Will Buries Enemies with his Hammer (Guide)

Card draw simulator

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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
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Portinou · 1597

Introduction & Purpose

Will is probably one of the most versatile and fun investigators when it goes to deckbuilding. Since its release, I always wanted to create a reliable deck around the BIG SMASH of Sledgehammer. And oh boy, this deck delivers! Did you ever wonder how to kill 3 enemies of The Last King by yourself in one turn? Now you can. Easily.

Main Strategy

The deck is thought to offer 2 key functions, SMASH and TANK:

  • SMASH: You will smash enemies with the action of Sledgehammer. The main problem of this action is that is normally takes your entire turn. This is where Police Badge intervenes: You can discard it whenever you need to move before smashing the enemy, and play it again from your discard pile. Easy.

  • TANK: You can prevent a huge amount of damage and horror with the Enchanted Armor. The base of Will is pretty average, but when boosted with Well Prepared, Bruiser and Police Badge, you can make a test with a base value of 8 every turn. Excess damage can be assigned to this poor Tetsuo Mori when you finally fail... before you play the Enchanted Armor back from your discard pile.

Key Cards Breakdown

  • Sledgehammer is the superstar of the show. Your deck is built to use its action consistently, but you can also use the action to finish or kill smaller foes. Well Prepared helps you to boost your base value to 8 for these lighter hits.

  • Police Badge is the key Hammer-enabler. Everytime an enemy spawns at another location than yours (engaged with another investigator or in an empty location, for example), you can discard it to gain the extra actions required to move and engage the enemy (you do not want to draw an Autofail and smash a partner for 6 damage, do you?). Since the hit will kill the enemy 99% of the time, you can then play your Police Badge back from the discard, rinse and repeat.

  • Enchanted Armor helps you for tanking damages and horror reliably. You may want, for example, to engage an enemy to free a fellow investigator before their turn begins, and have no action left to SMASH the enemy. The armor tanks for you. You may ask your teammate to "Let me handle this!" a nasty treachery card. The armor tanks for you. Since it only costs 1 (0 if you have Bruiser in play), this will cancel A LOT of damage and horror thanks to the enablers below.

  • Well Prepared and Bruiser are primarily here to boost your tests on the Enchanted Armor, keep it in play as long as possible, and on the hit of the Sledgehammer. The resources on Bruiser can also be used to play the Armor back from your discard pile for free, and Well Prepared can be used to boost your to 6 (with Police Badge in play) for any other test.

  • Schoffner's Catalogue is here to support your repeated repurchases of your Badge. Since it's an asset, it can itself be recycled from your discard pile for an infinite economy loop.

  • Evidence! and Lesson Learned are here to take advantage of the Hammer and Armor respectively, and support your team in clue discovery. On the Hunt and "Let me handle this!" can help in attracting enemies in a high shroud location for free clue-getting.

Conclusion

This deck is of course thought for multiplayer, but be careful not Negan-smashing the head of your teammates by accident!

You can find the level 0 cards in the side deck. I recommend purchasing a Sledgehammer and a Police Badge first, followed by their second copies and the 2 Enchanted Armors, and finally Well Prepared. The rest is up to you. Have fun!

4 comments

May 19, 2023 PaxCecilia · 396

I love the Bruiser, Police Badge and Enchanted Armor combination here. Lately I have played Yorick with Chainsaw as his end-of-campaign weapon, but with replaying your Armor and Police Badges, there's so much value in having a weapon that doesn't run out of uses.

May 19, 2023 Portinou · 1597

Yes indeed! And the feeling of dealing 12 damages in one turn is incredible!

May 26, 2023 Skadrian · 1

I really liked relentless in William with chainsaw, should be even better with the hammer. You can let it stack up until you need it and use it to pay for more than only items, like allies, enabling e.g. beat cop 2.

May 28, 2023 Portinou · 1597

@Skadrian Fair point, relentless Michy actualité be good as a complement to Schoffner’s catalogue. Thanks for the advice!