Overview

Clues: 3.5/5 | Enemies: 5/5 | Flexibility: 5/5 | Mobility: 4/5 | Mythos: 4/5 | Teamwork: 4.5/5

TLDR: Based on kinzuuu's Red-Handed Amanda Deck we're going to draw half our deck every turn with a ton of soak. Instead of focusing con clues, we're our team's dedicated fighter

This deck guide is a variant of kinzuuu's The Red-Gloved Man Amanda Sharpe build. The original is completely busted, even with the latest taboo. This version takes that concept and goes from a dedicated cluever to one of the most consistent fighters around. Using Amanda's forced ability we can super charge our card draw and compress our actions to efficiently deal with threats.

We abuse how good off-color Practiced skills are with to hunt monsters far larger or numerous than most dedicated fighters. One area we discovered was a potential weakness was consistent multi-damage. Since Brute Force is not Practiced, our only skill that buffs damage is Vicious Blow. Having only 2 in the deck meant that at most we have 2 turns of 2 damage per attack which wouldn't get the job done. Enter Hyperphysical Shotcaster. This jack-of-all-trades comes to us from the Scarlet Keys expansion and it opens up the ability to fight with the best. It is a firearm weapon like any other (worth taking) that deals +1 damage. More importantly it offers 2 unique upsides compared to most other firearms. First, it is neutral which allows to take it. Second, it discards itself when out of ammo (aether). Having shuffle back in every time we cycle through our deck. We then get to replay it and have access to 4 fresh shots. It does require starting with In the Thick of It of it to have access to ☑☑ Railshooter on our Hyperphysical Shotcaster, but we then get to start with 1 Unrelenting.

Just like kinzuu's deck, our main goal is abusing high-powered skills like Unrelenting, Overpower, Vicious Blow, and Momentum with Amanda's forced ability. Pairing assets Dream-Enhancing Serum and The Red-Gloved Man with events like Cryptic Research and Cryptic Writings we aim to easily pass test and cycle through our deck many times a scenario.

Similar again to kinzuu's deck, we don't even need The Red-Gloved Man to work. The number of skill icons our skills lets us pass most tests. What The Red-Gloved Man gives us is an insane amount of 4/4 soak (that is constantly being replayed).

Upgrade Plan

Upgrade Priority Explainations

1. Cryptic Research x2 - 8xp
   +Fast card draw is essential since we are taking In the Thick of It to start with ☑☑ Railshooter on our Hyperphysical Shotcaster we are afforded one Unrelenting. That makes upgrading our slow Deep Knowledges into a fast draw 3 more important.
2. Unrelenting x1 - 1xp
   +Hyper flexible skill that is the second backbone to our card drawing engine. Using Amanda's forced ability and slotting this in and attempting 3 test can net us up to 6 cards in a turn. Further, when stakes are dire, we can just remove the worst offenders out of the chaos bag before testing.
3. The Red-Gloved Man x2 - 10xp
   +I prefer to get The Red-Gloved Man here. With all of our major card draw sorted out we want to be consistently passing test. Its far easier to do that when starting at base skill 6. Additionally, he soaks the 1 horror we get each time we cycle our deck and we can reliably play him by drawing Cryptic Writings.
4. Overpower x2 - 4xp
   +Hitting at higher numbers is always good. Being rewarded with more card draw is even better.
5. Vicious Blow x2 - 4xp
   +If we're constantly hitting higher numbers, then we need to chunk down those large health pools faster too.
6. ☑☑☑☑ Empowered Configuration - 4xp
   +There are times we don't draw Promise of Power, Overpower, The Red-Gloved Man,or Fighting Lessons and we want to still high reliably. This is skippable if you feel consistent enough or replaceable with ☑☑☑☑ Aetheric Link for more ammo.
7. Momentum x2 - 2xp
   +"You can fit these in any time if you have the extra experience. These will allow you to do any skill test at -3 difficulty or -6 if you commit two (not sure if that's allowed to be honest), which will allow you to flex into any skill test needed whether it be parleys, on treacheries or locations, so as long as you over-succeed on the first test." -kinzuuu

Luxury Upgrades (in no particular order)

