First impression on Zoraida

[yool1981]

Hello everyone,

I have been theoryingfaux on Zoraida for a while and I had my first game with her yesterday.

I have tried her with Crystal ball + Hex bag, Lazarus + Retribution's Eye & a Doppelganger (copying Lazarus usually) + flavour again a Nico crew.

This is a master I definitely want to explore more because she provides a change from my usual masters (Lynch & Lilith).

However, I have the following remarks / questions that pop to my mind. I would be very interested in knowing the opinion of more experienced players

1. The cost of the upgrades: Animal shape, Tarot Reading and Crystal ball are very nice but it feels as if they were not quite worth the soulstone points. 2SS for animal shape is huge considering you can't interact after the placing. Crystal Ball is very random while Tarot reading seems only good with Animal shape if you consider that Zoraida seems usually at the rear of the crew. When I compare to what Lynch and Lilith can have, I am a bit disappointed.
2. Lazarus is amazing and one more attack with Obey goes a long way in grindin down the opponent's crew. Having a Doppelganger duplicating his attack 2-3 times is also very impressive. I think I will stick to this core in my future tests.
3. I mostly used the voodoo doll and the hex bag during Zoraida's activation. Although this is very powerful (especially the curse), I feel that I use a lot of APs to achieve a result. It also seems to me that Bewitched is not really useful (I have not found the opportunity to use it). I have a feeling of inefficiency when I play Zoraida.

I have checked the Pull my Finger but only got general feelings in there. I'd be interested in seeing how other players use her and if she is better than my first impression lead me to think.

[Rathnard]

Personally I feel like Bewitched is underrated. Stick it on a model who was planning to only Walk or attack, and for 1AP it's either letting you draw 4+ cards or effectively neutering that model. It lasts until the model's next activation so if you put it on someone and add Incite with Iggy, you can force it to activate first, and either do nothing or draw you a tonne of cards to use with the rest of your crew. 

Obey is great, but as a way of getting extra actions out of your models it's a little inefficient. Lucius, Dreamer and Collodi all have more efficient Obey-type actions, albiet with restrictions of their own (ie. certain model types and friendlies only). That's not to say that Obeying your own models is a bad idea, but I think you also need to look out for opportunities to Obey your opponents crew, which is the real strength of that spell. 

Hex Bag is cheap and it gives Zoraida a (0) action to play with, but if you really want to abuse Zoraida's Voodoo Doll you want to pair her with a Nurse or Iggy. The Nurse has lots of horrible conditions to add to the Voodoo Doll and Iggy's Burning attack will effectively deal 2x damage to the Hemmed Target (Burning, plus the damage from Burning on the Voodoo Doll). 

[Math Mathonwy]

Bewitch is amazing. It's hard to understand how awesome it is, until you use it, though. I once Bewitched Pandora and got to draw eight cards which happened to contain five Severes. Seriously, just try casting it on something that is "forced" to act a lot and watch the opponent sweat. Also note that Bewitch and Obey combo together nicely (though not on Pandora, naturally ).

Crystal Ball I like a lot. It's quite close to Arcane Reservoir and I love that as well.

Also, be sure to Summon the Doll somewhere high up and walk off the ledge
 

[Rathnard]

25 minutes ago, Math Mathonwy said:

Bewitch is amazing. It's hard to understand how awesome it is, until you use it, though. I once Bewitched Pandora and got to draw eight cards which happened to contain five Severes.

Totally agree of course! One thing to remember though - even if you have a run of bad luck and Bewitch only ends up netting you bad cards, those are cards that you won't be flipping in duels later on. In other words it doesn't matter what you flip - it's a win-win situation.

[yool1981]

I will definetely try Bewitched when I have the opportunity.

About Iggy and the Nurse, it seems to use a lot of AP to achieve results and it represents 5-11SS taken inside the crew that are more "supporty" than "killy "or "schemy". Is it really efficient?

What do you think of animal shape and tarot reading? I have a hard time considering they are worth 2SS each, especially since I think swampfiends are not particularly synergizing with Zoraïda.

[Ludvig]

Nurses are models to be feared. They can quite reliably paralyze most things in the game. If your 6ss model paralyzes an enemy model worth 10+ ss I'd say that's a good trade for you (I think you can even target leaders right?!). If you activate properly you can paralyze whatever was hemmed at the start of the turn, reapply hem and then paralyze that model too (Zoraida obeys the nurse to do one of the paralyzes so the doll can activate inbetween).

Animal shape is a great upgrade when assassinate or certain marker schemes are in the pool. If you don't think you'll ned it then don't take it.

