Roland Banks: The Power of Friendship

Roland Banks goes faces off the dark mythos not alone but with friends. The true lesson Roland learned after Fed training was the friends he made along the way. Roland Banks: Safe and Sound Favors is built to support the whole team.

MAIN OBJECTIVE

The deck's main goal is to fight and trigger Roland's awesome react ability, "after you defeat an enemy. Discover 1 clue at your location," as many times you can in a multiplayer scenario. Grete Wagner is you main ally, as she is basically the same as Roland's own ability, and she gives you a +1 boost to your fight. Other cards like Roland's .38 Special, .45 Automatic and Enchanted Blade will fend off from the creepy ghouls of the mythos.

Roland learned that friends can help him as well, no longer a Lone Wolf Roland can use Medical Student to help heal him or other investigators or other Ally assets at the location. Roland's main weakness, is that has very low sanity and a signature weakness that can give him mental trauma. The cards in the deck is built to absorb horror or heal horror, such as Medical Student, Hallowed Mirror and Logical Reasoning. The card Calling in Favors can also swap Grete Wagner for Medical Student (or vice versa) that can help heal him and his other investigators or trigger Medical Student again for later.

Roland can whack and defeat enemies racking up the clues with his own ability and cards like Grete Wagner, Evidence and Deduction. Your team mates will love you when you commit a Deduction for their skill test or give them resources with Stand Together. Better yet, heal them and give them 1 card draw with Hallowed Mirror's Soothing melody. Make sure to stick close to your team mates with Safeguard and don't waste an action moving.

EARLY UPGRADE PATHS

Use this list to help make Roland an efficient and helpful team mate. All these cards are listed in the side deck for your convenience

• x1 Stick To The Plan (Level 3: cost 6 xp)

The FIRST MUST BUY, in my opinion, card Roland should save up and purchase. A steep cost of 6 xp, but well worth it. This card gives Roland card consistency which naturally the Guardian class lacks. Even if you spend all of your 6xp you saved up, and you have no xp left, the level 0 deck has great options. Option like:

• Prepared for the Worst (Level 0)
• Emergency Cache (Level 0)
• On the Hunt (Level 0)

Prepared for the Worst allows Roland weapon search. Emergency gives Roland more resources for money hungry Guardian Class cards. On the Hunt allows Roland to not suffer from horror damage from an encounter deck and instead an enemy he can kill and trigger his ability. So you should bank your xp until you can buy Stick to The Plan

• x1 Ever Vigilant (Level 1: costs 1 xp) REPLACE x1 Emergency Cache

Ever Vigilant allows you to save on a lot of resources, at the max three resources. Cutting your economy cards, such as Emergency Cache, is always risky to do, but Ever Vigilant is basically an economy card since it discounts assets by 1 resource and it compresses up to 3 play actions into 1 action. Also, it has the trait Tactic, so you can use it under Stick To The Plan.

• x2-1 Safeguard (level 2: costs 2 xp each) REPLACE x2-1 Safeguard (level 0)

Just a better version of Safeguard, and you can follow for the whole turn of an investigator. It's best to follow your clue-ver, as to fight off the monsters they can potentially draw from the encounter deck. Also, you don't have to move and use all 3 of your actions to fight or do something more interesting than moving.

• x2-1 Stand Together (Level 3: costs 3xp) REPLACE x2-1 Stand Together (level 0)

Just a better Stand Together, but you guys get to DRAW 2 cards. This card is basically 4 actions split between 2 investigators for 1 action and it's beautiful. Your Safeguards will help you stick like glue to a team mate in order to trigger this card's efficient effect.

• x2-1 Enchanted Blade (Level 3: costs 3xp) REPLACE x2-1 Enchanted Blade (Level 0)

This weapon is great, buffs your fight stat and only spends charges AFTER you succeed; won't waste potential charges. Also, if you use a charge and it defeats an enemy you heal 1 horror and draw 1 card. So this card can help Roland keep his sanity up to heal potential mental trauma Roland could have gotten from his signature weakness or campaign while giving good card draw.

NEAT UPGRADE CARDS AND OTHER LEVEL 0 DECK OPTIONS

Feel free to change up the deck to your liking, this deck was built for me to have fun. You should play this deck for you to have fun as well. Here are some neat cards and other optional upgrade cards or level 0 cards for your first scenario of a campaign.

• x1 Divination (Level 1: costs 1 xp) REPLACE x1 Flashlight (Level 0)

Divination is pretty neat, since most guardians don't use their arcane slot that much and Roland sub classes as a seeker levels 0-2. Divination is like flashlight but better, since in 1 action you can get up to 2 clues depending how many charges you spend. Also, you need to PASS first and then spend charges after, so you can't waste charges on it, but you could waste the supplies on flashlight after not passing the investigate skill test. Also, investigating at 4 willpower or 4 knowledge is pretty decent. If you can help get 4 clues from this card in a multiplayer game then your main clue-ver should be able to get the rest.

• x1 Hunter's Armor (costs at least 1 xp if not in level 0 deck) REPLACE x1 Hollowed Mirror

OR

• x1 Hunter's Armor (costs at least 1 xp if not in level 0 deck) REPLACE x1 Flesh Ward (Level 0)

I assume you know how customizable cards work, if you don't then please read somewhere else on how it works. I would first put 2 xp into the Lightweight upgrade so it doesn't cost too much and a 3 resource armor that soaks 2 health and 2 horror is great. After that upgrade whatever you want, but the main thing is that this card gives Roland more health and sanity so he won't die from horror. Playing cards that soak up damage or horror is more efficient than playing an asset and then using an action to heal.

• x1 Something Worth Fighting For (Level 0) when deckbuilding INSTEAD x1 Flesh Ward (Level 0)

Something Worth Fighting For is seen as way better than Flesh Ward, but in my opinion the two are just different flavors. Something Worth Fighting For is easier to play and understand and you can take horror for your team mates in the same location, but has less soak over all compared to Flesh ward. Flesh ward is more selfish, since it cannot take damage from other investigators but you, but you can soak more damage. In total, Flesh Ward can for sure take 1 damage, 1 horror and up to any combination of up to 4 damage/horror. So in my opinion, Flesh Ward is more efficient since Roland will most likely be the main fighter, and I'd rather have my fighter healthier than absorb unnecessary damage from another person's monster or encounter card.