Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef (Solo version) 23 18 0 1.0
Top chef 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: Stabby McLoco 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbiest Chef on the Team 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbiest Chef on the Team 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbiest Chef on the Team 0 0 0 2.0
Zoey Samaras: Zealot with a Cause 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbiest Chef on the Team 0 0 0 3.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbiest Chef on the Team 0 0 0 4.0
The Chef's specialty 0 0 0 1.0
Don't cross Zoey [Night of Zealot + Dunwich Legacy finished] 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras deliving into the Dunwich Legacy 0 0 0 1.0
Soldiers of the Church: Zoey Samaras 3 2 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras // The Dunwich Legacy Campaign 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey the Chef 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: Rexxing it 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras is rexxing it 0 0 0 2.0
[Dunwich Legacy] Daisy & Zoey, Starting Zoey [0xp, 2-core] 4 3 1 2.0
Zoey Samaras is rexxing it 0 0 0 3.0
Deck for TTS 0 0 0 1.0
Another Zoey Samaras 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras is rexxing it 0 0 0 4.0
Zoey Samaras is rexxing it 0 0 0 5.0
Zoey Samaras is rexxing it 0 0 0 6.0
Zoey Samaras: Dunwich 2 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: Dunwich 3 with necronomicon 0 0 0 2.0
Zoey Samaras: Dunwich 3 with necronomicon 0 0 0 3.0
Zoey stabs for her friends! 1 1 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: Labyrinth of Lunacy 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey carnival of blades 0 0 0 1.0
[Le Potager] Zoey Samaras Prilo 1 1 1 1.0
Zoey carnival of blades 1 0 0 2.0
[Le Potager] Zoey Samaras Prilo 3 2 0 2.0
Dunwich 2 Player: Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey for Three With Rex and Jim 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey for Three With Rex and Jim 1 1 0 2.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef V 0 0 0 1.0
I can't keep teaching Zak this Game 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Multiplayer 1 1 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef 0 0 0 2.0
Zoey Samaras Dunwich solo 2 hand 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey in Carcosa 1 1 1 1.0
Zoey Samaras: An Updated Stabbing Chef 16 12 1 1.0
Zoey Samaras: Stab and bat 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras by Jane.Doe 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef, better 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: Classic Guardian 0 0 0 1.0
2021/02/18 살인귀조이 0 0 0 1.0
2021/02/18 살인귀조이 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Chef - Emma Variant 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras de jose 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras: knife goes in, guts come out 1 1 0 1.0
Patrick’s Zoey Deck for Jason Dunwich Campaign 0 0 0 1.0
La zoey 0 0 0 2.0
La zoey plus 0 0 0 3.0
Arkham's cook 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras - 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey STARTER with 1+2 cycle 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras of the Order of Our Martyred Lady 0 0 0 1.0
Zoey Samaras of the Order of Our Martyred Lady 0 0 0 2.0
Zoey Samaras of the Order of Our Martyred Lady 0 0 0 3.0
Zoey Samaras: The Stabbing Blood Machine 0 0 0 1.0

Heyenzzz · 6422

After only doing card reviews and commenting on stuff for quite some time, it felt like time to share my first published deck with you all.

WHAT IT DOESN'T DO:

  • this deck isn't meant for solo play
  • this deck isn't catered to a beating a particular scenario or campaign

WHAT IT DOES DO:

  • this deck is meant to be the designated hitter in a 2 player coop game and is intended to be played alongside a dedicated clue gatherer deck
  • Zoey kills things... Soldier of God Stabbing Chef style

WHY THIS DECK?

In a 2-player game its quite common to team up a dedicated clue gatherer with a dedicated ghoul-killer. In my 2-player games The duo Daisy Walker and Roland Banks saw a lot of use. This deck is meant to replace Roland Banks in his role as the designated killer/bodyguard. I wasn't quite happy with the way Roland did his job. When playing next to a dedicated Daisy Walker clue hound deck, Roland's clue gathering through combat isn't really needed that much and Roland mediocre willpower and low sanity (together with Cover Up) kept getting him in trouble later on in the campaign.

