Silas the Harpoon

Hey there!

here is a deck i played in a two-player run, returning to Carcosa as a main fighter alongside Agatha Crane. First time for me to write some notes for a deck, i hope, you enjoy!

The main idea is to have fun with looping the harpoon with the invalueable help of Joey "The Rat" Vigil, Schoffner's Catalogue and Resourceful. After every attack you will take the harpoon to your hand, getting all committed skills back as well. Then you can play it fast with Joey. The itemcost will be payed for with Schoffner's Catalogue, which you get back from your discard pile with every attack.

Note that the idea with Joey wasn´t mine originally, i read it here on arkhamdb in a post from konax_krakow.

Potentially you are attacking up to 4 times a turn with 6 to 7 damage, given that you have the ressources to pay Joey for equipping (each attack costing you a net 2 ressources). For every attack you will also

• attack with 9 - 16 , depending on your skills
• remove up to 5 or add
• get one card from your discard
• optionally take one damage to redraw the chaos token

During the campaign i was doing more like 4-5 damage per action, fighting with around 12 realisticly, for missing some skills, that i spent early and then didn´t feel the need to recur.

Gameplan

Find your Harpoon and Joey, as well as your economy cards (Drawing Thin and Schoffner's Catalogue). Backpack is helping quite a bit with it. Those 6 assets are key to fueling your fighting.

You can mill your deck quite fast with Drawing Thin, Take Heart and Unrelenting (which you can get back with Silas´s ability after committing it for the carddraw).

To showcase, in 1 action you can use your Drawning Thins, 1 Take heart and 1 Unrelenting (which cou can get back) for 4 cards and 6 ressources (or 6 cards and 2 ressources)

For the ressources to fight you mainly rely on Drawing Thins. In down-turns, try to accumulate them, by using them every turn.

Skills

While milling your deck you really want to keep those skills at all time in your hand:

• 1x Purified
• 1x Quick Thinking
• 2x Resourceful
• 1x Strong-Armed (guaranteed success on every attack) You can´t get those back with Resourceful (only with Silas´s star) so don´t spend them, unless you have a second copy. Keep both Resourceful!

What else you keep will determine your max damage output:

• 2x Long Shot - you can even spend them early, they can recurred by Resourceful later
• 1x Strong-Armed - most of the campaign i simply kept 2 copies in my hand
• 1x Stunning Blow - if you think, you need that evade

The first Resourceful every attack will be used to get 1 Schoffner's Catalogue back from your discard pile. The second one is a freebie. You can use it for

• Long Shot - if you dumped it earlier
• "Look what I found!" - if you know, you have downtime and want to support your cluer
• Alter Fate - for those pesky treacheries
• Fickle Fortune - for the strong team healing during witching hours or removing doom
• Plucky - if it got discarded
• Ice Pick - if you used it for the extra damage. I think, you can even get it back on the same test (both are "If you succeed..."). Could be wrong about it. I didn´t play so much with the extra damage, because it makes the attack 1 ressource more expensive, and ressources are the big limiting factor for your turns.

Survivability and survivor power

Silas is in danger of dying due to his low sanity. We have Plucky, wich you can get back with Resourceful. We also have Fickle Fortune, wich is more like a burst-heal and not so reliable, because you don´t wanna play it every time. And then we have one of my favourite cards - Spirit of Humanity. You can press it every turn, as long as you have Purified and your Harpoon or Net out.

Purified itself is a really nice card in this deck, because you can play it on every attack, often times with maximum value. It removes and adds . It really did a lot! Also it enabled me to get good at skill tests in general, using the strong Ancient Covenant - Favor of the Sun combo for auto-winning on important tests (paying with Plucky for high and difficulties).

The Weakness

Siren Call is harsh, discard it as fast as you can, even for 1 AoO. Afterwards you will still have potentially two actions for attacking. Even though you have a lot of card draw, you don´t aim to cycle your deck a lot, so you probably won´t see it more than 1 - 2 times.

Mulligan-priorities

• The Harpoon
• Joey
• Drawing Thins
• 1x Unrelenting
• Take Hearts
• Schoffner's Catalogues
• Backpacks

If you neither have the Harpoon, nor Backpacks, consider keeping the Net. When early enemy managemant is necessary, you can use it for evading or even as a weapon with Long Shot). You can commit all of your skills but Stunning Blow.

Ice Pick can also be used as an early one-time weapon together with Long Shot, both can later be recurred.

Other cards

• Bound for the Horizon - it was a late pick for me due to my experience, that i discard regularly. Earlygame i overdraw my handsize and late game, i want to keep the exact same cards in hand, so i can give away the upkeep card.

• Track Shoes - Nice for extra movement and the foot, but especially for an extra test for Drawing Thin - Unrelenting - Take Heart.

• A Watchful Peace - Works in this deck, probably really strong, especially in more players

• At a Crossroads - Good early game for drawing, not needed late game. I considered it, but didn´t take it, because my partner didn´t need the draw. The random discard can be horrible in this deck.

• Hatchet - A strong card for Silas, you can pick it instead of the Ice Pick, if you feel, you don´t have the economy to only attack with the Harpoon. Also it´s a strong option early campaign.

• Sharp Vision and Brute Force - Probably strong on Silas, but not my gameplan. I decided for Look what i Found for the bit of ectra Clueing.

• Unscrupulous Loan - Probably good for the Setup and also for getting a fast Ressource bank for those fighting turns. I felt like i was fine with Drawing Thin.

• Soul Sanctification + maybe a second copy of Spirit of Humanity - i would consider it in higher player playthroughs, in which Fickle Fortune can really shine and give several Unexpected Courages at once. If you time it right, and don´t have much healing to do, you can get up to 24 charges (6 per player) fast with your Shrine, while having no consequences due to witching hour. The second Spirit of Humanity is probably overkill. If you can handle it with your Purified, then it can help with fueling Soul Sanctification enormously.

• Versatile and "Watch this!" - So this is a really good card with Silas in this deck, also the idea is not mine (again probs to konax_krakow). It solves all your ressource problems, because you get a safe +3 ressource per attack (thanks to strong-armed), which pays for your 2 ressource cost. You would probably hold it in your hand instead of 1 Long Shot, so it means -1 damage per attack. Also it means +5 decksize and finding your cards fast is key for this deck.

Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas!