Pinch Hitter Yorick (Solo, Return to NotZ, Achievements)

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Voltgloss · 345

Inspired by the Mythos Busters' Achievement Hunters podcast first episode, I decided to craft a solo deck specifically aimed at accomplishing an Achievement (or a few) in the Return to the Night of the Zealot campaign. I decided to start with the "Pinch Hitter" achievement because (i) it seemed delightfully thematic and (ii) I haven't yet tried William Yorick. William seems a natural fit for this challenge, with his high , ability to retrieve a broken Baseball Bat, and ability to use another hand item with the Bat (thanks to Bandolier access). Of course, I'd still like for him to survive Return to The Gathering in the process. So, here are my deckbuilding plans going into this (listed in the order I chose cards to include), followed by my session report!

DECKBUILDING STRATEGY

Cards owned: all cycles through and including The Forgotten Age, plus all three Return box sets

  • Baseball Bat x2: The obvious first choice. Can't be a Pinch Hitter without your hittin' tools.

  • Bandolier x2: Yes, this card has a poor reputation and for general use it's probably well-deserved. However, for this particular challenge it means I can have a Baseball Bat and an auxiliary hand item in play simultaneously. Given the ever-present threat of the Bat breaking, and my need to have a Bat out as much as I can at all times, that extra hand slot may be a really important advantage.

  • Cherished Keepsake x2: William's lovely recursive teddy bear is our best defense against Rotting Remains and other nasty sources of horror.

  • Knife x2: If and when my Bat breaks, having a backup Knife to finish off what remains or comes next - and in the process, retrieve the Bat - seems like a good backup plan. I thought about Survival Knife here instead, and in hindsight may have been better off with one of each, to give myself extra options in the discard pile.

  • Backpack x2: I have a lot of items. Some of them are really important to find. What's a good way of finding items? The Backpack. Yes, it conflicts with Bandolier, but the idea here is to use Backpack to help me find my equipment (Bat, Bandolier, Keepsake, and auxiliary hand item). Swapping Backpack for Bandolier once I've got my loadout should be fine.

  • Emergency Cache x2: Pausing to add this remembering that Backpack can pull it. William needs economy and this is the simplest option; and the Backpack synergy can only help.

  • Madame Labranche x2: I thought hard about which ally to bring. For a while this slot had Beat Cops. But ultimately I decided that the good Madame brings some more important things to the table: (1) drip economy; and (2) more cost-effective damage soak. In particular, since I'm running Backpack and Bandolier, I can't also run Leather Coat. Being a 2/2 soak for only $2, Madame Labranche makes a reasonable substitute - especially because with her ability, I can start most turns with $2 in hand. And with that in mind, I decide to keep ALL cards in the deck at $2 or cheaper.

  • Flashlight x1, Gravedigger's Shovel x1, Lantern x1: These round out my suite of auxiliary hand items, and to start working on William's weakness: clue-gathering. I took only 1 of each because I concluded it was more important to have several different options I could recur from the discard - even if there's only 1 of each of them in there - than it was to double-up. Any one of these might be more useful than others depending on what randomly chosen locations I'm facing.

  • On the Hunt x2: Because I'm trying for Pinch Hitter, I want to have some enemy-gathering Events in case the encounter deck just coughs up a bunch of treacheries. These also synergize with...

  • Scene of the Crime x2: Thought long and hard here between Scene of the Crime, Evidence!, and "Look what I found!" Ultimately I concluded that this option was best given my running On the Hunt. And while I like Evidence! for being fast, I ultimately preferred the ability to convert Scene of the Crime into a testless clue without needing an enemy. In retrospect, packing a couple of extra clue-gathering events may have been better for pure efficiency... but we're dedicated to cracking Ghoul skulls here. That's a different kind of efficiency!

  • Last Chance x2: Finally, some skills. I note that the Return box adds a lot of effects that force you to discard cards from your hand. So why not lean into that with a skill that's better the fewer cards are in your hand? So much of my deck is cheap to play that I expect to be light on cards-in-hand most of the time anyway.

  • Take the Initiative x2: I recently tried this in a different solo campaign and found it tremendously useful, especially for blunting the worst treacheries.

  • Resourceful x2: This is more forward-looking than immediately useful. One day, I plan to have Will to Survive in here, and when that day comes, being able to recur it with Resourceful will be supremely powerful.

  • Vicious Blow x1 and Stunning Blow x1: Rounding skills out with a couple of bigger hits. There aren't many health 3 foes here but there are a couple (Acolyte of Umordhoth and Corpse-Hungry Ghoul), and I could see an evade-via-attack being useful in a pinch (to turn off Retaliate if nothing else).

