The Tank n Spank Gang

This deck is more about what it becomes than what it starts as, which is a rather generic Yorick deck. After some experience, it morphs into a janky Tank N Spank deck designed to pull enemies, absorb attacks of opportunity, and dish out direct damage. What does that look like exactly? Well this deck right over here. This is not a solo deck. In fact, it's not even a great two player deck (unless that other player is Rex). In three or four player though you play the part of pulling enemies off everyone and dealing out the pain. I recommend that said other players are at least somewhat capable of handling enemies (especially if you plan on taking down a boss), but you should be capable of dealing with most of the riff raff from the encounter deck. It works great with investigate-heavy Mystics who sport Delve Too Deep and are able combatants.

Piloting Instructions

Early game (Scenario 1): You are a standard run of the mill Yorick deck. You're a bruiser, you pull enemies, beat up enemies, and otherwise protect the group. That's all you do, so don't get any wild ideas about investigating or nabbing clues (okay, you do have Lantern and Gravedigger's Shovel to pitch in, but try to reserve them for their combat function).

Mid-game (Scenario 2 onward): After buying a couple allies and Charisma things start changing. Plop down your allies, then use them to absorb damage and toss around testless damage. After they've soaked up enough, use Calling in Favors to bring out a fresh ally. Use your other events to dish out even more damage and protect your friends! Be mindful of the card combos noted in the next section. Freely take Attacks of Opportunity to respond in kind with Aquinnah/Guard Dog/Brother Xavier.

When you need to finish something off (or deal extra damage) bring out your Gravedigger's Shovel, Knife, and Vicious Blow.

So what do you use your effect on? Your best targets are Calling in Favors > Emergency Cache(2) > Ambush > "Let me handle this!" > Heroic Rescue

Card Combos

You're not going to pull off these combo's every game, but when you do you will feel like an all star.

• Heroic Rescue + Aquinnah / Guard Dog: let an enemy attack another investigator, play Heroic Rescue, and deal out some solid direct damage. This should at minimum deal 2 testless damage back at the enemy (unless you're a nasty Poltergeist). This is particularly good if your investigate player wants to take his/her turn first, or you can't deal with an enemy engaged with them within your turn.
• Ambush + "Let me handle this!": pretty straight forward. Play Ambush down and sit idly by waiting for someone to draw an enemy then... POW! This also works great if another investigator has Alyssa Graham, Scrying, or is Norman Withers with Split the Angle to scout the encounter deck. It works even better if you know an enemy is going to spawn at a particular location.
• Calling in Favors + any ally. Most people have realized the potential of this card, but for the uninformed it gets you more use out of your allies. Wrack up damage on Guard Dog, Beat Cop, or Aquinnah, and call them back to your hand while replacing them with a fresh ally in the process. With 8 allies in our deck this should be easy peazy.

Mulligan Guide

Early game you are looking for:

1. A weapon (Machete > Knife > Gravedigger's Shovel)
2. Anything else to support you.

Mid-game you are looking for:

1. Allies, lots of allies: Beat Cop(2) > Aquinnah(3) > Guard Dog > Brother Xavier(1)
2. A weapon (Knife > Gravedigger's Shovel)
3. Calling in Favors

Upgrade Path

(See here for final upgraded deck](https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/95018).

1. Overpower x2 Beat Cop(2) x2 (4XP)
2. Charisma(3) (3XP)
3. Prepared for the Worst x1 Brother Xavier(1) x1 (1XP)
4. Lantern x2 Flare(1) x2 (2XP)
5. Cherished Keepsake x1 Aquinnah(3) x1 (3XP)
6. Machete x2 Ambush(1) x2 (2XP)
7. Dodge Aquinnah(3) x1 (3XP)
8. Cherished Keepsake x2 Brother Xavier(1) x1 (1XP)
9. Charisma(3) (3XP)
10. Emergency Cache x2 Emergency Cache(2) x2 (4XP)
11. Vicious Blow x2 Vicious Blow(2) x2 (4XP)
12. Guts A Test of Will(1) x2 (2XP)
13. Lucky! x2 Lucky!(2) x2 (4XP)
14. Scrapper(3) (3XP)

With the exception of Ambush (which can be pushed back), and getting Aquinnah(3) first instead of Beat Cop(2), I recommend more or less sticking to the upgrade priority above. You want to acquire the foundation of your deck (allies) first; leave the events for later, especially the nice to have cards like Lucky!(2).

Play smart with Ambush and it can save you a lot of grief. If you have to blindly play it (i.e. you don't know if an enemy is coming), play it (1) when your grip is tightly bound at the same location, and (2) where an enemy is likely to spawn given their spawning instructions; this can be a great play if you are far away from investigators since if you are at a location that is "the furthest away" you can safely take the enemy and ambush them.

Alternatives and Substitutes

Here are a few cards to swap and add to be different:

1. Swap Gravedigger's Shovel with Trench Knife. Trench Knife is cheaper, and has a potential bomb bonus allowing you to reliably ping damage across the board. But, the Shovel overall grants a more consistent bonus and offers some clue support.

2. Swap Gravedigger's Shovel/Knife/Machete with Baseball Bat. Takes up both hands which can put us in a real jam if it breaks mid-engagement, but under most circumstances that shouldn't be an issue when we have our army to back us up.

3. Add Taunt. We aren't using it mostly because we can't find the room for it, and we don't care too much about having enough actions to kill something when our allies will hopefully take care of it.

4. Swap Overpower with "Not without a fight!". This card is great. I recommend plopping it in the minute you open its pack (once it's released).

5. Swap Emergency Cache(2) with Emergency Cache(3). Just for the extra resource, because Yorick is poor enough as it is.

Reference: What Yorick's works with

A detailed (and hopefully) up to date chart with annotations can be found here. It explains the timing sequences, and when cards are discarded in relation to Yorick's and ability.

The Short Answer

The following lists all cases where Yorick's ability does or does not work due to the timing of a card entering a discard pile. That is, the card enters the discard pile before or after the timing point for the ability (see more detailed timing sheet below).

Yorick's ability works with:

• Knife
• Beat Cop and Beat Cop(2)
• Lantern
• Brother Xavier(1)
• Aquinnah(1) and Aquinnah(3) if defeated by the self-inflicted horror from her

Yorick's ability does not work with

• Guard Dog
• Baseball Bat
• Aquinnah(1) and Aquinnah(3) if defeated by an enemy attack after resolving her
• Cards committed to the Fight test