Yorick Soak Deck (0 xp)

Start your campaign with this next to any Seeker, and you'll be set up for a journey toward success. This is the ultimate starter Yorick support deck, imo. It's all about taking hits, soaking up damage, and putting enemies in the ground so your clue-finder can do their thing in peace, keeping things very cheap all the while. Yorick has one job in this deck, and he does it very, very well.

First, like many Yorick decks, Leather Coat and Cherished Keepsake are absolutely front and center as the engine of the thing and spell out the game-plan perfectly: take hits, toss your coat/keepsake, kill enemy, put your coat/keepsake back on. Madame Labranche is the perfect backup for this plan at a cost of 2 resources. If you're wondering why not Guard Dog, it's because we'll be relying on Survival Knife for extra damage, and Guard Dog is 1 resource more we'll be spending every time we want to bring him back from the grave. In fact, if you have Guard Dog out, you're likely not going to want to even put him in the grave, are you? Nope -- you'll take the horror and dish out that 1 damage. This is why even Beat Cop II wouldn't be a good fit for this plan.

But with Labranche we really can toss her in the trash if we need to without a care, and she'll be there to soak up the horror pretty reliably. Stray Cat is simply a super-cheap safeguard for when Labranche isn't available. Basically when you get hit with damage, put that damage on Coat, period. Horror, put it on Keepsake. If those aren't available, put it on Labranche -- simple as that.

This approach to Yorick is bolstered by a lot of other things in the deck. True Grit is alongside Machete as the single most expensive investment (still only 3 resources), and it is the ultimate damage soak for us. Remember to always put damage on this thing LAST so you don't waste resources recycling it. It really is a great tank card -- try to remember that it can soak damage for others, too. It also does a great job of keeping Painkillers viable, giving us a third way to soak up horror. I tend to think of True Grit and Painkillers as a sort of pair - they compliment each other so well.

But we aren't just protecting ourselves -- we are protecting others with Emergency Aid and Heroic Rescue. Heroic Rescue is great in this deck because we are running Survival Knife. With Heroic Rescue we can often spend our last action finishing off one enemy engaged with us, then dealing 1 damage to an enemy we take from off our Seeker, then another 2 damage to that enemy in the enemy phase. We take 2 hits from the enemy in the process, but we're often in a position to take that damage.

But for all the punishment we can endure, Arkham can be a very sadistic place. That's why we give ourselves that one final "oh, shit!" button with Perseverance. It's the closest thing we can have to a Cheat Death, and chances are you won't ever need it. But like a good neighbor, it's there. Basically it's the final thing in our starter deck that gives us peace of mind. Also, Perseverance doubles as a replacement for Guts, and you'll often feel plenty comfortable using it for just that purpose.

"Look what I found!" is there, too, in the off chance you have the time and opportunity to contribute a little in the kitchen. If you prefer Scene of the Crime instead, go for it. I just don't like having to rely on enemies being in the right place at the right time. Scene of the Crime really wants to rely on On the Hunt for reliability, and that would mean 1 more resource and one more card slot trying to fill a role we're not built for.

Lucky! is there because it's Lucky!, and it's just never a bad idea.

Finally Take Heart is there to help contribute to your peace of mind. Emergency Cache is often enough for this deck, but not always. I find that Take Heart comes in handy just often enough to be worth keeping. One thing is for sure, this deck rarely sees any resource impediment, and often sees 2-3 resources laying stagnant.

Once you have the hang of this deck (bonus: it's a very easy deck to play well), you'll see Arkham has to work double-overtime to even make you fidget on standard. Sherlock Holmes (or even Watson), you are not -- true. But a chew-toy for elder-things you will not be either.

Aside from all that, make sure you also include this, this, this, this, or this. In a duo, anything else is sort of redundant and sub-par.