M2E+Zoraida

Return to Neverborn or __Return to Gremlins__
 * Zoraida, Neverborn/Gremlin Dual-Faction Master**

=__Overview__= toc Zoraida is a support Master that offers card manipulation, applies lots of Conditions, and controls models through **Obey**. Instead of dealing damage herself, she pulls on the threads of fate, forcing other models to do her bidding while bolstering your Control Hand. This is a theme with Neverborn masters that you'll see many times over.

Momma Z depends on her crew to do most of the heavy lifting. Instead of directly affecting the battle, she makes it a whole lot easier for your other models to do whatever it is they do best. While she wants to sit way back and cackle as she controls her crew, the range on her abilities means she has to be somewhat close to her targets.

To unlock her full effectiveness you'll want to take advantage of her her Totem, Voodoo Doll, which allows her to easily apply Conditions to an enemy model, damage them, and push them around.

=__Mobility__= Zoraida has a decent walk of five with no other basic movement tricks. She can get additional movement through **Raven Form** (off her Upgrade **Animal Shape**) or the general Upgrade On Wings of Darkness, which gives her **Flight** and some additional card draw when you spend a stone on drawing a control hand.

The limited upgrade **Animal Shape** gives Zoraida the Tactical Action **(2) Raven Form**, which places her anywhere on the table within 15". It's great for any positioning Strategies/Schemes like Entourage, Reconnoiter, or Turf War. It's also a way to keep her alive, so it can deny Assassinate. It can be copied by Will O Wisps.

=__Utility__= Zoraida has a lot of utility, because like many Neverborn masters, she's all about trickery and control of the field rather than direct confrontation and murder.


 * Enthrall** is an ability that takes effect even before the game starts. When you're building your crew, you can add any living model, from any faction, that has a **Wp** of 4 or less to your pool of available mercenaries. People usually use this to hire in Nurses and/or Papa Loco, but there are quite a few models to look at like the Ten Thunder's Ototo if you want to experiment with adding a Ht3 killing machine with a giant club to your crew.


 * Bayou Servants**, from the **Tarot Reading** upgrade, adds even more to the hiring pool. It lets you hire Swampfiends regardless of faction. This adds a few models to the pool when Zoraida plays as Neverborn, and is more useful to Gremlins Zoraida. It lets her hire her henchman Bad Juju, the magnificent Silurids, and also the Will O Wisps; often regarded as a 'patch' to make Zoraida competitive. If you do bring in a number of swampfiend minions, then the **Eyes in the Woods** ability from the **Hexed Among You** upgrade will let you deploy them outside your deployment zone. This turns the Silurids into really good scheme runners, or puts them in a position to ambush and kill weaker enemy crew members.


 * (2) The Fickle Winds of Fate** and **(1) Mend** are also from the **Tarot Reading** upgrade. **The Fickle Winds of Fate** requires a flip of a seven or better and a mask, and allows Zoraida to place all scheme markers near her several inches away. **Mend** heals the Voodoo Doll, and while damage and conditions inflicted on the Voodoo Doll are inflicted on enemy models, they do not benefit from healing done to the Voodoo Doll.

One of her primary tricks is **Obey**, which can be cast on your own models as much as enemy models; giving them extra moves, attacks, interacts, and actions. Perhaps it's better to think of Zoraida having access to all the (1) actions of all models within a foot of herself. Build your crew with an eye to which models have really good (1)'s that work out of activation. The Doppelganger, for example, is not as good with Zoraida as with other masters. This attack does require a flip of at least a seven to work at all, so you will find that Zoraida is card hungry, and unlike some Neverborn masters, cannot get much from the Primordial Magic as a totem.


 * Bewitch** is on Zoraida's card as an Attack Action, but doesn't do damage, but instead puts the **Bewitched** condition on an enemy model. Until the start of its next activation, every time that enemy model declares a Walk, Charge, or Attack you draw two cards. Don't forget to draw these cards when those actions are declared, as you might get just the card you needed to cheat the defense flip against the attack the enemy model just made. Also, if you use Obey to make the **Bewitched** model walk or make an attack, you get to draw two cards.