Zoey Samaras covers those weaknesses (with a willpower of 4 vs Roland's 3 and a sanity of 6 vs. Roland's 5) while still being capable of dishing out the same damage as Roland does and her special ability is useful when playing next to a dedicated clue hound investigator.

HOW IT WORKS

Just start stabbing and keep the baddies of your fellow investigator's back.

With 6 weapons in the deck, you should be getting one into play soon (preferably Machete). Leo De Luca and Shortcut are included for added actions (more stabbing means more damage.) I really like Shortcut. With a Machete in hand, use Shortcut to rush into a connecting location to aid a fellow investigator and still be able to (potentially) dish out 6 (or 8 with Leo De Luca) damage. Later in the campaign, upgrade to a Police Badge for even more stabbing.

If you don't want to risk hurting your buddy, engage enemy first and gain a resource with Zoey's spacial ability. With Zoey's Cross you can spend that resource to deal 1 damage to the enemy you engaged and thus turn a "useless" engage action into a damaging action.

Liquid Courage and First Aid are in there for when you get low on sanity and/or suffer mental trauma because of Smite the Wicked

Evidence! is kind of a deck filler, Zoey's good at killing things, so I added it for some clue support. This will be one of the first cards I will cut when upgrading (maybe for Police Badge).

If you can manage the resource demand of this deck, try adding 2x .45 Automatic for either 2x Knife or 2x Kukri (though that would be a bit less thematic)

INTENDED UPGRADES

CARDS THAT DIDNT MAKE THE DECK

  • Taunt would combo well with Zoey Samaras'special ability (gaining 1 resource for every enemy she enages. ) and Zoey's Cross. I might try to incorporate this at any point, though I think Taunt will work better on a high level agility investigator or with some of the surivivor "evade effects cards"

FUTURE ADAPTATIONS

  • For this deck to really shine, Beat Cop and Leo De Luca should be in play at the same time (thus being able to attack 4 times in a round with a strenght of 6 (with a weapon in hand.) But sadly the rules won't allow this...yet.... Meet Charisma. This card from the upcoming mythos pack The Essex County Express gives you an extra ally slot and is the missing piece for this deck. Who said cops and criminals don't get along?? :-)
  • another option instead of Charisma is Keen Eye from the upcoming Mythos pack Blood on the altar. With Keen Eye you you can still attack each fase with a strength of 6 (if you have 2 resources) and it creates space to cut the beat cops and add 2 more cards to the deck.
  • I'm still looking for a way to incorporate some kind of card draw into the deck, to geth both Machete and Zoey's Cross out ASAP. Some extra card draw would also help counter the possible negative effecs from Liquid Courage backfiring. I'll be on the lookout for guardian or neutral card draw in future expansions.
28 comments

Jan 15, 2017 zozo · 2912

Lovely write-up, @Heyenzzz. I like how you explained the role of the deck at the start, great context for considering your choices.

All bladed weapons seems tasty, pretty focused. The leo-kukri combination is also quite nice. For card draw, to file under 'future adaptations', you might consider Stand Together. 0 cost for 2 cards and 2 resources for 2 investigators seems very favourable to me!

I completely agree with you about Shortcut too. That looks to be a very flexible, useful card.

Jan 15, 2017 Heyenzzz · 6422

@zozo Thx! I agree on Stand Together. It seems that card wil be the first in-faction card draw for guardian and I will certainly include it in this deck once it comes out. It isn't THE card draw I was hoping for though. Ideally, I'm looking for repeatable or tutoring card draw and Stand Together does neither. And there's the Xp investment of 3 (6 for 2 copies).