The movement of scheme markers can also completely screw your opponent over late in the game since they get 0 VP instead of three. You can also use it to move markers dropped earlier by models that didn't want to expose themselves turn 1. Try spring the trap with this for example, makes it a lot easier.

Applying bewitched on the enemy's crutch model gets you huge amounts of cards and it's always fun when your enemy realises that their beaters just became a liability because they killed a support model that they thought were hidden. Keep an eye out for effects that last the entire turn on enemy models and remember that they are still friendly to their crew so get all the buffs from Nico, Ramos, Hoffman etc. when you make them attack their own models. McCabe gave his saber to one of his minions and gave it reactivate? Would be a shame if that minions killed one of his own armoured, hard to kill models on three wounds left that he thought was safe and gave you cards while doing it. When the model later activates and does 6 ap (2 from nimble and 2 regular) he just gave you as many as 12(!) cards. This combo's nicely with models locked in by the 4" engagement that waldgeists can get so you know they will need to walk + hit instead of charging.

I'd also consider investing in models that can multiply AP. I've used the mature nephilim for instance. Move it up with an obey. Make it hit something but trigger charge through and voila - you have extra ap. Any model with perfect camouflage (which you can buy through an upgrade) is super fun to just obey into a position where it threatens half the board. Most swampfiends have perfect camouflage on their card to begin with so have some synergy through that. I have used the mature nephilim for the threatening role since it has flight so you can put in in any form of cover so the enemy shooting is at double negative flips and most enemies will have a hard time reaching you because of severe terrain but you can still charge freely because of flight. Waldgeists little forest markers are also good for this since they give cover and severe but don't block LoS so you can still charge through with your flyers.

 

Hope some of that helped and that you find something to bring joy to playing Zoraida.

 

 

[Rathnard]

Iggy is my favorite addition for Zoraida. He's just 5 SS and offers two big benefits - Ignition and Incite. 

Ignition lets Iggy put 2-3 Burning on a Voodoo Doll with every swing. That translates to 4-6 damage per AP for the Hemmed target, which is huge for such a cheap 5SS model. Incite, to me, offers a better way of ensuring you win Initative than the Doppelganger. If you put Incite on an activated, unimportant  enemy model, you can then force that model to activate first next turn. That effectively gives you the initative on the part of the board that counts (eg. that epic fight between Teddy and Seamus). And if you win initative anyway, that's two good activations before your opponent can activate what they want. 

Throw a Fit and Playing With Matches come in handy too, but that's not why I like Iggy.

 

Using the Nurse to apply Take your Meds on the Voodoo Doll (and thus the Hemmed target) is her most obvious use, but it's not her only one. Healing and Paralysing the Voodoo Doll will heal only the Voodoo Doll (only damage and conditions are transferred to the Hemmed model), and under the right circumstances she can seriously buff your own models (eg. Giving Hallucinogens to Baby Kade in Melee). But she's also amazing at Healing Zordaida. Just Obey her with Zoraida's last AP to Heal and Paralyse Zoraida herself. The Paralyse will end her activation but since she's already spent her last AP, ending her activation is not a problem!

 

Animal Form is situationally great. It gives her a great "get out of Jail" option if she's close to being killed (especially vs the Assassinate scheme) and in turns 4-5 she can use it to skip past the enemy to achieve schemes like Entourage or Breakthrough. 

 

Tarot Reading is...okay, but far from essential. The Fickle Winds of Fate is almost never going to get used, but using Mend to heal the Voodoo Doll might come in handy if you need it to take just a little more damage (and thus kill his Hemmed target). The usefulness of Bayou Servants depends on how badly you need Out of Faction Swampfiends. It's been a while since I've taken a close look at what Swampfields each Faction has, but from memory the only one that really stands out, is the Waldgeists for Gremlins.

[yool1981]

Thanks for the great advices.

I already have nurses so I'll give them a try. I ordered Iggy a while ago but still haven't received the order (the deliveries of Wyrd products to Europe's retailers is not the most reliable thing in the world). I'll try him when I get the chance.

Do you think taking both a Nurse & Iggy is a good idea or would you tend to take one or the other, depending on the offered strategies/schemes?

What about the Silent ones? I know some of their abilities have frozen heart synergies but they have a healing and a good casting action + access to Paralyze.

26 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

The movement of scheme markers can also completely screw your opponent over late in the game since they get 0 VP instead of three. You can also use it to move markers dropped earlier by models that didn't want to expose themselves turn 1. Try spring the trap with this for example, makes it a lot easier.

