The well-prepared William Yorick

The well-prepared William Yorick - a survivable "guardian" build that isn't hopeless at providing some clue support.

This approach builds on the basic Yorick recursion strategy of pitching assets for skill tests and then installing them after killing things. This gives Yorick both survivability (recurring defensive items like Cherished Keepsake and Leather Coat multiple times and action efficiency (not wasting actions bringing items out). Yorick's core gear set of Cherished Keepsake, Leather Coat, Newspaper, and Fire Axe / Machete is the primary building block for that combo. Fire Axe is largely included to allow Yorick another weapon option than just the Machete since Yorick will be killing things a lot and really wants a weapon early. Other weapons work too, but the low cost, single handed nature of Fire Axe works well with the other cards.

Cheap assets enable Yorick to effectively use Dark Horse and stat boosts until the other combos get going. Buy-to-Win isn't a core strategy for this build, but it's here if needed. The real reason for Newspaper and Physical Training is to eventually use Well Prepared to handle skill checks. When using Dark Horse, Madame Labranche can be tapped for a coin to help fund the 2-coin events in the deck or install items if needed.

Three priority upgrades give +2 bonus to three different stats. Playing two well-prepared cards allow it to be used twice per turn. To make these more efficient, pitch Newspaper and Physical Training for skill checks, and then recur them after combat.

• Well Prepared
• Physical Training
• Newspaper

Once a bit more XP is gained,

• Yaotl allows things to get even sillier, allowing you to pitch a card, use Yaotl trigger ability to get the points a second time, and then install the card after combat.

This deck isn't intended to be the primary clue-finder, but a third focus of this deck is clue support.

Early in a campaign, one way to clue is to use the Newspaper + Dark Horse. Later, with some XP, Newspaper + Dark Horse + Well Prepared (on the Newspaper) allow tests at 7 skill (assuming you don't have a clue yet). To be sure, the Newspaper is primarily there to give Well Prepared another target. However, it's cheap, can be installed action-free on a kill, and useful if parts of the combo get blown away.

However, the second way to clue is to kill things. As a guardian, you probably need to be killing things. Since it fuels the recursion combo, you probably also want to be killing things rather than gearing up. As a result, Evidence!, Scene of the Crime combo with On the Hunt to pull monsters out of the Mythos deck and pick up clues (test free!) in hard-to-search locations. Combined with Bury Them Deep, it would be pretty easy to pull a monster, kill it, and then pick up three clues, pick up an XP, and install an asset from your discard pile for an attack action.

Other cards:

• "Let me handle this!" is largely intended to keep other team members alive. It isn't a core part of the combos in this deck.
• Resourceful helps to recur multiple cards out of the discard pile if needed. It's particularly useful with Yaotl but isn't critical to the build.
• Take the Initiative is largely intended to keep Yorick alive while he builds up his combos, but it could also help find that first clue in a hard-to-clue location.
• Vicious Blow is included because sometime you really want to do another point of damage. It isn't a key component of the build.