 * Repulsive** is partly a defensive power, but can have a lot of utility for shoving enemy models around. It's a (1) Tactical Action that forces all enemy models within 6" of Zoraida to pass a nearly impossible Wp duel, or be pushed until they're slightly over 6" from her. Often, this will be used to extricate her from being engaged, but can also shove enemy models off board sections that they need to get VPs from Strategies or Schemes.


 * (2) You Remind Me of the Babe** will summon a Voodoo Doll within 6" of Zoraida with no extra requirements like card flips or suits. It's one of a small handful of Neverborn (2) tactical actions that can be duplicated by the Will O Wisp. If you are going to play Zoraida, you will probably want to take Will O Wisps. Check the separate page on the Voodoo Doll, and offense further down on this page, for full details, but for now just remember that the Voodoo Doll can immediately attack a model with **Hem** to put the **Sewn Fate** dondition on them thanks to its **Fate Woven** ability.


 * Glimpse** is an Ability gained from the limited upgrade **Crystal Ball**. At the start of Zoraida's activation you may do one of three things: Look at three random cards in your opponent's hand, force a player to discard a card, or draw a card. Most of the time you'll probably draw a card, but if you're opponent is down to one or two cards in their control hand, forcing them to discard is just as good.

=__Resilience__= Zoraida's 10 ** Wp ** is the highest in the game, so you shouldn't have to worry to much about anything that targets it. Her ** Df **, though, is only average at 5, and she only has 10 ** Wd **. Like most Neverborn masters, she relies on abilities, triggers, and board control to keep herself alive, rather than just getting up the board and trading punches. If your opponent knows how to subvert Zoraida's tricks she will die quickly, so you want to plan around keeping her just within the 12" range of her Attack actions.


 * Proper Manners** gives all Attack Actions against her a negative flip, unless the Attack benefits from **Focus**. This is a bit awkward, since a **Focused** Attack will still get a positive flip, and add a positive flip to damage into the bargain. This makes snipers, and other models who often gain **Focus,** a real threat to Zoraida. This is where her **(2) Raven Form** from the **Animal Shape** upgrade does a lot to add to her survival odds; letting her bounce from one piece of cover or blocking terrain to another.


 * Regret** is a trigger on Zoraida's **Df** (not built in) which does grant a small benefit to being hit by a model that used focus on her and got a bonus to the damage flip. If an opposing model inflicts moderate or severe damage on Zoraida, its Activation will immediately end. Itcan also force an oppoent to deal weak damage from a **Focused** attack, or forfeit their last AP. It's not really worth spending a stone for the mask, use it to reduce the damage, but if you flip the mask, or can cheat in a low value mask card from your hand, and the enemy model is relying on a sequence of three or more attacks, like from Flurry, it can keep Zoraida alive.


 * Bound** is not an ability on Zoraida, but instead is on the Voodoo Doll. If the model attacking Zoraida has the **Sewn Fate** condition on it, and Zoraida is within 6" of the Doll, Zoraida gets a positive twist to ALL her flips against that enemy model. This includes her defensive flips against attacks made by that model.

=__Offense__= Zoraida goes after her opponent sideways, rather than just hitting people straight in the face. She does very little direct damage by herself, but instead inflicts conditions, cripples enemy models, pushes or moves them around, and sets things up for the rest of your crew.

The Voodoo Doll is one of the central elements of Zoraida's offensive capabilities, and if there isn't one on the board, then have a Will O Wisp or Zoraida use **You Remind Me of the Babe** to get the Voodoo Doll back into play ASAP. The Voodoo Doll does pretty much what you expect. A condition called **Sewn Fate** links it to another model (almost always an enemy model) so any damage inflicted on the Doll also goes on the linked enemy model. Any condition inflicted on the Voodoo Doll is also inflicted on the **Sewn Fate** model. In addition, if Zoraida is within 1" of the doll, she can make a **(1) Interact** with the doll to push the enemy model its **Wk** in any direction. This is a much easier way to shove a model around than with **Obey.**


 * Voodoo Pins** is the only action Zoraida has that will cause direct damage, and while it does decent severe damage and inflicts **+2 Poison**, it's about as bad as any master's attack can be. Instead of attacking enemy models, you will attack your Voodoo Doll with it. **Voodoo Pins** has one trigger, //Puncture// (on a Crow), which gives a +flip on damage.

