Early-Sprint Gala, Melbourne with Banksy

The Midwinter Gala Standalone

This was the deck I brought to the "Early Spring Gala" event held in Melbourne, Australia.
We were the designated Guardians, with the other teams comprising of 3 Investigators each.
Naturally, we are allied with The Foundation.
After some (intense) discussion, we ended with a lineup of:

• Mark Harrigan - Role: Combat
• Wilson Richards - Role: Clues
• Nathaniel Cho - Role: Combat
• Parallel Roland Banks - Role: Clues

Players for both Mark and Nathaniel have limited collections and it was decided that without access to newer cards such as Crowbar, Field Agent (2), Breach the Door, etc - they were better off playing Combat focused builds.

Scenario Strategy

With the team's limited ability to get clues - I decided to focus on a "auto-clue" build with team support capabilities. I imagined a retired Roland Banks - aged and no longer able to engage in the rigors of field work, retreating from the frontlines to support the team as the Pointman/Sleuth

Red Tape allows me to provide Guidance and directed resources to whomever and wherever's in need as a - allowing me to influence the play at outside of my turn.
Overall plan for clues is to use the +1 boost from Field Agents to investigate, Burning the Midnight Oil or Winging It at times in the frantic search for progress.
Kerosene and Hallowed Mirror will allow additional uses of the Field Agents' ability to get clues.

Stick to the Plan:

• Shortcut - since the Lobby will be at the center of the map, playing this early on it will save us a lot of actions
• Flare
• Winging It

As it happened...

I decided to include Teamwork at the very last minute as this will mitigate the risk of not being able to advance Act 1.
With the different sized teams, the organizer decided to award the bonus points scored for the first team to achieve X to all teams instead. This made a huge difference as we were the biggest and slowest team in the event and took the longest time for our turns.
We drew The Silver Twilight Lodge as our rival, which isn't ideal given the lack of Willpower in the squad.
I was slightly annoyed that they drew us in return - thinking back, it might have been a better idea to exclude us (who drew first) from the pool so that it'd be an even "circular" relationship. For the next event.

• Lucky to start with The Fool • 0, which was important as the team did not have much together-ness
• Did not get a copy of Field Agent nor the Hallowed Mirror in my starting hand - in fact, I only drew them at the very end of the game. At least Flare didn't fluff and got me an Agent - or it would've been a terrible time.
• Was also hoping to draw Handcuffs early - as the Lantern Club Member cannot be damaged in the first Agenda and this will allow me to power up Due Diligence - alas, didn't see it until the 2nd phase of the game, where they are dead draws
• Teamwork was the right decision - it allowed us to shift the Guests around to advance the Act 1.
• Obsidian Bracelet was surprisingly useful - it allowed our team of mentally weak Guardians to not need to over-commit to horrifying treacheries
• Guidance and Task Force worked really well at crucial times
• Shortcut didn't turn out to be very impactful - saved us some actions in the early stages but went largely unused afterwards.

We actually did pretty well, only missing out on getting all the Guests and clearing the Second Floor locations.
With a better draw - getting Hallowed Mirror and the 2nd Field Agent earlier - it was plausible that we would have cleared more.

What would I change?

I'll probably drop the Handcuffs and include the Thorough Inquiry and a 2nd copy of Fine Clothes. It was a gala after all, and I should've been Well-Dressed!
I also only fired off Kerosene once the whole scenario - might be better to replace it with Well Prepared. Maybe. Probably not.