The Snakeoil Salesman, Bob Jenkins - ARKHAM INVESTIGATOR DISCUSSIONS #05

[@Dragosprite]

Playing bob through circle undone rn with 4 people, can’t say I disagree with you but I will mention that Lola Santiago specifically combos well with Bob’s ability to play old keyring, flashlight, and matchbox, and has been how I have compressed my clues.

[@OdiumShard]

Schoffners Catalogue is net 3 resources, as E. Cache, but it's an item, so "it's fast" and you can share it if someone needs it more? At least on the 0xp deck I would run it over E. Cache, once you pivot to big money, sure, take it off!

[@mayauppstad9883]

My notes: - Scavenging is really easy to trigger with Lockpicks. Especially once you get Gené or Lola. - Schoffner's is usually better than E-cache bacause it can use your free play action and be played for 1 less with Shrewd Dealings. - Underworld Support makes his deckbuilding much less awkward and helps thin the deck for Shrewd Dealings and any exceptionals you may include. - You can tutor both Shrewd Dealings and Scavenging through Friends in Low Places. Crafty is another talent that goes pretty hard in Bob. -Damning Testimony with blackmail checked makes investigating with book a lot easier. I do agree that his lvl 0 deck has been hit pretty hard by the taboo list and I know how you feel about the importance of the first scenario. Where I disagree is about how long he takes to come online. Underworld Support plus In the Thick of It already goes a long way in scenario 1. And I rarely feel like I'm not very much online from scenario 2.

[@featherlord2768]

I had a campaign with Bob, Carson & Parallel Cursed Wendy playing Dream Eaters Dreaming side on Hard Bob was surprisingly effective, planned around the Wendy with Damning Testimony, using a Scavenging/Skeleton Key combos and with Carson helping amplify him further. I can see where you’re coming from, I feel I can only play Bob when I can effectively play Damning Testimony, but having 4 actions every turn via his ability to play whatever I manage to randomly scavenge (passing the test consistently isn’t consistent, but when it triggers it’s on something important) is fantastic. Going to try him again in a TFA campaign without Carson to see if he feels nearly as good. Also, from my experience he’s infinitely better than Wilson (i tried SO hard), can’t wait for your take on him!

[@babushkaboi-g1c]

Bob at level 0 has taken some massive hits from the taboo list, I agree that his level 0 is very awkward to play around after trying him through EOTE, he had a really slow start and felt clunky even with his team support, when I put big money and Lola Santiago in him he did do his job quite well afterwards but he is VERY reliant on those upgrades in my opinion, it's just sad to see the old Eon Chart scavenger to be completely shut down. I don't think Bob is F tier considering player scaling, but he can never play a main role of anything and it severely hurts him, but he does compress setup, I value that a lot, but Carson exists as the "I don't do anything" support that you could try make Bob into, I cant figure him out either at early XP.

[@mayauppstad9883]

I disagree that Eon Chart is completely shut down in him. I certainly don't upgrade it anymore. But the amount of free move actions the lvl 1 version offers is absolutely incredible.

[@babushkaboi-g1c]

​​@@mayauppstad9883I don't think Eon Chart itself is completely gone, it is still very useable and the free actions are very nice, I just mainly mean the combo and main selling point of Bob got gutted cause it elevated him to be considered very high tier for me, now the combo just feels okayish but it is no longer the focus of my deck (forgive me if I'm wrong but isn't Scavenging now impossible to play on Bob cause of the XP increase?) He is pretty nice as a backpack for the EOTE items though, but it did effect the consistency of him.

[@mayauppstad9883]

@@babushkaboi-g1c I guess I'm less affected as I was usually only using the lvl 1 version anyways. Bob can still run Scavenging. Taboos that change exp costs still don't affect deckbuilding. It still counts as a lvl 0 card for deckbuilding requirement purposes.

[@babushkaboi-g1c]

​@@mayauppstad9883I think I can see where you are coming from with using it differently as a psuedo pathfinder, as I was more reliant on the free investigates before taboo. Thanks for telling me about Scavenging, it still hurts quite a bit but not as much as I thought it did.

[@halforange1]

You’re obviously talking about 3 or 4 player. In 1 or 2 player, Bob is average or above average. I’m playing a true solo Dark Horse Bob right now (with Scavenging stuff too) and it’s great. He can run the rich Dark Horse package well.

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@halforange1 I'll acknowledge a teddy bear dark horse Bob as a valid option I haven't explored due to his weakness. That said, he's benefiting from being talked about in 3+. Having less clues on the map is more pressure when he's the only one getting them.

[@featherlord2768]

I had a campaign with Bob, Carson & Parallel Cursed Wendy playing Dream Eaters Dreaming side on Hard Bob was surprisingly effective, planned around the Wendy with Damning Testimony, using a Scavenging/Skeleton Key combos and with Carson helping amplify him further. I can see where you’re coming from, I feel I can only play Bob when I can effectively play Damning Testimony, but having 4 actions every turn via his ability to play whatever I manage to randomly scavenge (passing the test consistently isn’t consistent, but when it triggers it’s on something important) is fantastic. Going to try him again in a TFA campaign without Carson to see if he feels nearly as good.

[@brainofjikir]

I just played Bob in Edge of the Earth, and he doesn't do anything especially well, but he is the clutch master. Between Backpack + Lockpicks + Skeleton Key I was able to ease our teams clue getting so I was pulling my weight, helping other players setup their stuff accelerated them a lot. I ended up taking Golden Pocketwatch once I had lots of dig (Backpack (2)) and whenever we had a test we absolutely needed to pass, Live + Learn + Lucky just meant I was always the one able to do it reliably. I started with Bandages and ended up taking Liquid Courage (1) which was really helpful into EotE specific weaknesses, and in several scenarios I got down Shrewd Dealings to sling people Cherished Keepsakes or just played Talisman of Protections to keep people alive. IDK, he felt really good to me, but I also don't have tons of Arkham experience.