Jan 15, 2017 Heyenzzz · 6422

Oops, forgot to mention that Leo De Luca and Shortcut are nice to deal with Zoe's signature weakness Smite the Wicked, since they get you to your target faster

Jan 17, 2017 chubber911 · 21

Just wanted to mention that Beat Cop and Leo De Luca each take up 1 ally slot. You only have 1 ally slot to work with, so you could only have one or the other in play at a time, but not both.

Jan 17, 2017 Heyenzzz · 6422

@chubber911 Yup. I'm aware of that. That's why i mention some upcoming cards to work around that ally slot restriction in my write-up. Ideally you want both permanent action advantage and a permanent non-weapon strength boost to maximise damage output and the mentioned cards (Charisma and Keen Eye) make that possible.

I included 2 copies of both Beat Cop and Leo De Luca in the current version of this deck to increase the reliability of the deck (increase chanches of getter either one of both boosts as soon as possible.)

Normally, In games where you see Leo De Luca first, Beat Cop wont enter play and is just used for his attack icon to burn in attack skill challenges. When I see a Beat Cop first and there is a pressing need for a strength boost, I play him and when Leo De Luca eventually finds his way to my hand, I sack the Beat Cop, using his ability to damage an opponent when he leaves play. I realise getting both in play after oneanother requires 10 resources, but the rest of the decks resource costs are rather low so it's manageable.

Mar 30, 2017 cferejohn · 1

I have a somewhat similar Zoe deck for pairing with Daisy. I would definitely lose the knives for 45s. WIth her engagement power gaining resources you should have plenty of resources for that.

I've found First Aid to be a trap; if I'm spending that many actions to gain health, I'm already losing.

I've also got 2x Flashlight because while searching isn't her primary role I don't find I can just completely punt it in a 2P game.

Mar 31, 2017 Heyenzzz · 6422

@cferejohn I agree on First Aid not being the ideal healing option. At the time I built this deck it was the only in-faction option for healing physical damage here was. I still think this build needs a self sustaining healing option and I rather have a not so great one instead of none at all ( unless you're paired up with a Daisy Walker with Medical Texts.)

Now with 2 more mythos packs released, we've found some new healing options, but they all have their pros and cons. Painkillers are nice (cheap and action efficient), but do sanity damage, wich sucks because of Zoey's mediocre sanity. The deck has an option (Liquid Courage) to deal with the sanity damage Painkillers cause, but you dont'always have both Painkillers and Liquid Courage in play at the same time.

Emergency Aid might be a replacement for First Aid worth considering (I wrote a little review om Emergency Aid btw), but I'm still not sure about wich one I prefer.

Mar 31, 2017 cferejohn · 1

@HeyenzzzHmm, I've just never had damage be a problem for Zoe (or at least I've never had it be the biggest problem). In fact I put a smoking pipe in my deck because I've had several times I'm willing to trade off damage for sanity.

Apr 10, 2017 chainsawash · 1

Great writeup and discussion. I've found Taunt to be an amazing card for Zoey, especially with Zoey's Cross out. It's the mythos phase and Rex pulls a 2hp monster while Zoey pulls one with 3. Zoey plays Taunt (it's fast!), engages Rex's monster, and does a 'free' damage with the cross. Use Beat Cop (fast!) for another and kill it. She now pulls out her Machete and, with the help of Vicious Blow, deals 3 damage, killing it. Zoey stands amidst the carnage, wondering what to do with her remaining 2 actions! (Not to mention Rex is now free to do whatever he wants!)

Apr 10, 2017 chainsawash · 1

Actually, that example is more impressive if you consider Rex (cursed as he is) being engaged with two enemies. You'd accomplish the same thing, having done with one action what would otherwise have taken all 3 (and actually be a resource richer in this case.)

Card draw (or the lack thereof) seems a weak spot with Zoey. Stand Together looks like it could be decent, especially if she's acting as bodyguard, but at 3xp it's a bit pricey.

Mar 06, 2018 Fuzer · 1

Looks solid. Any upgrade on this deck?

Mar 07, 2018 Heyenzzz · 6422

@Fuzer Been away from AH for a while (L5R), but I actually was thinking of making a comeback lol. Think I'll start with updating this deck, so an upgrade is on It's way.

