Psalm .45

(Alternative deck names: .45 ACP is the Lord's Cartridge; Zoey Samaras and the Church of the .45; We Can't Expect God To Do All The Work...)

Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. - Psalm 45.

Putting the wicked to the sword has always been a holy endeavour. However, Zoey reasoned as she slid a fresh magazine into the well and took aim at the witches bearing down on her, it's always important to move with the times.

Deck Concept

This is a modified version of the most recent deck I played, in my first run through the currently released parts of TCU up to and including For The Greater Good. The concept of the deck is broadly to take full advantage of the newly released Guardian version of the .45 Thompson, having reliable firepower and exceptional resource gain, and spending those resources to afford otherwise expensive assets. It's also designed to make the most of "Eat Lead!", though it looks like a new version of that card will come out in Return to the Path to Carcosa so maybe that will finally be a bit more viable.

Starting deck

The deck shown here is 29 exp, chosen as a point where the deck is firing on all cylinders and a useful point for standalone mode as only 2 additional Basic Weaknesses are needed. The starting deck has more utility, a little bit of extra clue-gathering, and neutral skills to perform the duties now covered by Well Prepared and Physical Training, as the level 0 .45 Thompson does not provide a resource boost.

Core combination

The core of this deck is using the .45 Thompson for relatively accurate 2-damage attacks, or 3 damage against monsters with Custom Ammunition, and making a profit while doing so via Act of Desperation. The .45 Thompson costs 6 resources and comes with 5 ammo; each ammo spent is returned to your resource pool, so while the initial outlay is huge, the gun will ultimately end up only costing 1 resource by the time it's empty. This carries over to Custom Ammunition; for 3 resources, you get the damage boost and 2 ammo, and spending those 2 ammo tokens will refund you 2 resources, so ultimately the card only cost 1 to play. Once the gun is empty, Act of Desperation lets us discard it for an attack at +6 to hit and 2 total damage; if that attack does hit (which is extremely likely), we're refunded the 6 resources for the .45 Thompson, so the gun itself actually nets a profit of 5 resources. Well-Maintained will then return it to our hand to let us play it again, and also gives us back our Custom Ammunition. Rinse and repeat.

Since setup is important and having guaranteed access to Prepared for the Worst is vital in case our initial draw is bad, Stick to the Plan is also a vital upgrade. So the .45 Thompson, Act of Desperation, Stick to the Plan, Prepared for the Worst, Well-Maintained and Custom Ammunition are the core cards in the deck - everything else is simply built around those pieces.

Tech, or, making "Eat Lead!" halfway decent

If we happen to have a bit of breathing room and resources to spare after the first time playing Act of Desperation, we can use Contraband as part of setting up again. Playing the .45 Thompson, playing Custom Ammunition, and putting an ammo token onto it from a Venturer results in a total of 8 ammo; Contraband will double that for 16. It's a lot of outlay so certainly not the approach to take in the early parts of the game, but this build can rapidly accumulate a mountain of resources, making the initial outlay of that combination (13 resources, plus the 4 paid to play the Venturer) less of a problem than you might imagine - and if you spend that 16 ammo, you'll get pretty much all of those resources back, or make a profit if you factor in additional resources from the Venturer.

"Eat Lead!" is rather justifiably maligned as a bad card, costing 2 exp for an extremely wasteful and relatively marginal effect. However, if you happen to have more ammo than you know what to do with - 16, for instance - and spending ammo refunds you resources, it becomes a lot less wasteful. Drawing the entire chaos bag lets you choose the , guaranteeing a successful shot, and while the gun might be low or empty, the huge resource swing you get from doing so is ample compensation. That's the best-case scenario, of course; even just using "Eat Lead!" on a fresh .45 Thompson is pretty good if you have a second copy of the gun or Act of Desperation in hand, as a way of ensuring that you're safe from the for a clutch shot.

Setup and opening hand

The core of this build is .45 Thompson. Mulligan for it if possible. Stick to the Plan should be used to attach Prepared for the Worst, Custom Ammunition and Contraband.

Mulligan guide:

.45 Thompson - Keep this no matter what, and mulligan almost anything to get it. If you draw a second copy, probably keep that too.

Zoey's Cross - It's such a good card that fits very well into the rest of the deck, I don't think I'd mulligan it away even if I didn't have a weapon in my starting 5.

Well-Maintained and Act of Desperation - Mulligan these to get a .45 Thompson, but keep them and mulligan to get them if you already have one.

.45 Automatic - If I started with this and no .45 Thompson I wouldn't mulligan it because a backup gun is better than maybe no gun, but I would definitely mulligan it away if I already had a weapon.

Sixth Sense - If you already have the .45 Thompson in hand, don't mulligan this away.