I'll have to try it on the table. On paper, I found it a bit situational (stars seem to have to align for enough markers and Zoraida's placement to be suitable).

[Ludvig]

Denying with it is tricky and often requires you to fly there with animal shape turn 4 to move them turn 5 since two (2) actions are involved. Could be well worth it to deny 3 VP however.

Getting spring the trap should be very doable.

[Sordid Strumpet]

35 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

Nurses are models to be feared. They can quite reliably paralyze most things in the game. If your 6ss model paralyzes an enemy model worth 10+ ss I'd say that's a good trade for you (I think you can even target leaders right?!). If you activate properly you can paralyze whatever was hemmed at the start of the turn, reapply hem and then paralyze that model too (Zoraida obeys the nurse to do one of the paralyzes so the doll can activate inbetween).

Animal shape is a great upgrade when assassinate or certain marker schemes are in the pool. If you don't think you'll ned it then don't take it.

The movement of scheme markers can also completely screw your opponent over late in the game since they get 0 VP instead of three. You can also use it to move markers dropped earlier by models that didn't want to expose themselves turn 1. Try spring the trap with this for example, makes it a lot easier.

Applying bewitched on the enemy's crutch model gets you huge amounts of cards and it's always fun when your enemy realises that their beaters just became a liability because they killed a support model that they thought were hidden. Keep an eye out for effects that last the entire turn on enemy models and remember that they are still friendly to their crew so get all the buffs from Nico, Ramos, Hoffman etc. when you make them attack their own models. McCabe gave his saber to one of his minions and gave it reactivate? Would be a shame if that minions killed one of his own armoured, hard to kill models on three wounds left that he thought was safe and gave you cards while doing it. When the model later activates and does 6 ap (2 from nimble and 2 regular) he just gave you as many as 12(!) cards. This combo's nicely with models locked in by the 4" engagement that waldgeists can get so you know they will need to walk + hit instead of charging.

I'd also consider investing in models that can multiply AP. I've used the mature nephilim for instance. Move it up with an obey. Make it hit something but trigger charge through and voila - you have extra ap. Any model with perfect camouflage (which you can buy through an upgrade) is super fun to just obey into a position where it threatens half the board. Most swampfiends have perfect camouflage on their card to begin with so have some synergy through that. I have used the mature nephilim for the threatening role since it has flight so you can put in in any form of cover so the enemy shooting is at double negative flips and most enemies will have a hard time reaching you because of severe terrain but you can still charge freely because of flight. Waldgeists little forest markers are also good for this since they give cover and severe but don't block LoS so you can still charge through with your flyers.

 

Hope some of that helped and that you find something to bring joy to playing Zoraida.

 

 

This is a treasure trove of utterly delightful rudeness. I like it.

[Sordid Strumpet]

What do you think of the Voodoo doll? Hire or summon? I think focusing Zoraida purely on obey would get boring quickly

[Ludvig]

10 minutes ago, Sordid Strumpet said:

What do you think of the Voodoo doll? Hire or summon? I think focusing Zoraida purely on obey would get boring quickly

I havent't played Zoraida a ton but I usually summon the voodoo doll. It's so slow that it will be wasting a lot of ap walking if you start it in your list. Summoning it gives you more stones and means the doll will likely start a lot farther up than if you hired it. The major drawback is of course that it means sacrificing some of Z's ap that might have been used to obey something or fly really far up with raven form t1.

I once did a game with make them suffer in the pool and started without minions or peons to trick my opponent into choosing that scheme. I then summoned the doll t2 really far back to deny it. Would have worked if McMourning wasn't so incredibly fast and horrible.

[asrian]

Things I like to do with Zoraida:

Take a nurse - Use as usual on enemy and friendly models (as well as Voodoo Doll and by proxy it's Hemmed target). If Zoraida ever gets hurt or is in need of healing go through Zoraida's entire activation AP minus one (so use her 0AP and first two (1) AP). On her last AP, right before she ends her activation Obey the nurse to full heal + paralyze Zoraida (requires a 7 to Obey and any crow in hand for the Take Your Meds trigger). This will heal Zoraida, and the paralyze will only end her activation as she is already mid-activation as opposed to taking her out for the following turn. As it was her last AP, she was going to end her activation next anyway.

Take a Performer - She has Lure with Sip of Wine (another version of expunge) and a trigger to paralyze enemies. She can potentially destroy scheme markers, and has Don't Mind Me to interact while engaged. Very useful cheap model all around. Add to that, Hex Bag 0AP allows you, on one of the suits, to put poison on the target. Put it on the Voodoo Doll and it's hemmed target. Performer can then Sip of Wine it.

