Harvester of Sorrow

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Diggin' Deep with Daisy 0 0 0 1.0
Diggin' Deep with Daisy 0 0 0 2.0
Reap what you sow 1 0 0 1.0
The Shoveler (Beat Labyrinths of Lunacy 12 player) 0 0 0 1.0
Yorick (pyr) 0 0 0 1.0
Yorick (pyr) 0 0 0 2.0
And the Rest, Silence 1 0 0 1.0
Harvester of Sorrow 2.0 0 0 0 1.0
Alas poor fools, Yorick! 2 2 1 1.0
Alas poor fools, Yorick! 0 0 0 2.0
Alas poor fools, Yorick! 0 0 0 3.0
Alas poor fools, Yorick! 0 0 0 4.0
William Yorick, Harvester of Sorrow 0 0 0 1.0
William Yorick, Harvester of Forgotten Sorrow 0 0 0 1.0
William Yorick, Harvester of Forgotten Sorrow 0 0 0 1.0
yorick prints 0 0 0 1.0
yorick prints 0 0 0 2.0

MOTUX · 8237

There are a lot of ways to approach Yorick's unique ability, but this build attempts to take a lean, focused approach to Yorick by focusing on what Yorick does best: reduce, reuse, and recycle. What we end up with is a deck that can pump out plenty of damage while holding its own weight in the cluever department.

Suggested Updates: Echoes from the Past

If you're playing Carcosa I recommend keeping the extra Fine Clothes. Cherished Keepsake also renders the choice between Elder Sign Amulet and Police Badge moot; just stick to the Police Badge and grab Relic Hunter instead of Moment of Respite. If you want to experiment with Plucky, try swapping out a copy of Guts or Perception.

Creeping Death (Piloting Instructions and Deck Breakdown)

The decks basic operation is pretty straightforward: kill things with Knife/Gravedigger's Shovel, find clues with Lantern/"Look what I found!", and then recur them with Yorick's , , and Resourceful. If you need to squeeze out more offence, utilize Vicious Blow, Guard Dog, Beat Cop(2), and Aquinnah(3).

Our main target for Yorick's reaction is Knife, though we do have a host of other valid targets. However, these other targets are expensive so be mindful about "popping" them too liberally lest our bank account Fade to Black red. Pop 'em when you need to, otherwise keep them on the board!

Killing is My Business... and Business is Good (how we slay our enemies)

At first glance Yorick appears to lack the big guns to mow down the big baddies from the beyond. This is somewhat true, but for most applications you'll have all the offence you need in Knife and Vicious Blow(2). These two cards alone provide you upwards of 8 combat and 4 damage, and you can recur both via Yorick's and ; all for the low low price of 1 resource and 2 xp. Eat your heart out Lightning Gun!

Gravedigger's Shovel is also worth a mention. While it doesn't have the +1 damage we often look for in weapons, it does have a nice +2 bonus. If you have the Shovel in one hand and a Knife in another, use the Shovel to whittle a 3+ health enemy down and finish it off with the Knife's discard action. Lantern, Guard Dog, and Beat Cop(2) can provide additional support where needed.

This is not enough to be your group's Duke-A-number-1 fighter while the rest are puny little Seekers who didn't pick up Strange Solution. However, it is enough in (1) solo, (2) each member of the group is packing some heat to support Yorick.

The Thing That Should Not Be (Yes, Yorick can get clues too!)

Yorick's pitiful 2 is righted by a number of cards, starting with Lantern (a less potent, but reusable, Flashlight) and Gravedigger's Shovel (when you want to grab that 1 clue off a high shroud location). What is really important about Lantern though is it is usually enough to put us within spitting distance of using "Look what I found!" and Lucky!. All of these cards are valid targets for Resourceful (and Yorick's ).

Leather Rebel (Dressing for the Occassion)

Yorick currently has 3 viable options for level 0 dress wear: Fine Clothes, Bandolier, and Leather Coat. I prefer Fine Clothes for two reasons. First, it provides a crucial sanity point that may or may not save your mind. Second, it comes in handy for scenarios where Parley tests are a plenty.

