DeathbyChocolate's inspired jankery aside, 4 XP and 4 Resources are nothing to sneeze at, but a more or less guaranteed 9 damage, plus bonus effectiveness from Oops!, Oops! (2), and/or Act of Desperation allowing you to get maybe 20 damage across 2 turns is pretty good for a Survivor combo. And, with Scrounge for Supplies and Resourceful, you might be able to get most of the parts of the combo back in your hand for another go.
Slightly more seriously, comparing it to Old Hunting Rifle, its +1 XP, + 1 Resource, and -1 seems about right for its considerably better consistency. I have my doubts the 1 Damage Fail effect will be used much except in dire emergencies, but it's nice to have options.
I don't see Ashcan, Wendy, or Patrice packing this (although a chainsaw in a viol case is a striking image), but Silas and Yorick might well consider a trip to the hardware store, with Stella and Rita more on the fence.
After running Chainsaw Yorick for a few weeks, let's consider the case of Chainsaw Yorick:
Good Stuff
Bad Stuff
- It's hard to keep Yorick's resources where you want them. If you can finagle enough Act of Desperation plays, the saw pretty much keeps paying for itself, but you also need to get down Well Prepared, Tetsuo Mori, and pay for some events (it's the only way you are getting clues), so he doesn't always have the resources he needs.
- The saw taking both hands means that, while Yorick is going to kill and kill and kill, he is going to collect approximately no clues unless the shrouds are very low. No Flashlight, Lantern, or Old Keyring for this guy! Well Prepared can help with this occasionally.
- Running a fighting deck with 2-3 weapons is an exercise in luck and nerves. Tetsuo Mori and Prepared for the Worst (or Backpack (2) can help find the saws, but they cost resources, which orick needs to get the saw into play or recover from misfortune. Vicious Blow and/or Brute Force can fill the gap a bit.
- You live in terror of any treachery that consumes Assets or prevents their play. Chainsaw Yorick without a Chainsaw only has some Shakespeare to fight the Mythos.
Kind of Useless Stuff
- Oops! is not as good as expected. With 6-7 attacks, Yorick doesn't miss that often, and, when he does, he often doesn't have 2 resources to spare. This can be mitigated a bit with Drawing Thin, but then you are including cards to include other cards, and you only have so much deck space. I suspect with Stella's lower combat (and better use of Drawing Thin), it might be more effective.
- Emergency Cache (3) looked very promising, but it actually has a slightly lower damage rate than Act of Desperation for reloading the saw, and it puts you in danger of Attacks of Opportunity. In a lot of TFA scenarios, Yorick is engaged with enemies pretty much constantly, so it's hard to find a moment to play Events.
- Relentless seemed promising, but, in TFA at least, there are a lot of 3 Health enemies to chop up, and you want to save the 2 Health enemies to fuel Act of Desperation, so you overkill less often that seems likely. After some fussing, there just wasn't a place for it in the deck. (Sorry DAAAN, I tried.)