1. Cryptic Writings x2 - 4xp
   +More money is good.
2. Miskatonic Archaeology Funding x1 - 4xp
   +We can keep both Laboratory Assistants in play and play a The Red-Gloved Man. Does mean we cant callously discard them as freely.
3. Ancestral Knowledge x2 - 6xp
   +More skills is always better in Amanda. This is an awkward one though, as we want a high density of Practiced skills for Practice Makes Perfect.
4. Signum Crucis x2 - 0-2xp
   +Makes Unrelenting a cakewalk for card draw. Is great for synergy in your team. Doesn't synergize with The Red-Gloved Man. With the taboo, it's now a 0xp, so I'd probably only add it if you're also adding Ancestral Knowledge.
5. Blasphemous Covenant - 2xp
   +We do fill the bag up with a fair number of tokens. Also better if you're also getting Signum Crucis and playing with a / synergy team or if someone is playing Tempt Fate.
6. Studious x2 - 6xp
   +Starting with more cards in hand means we can set up faster.
7. Scroll of Secrets x1 - 3xp
   +More card draw.

Playstyle

Mulligan Priority:

1. Cryptic Research (Deep Knowledge for lvl 0)
2. Laboratory Assistant
3. Hyperphysical Shotcaster
4. Unrelenting
5. Dream-Enhancing Serum / Scroll of Secrets
6. Overpower
7. The Red-Gloved Man

We want to churn through our deck as fast as possible and get our key assets into play. Hyperphysical Shotcaster needs to be out for consistent damage unless you have Vicious Blow at hand. Dream-Enhancing Serum or Scroll of Secrets gives us further boosts to our card draw.

From here we play every Laboratory Assistant and Cryptic Research (or commit Unrelenting) to fill our hand, netting us Overpowers, Fighting Lessons, Promise of Powers, and Vicious Blows to spend on taking down bad guys. The Red-Gloved Man can sub in for / enhance any of those. We use Shortcut to efficiently engage enemies and can use Obscure Studies to buyback a key other skill to reuse again next turn.

Multiplayer or Solo

kinzuuu designed their version for 3 player Hard Campaigns. Similarly, there is no reason this cannot follow suit as it has been very good in multiplayer.

With a couple tweakings (Perception, Deduction) it can easily flex into a true solo run as well.

Strengths

Can carry the load for killing monsters

• Can easily dispatch 3, 2-3 health monsters a turn or it can power through up to 12 health on a single baddy.

Consistency

• Card draw on turbo mode. Once Cryptic Research is added, you can easily cycle your deck 3+ times a scenario.

Resilient

• There is a fair number of symbols on our skills which makes tackling the mythos phase easier. The Red-Gloved Man makes it trivial.

Experience Curve

• You're basically ready off the bat. 9xp for x2 Cryptic Research and the second Unrelenting is all it takes from here to get to peak performance. Every upgrade from there gets exponentially better.

Setup

• We rely mostly on skill cards. Unlike most fighters we aren't reliant on our weapon. It's effectively just extra copies of Vicious Blow. With our card draw, we'll see it quickly enough anyway.

Weaknesses:

Whispers from the Deep

• Our signature weakness isn't that bad. It can make certain turns problematic, but if we draw it mid turn or during upkeep we can pitch it to random skill checks. If we draw it as part of the start of turn forced ability, then we're stuck.

Basic Weakness that kills us

• If you randomize into Doomed just abandon ship. You'll be dead by the end of the second scenario. Through the Gates, Amnesia, Drawing the Sign, Overzealous are all also fairly bad. Kleptomania is pretty rough if you aren't playing The Red-Gloved Man.

Tokens

• We're going to flood the bag, especially level 0 with Promise of Power and Deep Knowledge. This can be a benefit for your teammates but sometimes you'll just hit runners and lose a test you should pass.

Damage and Horror

• Weird weakness to have, but we can get beat up pretty easily. Level 0 I am running Medical Students to help soak and heal some of what we take, but sometimes you just take 3 horror and die.

Conclusion:

Thank you kinzuuu for your deck. Check it out (link at the top). Amanda quickly became one of my favorite investigators to play after playing your deck. My group just came off a run with the new Scarlet Keys investigators and are doing an all Seeker run. Since we just saw Vincent Lee be our fighter for that campaign we wanted to mix it up a bit. After tinkering with Joe Diamond and not being satisfied with his options we switched focus to Amanda and it has exceeded our expectations. If you love drawing cards and test with "NUMBER GO BIG" some variation of this or kinzuuu's deck are for you.