Don't forget that if a condition like Burning or Poison is on both a Voodoo Doll and the model with **Sewn Fate** the model will take damage from the condition it has on it, and also take damage when the doll takes damage from the condition on it.


 * (0) Hex** from the **Hex Bag** upgrade is the only zero action available to Zoraida. It has a high **Ca** with a baked in mask, a low TN to work, is resisted by **Wp**, and has a short range. A trigger must be declared if possible, and this will almost always be cast against the Voodoo Doll. **(Mask) Curse** inflicts the **Curse** condition on the target, and prevents it from using Soulstones, normally used as a means of setting up an enemy Henchman (masters cannot be targeted by **Hem**) for destruction by preventing them from using soulstones for damage reductions or suits needed for triggers. **(Ram) Prick** does two points of damage. **(Book) Feet to the Flames** inflicts **Burning +2** on the target, and if this is done to a Voodoo Doll it will cause four points of damage in the next upkeep phase. The enemy model will take 2 points from burning, and 2 points from when the doll gets damaged by burning. **(Crow) Just a Drop** inflicts **Poison +4** on the target, and if done to a Voodoo Doll, will cause two points of damage to the **Sewn Fate** model.


 * Obey** is the attack you'll get the most use out of. It makes a non-Leader model (friend of foe) take a **(1)** Action of your choice. That's any action, Attack or Tactical. The only catch is that if a model is forced to perform an Attack by **Obey** it cannot be targeted by **Obey** again during this Activation. She has a high Ca 7 and a mask with it, but it does have a TN14, so it can fail from time to time. Its one foot range is not typed, so ignores engaged models and cover. The ideal setup is to get a Voodoo Doll out, and put **Sewn Fate** on the model you want to target with **Obey**; then Zoraida gets a positive flip on the attack.


 * Obey** is a utility spell that can be used in a variety of ways. It can get your models to walk into position, to attack, or to gain Conditions such as **Focus** or **Defensive**. When building a crew take the time to look over each model's card and ask yourself, "what could this model do with an extra AP?" The more it would benefit the more it will like running with Zoraida. Also make sure to not do any conditions that only last "until the end of this Activation" as those will generally be a waste of **Obey**. You can also make enemy models attack each other, move into dangerous positions (Charge lanes, Hazardous terrain, Terrifying, etc.), or just miss out on VP. Just remember that you'll need a 7 in hand to guarantee it will succeed on a friendly model. If you're targeting an enemy model note the difference between Z's **Ca** 7 and the target's **Wp**. if their **Wp** is low enough then mid cards will probably be enough (remember you only have to tie the duel). If you do not have the cards in hand, then it's normally not worth depending on the flip (unless you're getting +flips, see above).

=__Upgrades__=

__Crystal Ball vs. Animal Shape (Limited)__
Both of Zoraida's limited Upgrades are excellent choices, but they're both pricey at 2 soulstones. And like almost everything in this game the one you'll want to take will depend on the Strategy and Schemes you're facing.

Crystal Ball gives you the **Glimpse** ability, which lets you draw a card, make your opponent discard a random card, or look at three of their cards. This happens at the beginning of her Activation, so it doesn't cost any AP. That alone makes it pretty awesome. But it's flexibility lets you really mess with how the rest of the turn will play out. A lot of times you'll either draw a card or make your opponent discard, but don't forget that chipping away at your opponents had can greatly reduce their options. If you have a tendency towards analysis paralysis you should steer clear of looking at your opponent's cards as too much information can be overwhelming.

Animal Shape gives Zoraida some incredible mobility. **Raven Form** is a **(2)** action that places her within 15", which means she can get halfway across the table whenever she needs to. You can't take Interact Actions after you use it, so if you're trying to drop Scheme Markers make sure to do it before you fly away. It's also AP expensive, so you shouldn't be using it every turn, but for 2 SS you can pretty much guarantee you'll succeed at Entourage or deny Assassinate.

