Bob "the Pack Mule" Jenkins - Deck Guide

"Its that time of the year after all..." thinks Bob after packing the 9th firearm into his backpack.

Hi, this time I wanted to create a deck to make Bob shine as the "pack mule" of his team as the designers maybe wanted him to be while being somewhat useful taking clues. This deck's heavily inspired by @Ric's "Bob Jenkins Gears Up For An Expedition" deck, you should check it out!

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Upgrade Path

• Make Your Own Deck!

• Credits

The main strategy of this deck revolves around finding Shrewd Dealings as fast as possible (either finding it with Friends in Low Places or Black Market, or by thinning the deck with Backpack) so you can begin giving some of your items to your allies, while getting clues with Old Keyring, Shed a Light, and Matchbox, recovering broken items with Scavenging and paying for any items that your team may need with your crazy economy (Bank Job, Schoffner's Catalogue, Faustian Bargain, and Shrewd Dealings's discount).

Gearing UP and Mulligan: Since we use Geared Up in this deck, it is absolutely necessary that we do our mulligan with precision. Here's the priority list for your mulligan:

• Keep Shrewd Dealings
• Keep Backpacks (0/2)
• Keep Black Markets (2)
• Keep x1 Friends in Low Places
• Keep x1 economy card if you found Backpack (0/2 or Friends in Low Places)
• Keep good items (especially if you found Shrewd Dealings)
• Discard the rest

Economy: For economy we count with:

• Geared Up and Shrewd Dealings's discount.
• Schoffner's Catalogue
• Bank Job and Faustian Bargain to give direct resources to you or to your allies (If you don't care too much about giving direct resources to your allies, I recommend later upgrading Bank Job to Hot Streak (4) or Cheat the System (1)).

Greed: Our weakness is really bad for us since we will keep giving most of our economy to our allies, and we will often be hit with 3-4 horror when it shows up. To counter that, we count with Peter Sylvestre and maybe some protection asset between your wild cards (Cherished Keepsake, Elder Sign Amulet (3), Precious Memento (4), Talisman of Protection, Smoking Pipe, ...).

Pros:

• Easy to play, just find and sling items while getting clues.
• Really fun if you enjoy playing support decks.
• Really flexible deck, you can choose your upgrades solely thinking on your allies (read the Make Your Own Deck! section).

Cons

• Might be underwhelming for some players
• Might be too weak in low count parties (except for specific investigator combos (e.g.: the infamous Mark + Sawed-Off combo))

This deck counts with x9 Wild card slots, the ones included in the 0xp deck are:

• x1 .18 Derringer
• x1 Baseball Bat
• x1 Cherished Keepsake
• x1 Rabbit's Foot
• x1 Leather Coat
• x2 Track Shoes
• Both masks

Feel free to replace them as you wish!

Also, Taboo royally screws with us, not only it does add 8xp to our core deck (by adding 2xp to each copy of Scavenging and Shed a Light), it also caps our Geared Up turn to 5 items.

If you choose to play without taboo, just apply the Scavenging and Shed a Light upgrades to your starter deck.

Link to the 0xp deck

(View at arkham-starter.com)

You might have noticed that I've not talked about a lot of the items in the deck, that is because it is UP TO YOU! what you should bring for your party, The following x9 cards are a suggested choice of wild cards that you can replace without any issues:

• x1 .41 Derringer (2)
• x1 Beretta M1918 (4)
• x1 Eon Chart (4)
• x1 The Red Clock (2/5)
• x1 Quickdraw Holster (4)
• x2 Track Shoes
• Both masks

Here is a list with some other great options to fill those spots:

• Sawed-Off Shotgun (5)
• Gatling Gun (5) (Drowned City #64)
• Lucky Cigarette Case (0/3)
• The Black Fan (3)
• Timeworn Brand (5)
• Bulletproof Vest (3)/Elder Sign Amulet (3)/Precious Memento (4)
• The Gold Pocket Watch (4)
• Garrote Wire (2)
• Painkillers/Smoking Pipe
• Baseball Bat
• Tool Belt
• Pocket Telescope
• Talisman of Protection
• and the list goes on...

Mix and match to what your team needs!

"I need more wild card slots!!"

Well, if you really need more slots, my priority for removing cards is the following:

• Bank Job / Faustian Bargain (We drop some of our economy)
• Bandages (We drop our damage soak)
• I would start considering a second Versatile at this point
• Shed a Light (We begin dropping our cluever tools)
• Old Keyring
• Matchbox
• Faustian Bargain / Bank Job (We drop more of our economy)
• Anything beyond this point I consider absolutely necessary for the deck to work

Why not Joey "The Rat" Vigil (3)?

Most of our items automatically discard themselves or recharges themselves for us and we have enough economy to not need the extra resources. But the play effect is really useful and might be worth to keep around.

If you want to play the rat, I recommend either dropping some economy for him (maybe Bank Job) or Peter Sylvestre.

Thanks @Ric for the inspiration, @RFreitas and @Firrd for helping me test this deck, and @Valentin1331 for the template.

To create your own guides, find the template here.