  • Handcuffs x1: My last add. This is more an experiment. I've never run this, but perhaps I can use this to drag an enemy to place where I need Scene of the Crime to crack a double-clue? Evade/attach this, then re-engage the handcuffed enemy, and you can drag him wherever you need to. This might also be useful in Scenario II if I try for the Do You Get It Now? achievement. And hey, William can recur this too! Let's give it a try.

With the deck designed, let's take it for a spin!

SCENARIO I - RETURN TO THE GATHERING (STANDARD DIFFICULTY)

Pretty good start. I have three of my main assets available and a Backpack to dig for some more.

R1 (0D, 0H, 5$, 0C): 0/3 doom

That was a disappointingly empty Backpack, but at least I now have an excellent answer for the Bathroom clue (and a reasonable shot at the Bedroom clue too).

R2 (0D, 0H, 2$, 0C): 1/3 doom

I had my duplicate teddy bear ready, but amazingly my first chaos token pull was the best one in the bag. That kind of luck is sure to continue, right?

R3 (0D, 0H, 2$, 0C): 2/3 doom

Of course that luck wasn't going to continue! Discarding my Baseball Bat before using it is annoying, but it's only one beat-up Swarm of Rats or Grave-Eater away from returning - and I really need to get that Lantern out to get some clues. Also, with my hand empty, I thought hard about whether to use Madame Labranche's ability for the money or for an extra card. Ultimately, with an almost 33% chance that a second-action investigate in the Bathroom would lose me my third action, I decided to spend my second action on card draw first; and seeing a card that's better with an emptier hand, my decision (to take money instead) was clear.

R4 (0D, 0H, 2$, 1C): 3/3 doom

Thanks to Bandolier, I'm now prepared to get my Baseball Bat and my Lantern out simultaneously. Thanks to Madame, I'm back at $2 to do so. And thanks to Last Chance, I now have the means to get the Study clue. Unfortunately, thanks to Psychosis, I'm delayed in doing that.

R5 (0D, 0H, 2$, 1C): 1/7 doom

R6 (0D, 0H, 3$, 1C): 2/7 doom

Ready to swing away! Although it took longer than I'd hoped, and I still don't have the Study clue. Thankfully, that card I just drew is an even easier means of acquiring it than is Last Chance. Which frees up that (or Take the Initiative) for the Act 1b test instead.

R7 (0D, 0H, 2$, 1C): 3/7 doom

R8 (0D, 0H, 2$, 2C): 5/7 doom

That's one pummeled ghoul down, and a VP one to boot. I took a calculated risk in using the Lantern unaided here; thankfully it paid off. With my second Scene of the Crime in hand, my next goal is the place that will, one way or another, be shroud 4: the Cellar.

R9 (0D, 0H, 3$, 0C): 6/7 doom

I let the Icy Ghoul take a swing at me so that I'd start the next turn in the Cellar. Seeing as how it's the shroud 4/clues 2/victory 1 version, this means my second Scene of the Crime is about to pay off in spades. I know I'm getting an extra ghoul thanks to the upcoming Agenda flip, and thereafter I'll have to manage the Flesh-Eater coming out of the Attic, but I feel well-equipped to handle those threats. What could possibly go wrong?

R10 (2D, 0H, 4$, 0C): 7/7 doom

A lot could go wrong, that's what. At least that terribly timed Chill from Below was offset by my pull bringing Scene of the Crime right back. I thought briefly about leaving the Grave-Eater alive another round so I could use Scene next round, but the problem there is Agenda 3b; once that flips the Flesh-Eater will be moving into the Hallway and growing extra doom. I can't let that happen. But maybe I can drag the Flesh-Eater into the Cellar after I've defeated the ghouls down here? That's the (backup) plan, at least.

On the bright side, Yorick's now a successful Pinch Hitter! Now, can he get out of his house alive with that title?

R11 (2D, 0H, 3$, 0C): 1/10 doom

Seeing the fourth VP ghoul spawn forced another rethink. I couldn't see a workable way to bring the Flesh-Eater to the Cellar without letting the Ghoul from the Depths start spawning doom in the Hallway (and without accumulating severe horror). But maybe I could defeat the Flesh-Eater and then apply that plan to the Ghoul from the Depths? It deals less horror, at the very least. And the Baseball Bat notches another kill!

R12 (2D, 0H, 4$, 0C): 2/10 doom

I swear, the encounter deck really could stop throwing Ghouls at me. Also, now that I know the Attic isn't the shroud 1 version, I made the calculated decision to drop my Lantern in favor of a backup Knife. This Baseball Bat has taken out five ghouls, but surely it's doomed to break at some point. On the plus side: plan "Drag a ghoul to the Cellar" just got a tremendous Handcuffs-fueled boost.

