William Yorick - Nervous Wrecking Machine (Hard Mode)

from https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/4351/william-yorick-nervous-wrecking-machine-hard-mode-1.0#

This is a heavilly tested and refined deck. Paired with various seekers, iterations of it have comfortably cleared numerous hard mode scenarios including all carcosa that is currently released (upto Phantom) and the first half of Dunwich (still underway). Its also cleared NoZ on standard (Lita (0 cost & 3/3) is broken with Yorik's ability) but i plan to go back on hard.

While it is a very effective brawler and tank more importantly it is ridiculously good fun to play and probably my favorite deck that ive ever ran (sorry wendy you will always have a special place in my heart though).

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SYNOPSIS (Overview/TL:DR)

This deck makes use of a standard guardian fighting base (Machete/Vicious Blow/.32 Colt/Beat Cop) with the addition of damage soaks which are recurred along with reactive damage options to create a solid tank with seemingly unlimited health and sanity and increased damage output. The deck makes high use of his to get bonus use out of the the many pips on its assets doubling up on card usage while saving asset installing actions over the course of the game.

As it gains xp it also gains combo pieces to build to semi-frequent power turns pairing turn long stat boosts from Fight or Flight or The Red-Gloved Man with huge multi action turns from recurring Police Badges and/or action guarantee from Will to Survive. Note that all of these are recurrable via Yorik's ability or Resourceful, or if you draw an .

Its not fool proof. This is a full on brawler build with limited investigating options until you get The Red-Gloved Man, which will be a few scenarios into the campaign. It is however an extremely strong combat compliment to a team with other cluing options, even if that is just constituted of a single seeker of your choice.

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ACT 2 (Priority upgrades)

I thought i would put the upgrades up here since so few ppl (understandably) want to read the main text.

Charisma x1 Oops! x2 Police Badge Relic Hunter x1 (Teddy +Police Badge = officer pewterson) New Ally of your choice either:

Dog or Madame Beat Cop II - This takes you away from a reactive damage build and towards more of a standard guardian build with base 6 from Machete,

or

Madame Aquinnah III - leaves you with Aquinnah III + Guard Dogs for a heavy reactive build. For those unaware Aquinnah III can make enemies hit themselves Aquinnah I can’t). Both work. Beat Cop II is more steady and possibly slightly more effective overall but Aquinnah III is substantially more fun and why are you playing the game if not for that. Hybrids would probably also work, but ive not tested them.

Note that we’re expecting the guardian patron soon and depending on thier ability, they may replace Madame Labranche and may even be kept longer term - fingers are crossed.

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ENCORE (Later Upgrades)

No particular order

2nd Charisma Vicious Blow Vicious Blow II Gravedigger's Shovel The Red-Gloved Man (See clues and combos sections) Heroic Rescue/Unexpected Courage Will to Survive (See combo section). Emergency Cache Emergency Cache II - draw = more pips (see below) Lucky! Lucky! II - draw (still) = more pips (so still see below)

BEHIND THE SCENES (Detailed piloting)

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PREMIER (Mulligan & early game)

Grand Opening: Mulligan hard for a Machete (preferred) or a .32 Colt. If you got one in your starting hand, chuck anything that isnt Vicious Blow, Emergency Cache, Cherished Keepsake, or Guard Dog (keep 1x each max)

Stage Fright: You want to take 2 horror early (1 on standard) on Yorick himself to turn Fight or Flight on (see below). It is worth taking this by choice (attack of opportunity etc) if the opportunity arises unless the HP hit is substantial or the horror would take you over 2 on Yorick himself. 3 horror turns on some fairly annoying token effects and encounter cards. Ive never done it, but this interestingly makes taking a point of mental trauma potentially a time saver.

PERFECTING YOUR PITCH (Optimal ability use)

The value of this cant be overstated. It allows you to:

Recur items multiple times (ok I know thats obvious), Save actions you would normally use playing assets, and Get some mileage out of the pips on those assets. Get you your first weapon down asap (that + damage is just too important), but appart from that basically play the remaining rig from the discard as opportunities arise. Very occasionally I play a Guard Dog/Madame Labranche or Cherished Keepsake naturally if it’s quiet or I expect to use them very soon, but they are better off pitched if possible.

