Hunter Zoey and the Axe of Destiny

This is a fairly standard Zoey Samaras deck centered around Runic Axe. Compared to the traditional Cyclopean Hammer, this deck trades some damage for consistency and an earlier come online time. Runic Axe also boasts some excellent utility and resilience through its Inscriptions.

This deck is designed to work in a four player context on Expert.

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Other Cards

• Upgrade Path

• Make Your Own Deck!

|Difficulty:||★★★☆☆

| Enemy Management:||★★★★☆

| Clue-getting:||★☆☆☆☆

| Encounter protection:||★★☆☆☆

| Survivability:||★★★★☆

| Economy:||★★★★☆

| Card Drawing:||★★★☆☆

• Play your Assets, especially your Runic Axe. Brand of Cthugha is your sidearm when you want to conserve charges on the Axe or you haven't drawn it. Then you attack enemies. On Expert, your goal is to consistently get to 4 above an enemy's combat value, or 6 above it if you can't afford to lose. Zoey's of 4 isn't quite good enough on its own. Axe's +1 still isn't quite there. the +3 if you spend a charge brings you to 7, which is enough for most enemies. Lonnie Ritter and Ace of Swords give some much needed passive boosts. A of 8 or 9 brings you to the point where you can swing against big enemies reliably. Before you get all of your pieces out, skill cards will help to bridge the gap. After you get your pieces out, they will continue to help you conserve charges on your Axe.

• Deciding on how to spend your Axe charges, especially in a 4 Player Game, will be an important part of your playstyle. Scriptweaver, to allow for an attack at +1 Damage and +3 Combat at the cost of only one charge, should be one of your earliest purchases. This is also why you have the Brand, to give yourself a break and allow Runic Axe Charges to recover. Zoey's Cross also acts as a sidearm, plinking low health enemies with testless damage.

• Even with Zoey's impressive 4, we aren't going to try and bypass the Mythos Deck reliably. Instead, we use a combination of Lonnie Ritter and Hunter's Armor to tank damage and horror comming Zoey's way. This does make her weak to Mythos events not based on damage and horro, which can be quite plentiful. For those moments, Zoey has Take the Initiative and plentiful icons on her other cards. use sparingly. On expert it simply isn't enough to toss a few Guts in.

• For economy and Card Draw, this deck is relying on Backpack, Daring, and Overpower to draw cards and Zoey's own passive to generate copious income. there will be no shortage of enemies in a 4 Player game, in most scenarios. Stand Together and Kicking the Hornet's Nest offer some burst resources when the situation calls for it. Later on, you will have the Inscription of Glory on your Runic Axe, Hexdrinker on your Hunter's Armor and upgraded Backpack as well as upgraded Stand Together.

• For contributing to Clues, Zoey is packing two cards. Kicking the Hornet's Nest should be used on a high shroud location to pull a clue. It isn't the card's focus, but it's a nice addition. Breach the Door is a card to help your entire team clear a difficult location. Play Breach, then proceed to dump every icon your team can muster into it, hopefully dropping a location to Shroud 2 or less (within Flashlight Range). In a pinch, Zoey can drop this on a lower shroud location to start draining it of clues.

• tl;dr. Play economy to find and play Assets. Play Assets. Swing with your big Axe.

• To be added later.

• Upgrade Runic Axe with Scriptweaver as soon as possible. Get Glory as well if you have enough XP.
• Upgrade both Backpacks to Backpack.
• Upgrade both Stand Togethers to Stand Together.
• From there, focus on your Runic Axe and Hunter's Armor
• If you need more card draw or ping damage, upgrade to Taunt or Taunt.
• If you need better side arm enemy mitigation, upgrade Brand of Cthugha.
• If you have difficulty keeping up, Inscription of the Hunter and Safeguard have you covered. You probably only need one upgraded Safeguard.
• If you feel you need more power, buy Enchant Weapon. Enchant Weapon can also solve Axe's sidearm problem.
• Stick to the Plan is probably your first Luxury Buy.
• Overpower, Vicious Blow, and Dynamite Blast are luxuries past that, largely to keep Down the Rabbit Hole relevant.

Empty for now, but I may add other options based on the feedback!

I used the linked template for this guide. Credit goes to Valentin1331 for the template