I'm also taking advantage of the fact that Agenda 3a only makes unengaged ghouls move towards the Hallway. It's absolutely worth taking a punch on the chin (well, Madame Labranche's chin) if it keeps the Ghoul from the Depths from generating extra doom.

R13 (2D, 0H, 4$, 0C): 3/10 doom

I really can't complain. Six ghoul kills before breaking made this one heck of a trusty Baseball Bat. That I was stunning the Ghoul so I'd have breathing room to play Handcuffs (to cuff it next round) was a somewhat lucky break. Still, look at that: another ghoul from the encounter deck?? I haven't even played On the Hunt this game!

R14 (2D, 0H, 3$, 0C): 4/10 doom

Finally the Encounter deck whiffed, and Plan Drag-A-Ghoul was going well. One problem though; I realized I couldn't end my turn in the Hallway with my attached friend or he'd sprout doom despite being exhausted. So I spent a turn drawing an extra card, hoping for something to nab an Attic clue. What I got was my own personal set of extra ghouls, and only a Knife to fend them off.

R15 (3D, 0H, 4$, 0C): 5/10 doom

Thankfully, that Knife proved its worth, and even got me my Baseball Bat back. And hopefully that Backpack will have a tool I need for the Attic in it.

At this point, I look at the doom clock and realize something: there is just no way I'm going to be able to defeat the Ghoul Priest. The fact that Act 3a/3b triggers before Agenda 3a's forced effect means that, when you spend clues to spawn the Ghoul Priest, he's always going to drop one extra doom on the agenda before you can react. And I don't even have ANY Act 2 clues yet! However, what I can do is get the clues and spend them by the doom 9/10 turn... meaning that the Agenda flips immediately after the Ghoul Priest spawns. It's less ideal, as I'll be taking a physical trauma, but it does mean that William doesn't get killed outright. And hey, there's another achievement that requires bringing the Ghoul Priest to Scenario II anyway.

One helpful thing I remembered at this point: when discarding for a Ghoul at Agenda 2b, I passed by two of the three Ancient Evils cards. So at least the chance of extra doom wrecking my plans is significantly reduced.

R16 (3D, 0H, 3$, 0C): 6/10 doom

Me and my Ghoulfriend are finally ready to get the Cellar clues, and that Gravedigger's Shovel in my Backpack is exactly what I need for the Attic.

R17 (3D, 0H, 2$, 0C): 7/10 doom

The Swarm of Rats were an unwelcome additional sight (seriously, what the heck, encounter deck). At this point, I pretty much need everything else to go right or I won't execute my plan in time. There is no way I can get to Field of Graves and its Victory point; I only have time to get the Attic clue and be done with it.

R18 (3D, 0H, 2$, 2C): 8/10 doom

R19 (3D, 0H, 2$, 2C): 9/10 doom

Phew. I could have ignored the Grave-Eater and just let it hit me a few times, but I had the one extra action (literally one extra) so evaded it for just a little extra style.

R20 (3D, 0H, 3$, 0C): 12/10 doom

  • Agenda advances to 3b: defeated [+1 physical trauma]

William Yorick is bodily hurled out of house by the Ghoul Priest, having defused Lita Chantler's barrier at the very last second. He's shaken, bruised, and a wee bit traumatized. But he's alive. And he's proved himself a real Pinch Hitter.

Scenario I: No resolution

  • William's house is still standing
  • The Ghoul Priest is still alive
  • William adds Lita Chantler to his deck
  • 8 experience [6 Victory + 2 bonus]
  • 1 physical trauma
  • Achievement: Pinch Hitter

Victory points obtained: the Cellar, all four VP ghouls in the encounter deck, and Bury Them Deep. Victory points missed: Field of Graves and the Ghoul Priest.

I thought about foregoing Lita Chantler for that achievement, but ultimately decided she fits William's deck too well to pass up (a 0-cost 3/3 soak ally who buffs ? Heck yes). Perhaps I'll manage to score The Zealot's Revenge in Scenario II while also trying for Do You Get It Now? We will see.

The encounter deck for this scenario is about 1/3 enemies and 2/3 treacheries. Out of 18 random encounter pulls (not counting the forced Agenda 2b ghoul draw), the expected average would be 6 enemies and 12 treacheries. William's ratio? 10 enemies and 8 treacheries. At least he was (barely) prepared!

(Oh, and when the game ended, Ancient Evils was the next card in the encounter deck.)

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