Prepared for the Worst is there to help ensure that you have a .45 Thompson early so the deck can get up and running. If you already have a copy of .45 Thompson in your hand, use an action to gain a resource, play the .45 Thompson, and get moving. Unless you're sure you won't need to get fighting until later on and don't have anything else to do, don't worry about getting resources to play other assets; get them down once the resources start rolling in and gradually build up to an incredibly tanky and versatile board state. If you don't have a .45 Thompson after mulligan, use Prepared for the Worst and look for one. If you find one, spend an action to gain a resource and use your last action moving or whatever; play the .45 Thompson first thing next round. If you still don't have your .45 Thompson after Prepared for the Worst, bad luck - put down a .45 Automatic and get ready to do your Guardian job, just remember to save up some resources from Zoey's ability to play the Thompson when you do finally get a copy. You want to get Well-Maintained on the field ASAP if you can so that you can use Act of Desperation with impunity.

Piloting

This build is designed to consistently have access to accurate 2-damage attacks while gradually building up a massive board state. Its primary job is very simple - shoot enemies for the team. The resources you get for doing so can be used to play lots of powerful soak cards to tank for the team and keep everyone alive. The basic premise is extremely straightforward, as Zoey builds often are. Shoot enemies, keep the team alive, reload with Venturers, Custom Ammunition and Contraband, engage enemies as necessary, deal with higher-health enemies using Zoey's Cross, Vicious Blow or Custom Ammunition.

Given the huge amount of resources this deck can amass, it can often end up being readily able to sink resources into Physical Training to hit high Fight enemies or pass Willpower tests, in addition to using Well Prepared targeting the .45 Thompson (with its 2 Combat icons), Zoey's Cross (for a total of +3 to Combat checks) or Physical Training (for +2 to either Combat or Willpower).

For clue-gathering, Sixth Sense is Zoey's best friend. Having tried it out on her, I think it is a perfect fit and will be going in all my Zoey Samaras builds from now on. Obviously it's only 2 cards in your deck, so like all cards you might not find it, and so you're not reliably going to gather clues; it also only nets you a single clue per investigation so you're not going to be able to do much more than pick up the occasional one or two clues, but with Zoey's 4 base willpower and potential boosts, she can pick up a number of clues on turns when there's nothing that needs killing.

One thing that's critical to bear in mind is that the .45 Thompson gives you the extra resource when the ammo is spent, i.e. as part of paying the cost to initiate its ability. Therefore, the resource is in your pool when the test begins, and can be spent on a boost from Physical Training or to play a Fast upgrade card like Custom Ammunition or Reliable before the test resolves.

Investigator Options; or, "Why Zoey?"

The reasons for choosing Zoey for this deck are as follows: First, her 5 off-class slots give her access to the crucial Act of Desperation, as well as Contraband for high potential profits. Zoey is also well-placed to compensate for the problem of only having 2-damage attacks; her Cross can help her deal the extra point of damage needed for awkward enemies, and her effect deals more damage as well - which is a pretty significant consideration if we're using "Eat Lead!" to pick from most or all of the chaos bag. Beyond that, her Investigator Ability is extremely useful. While this deck can make huge piles of resources, it is very expensive to set up and can quickly stall under unlucky circumstances, so the extra resources from Zoey's ability provide a safety net if you need to rely on the .45 Automatic early on or if you get hit with Corrosion while your .45 Thompson is still fully loaded. Also, the deck is designed to be able to spend a nearly unlimited amount of resources, between expensive soak assets and boost talents, so extra resource gain is very nice.

That being said, since the core of this deck really is the combination of .45 Thompson and Act of Desperation, Mark Harrigan is also a strong contender for a variant of this build. He can't use Sixth Sense, but with his ability to punch himself to increase his Intellect, he can investigate in a pinch. His huge card draw would be helpful in ensuring that the pieces of the deck come together, and enable you to exploit the large resource gains to pay for all the extra cards he draws. On a Mark Harrigan build, you'd obviously want some healing, probably both Emergency Aid and Second Wind, and Beat Cop to help deal with odd enemy health totals and give more card draw. You might also want to avoid Physical Training entirely and get some more events or skills. Mark can't get Contraband, but that's no big loss (see below under Deck Variants). Finally, you'd actually be able to fulfil his card art depicting him with a tommy gun!

Leo Anderson is another possible .45 Thompson enthusiast. With his rogue access, Leo can already gain and use plenty of resources, and his ally focus means that Venturers are cheaper and more efficient (making them more profitable for you) and he can easily use Beat Cop for dealing additional damage. He has access to Contraband (2), which really shines in combination with the .45 Thompson, and has a decent intellect already plus access to Intel Report for dabbling in clue-gathering.

However, Leo lacks for card draw and his rogue resource gain cards tend to already require setup (drawing and paying for Lone Wolf, for example), so he is much more vulnerable to early disruption or poor timing than Zoey or Mark. Additionally, he can't get Act of Desperation, which is a major component for this deck. I think the .45 Thompson will be a fine weapon for Leo, but such a build is going to look very different to this one - the benefit of this build is that its resource gain is contained within the investigator and core components, leaving the rest of the deck free for other cards.

Deck Variants and upgrades, or, "Why didn't you take..."

This deck is intended to be unconventional but still useful. The .45 Thompson lends itself very well to unconventional builds since it isn't just another high-damage 2-handed weapon alongside the Shotgun, M1918 BAR, Lightning Gun and Flamethrower. It's meant to make use of Contraband and "Eat Lead!" mainly as fun gimmicks, and it takes the .45 Automatic as a backup weapon for reasons of theme.

