Zoey Finds a Treassure of Relics

Credit: Microsoft Paint

Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that Daniela Reyes can't play Guard Dog? By the fact that her ability isn't triggered by attacks of opportunity? Or by the fact that horror attacks don’t trigger Aquinnah's reflect damage?

My thorough investigations have found that Zoey Samaras has in fact a blood link with Daniela Reyes. Thanks to her sacred Cross, Zoey has been able to grab some powerful relics to fight in a Daniela-Style against anything foolish enough to get in her way.

(Thanks to Valentin1331 for creating and sharing this amazing deck guide template. Link at the end)

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Deck Explanation

• Other Cards

• Upgrade Path

• Use Hunter's Armor x2, Guard Dog and Zoey's Cross to do a potential of 4 testless and free-action damage per turn (by Guard Dog's or by generating attacks of opportunity).

• Finish whatever is still alive with Runic Axe or Enchanted Blade.

• Support your teammates with "Let me handle this!", Stand Together and Take Heart.

• All your relics (Runic Axe, Hallowed Mirror, Hunter's Armor and Enchanted Blade) are also items. Spend your first turns easily finding them with Dr. Elli Horowitz and Backpack.

• Generate the necessary resources with Motivational Speech, Stand Together and Take Heart.

• Your ideal set up is to have in play a Runic Axe plus the two Hunter's Armor (they take an arcane slot or no slot at all if you play them via Dr. Elli Horowitz), a Guard Dog and your signature Zoey's Cross (item). Getting at least two of these pieces plus a weapon is really easy with all your searching engines.

• Now you can kill without worrying about the chaos bag or spending fight . Just engage enemies and kill them by generating attacks of opportunity or waiting for their attacks in the enemy phase. This enables you to dedicate your turns to move, draw or support your teammates without leaving aside your fighter's rol.

• Example: Say you are engaged with a 3 health enemy that deals 1 damage per attack and that you have a Hunter's Armor and a Guard Dog. Just play your turn normally: play Stand Together to help your teammates, make a basic investigation committing Take Heart and perform a single attack with Runic Axe spending one charge (Accuracy). For a 4 health enemy, do the same plus spending an additional charge on Power and a third one in Hunt if you need to move to engage the enemy. If you also have in play a second Hunter's Armor or Zoey's Cross, no fight is needed.

• Late game, when your Hunter's Armors are full of damage, play Lonnie Ritter to heal them.

• Use Calling in Favors on a damaged Guard Dog or on a Dr. Elli Horowitz that unluckily only found an Enchanted Blade.

• When I play as a main fighter, I always try to devote at least 5 deck slots for supporting my team, as 25 cards should be more than enough to consistently accomplish my rol. In this deck you run "Let me handle this!", Stand Together, and Take Heart. Be generous with Take Heart, as you will be drawing lots of cards and resources anyway.

• Toe to Toe is a nice way of getting your reflect damage assets trigger while doing 2 testless damage.

• Hallowed Mirror is there for being an emergency heal just in case you may need it. Ideally, if you have drawn both of your Hunter's Armors, you may be able to play it via Dr. Elli Horowitz without competing for your accessory slot.

• Take the Initiative is there for Mythos protection. I previously used to run Inspiring Presence, but wasn't impressed by its performance. You can change both Take the Initiative for whatever you like more (First Watch for more support, Glory for more draw, Overpower for more punch, etc.).

• In +3 player games I recommend switching "Let me handle this!" for First Watch, or taking both.

In upgrading the deck from its present state, you may choose any combination of:

• The Path of Blood:

  • Max your weapon damage.
  • -2 Calling in Favors or -2 Take the Initiative → +2 Enchant Weapon
  • Ugrade Runic Axe with Scriptweaver + Ancient Power (if you want burst) or Saga (if you want sustain).

• The Path of Stone:

  • Max your survivability and your reflect damage assets.
  • -1 Calling in Favors or -1 Take the Initiative, and -1 Take Heart → +1 The Star • XVII, +1 Lonnie Ritter, +1 Charisma, +1 Relic Hunter.
  • Ugrade Hunter's Armor with Protective Runes.

• The Path of Sacrifice:

  • Max your friends love.
  • Stand Together → Stand Together
  • -2 Calling in Favors or -2 Take the Initiative → Stick to the Plan, Ever Vigilant plus your prefered third tactic for Stick to the Plan (for the second one you already have Toe to Toe. If you play with First Watch, no need of a third new tactic)

0XP Version:

• In the Thick of It → Charisma.
• Runic Axe → No upgrades.
• Hunter's Armor → No upgrades.
• Backpack → Backpack.
• Guard Dog → Guard Dog.

Upgrade Priorities

• Runic Axe: Heirloom. 1xp
• Hunter's Armor: Enchanted, Armor of Thorns. 5xp
• Hunter's Armor: Hallowed, Durable. 9xp
• Backpack x2. 13xp
• Guard Dog x2. 17xp
• Runic Axe: Inscription of the Hunt. 19xp

→ For a campaign, it's a great idea (suggested by danisnotonfire in the comments) to include Down the Rabbit Hole. The original idea, to my knowledge, was given here https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/43454/zoey-does-not-worry-about-upgrades-and-xp-1.0

To create your own guides, find the template Valentin1331 has created here_