__Hex Bag__
This gives Zoraida the **(0)** **Hex**, which pops a debuff on the target depending on the suit of the duel. On a ram it does 2 damage, a tome gives **Burning +2**, a crow is **Poison +4**, and a masks blocks the target from using Soulstones until the start of it's next activation. It's short ranged at 6", resisted with **Wp**, and only a mask is built in, but the good news is you only need a 4+ to succeed. For the most part you're going to use this on your Voodoo Doll to force conditions on enemies through **Sewn Fate**. Which condition you choose will depend on your crew and what you're facing. **Burning** is your primary go to as it equals 4 damage at the end of the turn (2 from **Burning** and 2 from **Sewn Fate** when the Doll takes damage), but if you're running with Wicked Dolls or Performers then **Poison** is a great option as well. Blocking soulstone use is a great setup for taking out Henchmen, and the 2 damage is a way to finish off a model if need be. Since Zoraida doesn't have a **(0)** otherwise, it tends to be an auto include for most players.

__Tarot Reading__
This Upgrade is a veritable cornucopia of Actions and Abilities that lets Zoraida move Scheme Markers, heal her Voodoo Doll, and hire Swampfiends out of faction.


 * The Fickle Winds of Fate** is a **(2)** that takes Scheme Marker with 4" and places them within 6", but at least 1" from one another. It requires a 7 mask and it's AP expensive so you'll only use it once or twice, but it could easily undo a lot of your opponents hard work in one activation. A lot of the schemes from Gaining Grounds 2016 require friendly scheme markers to be 2" away from one another, so you can move them around to prevent scoring. You can also Plant Explosives or Spring the Trap a lot easier if you can place the markers where you want near the end of the turn. Or you can place 2 or 3 markers in base contact with a friendly 50mm model and then **Obey** it to **Interact** and discard the lot of them. So if the Schemes look like there's going to be a lot of markers on the table this Action can be really useful.


 * Mend** is a **(1)** that heals all damage on your Voodoo Doll. It's pretty straight forward. With decent cards you can **Voodoo Pins** your Doll for 5 wounds, heal it up, and then **Voodoo Pins** it again for 5 more wounds. That's 10 damage on the **Sewn Fate** target without them getting a resist flip. Throw in Hex Bag's **Curse** to deny them soulstone use and that'll kill most Henchmen. It takes a whole activation, but if it takes out an important model it's definitely worth it. Zoraida has other options for healing the Voodoo Doll, as well. Mainly a Nurse, which comes with a lot of other tricks to boot (see below).

Lastly **Bayou Servants** lets her hire Swampfiends regardless of faction. As a Gremlin this lets her hire Bad Juju (without Eternal Fiend), Gupps, Spawn Mother, Silurids, and Waldgiests. Of those Waldgeists are really the only model that brings anything special to the table that Gremlins don't innately have. As a Neverborn she can hire Bayou Gators, Mctavish, and Wild Boars; all of which she can also hire as mercenaries. She gets a lot more use out of this ability when she's Neverborn as all three of those models give you killing power that can be a little lacking in an all Swampfiend list without them. McTavish is just generally amazing, Wild Boars can be in your opponents face turn one, and Bayou Gators can drop a lot of damage on something with their 3 attacks.

__Hexed Among You__
While not Zoraida-specific, this Swampfiend Upgrade allows you to deploy up to 3 Friendly Swampfiend minion further up the table, but they can't take Interact Actions on the first turn. This is best when used with Waldgeists or Bayou Gators since they can be a little slow and you want them in position as soon as possible. Due to the Gupps' and Silurids' mobility you won't normally deploy them upfield, because you can normally Leap/Move them first turn and start dropping scheme markers immediately. On the other hand, you could try to use a Gupp as a Bad Juju delivery device by throwing it into your opponent's crew on turn one, but if they see what your'e doing it could backfire on you. Zoraida has so many great options for Upgrade that you'll probably want to take it on one of your Henchmen - normally McTavish or Spawn Mother.

__Liquid Bravery__
While it does turn a **Ca** 8 **Lure** from a possible threat to something she'll just laugh off, Zoraida herself has little need for Liquid Bravery. The +2 **Wp** Aura, however, makes this a very good Upgrade for Zoraida in the right circumstances. As a support Master she'll generally be well-positioned to help her crew with this and if she's taking a crew full of low-**Wp** models (which is typical for Gremlins), they'll greatly value the buff. Against factions with a lot of **Wp**-based attacks or Horror Duels (e.g. Neverborn and Resurrectionists), you should consider Liquid Bravery to almost be an auto-include.