Realistically, I think you're better off dropping Contraband in place of whatever your favourite off-class card is (Shortcut, Lucky! or Ward of Protection are obvious options, or something for clue gathering like Rite of Seeking, Drawn to the Flame or Intel Report); Contraband is a funny idea but you're rarely running dry on ammo without it, and the initial cost is very prohibitive; you want to play it while your weapon is full, so you will have recently spent 6 resources for the .45 Thompson and not had any chance to get them back. It also does nothing if you're caught in a bad situation with no ammo.

Likewise, unless you really like the idea of drawing the entire chaos bag with "Eat Lead!", just take Extra Ammunition instead. "Eat Lead!" is a hilarious card and is a lot better in this deck than essentially anywhere else, but it nevertheless isn't worth the exp and is often a luxury - using it to prevent or fish for on a crucial test is nice, but unless you already have all your replacement options lined up, you're then going to be running dry on ammo. Wait and see what the new version is going to look like, I guess! In the meantime, take Reliable, which has really nice synergy with the .45 Thompson (spend the resource gained for spending ammo to play Reliable before the test resolves) and Well-Maintained.

29 exp was chosen as a break-point mainly for convenience with the standalone rules; the core upgrades are .45 Thompson (obviously), Stick to the Plan and Custom Ammunition, so after 15 exp you can choose how you'd like to upgrade. I think that Keen Eye might be a great choice - with all your attacks only doing 2 base damage there will be turns where you need to blaze away with all three actions, at which point Keen Eye's combat boost becomes efficient, and a base skill of 6 when attacking with the .45 Thompson doesn't always cut it; likewise, while Zoey's base intellect is bad, this build can get huge mounds of resources, so spending, say, 6 resources to investigate at a skill of 5 three times on your turn when you have nothing else to do isn't the end of the world.

Since the core of this deck is a 2-handed weapon, Bandolier is a strong choice. The Willpower boost is going to be online nearly always, and it boosts your investigation with Sixth Sense. It also lets you keep your backup .45 Automatic and maybe a Flashlight out. As a later upgrade, if you aren't bothered about keeping to the .45 theme forever, I think replacing the .45 Automatic with another big gun would be a good shout. The obvious choice to me is the M1918 BAR - this build is all about having lots and lots of consistent 2-damage attacks, but suffers against high-health enemies, whereas the M1918 BAR is the exact opposite, able to pump out huge amounts of spike damage but with very limited ammunition and very wasteful against low-health enemies. The M1918 BAR also plays nicely with Contraband. However, if you're a big fan of Lightning Gun or Shotgun, or you want a Survival Knife to take advantage of your survivability for extra attacks, more power to you. If you prefer funny jank to power you could even take the Springfield M1903 together with the upcoming Telescopic Sight as your backup - I don't think it's going to be a consistently good option nor worth the resources, cards and exp, but if any deck can make that combination work I think it'll be this one. Alternatively, just take the Telescopic Sight and put it on a second copy of the .45 Thompson in your Bandolier - the .45 Thompson was marketed as a hunting weapon, after all! Or, you could just upgrade to the higher level .45 Automatic as a more accurate backup weapon for use against Retaliate enemies, and stay on theme.

If your allies are already pretty tough and your soak is going to waste, you can consider dropping True Grit and Something Worth Fighting For in favour of other high-cost assets or fun events such as Marksmanship. Alternatively, you can consolidate them into Brother Xavier, who also brings a nice direct damage effect and gives a willpower boost for better investigation with Sixth Sense, and also really suits the flavour of the deck - the high resource cost isn't a huge concern for you. Venturer is nice, but the deck doesn't lack for means of reloading weapons. If you need all the survivability you can get, take Brother Xavier alongside your soak allies.

Beat Cop is another great option - the combat boost is nice because this deck can have issues hitting high-fight enemies, and the extra damage is nice for finishing off enemies with awkward health totals.

This deck would work really well with the upcoming Warning Shot; I heartily recommend trying it out if you play this deck once Union and Dissolution is released. I hope we see more cards that let you spend ammo for effects like that!

Finally, this deck uses very few skills (though it has other boosts and cards with good icons for committing to tests), but you could easily take some if you wanted. The 0-exp version runs with both Overpower and Guts, which I think are the best choices and the draw is nice for cycling through the deck to dig out pieces, but you could also make an argument for Take the Initiative and/or Inspiring Presence, or simply the consistent flexibility of Unexpected Courage. Aside from those and Vicious Blow, I am of the opinion that all the other Guardian skills are without merit, but if you like them, I'm not here to judge! Adding more skills to the deck significantly reduces the cost of the deck - you could use the resources to pay for more boosts, or cut some of the ancillary ammo gain cards like Venturer since you won't need all the extra resources.

Final Thoughts If you've gotten this far, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. If you do try out the deck or something like it, do let me know how you find it. I welcome any comments or suggestions. And, if you have played Fallout: New Vegas, I hope you like the idea of Zoey as Joshua Graham...