[@nickm9180]

Schoefners is great it’s like a fast emergency cache for bob and with his signature it costs one less plus there’s all the team benefit, he just needs more good items tbh

[@MrNephthys17]

While I agree that Bob isnt as disgustingly powerful as he used to be due to taboo nerfing him, specifically, very hard I do still think he's very strong. I'm surprised to hear you couldn't get Scavenging to work with someone able to run Lockpicks. Thats just about the easiest way to pull Scavenging off.

[@RatherIncoherent]

Honestly, I agree with you on Scavenging triggers seeming like they shouldn't be hard to manage. The fact that the deck I'm showing has an Obol instead of Picks might just be showing off how cursed our Bob runs have been. I vividly remember testing like 7 to 3 repeatedly, failing to trigger scavenging, and being like "Well, shit, maybe next turn I can get some value out of this asset."

[@cabbagepotato2421]

Talking about proving that not only they are the worst, but that they can still do really well! So playing 2-handed is quite a lot of mental load, yeah? Challenge run: playing through Night of the Zealot (not return to) with *four* investigators you consider the worst, 4-handed. Bonus points if you decide to run a full-length campaign of your choice instead. (I don't actually expect you to try this at home, it's just a fun suggestion, and I'd love watching it). (or you could go the rambling madman route and take 8 worst investigators through Dream-Eaters, wow)

[@WayOfHaQodesh]

Ahhhhhhhh yes, I second this,.. especially the dream eaters campaign with the 8 worst investigators.

[@droolbucket23]

playing Bob through Cyclopean Foundations (which is awesome, btw) in an Underworld Support/Underworld Market with plenty of items. 3 Player and Bob is doing great. He is built Flex w/ support and he's doing his job perfectly. High numbers of Shroud is difficult but with the smaller deck and the Market he gets set up really quickly and never slows down. Basically I am playing a Bob completely differently than your approach and having plenty of success. Thanks for the video, great stuff as usual.

[@ChenowethGames]

Im sad that this was your experience. I've had him on my team twice bow played by other players. He came in clutch each time. Once was with an asset heavy Zoey and a Mystic. I dont remember what Mystic I played. Scavenging with lock picks made us always have Bandages and Schofners. He only got a clue a round if that, but my Mystic was more than enough to pick up the slack, and Bob made the campaign so much better.

[@Augustus-z1d]

So sad. I love Bob.

[@WayOfHaQodesh]

Right now I feel like trying to pull Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, that we the community some day could get you to value these characters more. It's very clear you seem to be a "Spike" by MTG terminology used for player archetypes, but I think there's hope yet.... To me Bob seems exclusively to be one of those characters designed as a 3rd player or 4th player, as he's not suited for main roles. I think that's perfectly fine, as not all characters should be designed to be hard carry main characters. I love support characters, though I rarely play them as I have never had a group bigger than 2.

[@Fogshaper]

faustian report is my favourite card

[@RolandIronfist13]

at 7:48 you say "play fast a sparrow mask to refill an empty one" but you cannot play a mask while you have one in play. The "limit 1" is Forced and something that is a mask cannot enter your play area by any means if you have one there. Not sure if it was just a slip of what you said or you aren't using the "limit 1" rule

[@RatherIncoherent]

That's something I recently became aware of, where as we previously thought that functioned the same way as replacing a filled slot would (which, frankly, it's silly that it doesn't). However, it's still got value for very similarly replacing crypt chilled or otherwise destroyed masks where anyone else would lose an action replacing their destruction fodder.

[@cabbagepotato2421]

@@RatherIncoherent I thought limit 1 allows you to add things, discarding previous ones. And max 1 doesn't. So like, Dayana can get new events attached I think?

[@CarstenBernstorff]

I love Bob🙂

[@OlafS-s6d]

Okay id say bob is one of the most fun wolf of wallstreet charaters there is. I played him with Joey" The Rat" Vigil as item cycler and Scavenging and dude he makes money so fast, tosses old keyrings or colt vest pockets arrount as well as fleshlights AND makes money while doing so? I dont see how you put him so low he really really works well.

[@EyesOnTheTreeline]

I have run Bob in 3-4 player multiple times and he is great. His ability is "extra action" which is a free Leo every turn most of the time. You can easily provide the entire economy for your entire team with his signature and the rogue card pool. He easily plays the test 0 archetype with a 'good enough' 4 book to supplement when you are down. Will he ever have as big of a book stat as a seeker? No. Is that still okay? Absolutely. If you don't like Bob (personally) I think you don't understand flex. You are trying to make Bob a seeker and that is wrong.

[@RatherIncoherent]

@@EyesOnTheTreeline Any rogue can run an extra economy card, donate an entire Faustian to their team, and fix any economic issues the rest of their team is having. This isn't unique to Bob, and being able to do it with his signature when he has average to below average draw isn't something I value at all. If my teammates are building decks with economy deficits and relying on me, Bob isn't finding that signature fast enough and reliably enough to justify using him to solve it. Also, I genuinely don't know what you mean when you call him flex. I think you're referring to what I call support?

[@EyesOnTheTreeline]

@@RatherIncoherent Yeah definitely meant support and not flex. But Bob has access to Faustian and the catalogue. With Joey and fine clothes that is incredible economy. And while he doesn't garb his signature super reliably, once you get it I'm playing cigarette cases for people who can't normally get it, eon charts and whatever else is a hole in my friend's decks. I guess I'm just saying he has more team synergy than you eluded to. If you are looking at his deck alone then yeah it's probably sub-par but that isn't what support is looking at.