__Quality Mash Liquor__
For 1 AP, she can heal someone for 1/2/3. Useful, but if you're just keeping Voodoo Doll alive, then you should've gone with the Tarot Reading Upgrade for its **Mend** Action. This moonshine Upgrade is more useful when other friendlies are expected to stay within 2" of Zoraida.

__Dirty Cheater__
Cheat a flip, heal a point. Straightforward enough. And since a Master has 3 AP, that's one more chance to cheat than any non-Master rank. It would be really easy to delete your hand trying to heal up this way. Then again, using **Bewitch** may make this worth taking.

__The Guardian Stone__
For Zoraida, the utility of this card is only half as much as it could be for most other leaders. Let me explain: She defensively burns a Soulstone and flips a card. It generates a +1, +2 or +3 to her **Df** (which is 5) and Wp (which is 10) 'til the duel is over. Cool, right? But the benefit from this stone caps out at 8, so her natural **Wp** won't see any benefits at all. Well, at least one time you can trash this Upgrade as a (0) Action to push away 4".

__Aether Connection__
This Upgrade lets you prevent an additional damage when spending stones for prevention flips. It makes Neverborn masters a lot more survivable, but Zoraida doesn't have a lot of trouble in that category. She's also got a lot of other great Upgrades that are competing for one of her 3 slots, so it's probably on worth it on her if you're expecting your opponent to really go for Zoraida.

__Fears Given Form__
Whenever ANY model (including friendly ones!) activates within this model's engagement range it must take a **Df** 14 duel or suffer 3 damage. While this is a powerful offensive Upgrade, Zoraida doesn't really want to be in the thick of things, and her engagement range is a paltry 1". This Upgrade is great to place on a melee beater that you can **Obey** into position and buff with conditions (Bad Juju, or Barbaros).

__On Wings of Darkness__
This Upgrade gives the master **Flight** and additional card filtering. During the draw phase, if you spend a stone to draw cards you get 3 and discard 3 (instead of 2 and 2). It's easy to overlook this Upgrade as it seems to overlap with Animal Form and Zoraida's ability to draw a lot of cards to being with, but it's actually fantastic on her. It costs 1 stone and makes her both considerably more mobile and flexible. Her average **Wk** of 5 becomes a lot faster when she can fly over things in a straight line. This means you can use 1 or 2 AP in the first two turns to get her into a strong vantage point while staying just far enough out of danger. Though it's not quite as mobile as **Raven Form** it's damn close. It's only 1 soulstone and you can take it with **Crystal Ball**. By burning stones during the draw phase to filter cards Zoraida is less dependent on **Bewitch** and **Crystal Ball** to build a strong hand. If you've already got the cards you need then you're more free to look at your opponents hand or make them discard.

__Pact__
Cheating the Black Joker is a high-risk, high-payoff investment. When it works on a critical, must-succeed action, it'll be a lifesaver – but often, it'll be a Soulstone and Upgrade slot that didn't do anything over the course of a game. How much you want to take this depends on how often you're relying on Zoraida for must-succeed Actions. Almost any other Upgrade will pay off more consistently. You could never take this Upgrade on any model ever, and never miss it.

__Stone of Tyrant Echoes__
The stone lets Zoraida spend a Soulstone to add 1/2/3 to her **Df** and **Wp** when she's targeted by an Action, but it maxes out at 8 meaning she'll (almost) never benefit on the **Wp** side. It also provides a (0) Action **Tyrant Call**, which lets Zoraida discard the Upgrade to gain the **Defensive +1** Condition. Much like Aether Connection, it's a nice option for survivability but not that useful on Momma Z.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

