Parallel Roland Pimps his Boomstick - a HC deck

Parallel Roland Pimps his Boomstick (20 XP)

Credit = Aleksander Karcz

Overview

Sometimes you just want to have fun with a pimped-out gun. Old Shotgun, while dealing up to 3 damage at 0 resources and 2 XP, is a tricky beast to tame because it needs to be played through other cards to have ammo (most usually Ever Vigilant or Prepared for the Worst ••). It also gets infinitely better with Custom Modifications, which can solve its ammo issues through Extended Magazine and allow for chaos bag re-dos to hit 3 damage reliably. Parallel Roland starts play with 8 XP using In the Thick of It and so can take Stick to the Plan from game one, meaning you can access both Old Shotgun and these combos reliably at lower campaign XP than any other investigator. Further, Old Shotgun is the biggest gun he can take given he's limited to level 3 cards, so if you're keen on an Old Shotgun deck then Parallel Roland is a great fit.

To jump into combat a little more, the pairing of Ever Vigilant and Prepared for the Worst •• on Stick to the Plan means that you can get the Old Shotgun into play with ammo on turn 1 consistently. Meanwhile, as a Supply card, you can also have Custom Modifications on Stick to the Plan too, which allows you to test at a 9 with Extended Stock in addition to maximising ammo events through Extended Magazine. This deck is kitted out with plenty of ammo (Custom Ammunition, Extra Ammunition, One in the Chamber, Venturer) to make you well-stocked for boss fights, with Brand of Cthugha allowing you to pick off weaker enemies and Vicious Blow providing occasional boosts.

While 9 damage (up to 10 or 11 with Vicious Blow) is alright for a Guardian, what really sets this deck apart is its ability to clue-find. Directive - Consult Experts means you can start with 2 ally slots without Charisma, so you can have Field Agent for clue-finding alongside Venturer. While this Directive stops you putting damage or horror on allies, you can always flip this to unlock soak instantly (especially as the Field Agent tends to die off through their ability in time, even with Inspiring Presence). The fast clue from your Agent pairs marvelously with Directive - Seek the Truth - giving you card draw when there's an enemy at your location (as do Mysteries Remain, Working a Hunch and Scene of the Crime). When you throw in Drawn to the Flame and Kicking the Hornet's Nest (which spawns an enemy and then finds a clue, again giving card draw) then you barely have to lift a finger to advance!

Generally this deck is above average in several areas with strong damage and clue-finding, good card draw, low resource costs, and good mixed health/sanity through Directive - Leave No Doubt. The more restrictive Directives here are avoided so that the ones you do have don't significantly impact on play. Give the deck a try, it's really very good!

Advanced Strategies

• Clue Storm. With the right cards lined up, Parallel Roland can hoover up 9 clues without testing: 4 as (2 x Working a Hunch, Mysteries Remain, Field Agent), one from Scene of the Crime and then four from 2 x Drawn to the Flame. With a lucky card draw from the Encounter deck from Drawn to the Flame, you can commit Inspiring Presence to heal and ready your Agent, netting you an extra clue. Who said finding clues was hard?

• Ol' Reliable. With Custom Modifications, you can redraw the chaos bag when you get a duff result that would make your Old Shotgun deal fewer than 3 damage. With Extended Stock you're testing at a 9, so you won't need these re-dos much anyway!

• Laughing (Clue-Finding?) in the Face of Danger. Directive - Seek the Truth gives you card draw when you find a clue with an enemy present, and this deck has 5 separate ways of either finding clues or without attacks of opportunity (Working a Hunch, Field Agent, Scene of the Crime, Kicking the Hornet's Nest, Mysteries Remain). Personally, I'm a fan of reliable card draw with minimal effort!

What didn't make the cut

• Custom Modifications - Quicksilver Bullets. Quicksilver Bullets are a nice easy way to deal more damage, however with Parallel Roland's restriction to level 3 cards it can't be taken with Extended Magazine. For me and particularly with Old Shotgun, the extra ammo is more important.

• Join the Caravan. Join the Caravan is a deceptively good card on this deck as it decently negates Roland's movement restriction on Directive - Leave No Doubt plus it costs only 2 resources with Brand of Cthugha and Old Shotgun in play as multi-class cards. However I never found that the Directive's restriction was especially limiting, and I just couldn't squeeze it in. It is cool though!

• Directive - Red Tape. I made a previous Parallel Rolland deck on here which used Red Tape with Seek the Truth to form a card draw engine when enemies are in play, and it was good (it would be even better now with Field Agent). However with Old Shotgun you do want Ever Vigilant in your deck, which is wasted with Red Tape given the "play two cards only" restriction.

• Roland's .38 Special. It's good, and the advanced version is even better, but not at the expense of including Cover Up - so it's a hard pass from me. The Old Shotgun puts out more damage anyway with fewer drawbacks.

• Enchant Weapon. Enchant Weapon is good addition once you're at greater than 20 XP, but for the 20 XP deck the only card I could see it replacing it Custom Ammunition, and as ammo management on the shotgun is fickle I would not recommend this switch.

Campaign starter and planned progression

In the Thick of It with Parallel Roland's bonus XP means this a 20 XP deck, making this very attainable in almost all campaigns. Starter deck is directly below (and link here):

A recommended order of XP purchases/upgrades is as follows (with Stick to the Plan load-out changes with progression):

• Stick to the Plan load-out: Prepared for the Worst, Extra Ammunition, Ever Vigilant

• Prepared for the Worst → 1 x Extra Ammunition

• 1 x Prepared for the Worst → 1 x Prepared for the Worst ••

• Stick to the Plan load-out: Prepared for the Worst ••, Extra Ammunition, Ever Vigilant

• 2 x .45 Automatic → 2 x Old Shotgun

• 2 x Overpower → 2 x Brand of Cthugha

• Custom Modifications - Extended Magazine

• Stick to the Plan load-out: Prepared for the Worst ••, Custom Modifications, Ever Vigilant

• Custom Modifications - Notched Sight

• Custom Modifications - Extended Stock

• Alice Luxley → Field Agent

• Venturer → Custom Ammunition

Further upgrades and side deck

Join the Caravan is about the only thing I would consider in the side deck here, and only on campaigns with big ol' maps. As the Old Shotgun demands combos, and Roland's clue-finding insights and tactics work so nicely, there's little reason to consider alternatives.

For further upgrades in an XP-rich campaign, as alluded to earlier go for Enchant Weapon to make your gun even more reliable and powerful. Vicious Blow •• is another very easy way of upping damage on this deck and making ammo go further. Lastly Burn After Reading is superb for the final scenario of a campaign, given at that point you don't care if you're exiling cards!

Final thoughts

This deck was fun. Maybe I'm a masochist but I actually liked the Old Shotgun being a little temperamental and high maintenance, as it makes for some nice emergent storytelling when things don't go to plan and it keeps scenarios exciting. I think for 20 XP this is about as good a flexy package as you can hope for - and you can start using the shotgun at only 5 XP into a campaign when you've purchased your first copy. I think this is a blast (pun intended...), I hope you do too!