Tony Morgan - The Devourer Meets Its Match - HARD

This deck is designed for one thing and only one thing. KILL the Devourer in Return to the Night of the Zealot HARD.

I hadn't played NOTZ since originally getting the game about 2 years ago but I wanted to play Pete/Duke True Solo and they did alright in regular NOTZ Hard getting in 6 out of 10 needed damage on the Devourer and 3 cultists in Midnight Masks but they couldn't take out the Ghoul Priest. I then played Diana and Daisy in Return To NOTZ since I had some decks ready to go for a TCU campaign. Diana only got 7 out of 20 needed damage but the Eldritch Knight Diana deck that I modeled mine after was awesome. The Hungering Blade was awesome and the Well Prepared, Empower Self and Twilight Blade combo worked pretty well. But I was determined to defeat Return To Devourer in Hard.

Tony was built for one purpose and only one purpose. Kill everything and especially KILL the Devourer in Return to the Night of the Zealot HARD.

I went back and forth between Survivor Tony and Guardian Tony and finally settled on Guardian. He will be paired with Ursula who will chip in a little damage with the Bow and Blood-Rite. And of course she will handle the clues since she is one of the quickest cluevers in the game.

Guardian Tony vs Survivor Tony

Ultimately I chose Tony since he can lob Dynamite Blast and use Marksmanship from connecting locations. In addition he can cancel attacks (#Dodge) and damage (Delay the Inevitable (for both himself and Ursula) so he will be able to stand toe to toe with the Devourer for multiple rounds. I ended up choosing Extra Ammunition instead of Delay the Inevitable since I didn't have enough XP to add 2x Swift Reload.

The Survivor choices for Tony were:

• Lucky!
• Live and Learn
• Perseverance - can't help Ursula though
• Brute Force
• Fight or Flight - a significant boost for the entire round

Seeker Tony wasn't really an option for this mission although I am sure that he is very good also.

Here is a quick recap of the campaign but mostly just the final scenario.

Ursula dominated The Gathering and Tony did 10 damage in one turn on an exhausted Ghoul Priest. They were still on Agenda 2 and earned 8XP. They could have fished for the final 2XP enemies but Tony was low on Sanity.

Midnight Masks also went quite well getting 3 cultists and Tony could have taken out "Wolf-Man" Drew but the On Wings of Darkness treachery moved him too far away and engaged him with a different enemy.

Little mistakes and Arkham being Arkham made the final scenario harder than it needed to be. Ursula finished the first Act before the first Agenda flipped but that was her fatal mistake. She had split up from Tony and there ended up being a 4 enemies on the Main Path which prevented them from getting back together. Things got worse when she drew a 4 health enemy with her Bow still in hand. She took an Attack of Opportunity to play it and did 3 damage and then she failed the evade test and pulled the token that spawned an additional enemy with her. She was defeated the next turn. She was going so quickly that they probably could have interrupted the ritual by getting the clues before the Devourer spawned.

Tony meanwhile had his .38 Long Colt in play with Lita but definitely didn't have enough ammo to take out 4 enemies on the Main Path. He drew cards and collected resources for two turns and found the Venturer, Contraband and several skill cards.

He then made his mistake. He drew Offer of Power and chose to lose one round and let the Agenda advance instead of taking 2 Horror which wouldn't have been awful with Lita in play. The Agenda advanced and he added the Amnesia Madness weakness after failing the 6 test. He lost all (but one) of the cards he needed to load up his guns for the Devourer.

He restocked on cards and got Leo De Luca and Haste into play and threw some Dynamite Blast onto the main path and then recollected a few bounties on other enemies that he needed for the Devourer. By then the Devourer (with 3 bounties on it) was on the move and he was running low on ammo with his Colt's. Luckily he found Extra Ammunition and his second .38 Long Colt as well as Marksmanship and his second Dynamite Blast.

Tony was able to do 7 damage with Marksmanship plus a Vicious Blow and Dynamite Blast before the Devourer moved into his location. He chose to take the hit instead of playing Dodge since he had a lot of health and sanity remaining with Lita and Leo in play. The Devourer then healed himself one damage on an encounter card.