Voodoo Doll Shenanigans
Voodoo Doll requires a significant AP investment, but it's a reliable way to take down a high-priority target, as long as the target's not a Master. When the Voodoo Doll is summoned, it immediately takes a **Hem** Action against a target (usually but not always an enemy). When **Hem** succeeds, the target gains the **Sewn Fate** Condition. An enemy model with **Sewn Fate** will suffer any damage your Voodoo Doll suffers, and will gain any Condition your Voodoo Doll gains. This allows some nasty tricks:
 * Use Zoraida's **Voodoo Pins** to damage the target with no resist. You can then heal the Voodoo Doll and attack it some more, since healing doesn't get passed on to the target.
 * Put **Poison** or **Burning** on the Voodoo Doll. These effects get double effect with the Voodoo Doll. For instance, if you put **Burning +2** on the Voodoo Doll (perhaps from **Hex**), the target gains **Burning +2**. At the end of the turn, it will take 2 damage from **Burning**, and will take ANOTHER 2 damage when the Voodoo Doll suffers damage from its own **Burning** Condition.
 * Use a Nurse with a Voodoo Doll. A Nurse can use the **Take Your Meds** Action to place negative Conditions on the Voodoo Doll, which get passed to the target. **Take Your Meds** can pass a variety of Conditions on, with one of the most popular being the Crows trigger: It heals the target and gives it **Paralyze**. Since healing isn't passed on, you'll end up with a fresh Voodoo Doll and a paralyzed target.
 * **Hem** a friendly model and then push it all over the place with **Dance, Puppet**. This can be more card efficient than multiple **Obey**s, but requires Zoraida to be within 1" of and have line of sight to the Doll. Since it's a push it can useful for rescuing a friendly from melee or getting them through severe terrain. Remember that only enemy models with the **Sewn Fate** Condition suffer wounds and Conditions placed on the Voodoo Doll.

=__Leading a Crew__= Due to being dual faction, **Enthrall**, and **Bayou Servants** Zoraida hosts the second largest hiring pool in the game (just barely smaller than her octogenarian friend, Leveticus). She also synergies well with just about any crew; so long as they like having extra AP, better cards, and can apply debuffs. Because of this it can be a little daunting to build a crew around her that's not just Swampfiends. Her crew box comes with some powerful Swampfiends, so it's a great place to start, but DO NOT overlook models outside of her theme. Experiment with crews built to synergize with themselves and then just add Zoraida to the mix. After a while you'll see how she can make strange combinations of models work really well together by just having the right cards and the extra AP to make them flexible.

Strategies and Schemes
Zoraida works best at accomplishing positioning (e.g. Turf War, Reconnoiter), interaction (Cursed Object), and marker (Stake a Claim) basked schemes. But with the right crew killing schemes aren't a problem either, she's just not going to be doing the heavy lifting.


 * Obey ** allows her to move friendly models into positions to score or enemy models out of position to deny VP. This can be especially frustrating at the end of a Turn when you're opponent doesn't have the cards or activations to prevent it. If you're feeling particularly gutsy, you can also **Repulse** a group of enemies to where they don't want to be, but that normally puts Zoraida closer to the action then you'd normally like.

Similarly, **Obey** lets your models Interact outside of their Activation, making Cursed Object a lot easier. Inversely, you can Walk a model into position so they can activate and Deliver a Message with little effort. She doesn't have anything that drops Markers without an Interact, so consider models with **Don't Mind Me** if you're wanting to do Plant Explosives or Spring the Trap. She can, however, use **Fickle Winds of Fate** (Tarot Reading Upgrade) to move markers around so you can deny VP, squeek out your own score, or just make it easier to remove them.

Killing models is not Zoraida's strong suit. Setting up her allies to do the killing, however, is something she loves doing. After you've decided who's going to be doing the murdering, filter out cards until you've got what you need and soften up your target with **Hex** or other Voodoo Doll madness.

Building a Crew
Zoraida has a lot of options, and really works best when you understand how much she can grease the wheels of all your crew's moving parts. Because of that it's probably best to break it down to it's various components. We'll start off with just faction specific models - Gremlins and Neverborn. After that we'll talk about Swampfiend focused lists, how Enthrall lets you pepper in surprises, and finally wrap it all together (hopefully).

Bad Juju is her iconic Henchman that comes in her crew box. He's an annoying tarpit that can drain your opponents cards, hand out decent damage, paralyze, and keep coming back from the dead. He's a great front line of defense, but really only shines in a Swampfiend heavy crew. If you're mixing and matching Barbaros is probably a better choice.

Silurids are one of the best scheme runners in the game, but they're also a little pricey. You'll get three in her crew box, but normally can't afford to run more than two (if that). They're highly mobile, decently defensive, and are masters at taking Interact actions. Their downside is that they're 7 stones a piece and are only slightly better than their younger brothers, The Gupps, which cost 4 stones. Depending on your play style and collection of models you'll probably find yourself taking 2 Gupps and getting more work out of them for 6 stones less than 2 Silurids.