A further advantage of pitching assets here is that has a similar effect to increased hand size. You still have a form of access to these albeit at a steady trickle. You dont expect to play all your assets every game here. You expect to play the ones you need at the time. So while the deck has a high cost curve (All those 3s oh no!), you are unlikely to play more than 2 of the weapons or the Dogs or Beat Cop II more than once or twice in a game.

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BREAKING A LEG (Combat)

Bear hug! recurring Guard Dog, Cherished Keepsake, Madame Labranche, and later Aquinnah III & The Red-Gloved Man will provide you with an endless supply of hp and sanity. You will mainly be recurring fairhful Mr Pewterson (at no cost) since you have a high base HP and Aquinnah III redirects the damage element of an attack.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war Guard Dogs and Aquinnah III also provide test free reactive damage boosting your overall damage output per turn. The test free aspect of this is substantially more important than it looks on higher difficulty levels where token effects can be harsher and getting your skill high enough to reliably land attacks can cost a lot. Also note the combo here with Heroic Rescue, allowing you to both trigger your Guard Dog/Aquinnah III abilities and deal yet another point of non-tested damage while fobbing any actual harm to you onto your recurable allys and teddy bear.

A pound of flesh The inevitable Machete is your primary damage dealer. .32 Colt tides you over until you draw it, offers a back up +damage weapon when engaged with 2+ enemies, and helps deal with specific enemies like orbs or fliers. This has been chosen over Knife after much practice with both. In short Knife costs you more in the long run (and you need that cash once you get xp), takes up too many of your free installs if Machete doesnt turn up, and leaves you in trouble too often when you miss on a discard. Its fun tho. If your playing on lower difficulties id suggest taking it despite its inferiority just for the shear enjoyment. This is a game after all. Gravedigger's Shovel can be used in truely desperate times for an attack, but without the bonus damage it just burns too many actions if your using it long term. Its here for cluing only really, but it can occasionally save you burning too many pips - which leads me to some maths!

Pip Pip Hurray! On hard you want to be aiming 3 above skill test if you want good odds on landing attacks. 2 above gives you about a 50/50 which is too slow but can be ok if the enemy has retaliate and your packing Dogs. This means Machete alone is fine for str 2 enemies (3 with Beat Cop if you take it), but above that you`ll be pitching some pips to get 3 above test strength. Between Machete,.32 Colt, Gravedigger's Shovel, Guard Dog, Resourceful & Police Badge (with xp) you have 10 or 12 cards with single pips that actively play into your game plan when committed to combat checks plus your Vicious Blows. Overpower and Oops! both offer double pips (Never play oops as an event, its just here as spare Overpowers that you can get back with Resourceful) covering you for Str4s with a single card. In a tight corner, Lucky! or Unexpected Courage could also be used, but these are better reserved for or tests particularly from encounter cards.

Seeing Red! Fight or Flight and later The Red-Gloved Man are MVPs in pip-land. Both give you a whole turn at +2 (assuming youve taken the recommended 2 horror) covering you for str4s, and importantly boss/miniboss fights where you expect a str4 or 5 enemy with 4+ health. Resourceful can recur Fight or Flight or your ability can recur Mr Gloves giving you multiple turns with these.

TOUGH CROWD (Encounter protection)

Most of the encounter protection comes from the fact that you dont really mind taking indirect damage/horror due to so many soaks. And you dont care badly if you are forced to discard assets. This means you can let alot of encounter cards like Rotting Remains/Corrosion through and just replace things later on. Occasionally you will need to block a nasty test that has more nuanced repercussions and thats what Unexpected Courage & Lucky! can help with. Also dont miss the and pips on Cherished Keepsake, Madame Labranche, Police Badge, Aquinnah III, Resourceful and at a push Heroic Rescue (but the latter is rarely worth it).

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UNEARTHING THE TRUTH (Clues)

You arnt really here to clue, but you can do a litte. Early campain very little.

