered in more detail on my website, Ancient Evils: https://derbk.com/ancientevils/deck-tech-robinson-hood-arcane-archer/)
This is a Luke Robinson list built for Innsmouth, but it will work in any campaign with a multitude of enemies. The main thing that you'd ideally get to is having an Enchanted Bow (or two!) with Twila and Prophetic, allowing you to snipe into any location from your Dream-Gate or simply into connecting locations so you don't have to engage those Deep Ones with their nasty engage effects. This Luke is a fighter - while he has a little bit of clue grabbing on the side, he's not meant for solo. He would work well alongside anyone whose job is picking up clues. In my own Innsmouth campaign, i am currently playing him alongside a 50-card "Miskatonic Army" Mandy. We got the 7 keys in In too Deep, Luke did a great job of keeping the board clean at all times :)
Sadly, there's no Enchanted Bow(5), so all we get from the weapon is +1 skill which together with our 4 will isn't all that hot on its own. Between Guts, Promise of Power and Uncage the Soul we can still manage if we have to kill a 4 fight enemy, but what we really want to see is Prophetic which sort of acts as the missing Enchanted Bow upgrade.
Twila serves as a repository of an endless supply of arrows and will also be very handy in making sure that our Shrivelling lasts a long time. If we do have to kill something at our location, we get an attack without spending a charge out of the Bow and then Twila gives us another one from the Shrivel. If we need even more than that, then we can of course always dip into the reserve of 4 charges on the Shrivel.
One piece of hot tech is the Raven Quill. Not only is that another +2 skill value, but once attached to a Bow it allows playing the other one alongside it ... and that's when you really start flinging shit around. Shoot two bows, then throw a Razor with your third action? And all of it into just any revealed location? Those fishpeople never stood a chance.
The rest of the list mostly is events, to make use of Luke's innate ability to play them into connecting locations. Read the Sign and Stirring Up Troubles are great for picking up clues while Razor, String of Curses and Riddle deal with enemies. Knowledge is Power can extend a Shrivel into a connecting location too or just act as another use of the Bow.
I posted the 19XP (+3 from ITTOI) version here, just because it's a popular breakpoint. The deck is pretty much complete at this point, additional XP will go into upgrading the Shrivels (possibly even to 5), Guts and Wards. I want to pick up the second Existential Riddle, probably in place of a String of Curses. I also really like Arcane Studies(4), to the point where it's very likely my next 4XP that i spend. Knowledge is Power would be a way to use Shrivelling into a connected location... might be too narrow to be worth it, but at least it can be used on Elites. So it might be a consideration down the road.
Overall, I am quite happy with this deck. Not sure that Twila is really the most efficient way of going about it... having Arcane Initiates and solving the charges some other way might have been a good alternative. I am aware of the True Magick approach to using Enchanted Bow (and a variety of other spells), but i wanted to build this around the Bow. A True Magick list would've toolboxed too broadly and an additional 10XP for them is not nothing either. One notable weakness of the deck is that Enchanted Bow can not snipe at Elites in other locations. Riddle and String of Curses also don't work Elites. And Razor is at least diminished against them. So Luke needs to engage those fairly and plink them for 2 damage per action. He'll manage but it's not quite as beautiful as when he completely dunks on everything else.
| 14 comments |
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Jun 30, 2023 |
Jun 30, 2023Slotless Enchanted Bow? I like it! A really neat creative idea - nice job! |
Jul 01, 2023+1 on the comment above. Double-wielding the "exhausting" Enchanted Bow is both a mechanically genius idea, and thematically hilarious... "Hey Luke, how are you shooting two bows at once ?" "Magic quill, why ?" |
Jul 01, 2023PS If you upgrade the Raven Quill with "interwoven ink" (3 xp)... after using the attached Enchanted Bow, you could either A) ready your other Bow (if you fired it first) for a third shot, or B) ready Twila to regenerate 2 charges per turn. |
Jul 01, 2023Mmmh, i considered that and decided against it. Since Luke has only Seeker level 2 access, you can only tag a maximum of 4 boxes on the Raven Quill. If you do Interwoven Ink, that leaves only 1 more box for the slotless thing. I do think the +2 skill level from Mystic Vane are too important to skip for that, though. |
Jul 01, 2023Oh, and it's probably best not to think too hard about how he's holding two bows :D After all, Luke is all about breaking all sorts of rules. |
Jul 01, 2023My bad, I completely forgot about the level 2 seeker limit while writing my comment (probably because so far, I've only used Raven Quill in "pure" Seekers.) |
Jul 02, 2023Grounded can get you extra +1 on spells if you want to allow the raven quill to unexhaust the other bow. a really elaborate workaround to gain the action would be using astral mirror, forgoing playing a shrivelling, and using sign magick 3 to get the free action to use your spell. |
Jul 02, 2023Or if you end up getting more experience, go for True Magick. |
Jul 02, 2023True Magick is a very different deck i think. Also having to draw both the TM and the bow for the whole thing to take off (and in a specific order to boot) is just one layer too much for what i wanted to do here. That being said, the TM approach might be the better one alltogether because you can use TM for all sorts of things. Astral Mirror is an interesting card and i would like to do something with it at some point. But the bow does use one of the arcane slots, so you only get one extra hand out of it even if you do drop the shrivelling. So it'd not be good enough to do much of anything before also getting the Sign Magick involved. That's too Rube Goldberg even for me :D Grounded is imo just all around worse than Arcane Studies and Prophetic. |
Jul 03, 2023This is badass! Infinite-range sniping from your Dream-Gate is such a cool and thematic strategy, and it's so nice to see Enchanted Bow finally becoming worth playing (even if it costs an extra chunk of XP for that Raven Quill). The rest of the deck is equally cool–although I'm curious about your experience with String of Curses! Has it pulled its weight and been worth the risk? I also would consider Knowledge is Power for a free fight, although if you play Taboo whether or not the 2xp is worth that potential 2 damage is up to you. You've inspired me to finish an Enchanted Bow Minh I've had on the back-burner for ages, so thank you for that! I love a good Luke deck and this one looks like a blast. |
Jul 03, 2023String of Curses is a card i like a whole lot in general, but it's not that great in this deck and the campaign i took it into. Its ability to cleanly deal with all sorts of cultists is its main strength and Luke is already really good at that by default. Innsmouth also doesn't have a whole lot of cultists, so i didn't get a whole lot of mileage out of String here. It is excellent if you play TFA, where you can dump Brootherhood Cultists and Stolen Mind with it. Knowledge of Power is ... fine. I usually like it a lot in Luke because it allows him to use his investigator ability on an asset he controls, but the bow can already do that. So you are buying a 2 damage spell for 2XP. Eh. Better than String of Curses in Innsmouth, i guess. |
Jul 03, 2023...whoa. I actually never realized that Luke's ability lets you activate something at range with KiP. That's the coolest tech and something I have GOT to use in a deck. That being said, I completely get your point about two damage being a bit lackluster. Maybe not the right deck for that card. |
Jul 06, 2023Love it! So much spicy interactions! I was trying to figure out the reason behind slotless, and a 3 slot spell go slotless makes perfect sense! Thanks for analysing and giving more ideas for the bow! |
Love it! I didn’t find a way to give Luke a refreshing take and this is doing the job perfectly! Congrats.