Mar 17, 2018 Telgar · 1

Liquide Courage and Léo De Luca are not 0 cost cards so they should not be included in a Zoey deck following the deck rule : not more than 5 0 cost cards from other class. Or is it Ok to include >0 cards from other class?

Mar 17, 2018 Heyenzzz · 6422

@Telgaryour confusing cost to play a card with The (Xp) lvl of a card. Both the cards you mention have an lvl of 0 (no stars in the top corner beneath the cost to play a card), so it's perfectly fine to add them.

Mar 17, 2018 Telgar · 1

Rhaaaaa of course yes! I will then use this deck for Dunwich :) thx!

Jun 19, 2018 Heyenzzz · 6422

For people who are interested in playing Zoey Samaras solo, I recently posted a nice solo Zoey deck here;

arkhamdb.com

Oct 23, 2018 metal.days · 7

Just tried this deck, just replacing 2x Kukri for the .45, as I felt she would not be able to have a decent damage output. From my playthrough, this hypothesis was kind of confirmed - I didn't have a problem succeeding attacks, but I wasn't able to dish out damage fast enough.

Oct 26, 2020 Mr.Bottle · 1

1 question! how can you use De Luca if has 6 and creation rules deck says guardian 0-5, neutral 0-5 and other classes 0...?¿

Oct 27, 2020 Heyenzzz · 6422

@Mr.Bottle

The 6 you are referring to is the actual cost to play Leo, not his level. Deckbuilding restrictions on Zoey refer to the level of the card (number of stars in tbe upper left corner), not the cost to play. Or at least it used to be that way back when I built the deck, I haven't played AH lcg for quite some time.

May 27, 2021 northfrith · 1

De Luca has a star before his name which I thought meant you could only have 1 copy in your deck or does the star mean something else?

Jun 14, 2021 LeFricC'estChic · 86

@northfrith The star means he is unique. It a special rule for assets (allies and items mostly) that prevents you to put one into play if another is already in play.

It means there can be no more than 1 Leo De Luca in play, controled by any investigator.

BUT you can put, like all the cards that don't say otherwise (Myriad, Limit one in deck), up to 2 per deck, in as many decks as you wish. Even if it's less efficient that way !

Jun 14, 2021 northfrith · 1

Thank you for clarifying that for me : )

Jun 17, 2021 LeFricC'estChic · 86

Just found out the ^ utility (link to the rules). Unique

Feb 11, 2022 JayF · 1

Hello ! A bit late to the party, but I love your Zoey build, can't wait to try her, along with a powerful clue gatherer. I have a question : it says that in order to build this deck you need 3 packs : core, Dunwich and Nathaniel Cho. I haven't found any Nathaniel reference so far. Which cards are you using from his deck ?

Feb 11, 2022 Heyenzzz · 6422

@JayF

I think ArkhamDB added the automatic 'packs required' feature after i posted the deck a long time ago. I never manually entered any text about Nathaniel Cho, heck i don't even know who that guy is. That being said, I built the deck with only cards from the old core set and the first big box expansion (dunwich legacy), which were the only sets released back then.

The cards to add which i mentioned in the description are all from the chapter packs of the first cycle.

Hope that helped. Btw, I think its really cool that this old Zoey still gets some love from you guys!

Aug 06, 2022 Bmeifter · 1

Just started Dunwich campaign using this "guide" :)

Oct 26, 2022 rhedik · 1

Noob here but would like to try this deck with Taunt thrown in. Is it reasonable to switch out both Evidence cards for 2 Taunts if pairing with a clue hound like Rex or Daisy if she's more geared for clue gathering vs witchcraft?

Oct 29, 2023 brenter · 1

@Heyenzzz late reply but I want to add this comment anyways. In the Nathaniel Cho deck they reprinted a few cards, e.g. vicious blow. So I guess arkhamdb just assumes you are using this version of the deck since they updated it, instead the core one.