Two handed solo - Zoey Samaras

It's a little hard to provide feedback without knowing which packs you have. For now I'm just assuming you have access to a lot of them (or you're playing this on Tabletop Simulator).

It would also help to know how many players this deck will be played with, and with which investigators, but for now I'll assume this is a solo "do-it-all" deck.

The two Flashlights are a great choice because they allow someone with 2 to get clues from lower shroud locations very reliably (on a 2 shroud location it's a guaranteed success except on the ).

I'd lose the Blackjack as it's mostly a worse version of the Knife. The number of weapons in this deck is pretty low, so I would strongly consider adding a couple more. Enchanted Blade and .45 Automatic will work well for her despite the high cost, since Zoey usually doesn't struggle with resources.

Since Zoey's intellect is so low, it's usually a great idea to go for testless clues (like your 1x Working a Hunch, which is great) instead of raw investigations. So I'd consider dropping the Magnifying Glass and Arcane Studies, and replacing them with Scene of the Crime, another copy of Evidence! and Drawn to the Flame (Zoey is very resilient to the encounter deck anyway).

Other than that - looks like a good start! Any deck that includes big bada boom is bound to be fun to play.

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment @snacc To clarify, I have one copy of the core set and the Dunwich Legacy (no mythos packs yet). I have played through NOTZ solo (did okay in The Gathering, but only found 1 cultist in Midnight Masks and got whooped in the Arkham Woods :-) I was just contemplating whether to try and do a two-handed solo game to give me more options (even though there would be more encounters etc). I'm a bit worried about how complex the management will be though. Do most solo players run with two investigators? Glad to know I got some things right with the deck - I was trying to boost her clue-getting capability but I also agree with your points!

I like the cost curve of the deck. It's a little more expensive than most decks I build, but Zoey should be able to cover some of the costs of the expensive assets with her special ability.

If you are still in dire need of clue-discovering cards, another option you could consider is Look What I Found!. You can use it for low shroud locations and maybe some higher-shroud locations in conjunction with Flashlight and Perception.

In terms of weapons, other options could include Fireaxe, in case you have more resources than you know what to do with. I also considered the .41 Derringer, which could get Zoe to 6 combat the expense of limited ammo and the risk of only doing 1 damage per successful fight action. Baseball bat is another dark horse if you're going all-in for combat. (Getting to 6 starting 'punch' during my fight check is my comfort spot).

I'm not a fan of Dynamite Blast, since Zoe should do enough damage by herself. But since you probably aren't going to get all the cultists in Midnight Masks, it's a decent insurance policy.

I'm mixed on Rite of Seeking. On the one hand, it's the only way for Zoe to investigate consistently. But it doesn't really synergise with the other cards in the deck. Investigating at only 4 willpower is also kind of chancy, especially if you already sank 4 resources into playing the card. So maybe to make the cost curve even more manageable, you can replace this with Look What I Found!.

As to your question of solo players, I almost always play two-handed. It'll take a bit of getting used to at first, but it'll become second nature in time.

Other off-class cards you should consider include Shortcut, Elusive, Ward of Protection, and Lucky!

I'm not a big fan of healing cards, because you need to spend as many actions as you can gathering clues or fighting enemies. If you still want them, you should consider Liquid Courage, which could potentially heal you 2 horror per action. A faster, one-time horror heal that is also in play is Fearless. But... they are off-class, so you probably need to pick and choose between them.

Thanks @MattyKaye! I'm going to give two-handed solo a try and build a Fighter/Clue hunter pair. I'm also trying to convince my better half to play this with me :-)

If you are going to two-player mode, a card I love on Zoey is Taunt. On her, it pays for itself with her special ability, and it saves you an action from taking the enemy off your clue-gatherer's hands, and you can use that saved action to kill said monster. Upgraded Taunt also allows for card draw, which is super valuable since your collection has no in-class card draw for Guardians besides that.

I would also advise that your clue-gathering character should have 5-6 cards related to enemy management (which mirrors my advice that every fighter character should aim for 5-6 clue-finding cards). It might be tempting to specialise, but it would really help if that character has a way to deal 2 points of damage per action towards the enemy, so that Zoey doesn't have to succeed every fight check when attempting to bail out her partner.