Waldgeist are one of the only tanky models in a faction of softies. They can get a 4" melee range if they're in severe terrain, take some effort to kill, can deploy up field with Hexed Among You, hand out Rooted and Slow, and if they die they bring back Bad Juju. All that for just 6 stones. If you need some defense and board control they're definitely taking one or two.

Enthrall
This lets her hire (as a Mercenary) any Living Model with a **Wp** 4 or lower, because she an brainwash them or whatever (which is fun). But since it takes up a merc slot and costs an extra stone take a second to think about your choices, because (frankly) some options are clearly better than others. Here's a collected list with some quick notes about how well they work (out of faction) with Zoraida specifically. Note that Swampfieds have their own section above.
 * **Guild:** Papa Loco
 * Papa Loco is fun. He can throw around blasts (which Neverborn don't really get), give a +flip to a model's damage, and generally blow things up. He doesn't have any hidden tricks, but if you're Neverborn and you think you're going to face swarms of smaller models then he could be useful.
 * ** Res ** **urrectionists:** Nurse
 * By the Tyrants, the Nurse is amazing. She's almost an auto-include with Zoraida - especially if you use the Voodoo Doll a lot. Her double-sided conditions can be used to amazing effect, especially when your **Sewn Fate** target doesn't even get a resist. See the Voodoo Doll for more information.
 * **Arcanist:** Silent One, Malifaux Raptor
 * Silent Ones have some unique powers that aren't very common in Neverborn - mainly ranged attacks and healing. Due to Ice Mirror they're best if taken in a pair, which means they're both your Mercenaries and 14 stones. They're a nice trick to keep in your back pocket, because no one is going to expect them when you declare Neverborn, but if you're a Gremlin don't take them.
 * **Neverborn:** Iggy, Depleted, Gupps, Silurids
 * If you're declaring Gremlins, then Iggy is amazing. The **Burning** and **Wp** penalty are nice, but **Mood Swings** is where he really earns his keep. Adding in more activation control to a faction that tends to out-activate their opponents can really throw off any plans they might have made.
 * **Outcasts:** Desperate Mercs (note that they're Mercenaries so this isn't much use)
 * **Gremlins:** Lenny, Bayou Gremlins, Hog Whisperer (already Mercenaries), War Pig, Piglet, Pere Ravage, Rami LaCroix, Raphael LaCroix, Gremlin Taxidermist, Wild Boar, Bayou Gator
 * **Ten Thunders:** Ototo, Samurai
 * The Samurai can be used as a mobile weapons platform, if you're so inclined. Use it's activation to move and go **Defensive**, then **Obey** it to **Shoulder Gatling.** If you miss it won't take the 4 damage as it's outside of it's activation. Due to the +3flips, you'll be fishing for a Black Jocker so it might (for once) be worth it to take the Pact Upgrade, but that would make this model a total of 10 stones so maybe not. Ototo is a tank of a henchman that can whack a Voodoo Doll with his club to inflict slow on the linked model.

=__Playing Against Zoraida__= Be aware of models that are vulnerable to **Obey**! If you have a model that can explode itself, or hit for massive damage, keep it away from friendly models! Don't put your models on elevation they can walk off of, and stay away from hazardous terrain.

Do everything in your power to keep the Voodoo Doll from casting **Hem** on your models, and especially stop it from casting it on your heavy hitters. Know that the Zoraida player will be doing the same, and will try to use **Bewitch** and **Glimpse** to give themselves an advantage in their control hand.

Zoraida isn't impossible to kill, but you'll need to commit a lot of resources if you want to do it. **Focus** helps a lot. As does a strong low damage. Ranged damage helps to keep her from flying away, but what you really want to do is concentrate on destroying her crew from weakest to strongest model. Zoriada is a backfield manipulator, and can only get your crew members to attack each other once before moving on to the next Obey target. If there are Will O Wisps in the enemy crew, concentrate on killing them first, as they can cast Zoraida's pile of (2) Tactical Actions as (1) Tactical Actions. You could find up to 18 points of damage coming from Sewn Fate in a single turn with both Zoraida and a Will O Wisp casting **You Remind Me of the Babe** each turn.

What you want and need, like in most crews, is condition removal. With enough condition removal, and some judicious cheating, you can neutralize her threat.

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