Where neither of the above are called for, Bandolier is a great option. An issue with Yorick is we often want lots of gear on hand to use and pop but we struggle keeping enough "Load(ed)" or "ReLoad(ing") after an encounter. Bandolier helps relieve these issues.

Leather Coat is perfectly servicable where physical damage is more common than horror. However, I would generally opt for Fine Clothes or Bandolier instead.

You've Got Another Thing Coming (Mulligan Guide)

Early Campaign

Your first priority is looking for a weapon, preferably Knife > Gravedigger's Shovel > Lantern. Next priority is Vicious Blow. After that, look for Lantern, "Look what I found!", Perception, etc to start finding some clues.

Mid-Late Campaign

Look for Ever Vigilant and a host of assets to play. We should be able to play 3 assets with this first action and our starting 5 resources.

Peace Sells... but Whose Buying? (Upgrade Instructions)

  1. Vicious Blow x2 Vicious Blow(2) x2

  2. Guard Dog x2 Beat Cop(2) or Aquinnah(3) x2

  3. Emergency Cache x2 Ever Vigilant x2

  4. Dodge Police Badge or Elder Sign Amulet

  5. "If it bleeds..." Moment of Respite

  6. Unexpected Courage x2 Stroke of Luck x2

Pick up Scrapper and upgrade to Lucky!(2)somewhere in between. Charisma is also worth a pick up if your deck is saddled by useful story assets like Lita Chantler and Dr. Francis Morgan. Consider also picking up Emergency Cache(2) to shore up our economy.

Regarding Police Badge vs. Elder Sign Amulet, both are fantastic assets for Yorick and your choice will likely depend on your needs. Do you need action economy or a sanity buffer? If you feel that your sanity is under assault, consider the Elder Sign Amulet. However, the Police Badge shores up our (which often helps us avoid taking horror) and can be discarded to slay a nasty enemy.

Much of the same applies to Beat Cop(2) vs. Aquinnah(3). Both are fine choices, the former providing more consistent extra damage output while the latter provides an extra sanity buffer. Decisions... decisions...

I recommend sticking to Elder Sign Amulet and Aquinnah on Easy/Standard, and Police Badge and Beat Cop on Hard/Expert.

Rust in Peace (ie what we're not buying / including)

As tempting as it is to fill our deck up with amazing allies like Brother Xavier and The Red-Gloved Man (or other discard assets), be mindful that Yorick's economy options are quite limited. We basically have Ever Vigilant and Emergency Cache and that's it. Paying for these cards constantly, even without the assets we are recurring, would put a tremendous strain on our wallet and we may not even always be able to realize on the benefit (as is the case with The Red-Gloved Man). That's why are following KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.

We also want to keep all those neutral skill cards in our deck if only to help thin our deck to the cards we are looking for. Avoid removing them if you can.

17 comments

Oct 01, 2017 Jschmuck2 · 1

Played this tonight and thought it was excellent

Well done!

Oct 01, 2017 Nyahm · 1

Lol I love the metal songs for the titles! XD

Oct 01, 2017 MOTUX · 8237

@Jschmuck2 glad to hear it worked out!

Oct 11, 2017 Whisky · 1

This deck looks great. Am keen to try it out. I was initially going to try a leather coat/smoking pipe combo to soak up horror, however i like the idea of just recycling fine clothes to clear both horror or damage while freeing up slots for something else.

Oct 26, 2017 Jschmuck2 · 1

Any thoughts on the new assets in Echoes of the Past? Cherished Keepsake and Combat training seem ripe for recursion.

Oct 26, 2017 MOTUX · 8237

@Jschmuck2I haven't given it too much thought yet, but they are definitely worthy inclusions. At this point I would replace "If it bleeds..." with 1x Cherished Keepsake, and if I wanted a second copy replace either Dodge or a copy of Fine Clothes (the latter, mind you, is extremely helpful in Carcosa).

Re: Combat Training, I would probably choose Plucky instead. and cover Yorick's "weak stat" and is always important. Combat Training, meanwhile, is more or less a less dependable Scrapper. Not sure what I would cut to include it though, maybe a copy of Guts/Perception/Unexpected Courage?