But Tony was setup with 9 ammo on his .38 Long Colts and a 6 action turn (Tony's ability, Leo and Haste) where he needed to do 12 damage. He passed the first test with Quick Thinking and added another action to the round. He failed his second test with another Quick Thinking. He committed his final skill cards to the next test and passed leaving 8 damage remaining on the Devourer with 4 actions remaining and 6 ammo left. He got really lucky and hit the Devourer 3 more times despite only being +2 for the test leaving it at 2 health.

Tony Dodged the attack in the enemy phase and then reshuffled his deck taking a horror to get Vicious Blow back. Tony had a decision to make. He could commit Vicious Blow to an attack with the Long Colt's (2 ammo remaining) and be +3 (6 chances of failing) with a second attack attempt at +2 (10 chances of failing). Or Tony could hold onto Vicious Blow for a 3rd attack at +0 (4 chances at passing). He would have 3 more actions remaining but he would be at -1 and need an to pass.

He chose to commit Vicious Blow to the first test and be at +3. Tony passed the skill test and defeated the Devourer. Return to NOTZ added a few things that definitely made this task more difficult and Tony was also very lucky. And Hard mode is of course incredibly difficult already.

Ursula is definitely my favorite Seeker (and favorite investigator) since she can take care of herself and she works so fast. I play her with old school Magnifying Glass, Flashlight and Fieldwork. Blood-Rite is a fantastic addition to her Bow.

Tony is my favorite monster killer. This deck would be very different if playing through a campaign though. I included Intel Report for the first two scenarios and would definitely keep it and probably add one or two more clue cards like Scene of the Crime, "Look what I found!" or Working a Hunch. I would probably use Tony so he had Lucky! and Live and Learn to avoid failing tests. Marksmanship is really cool though.

I am still not sure how I feel about using Versatile with the Venturer. Tony drew through most of his deck in the first and third scenarios since he just took a lot of draw actions when there wasn't an enemy around. Ursula is that good at getting clues.

There really isn't any plan for horror protection besides a 1x Smoking Pipe and a bunch of allies. Ursula did have Hallowed Mirror in her deck with the plan of healing Tony if necessary.

Cards that I wanted but got left out

• Crystallizer of Dreams - I needed the card draw of LCC
• Swift Reflexes - no room with all of the skill cards
• Allies like Delilah O'Rourke or Lonnie Ritter
• Borrowed Time - thought Haste would work better and I didn't have enough XP for an exceptional card.
• Prepared for the Worst - Tony just drew a lot of cards when there wasn't anything to kill so he got through his deck fast enough.

Upgrades that I wanted but didn't have XP for

• Swift Reload - Extra Ammo worked better though
• Another Haste - really like this card. I will definitely play it in other decks.
• Cheaper Leo De Luca
• Another Venturer with Versatile - perhaps but the deck would be really big at that point.
• Sure Gamble - like Lucky but even better
• All In - This card is incredible and would probably be the next major addition to this deck
• Another Day, Another Dollar - this always helps
• Another Switchblade - ammoless +2 weapons are very valuable especially combo'd with Lucky Cigarette Case

There are two final dilemmas.

Which campaign should I play Tony in next? I have everything except one TCU pack and the final two Dreameaters packs. It might be awhile until I am able to get those.

Which other investigators can take out the Devourer in Return To Hard?

Mark is probably the strongest Guardian for this but most should work well with a Bandolier (to hold a smaller weapon) plus Lightning Gun (or Flamethrower/MBAR) while using Dynamite and Marksmanship (or even Telescopic Sight. The +5 is a very important boost with the Lightning Gun since it puts Mark at a 10 plus Lita and/or Beat Cop.

Leo could have an interesting build with Switchblade (unlimited ammo) and Reliable plus Beat Cop and Lita Chantler. He can get extra actions and cancel attacks. Timeworn Brand can be used similarly Switchblade and include every Guardian and Yorick. The biggest problem is that attacking as a 7-8 is pretty risky in Return To on Hard.

Mystics like Akachi can really do damage fast and you could bring two strong generalists to split up the damage. Possibly paired with someone like Wendy that can do untested damage with the Rogue events and gather most of the clues.