Take Wings of Darkness Upgrade (I usually take it with Hex Bag and Crystal Ball) - This gives your leader flight (though not a long place like Animal Form). It also allows you to draw 3 cards instead of 2 when stoning for cards. I mainly use this to be a bit more maneuverable as needed, but still not limited myself to being unable to interact in case I need to.

If I want to attempt an Alpha style strike with a big guy and Zoraida (say Nekima or Mature Nephilim) then I start off hiring a Voodoo doll. Turn 1 have the Voodoo Doll hem your own big beater for 1AP (and make sure the doll is close to Zoraida). Zoraida can then activate, and if the Voodoo doll is close, can do a 1AP interact to force target hemmed model to make a push up to it's walk distance in any direction (so no need to cheat cards for Obeys). Suddenly you can spend 3 of Zoraida's AP, with no loss of cards, to make Nekima move up to 18" before she ever activates. You can then later hem something else with the Voodoo Doll, or if the Doll is out of position (too far back), can always summon a new one with Zoraida, which destroys the old one.

If you have high terrain in the map, and depending on how close Zoraida is to it, or if she's up on top of it, summon a Voodoo Doll and have it Hem a target. Let's say you're on top of a 6" building with said Voodoo. You can then Hex bag it to put damage or condition (I prefer conditions) on the Hemmed target and when it comes around to the Voodoo's turn to use his slow 1AP...just have him walk off the edge and take fall damage. I've killed Samuel Hopkins and a few other Henchmen/Enforcers this way when the opponent thought they were safely away.

Those are just a few ideas though. The reason I like Zoraida is that between the Obeys, her aoe push effect (which I've used to fly her up and then push people out of Turf War before or off Squat markers), her Bewitches, Hex Bags, Crystal Ball (usually used by me to make the opponent discard), and Voodoo Doll hem, she basically just gives the opponent a lot of bad choices, and helps amp up her own crew (or turn down the opponent crew). I enjoy any master that can come at the opponent sideways like that though.

[Math Mathonwy]

2 hours ago, Ludvig said:

Applying bewitched on the enemy's crutch model gets you huge amounts of cards and it's always fun when your enemy realises that their beaters just became a liability because they killed a support model that they thought were hidden. Keep an eye out for effects that last the entire turn on enemy models and remember that they are still friendly to their crew so get all the buffs from Nico, Ramos, Hoffman etc. when you make them attack their own models. McCabe gave his saber to one of his minions and gave it reactivate? Would be a shame if that minions killed one of his own armoured, hard to kill models on three wounds left that he thought was safe and gave you cards while doing it. When the model later activates and does 6 ap (2 from nimble and 2 regular) he just gave you as many as 12(!) cards. This combo's nicely with models locked in by the 4" engagement that waldgeists can get so you know they will need to walk + hit instead of charging.

Note that Bewitch ends at the end of the next activation so won't be there for the Reactivate.

As for what to watch out for, Snipers are Zoraida's worst Nightmare. She is extremely squishy against dedicated Snipers. The Healing trick with Nurses that Rathnard outlined helps a bit but remember that she is very vulnerable to certain forms of attacks. OTOH she is rather difficult to charge effectively and her Wp is bonkers so she is very tough against certain things.

And another thing is that she needs cards on hand to make sure she performs. She doesn't always use them but if you fail the Obeys or whatnot, she really falls flat.

Finally, I agree with Rathnard that Swampfiends from a different faction aren't all that special aside from Waldgeists for Gremlins (and McTavish being a Merc already) though you can potentially do something hopelessly convoluted and silly using Gupps and Gators and Juvenile Wail and Obey.

[Mxbedlam]

McTavish. I know he's not out yet, but proxy him and bribe your Henchman. He's so good its just stupid. No randomizing, solid damage. Range. and if models are tied up by Waldgiests, he hits better. I like taking a Beckoner or Lilitu with Zoriada as well. Being able to lure things around to where you want them is solid fun. She's also one of the few models I like Mysty with. She can obey from behind a building (no LoS required), and get people bogged into the hazardous terrain that it throws out. Plus she normally has several fun actions that Changelings can mimic. Also, its kind of a no brainer with Neverborn but Dopplegangers love those actions more so than changelings. Widow Weaver makes things easier to Obey/Bewitch. Candy can heal voodoo doll in a pinch and can perform her normal, wonderful shenanigans. Obey on Candy can wreck a side of the board. 4 of her Ca will put most big beaters out of commission. The options are honestly limitless and that's not even touching the Swampfiend Juju recursion list.