Oct 31, 2017 Orangeman44 · 1

@MOTUX- You mentioned that Fine Clothes is extremely helpful in Carcosa - is that for the parley ability? I just build a new deck to start the campaign that is inspired by your Harvester of Sorrows deck, but I replaced the Fine Clothes with Cherished Keepsake. In Dunwich, we were getting murdered with horror damage (and very little physical damage), so the Keepsake gives a better Horror boon ... plus its free.

Let us know your thoughts?

Oct 31, 2017 MOTUX · 8237

@Orangeman44Yup, fine clothes is particularly useful in Carcosa due to the hightensed presence of Parlay. If I were to modify it for multiplayer Dunwich with the release of Cherished Keepsake, I would remove any combination of If it Bleeds, Fine Clothes, and maybe Dodge to add 1 or 2 copies, and replace the remaining fine clothes with a leather coat.

Nov 05, 2017 svenwind · 1

Played yesterday, NICE Deck!

Nov 06, 2017 Blackwing17 · 1

@MOTUX - I had an existing 2-player Carcosa campaign where I was playing Yorick at the end of scenario 2 with 9 exp. I wasn't happy with my current deck so I made some changes to match your list including following your upgrade suggestions. It worked very well in scenario 3! I do have a question regarding your choice to upgrade Emergency Cache into Ever Vigilant, though. Maybe I just had bad luck, or made poor mulliganing choices, but I wasn't able to play any assets early using Ever Vigilant. This meant that when it came time to start replaying assets using my reaction I was often too poor to do so because of the lack of Emergency Cache. Has Ever Vigilant worked well for you?

Nov 10, 2017 MOTUX · 8237

@Blackwing17 The one nice thing about Ever Vigilant over Emergency Cache (besides its action compression) is its icons which are almost always useful. If you're struggling for resources in this deck, I would suggest upgrading the 2xPerception to Ever Vigilant and keep the Cache (or 1 of Perception and Cache). Hopefully that helps!

Nov 29, 2017 TheKinginKhaki · 1

I’ve heard that Yorick tends to fall off later in an adventure arc due to his limited high-damage options. Does that match your experience, and would Aquinnah’s “scaling” be a useful corrective?

Jan 07, 2018 Yury1975 · 1

And what's about Peter Sylvestre? Is not it the great ally to mitigate lack of sanity for Yorick?

Jan 14, 2018 MOTUX · 8237

@Yury1975Peter Sylvestre is of course a great means of dealing with horror, but there are a few downsides:

  • He is arguably the most in demand ally which makes him a contested inclusion in Yorick.
  • He eats a deck slot I am often not willing to give up.
  • If we want a combat oriented ally, it places additional pressure on our XP priorities as we now need to get Charisma.
  • His often goes to waste in Yorick, since he doesn't evade unless things are going really bad. Even upgraded Peter's isn't that useful as Yorick only takes tests when the encounter deck wants him to (something that can be addressed by skill cards).

Jan 14, 2018 Yury1975 · 1

@MOTUX All your points really make sense, thanks. And what's your opinion about new The Unspeakable Oath cards for this deck, e.g. Fight or Flight?

Jan 16, 2018 thrilliod · 1

Played this deck Saturday at an invocation event. There was three of us playing Carnevale. Yorick was a real killer throughout chucking knives all over Venice! Alas, i eventually horrored out as did the Minh player. But Jenny Barnes made it to the Gondola and dropped a double or nothing with her last action possible and Won! Phew.

Thanks for the fun deck. Also running it twohanded with Daisy thru Dunwich!

May 14, 2023 chris-mi · 1

I just finished the whole Carcossa with this deck, paired up with Jack Monterey. It played really nicely - we won and William was the one to toss the knife as the final blow! Very satisfying!

Few thoughts to consider in the next version:

  • Ever Vigilant - hit or miss depending on the luck. I rarely managed to use its full potential.
  • I went path of Beat Cop and Police Badge - it performed much better and more consistently than the other described path
  • I would spend more time testing out the XP upgrades. I.e. in which cases it's better to replace skills, shovel or lantern. Past 30xp I couldn't think of any reasonable upgrades anymore.
  • why not getting 2x Police Badge? The extra 2 actions - especially served to the other investigator at the right time can completely turn the tide.