Hybrid Zoey

I built this deck basically to get to grips with Police Badge after writing an article praising it and figured I would build it into a Hybrid spell casting deck, partly inspired by seeing Matt Newman's Zoey deck for his Dunwich attempt a couple of weeks ago (sorry Matt, there's no Blackjack...). I tweaked it and took it up to 8xp to tackle Carnevale Standalone.

Cards

I mainly wanted to get Police Badge in there, and the spell selection spun off from that. With Beat Cop and Police Badge out, my two primary stats are at 5, and with a Machete or .45 Automatic I'm attacking with 6 combat. Paired with a clue character, it means really the only weak spot is Agility, and for an emergency evasion I was packing Blinding Light.

Elusive went in to help with movement in the crowded Carnevale, and I avoided Dynamite Blast for the same reason. Most of the rest of the deck is simply good Guardian cards, though I did sneak a one-off First Aid in there to help fill in spare actions (as it turned out, I didn't draw it until right at the finale!).

Following section features Carnevale of Horrors spoilers

So, when we played, I ended up with a relatively poor start (2 Police Badges and Zoey's Cross in my opening hand!), and the lack of Clue or Parley ability meant I was largely sitting around waiting for enemies to show up. Roland (piloted by my Good Friend Angedelo) did a lot of the heavy lifting there, single-handedly saving all of the Revellers.

When the Cultists showed up, however, Zoey came into her own. She was able, helped by the Police Badge, to take down the Baleful Reveller (10 health!) in a single turn. She single handedly killed all the other cultists that appeared, and between her and Roland we fairly comfortably got to R2 (where Cnidathqua sustains enough damage that it retreats from the city).

Deck thoughts

Naturally I'd like to play with this deck some more as I feel there is the nugget of an idea there. However, even at this point I feel like the problem with a Hybrid Zoey build like this is that you have very little auxiliary support. No Drawn to the Flame and no Rite of Seeking. You are not able to rely solely on Evidence! for clue support.

When it comes to combat, though, it's very capable. Shrivelling is a great back up 'weapon', and Blinding Light gives some Evade capability which Zoey isn't normally capable of and helps protect other Investigators. Police Badge is particularly great here, and the action banked on the early (quieter) turns playing it is able to be withdrawn (with interest!) on a turn later when a more threatening enemy shows up later. Although it competes with the Accessory slot, Police Badge can be ditched for the extra actions to make space, or thrown into a skill test with a respectable couple of icons.