Amina Zidane Guide - The Doom Dealer

Card draw simulator

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Derived from
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duymon554 · 7

OVERVIEW

Amina, a refugee from French-occupied Algeria, Amina arrived in Arkham with nothing more than she could carry. Six years later, Amina's sharp mind and technical skill placed her at the switchboard for the Miskatonic Valley Telephone Company. Soon after, she began to catch snippets of something strange while at work - distorted words in an unrecognizable language, out-of-place noises, calls that connected to nowhere at all and dropped almost immediately. As the phantom calls grew in frequency, Amina sought answers. She found the right extension, connected to the line, and listened in. Despite not understanding a word of the alien language on the other side, she could tell the eldritch words held real power.

Amina Zidane has been a highly debated investigator in the AH LCG community. Designed around the idea of using doom to save costs, she lacks strong doom-management tools at low XP during the early campaign scenarios. Combined with a mediocre stat line, these factors have led to her being considered one of the weakest characters in the game. However, on the other aspect, Amina is an investigator who can build a deck around a specific theme, allowing players to truly immerse themselves in the character and enjoy the game. Let’s explore a deck concept for Amina Zidane - The Operator.


CORE IDEA

Amina has always been a character that makes me think and find ways to use her effectively in campaigns. While glancing through her information, I realized that she has a stat line characteristic of a Generalist—3/3/3/3. If she relies on just one stat for skill tests, the success rate is quite low and requires a considerable amount of commitment. However, if she can leverage two stats simultaneously, her overall performance improves significantly. Combined with her ability to save resources, she can use the surplus to boost her stats even further, compensating for her otherwise average attributes. And that’s how I came up with this deck—"Amina Zidane - The Doom Dealer."

"What is it trying to tell me?"

Selective Magic

Just an ordinary operator who accidentally heard the whispers of the Mythos, Amina lacks innate magical talent. Because of this, she cannot rely solely on willpower but must also take advantage of her "ordinary" nature.

She should primarily use spells that allow her to combine two stats to contribute effectively to the team. Read the Signs, Spectral Razor and Ethereal Form elevate Amina’s base skill test values to 6, making them perfect choices for her. However, the challenge is how to use these spells repeatedly and pay their costs efficiently.

Risky Investment

While searching for support, Amina encountered David Renfield, an eschatologist. Now, the two will work together to delve deeper into the strange sounds Amina hears and unlock the potential of forbidden knowledge.

Amina’s ability allows her to save a significant amount of resources while having a reliable ally to maximize her potential— David Renfield. David also boosts Amina’s by 1.

String of Curses is an unstable source of resource generation through spells. However, in a fortunate scenario, it can provide a significant amount of resources when combined with Amina's innate ability or the right type of enemy, which we will discuss later.

A third source of income is Forbidden Knowledge, Given Amina’s high sanity, taking some horror in exchange for resources is manageable. More importantly, forbidden knowledge helps us control the chaos that comes from exploiting doom—a topic I’ll address next.

Risk Management

Diving too deep into the Mythos demands careful preparation. Amina and David both understand this. She has studied a purification ritual for herself, and David is willing to sacrifice himself to ensure her safety.

One of the main reasons Amina is underutilized is that the doom-based playstyle is often seen as too risky for its benefits. Poor doom management can quickly spiral out of control. Our goal is to remove doom from David at the right time while keeping him long enough to generate resources. So how do we do this?

  • Moonlight Ritual is an obvious choice for removing doom and reusing David. Remember, you’ll need to use it 1 to 2 rounds before the agenda advances. There is only one copy in this deck because you’ll likely use it less often than you might expect. A single copy also allows you to take advantage of Down the Rabbit Hole when upgrading to the action-free version of Moonlight Ritual.

  • Activating Forbidden Knowledge and assigning horror to David—this doesn’t cost an action and can be done outside of Amina’s turn, making it extremely useful. However, it completely discards David, so make sure you’ve gained enough resources from him first.. !! Note that there is no player window during Revelation effects, so you cannot use this after drawing Ancient Evils !!.

  • Calling in Favors is also a potentially useful choice. Sometimes, you may want to switch between David Renfield and Arcane Initiate without having to discard one of them. You can adjust the number of copies of this card relative to Moonlight Ritual or Forbidden Knowledge, depending on your preferred playstyle.

  • The only solution when drawing unwanted encounter cards—and something every Mystic should always have—is Ward of Protection. Save it for encounters that would advance the agenda uncontrollably.

  • Some alternative methods to manage doom exist, though they are less reliable as they depend on Amina’s ability. Her ability allows her to place doom on any card at her location. You can transfer doom onto Forbidden Knowledge or Living Ink, letting them self-destruct once their uses run out. Another option is transferring doom onto an enemy and defeating it—imagine moving David Renfield's accumulated doom onto an enemy and using String of Curses to take it down, resulting in a shower of resources while completely removing the doom!

Beyond the Ordinary

Amina is aware of her limitations, so she constantly researches magic and rituals to strengthen herself. The search for answers to the mysterious sounds she hears has also led her to collect a few charm items that aid her..

  • With this playstyle, Amina will have an abundance of resources to trigger Arcane Studies compensating for her mediocre base stats. || Amina and David’s collaboration in analyzing the cryptic voices has advanced her magical studies beyond expectations.

  • Cat Mask synergizes well with Amina’s ability, and its stat boost helps her pass certain skill tests. || While browsing a black market, Amina stumbled upon a strange mask. She felt an energy similar to the whispers she often hears. The vendor claimed it was crafted by an isolated island people from Hemlock and would grant the wearer power.

