Tool Enchanter - Innsmouth & Hemlock Starter Deck

Wilson's box gives two new "communal weapon" Pitchfork and Hatchet • (The Feast of Hemlock Vale) that are a lot of fun with friends. However, common problem is that other less handy members are not likely to land a hit, so they are reluctant to pick up the weapon.

This deck fixes that with Enchant Weapon ••• (The Innsmouth Conspiracy) to add once per round +3 accuracy from Wilson's own , plus an opportunity to oneshot 4 HP enemy with an enchanted Pitchfork. The Upgrade attachment get passed along with the weapon, and these weapon are usually used once per round.

Moreover, both Strong-Armed and Vicious Blow can be committed to anyone using the weapon. With Wilson's willpower and guidance, no one's mishandling the tools. He's even willing to get hurt until they get it right!

▷ Innsmouth & Hemlock Starter Deck
These are Investigator Expansion that comes with and physical tokens and direct support of the mechanic. This series explores what you can do inside just these expansions, for new players looking for minimal purchase with high synergy. See other decks in this series here.

Accolades : Won Return to the Path to Carcosa Standard 4P, where Pitchfork + Enchant Weapon combo was instrumental on the final scenario!

(View at arkham-starter.com)

4 XP : Hatchet • (The Feast of Hemlock Vale) + Lockpicks • (Revised Core Set) : This is likely average amount of XP you can gain in the 1st scenario. Both are Tool, and both combine stats. Suddenly Wilson can do things at 7 /. So please try getting at least 4 XP!

With Lockpicks, Tinker will be much more useful as the pick is only one use per round and you want to use other stuff while holding on to it. You can Tinker either Lockpicks or Pitchfork depending on timing you get them.

Pushed to the Limit looks fun in theory but 2 cost is heavy and you usually won't plan for the stuff go to discard pile just to pay 2 more to get a single hand-less use. I never got it going in my test play where I keep it til Scenario 8. Therefore, I decided that both copies should be removed early.

8 XP : Beat Cop •• (Revised Core Set) : This boring cop is a Hatchet support. The puzzle with this weapon is that you want to stick it to enemy and then somehow kill it off with barehand/Machete to get it back. But Wilson is not Hank that could do so easily. The solution is to have a cop shoot it for the final damage.

10 XP : Strong-Armed • (The Feast of Hemlock Vale) : Every Weapon are either Melee or Ranged here. The +1 damage is able to solve the various kind "enemy HP puzzle" with Hatchet and Pitchfork, and the token redraw mostly ensure that the puzzle will be solved.

16 XP : Enchant Weapon ••• (The Innsmouth Conspiracy) : Finally we get to the name of this deck. If you enchant Hatchet, you should be careful about it going to discard pile and losing your 3 resource investment. However the is optional, so you can control whether to get that +1 damage and +3 or not. Pitchfork able to one-shot 4 HP enemy now is huge. Even someone with base 2 might be able to do it. Put Tinker to the Pitchfork too so it is more attractive to pickup.

18 XP : Manipulate Destiny •• (The Innsmouth Conspiracy) : A rather unpopular card! A dedicated section is available to read below.

22 XP onwards : 4 Cost 2x Beat Cop + 3 Cost 2x Enchant Weapon that Wilson cannot discount eats into your quota to play your Tool often. Working on getting 2 copies of Lv. 2 Emergency Cache will worth it as the extra draw can result in Vicious Blow or Strong-Armed ready on hand. "I've had worse…" (4) is a final bit of economy that also pad his 6 Sanity to last longer.

Team Composition

This deck is recommended to play in a team with someone rather lean into finding clues, so the clue work gets done fast AND you can convert them later to fight with the communal weapon when required. Wilson himself is also quite flexible in finding clues with Matchbox (which has a team effect), Flashlight, and Microscope, and Lockpicks. Lockpicks + Fine Tuning is also a must-try combination.

Pitchfork + Enchant Weapon combo is good, but the real power is when you enchant a weapon of other investigators. In my test run, Silas using an enchanted Meat Cleaver is a game changer since it can deal 2 damage accurately without taking horror, resulting in more last-shots, more horror healing without taking in a new one. There are many low level, humble weapon in other classes waiting to be enchanted that you can discover with your team.

How to play at Lv. 0

Due to huge amount of 1 XP cards waiting in the Side Deck, the deck used in 1st scenario plays quite differently compared with scenario 2~3 onwards. There are a lot of placeholder cards, but you must make use of them to gain XP.

Wilson is not hitting things with +1 , just like "Skids" O'Toole. Pitchfork is the only thing getting him effective +2 , but it can be clunky in consecutive fights. Unfortunately Baseball Bat is not exactly a Tool that he can use. Wolf Mask + Machete can work, but we need more weapon consistency.

Let's take a look at Katana for its +2 . Damage might be mostly 1, but hitting stuff is always better than not. Moreover, it is possible to get 1 more damage from that fight, with +2 added from Wolf Mask.

+2 on Wolf Mask can be used to evade. It is useful with Microscope, you might try evading enemy then defeating it the next round to get more evidences.

If you get Riot Whistle (remember to discount 1 when playing), use it to make a safe Pitchfork attack so no one gets 3 holes of damage on their body. It helps you fill up Wolf Mask too! I suggest skipping Ancestral Token at this time if you get it on mulligan. It is usable at later point.

Use Tinker on stuff so you don't lose things like Flashlight, Microscope, or Magnifying Glass when playing with Pitchfork or Katana.

Pushed to the Limit is an expensive event that can be used to perform a single Pitchfork attack without disrupting your current hand of investigating tools, by committing the Pitchfork to the discard pile beforehand. If you play the Pitchfork normally, likely it won't going to discard pile unless you play other stuff on top of it. Choose just one way of using the Pitchfork (play normally costs 3, or a single attack from discard pile that costs 2 with Pushed to the Limit), try not getting into situation where you pay like 5 resources to do stuff with the fork in the same game. Better save the resources to play Beat Cop.

Try Matchbox + Flashlight combo to reduce 3 shroud to 0. Make sure you can dedicate your entire turn to spam Flashlight, so you have to be there from the previous round.

Manipulating Destiny

Have you played with Manipulate Destiny •• (The Innsmouth Conspiracy) yet? I'm quite happy with it's synergy in this deck.

• Beat Cop •• (Revised Core Set) : Heal 2 from Ally to get more of that damage. This ability is important to not lose Hatchet when fighting 3 HP enemy. (Fight-attach for 2 damage, finish 1 more damage with the cop to take the Hatchet back.)
• Strong-Armed • (The Feast of Hemlock Vale) : Get back the health used to redraw token.
• Ancestral Token (The Feast of Hemlock Vale) : If some enemies just exploded into , you have nudged the result to be more on the healing side.
• Hatchet • (The Feast of Hemlock Vale) : Sometimes it is stuck to a 4 HP enemy that just got 2 HP removed from the hatchet attack. Cop is not going to do 2 more damages to get the hatchet back in one round, so the 50% of getting auto damage might be able to do the job.

Try to set it up such that vs. are both beneficial when you use it. More opportunities on higher player count.