William Yorick's Graveyard Smash

Made for a two player campaign, and I only have cards through The Unspeakable Oath.

This deck is all about using William's ability to maximize action economy and consistently keep cards out of your discard pile. Almost every card is cheap, because your only resource generation is upkeep and Emergency Cache.

Your main role is fighter, though you have quite a few tricks for picking up the occasional clue. The most obvious ones are Lucky! and "Look what I found!", but any 'ole survivor can use those...

Here's how to start the Graveyard Smash:

Hard Mulligan for Machete and Peter Sylvestre, and Soft Mulligan for Knife, Leather Coat, and Gravedigger's Shovel. These are five of the (eventual 6) main cards you'll be using.

Play Machete immediately, and use your Gravedigger's Shovel to get an early clue from a high shroud location. When you get your first kill, pull it back out from the discard thanks to William's ability.

You can also commit Leather Coat or Knife to the combat test, kill the enemy, and then play either asset from your discard pile to save the action it would take to play them from your hand.

With your knife out, you can now discard it to deal a +2 combat, +1 damage killing blow to the next enemy and then pay a single resource to get it back.

If your shovel, coat and/or knife are in your discard pile at the same time, kill an enemy while committing Resourceful to get TWO of them back!

By focusing on these three recyclable cards, this deck has a lot of versatility. If you're dealing with enemies that put out a lot of damage, you can prioritize your coat. If you're dealing with enemies that have a high fight value, work on keeping your knife out. And if your fellow investigator is having trouble getting clues, you can keep recurring your shovel.

The last piece of the puzzle is Peter Sylvestre, who protects your sanity and boosts you to 4 willpower to help defend against trecharies.

Your first upgrade will be Charisma, which allows you to bring the aforementioned sixth building block of the deck into play: Guard Dog.

With your trusty dog on the table, you can discard your shovel while an enemy is engaged with you to get another clue, do a point of damage when it makes an opportunity attack, and then kill the enemy to get the shovel back right away, all with one action! That's just one of the many examples of how you can use Guard Dog and William's ability to turn opportunity attack nightmares into action economy miracles.

As you move into the endgame, don't be afraid if you've taken a few sanity hits, because now you can play Run For Your Life and Say Your Prayers to get yourself out of a sticky final-round situation. These cards, combined with some crafty opportunity attacks on Guard Dog, won The Devourer Below after my partner was killed and Umordoth was one round away from joining the party.

As far as upgrades go, we've already talked about Charisma. 2 copies of Peter Sylvestre will be your next buy, followed by Police Badge to replace your Guts. This brings you to 5 willpower when combined with Peter, and can be used as a hail Mary attempt at the end of the scenario to give you or your partner two extra actions to do whatever needs to be done.

With your next two XP points, you are ready to incorporate the final piece of the Graveyard Smash, which takes advantage of William's signature card, Bury Them Deep. Purchase two Flare cards (replace Manual Dexterity and Perception) to get either a near-guaranteed attack that will do +2 damage, OR try and fish Peter Sylvestre out of your deck if he wasn't in your opening hand. Make sure you play Bury Them Deep by the end of the scenario, and you essentially used and can replace the now-exiled Flare for free.

Your next ten XP will be spent on The Red-Gloved Man, one of which will replace your second Perception, and the other which will replace Guard Dog. This card is so powerful and versatile that it can basically be used at any time to any effect.