  • St. Hubert's Key +1 and +1 . When using Read the Signs, Amina can reach an investigation value of 8. || Amina received this key during a purification ritual she attended. It seemed to retain some lingering energy from the ceremony.

  • Living Ink with 0 cost, provides a flexible stat boost, making it adaptable to many campaigns. Once upgraded, it grants an additional stat boost, making it a solid investment. || One of the rituals Amina learned from Eastern traditions, this enchantment doesn’t provide permanent power, but for someone with limited magical talent like her, it’s unexpectedly effective.

When Magic Runs Dry

Given her limited magical ability, Amina always looks for ways to restore her power quickly and equip herself with the necessary tools to survive without relying solely on magic.

  • Since spell events are limited, we’ll still need some backup tools to function in a team instead of relying entirely on spells. Ceremonial Sickle, Dowsing Rod, Hallowed Chalice are the best options. || Amina hunts for charm items in the black market to protect herself—after all, she’s just an ordinary person.

  • Quantum Flux serves as a reset button when key cards are depleted. || During her research, Amina discovered that quantum energy seems linked to psychic energy—or perhaps they are the same thing. Understanding this allows her to reclaim some of her lost power using quantum knowledge.

Deep Study

Amina studies her notes day after day, preparing everything she needs. Now, there’s only one path forward.

Since her deck is well-equipped with essential tools, it won’t change drastically over time and will primarily focus on upgrading existing cards Read the Signs, Spectral Razor, Living Ink. This makes Down the Rabbit Hole a great choice. However, depending on the campaign and playstyle, skipping it might offer more upgrade flexibility.

Optional Cards to Consider:

This deck can be divided into two phases: Risky Investment and Explosion.

Risky Investment Use Mulligan aggressively to get David Renfield in your opening hand, as he is your primary economy engine. You’ll also want at least one way to remove him when necessary, such as Moonlight Ritual, Calling in Favors, or Forbidden Knowledge. Getting David early allows you to maximize his value. With Amina’s ability, David enters play for free with one doom. Activating his ability immediately grants 2 resources, and next round, another 3 resources (5 resources in 2 rounds for just one action). If you can keep David for an additional round, you’ll be swimming in resources. The total resources gained after two rounds would be: 5 starting resources + 5 from David + 2 from upkeep = 12 resources total. At this point, you should remove the doom from David using one of the mentioned methods. Ideally, reset David with Moonlight Ritual or swap him out for Arcane Initiate to quickly fetch essential spells and start supporting your team. If you can cycle this combo 2-3 times, resource management will no longer be an issue for the rest of the scenario.

If you don’t find David early but have Arcane Initiate, use her to fetch spells first, then transition to David when possible. If you have Calling in Favors, your chances of finding David improve significantly.

During this phase, you should also equip assets that boost your stats. Cat Mask, St. Hubert’s Key, or Arcane Studies are great choices. Agenda advancement timing is crucial—use Amina’s cost reduction ability wisely.

Even in this setup phase, you’re not useless to the team. Cards like Drawn to the Flame, Dowsing Rod, Living Ink, and String of Curses allow you to contribute to clue-gathering.

Explosion Once you’ve secured 1-2 stat-boosting assets and key spells, Amina will reliably succeed in tests. With just St. Hubert’s Key, she can: Read the Signs at 8 , Spectral Razor and Ethereal Form at 7 . If she also has Cat Mask (which synergizes well with her ability) or Arcane Studies (fueled by the earlier resource gain), success rates become even higher.

At this stage, keeping Arcane Initiate in play is ideal for one extra card draw per turn. Use Quantum Flux to reshuffle the deck once key spells are discarded.

Always remember that her spell event are limited, and her role is to finish off what her teammates leave undone. Use spells for high-difficulty tests and basic actions for low-difficulty ones (she can boost stats without relying on spells). As the campaign progresses, Amina will have an easier time recycling spells, making resource management and spell conservation less of an issue.

Upgrading Path

Prioritize upgrading Read the Signs, Spectral Razor, and Ethereal Form (at least one copy each) for better reusability. Next, invest in: Ward of Protection to support teammates and counter Ancient Evils (especially when someone else draws it). Uncage the Soul as a wildcard resource saver for any spell or ritual. Living Ink for long-term investment, as it boosts multiple stats simultaneously. Start with for early-game value; later, choose Shifting Ink for team support or self-focused upgrades for more charges and stat boosts. Down the Rabbit Hole significantly reduce XP costs throughout the campaign.


STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Strengths

1. High resource availability, thanks to cost-saving abilities and diverse resource generation sources.

2. Partially mitigates Amina’s weak base stats.

3. Make you feel like a Mystic Rouge.

4. Thematic. More dooms, more resources. More resources, more power.

Weaknesses

1. Requires setup time to reach full power. The power gap between peak and low points is significant. Performance depends on drawing the right cards.

2. Limited card draw before getting Arcane Initiate (you may need help from your team to get some key cards or you will fall behind and pray for your luck), lacks skill cards, and is mostly self-focused with minimal team support effects.

3. Require doom management heavily.

4. A common weakness across all Amina playstyles: ALWAYS WALKING ON THIN ICE!!! Deafening Silence


SUMMARY

Amina Zidane is often rated as a weak investigator because the cost of using doom doesn’t quite match the benefits she gains. This deck aims to improve her doom management and make better use of her balanced-but-average stat line by playing her as a rich Generalist. Hopefully, this build will help those who enjoy playing Amina and give her a more viable playstyle. With future expansions for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, she may eventually find her place to shine. This concludes the idea for the Amina Zidane -The Doom Dealer deck.

I have just tested the deck’s actual performance twice. If it does not meet your expectations, I welcome any feedback for further adjustments.

”Am I cursed or am I chosen ?”

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