Gravedigger's Shovel Your primary clue tool until you get Mr Gloves. Unless you are using it in desperation as a weapon, this shouldnt ever be played from hand. 2 actions and 2 resources is a high price to get 1 clue. if you can auto install its still not cheap in a cash hungry deck like this, but it is at least test-less. Lucky! Can be used to clue. Note that the preferred way to use Lucky! is to take tests at 1 lower strength than you would other wise do, ie aiming for a 50%-60% pass chance. If you pass great! if you fail spend the Lucky!. This way you are using it to save pips on multiple tests rather than as a panic button safety net. Its also thematically satisfying to be "lucky" while it sits it is in your hand, once you fail your lucky streak has ended. The Red-Gloved Man/Will to Survive See the combo section below, but essentially once you get one of these clueing becomes much more of an option by either boosting to 6 or just never taking tests.

SHOW TIME! (Power Combos)

Your xp choices will be slowly building up the following combo pieces. Any two of these make a power play (apart from Fight or Flight + Mr Gloves which play similar roles) and additional parts build to an even bigger power turn:

Fight or Flight Police Badge The Red-Gloved Man Will to Survive Would you like a 5 action turn where all your tests pass? would you like to take multiple actions using offspec stats? Want to hit that boss 5 times this turn for 10 damage (before any Vicious Blows or reactive damage)? These things are possible with little effort collecting combo pieces since there are so many permutations in the upgraded deck. Notice that you can reinstall and re use a Police Badge in a single turn with your ability after you have used it once. Notice also that you can get both Police Badges in play at once with Relic Hunter, if you dont mind dropping your Cherished Keepsake for a turn, potentially giving you a 9 action turn (My record is 7, but thats not uncommon due to the trick).

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Off Script (Variants and Notable absences)

Prepared for the Worst. This comes in and out if the deck regularly. with 6 possible weapons it looks like it’s not necessary, but Gravedigger's Shovel isnt a full weapon really. This means Prepared for the Worst can be better seen as weapon 5, with the bonus option of supporting clues by searching for the Shovel later on if needed. In practice it rarely gets used except as pips, but that one time you're half way through the game and just can’t find a weapon is the one time you really miss it. Take as a 1x in place of an Oops! if you want it. Fine Clothes. These are actually worth a slot at the start of carcosa in place of Oops! then sub them out when they stop being useful (wont spoil). Leather Coat. This could be in place of Madame Labranche, but i favor her sanity buff and occasional cash trickle. Dark Horse. I used this for a very long time. It does work. The key is to not deliberately keep yourself low on cash and just accept that it will be intermittent. You will be spending your cash down to zero regularly so it will see action maybe 25-50% of the time. A Test of Will. Ive not tried this yet but it looks great. It would very likely fit as an upgrade over Unexpected Courage. Knife (see combat section (Breaking a leg > A pound of flesh)) Bandolier. This looks useful to give you a spare hand to recur Gravedigger's Shovels whithout dropping Machete/.32 Colt but in practice i dont think i ever played it and then got to 3 hands in play. There was usually more interesting things to be reinstalling and (for a price) you can get that .32 Colt back again reloaded later. Peter Sylvestre. The biggest crutch card in the game. Even when you plan to take this much horror deliberately you dont need this much horror soak. The recurring Cherished Keepsakes do a better job for free without blocking a key slot. Lantern. Despite the satisfying theme this does little in Yorik. He can already reliably do 1 damage for 1 action just by attacking normally and with 2, even -1 shroud isnt going to let you investigate anything but a 1 shroud location. you can add more cards like "Look what I found!" to make a one shot medium impact very high cost combo but there are cheaper ways to clue like Evidence! without burning so many slots. It has a small amount of utility on Whippoorwills but basically Beat Cop cover that already. desperate Cards. This deck started as a desperate deck (hence the name), but theyve all slowly been filtered out in testing. 2 horror is definitely the sweet spot due to certain encounter and token effects. The only time i found them good was when i deliberately went after the The Tattered Cloak to try them out but even then you need to draw it. A Chance Encounter. Tried it and found I rarely used it. Its problem is that it sits in hand too long before you get use from it. I havent tried Calling in Favors but that may be better since it is an earlier game card( 28 comments