Valentin1331 · 65413
With an Axe and a Chainsaw, LumberWill Chops Enemies Down. With Careful Preparation and a Memento, LumberWill Finds Clues.
Credit: Results for Hipster Investigator on Google Image
I always liked the idea of the Chainsaw but never could find a home for it, which was a shame because it's definitely S-Tier for theme and fun. So after having it as a card of the day on the Mythos Busters discord, it was time for me to accept the challenge and try it out. The results were beyond expectations with my 4th Yorick deck!
Following the success of the 20k Series and the 30k Series, the 40k Series will display the last decks of the series, which I hope everyone enjoyed!
Click here to see all the previous decks. I will keep releasing a new standalone-ready deck concept every week on Friday, so stay tuned and keep supporting the Series by pressing the ♥
button if you want to see more!
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Overview
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Changelog
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Main Strategy
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"Enemies are like trees. Better chopped in pieces than standing in your way."
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Out in the Woods with Nothing but a Memento and Your Pup
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A Good Logger is a Smart Logger
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Other Cards
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Upgrade Path
Difficulty: | ★★☆☆☆ |
Enemy Management: | ★★★★☆ |
Clue-getting: | ★★★☆☆ |
Encounter protection: | ★★★☆☆ |
Survivability: | ★★★★★ |
Economy: | ★★★☆☆ |
Card Drawing: | ★★★☆☆ |
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May 7, 2024 - Considering the new Hemlock Vale
As it was asked in a comment here, I add this info here so people can access it. If I would play this deck today, I would probably play it slightly differently.- Since Plucky (3) already soaks Horror, I would consider getting a second copy instead of Precious Memento since the damage is already managed by the dog.
And with the accessory slot now free, I would enjoy unlimited Chainsaw supplies thanks to recycling of Cleaning Kit (0). - Then, Long Shot would definitely find some space instead of Lucky!, and maybe some Strong-Armed further down the road.
- In the early deck, Wolf Mask is a winner for sure, and maybe one Pushed to the Limit to compensate for Short Supply.
- Since Plucky (3) already soaks Horror, I would consider getting a second copy instead of Precious Memento since the damage is already managed by the dog.
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Use Precious Memento and Guard Dog (2), recycled with your ability to tank a lot of damage.
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Pump your with Plucky (3) or using Well Prepared on it/Precious Memento to get a few clues.
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Fell your enemies with your 2 favourite logging tools: Runic Axe and Chainsaw.
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Runic Axe is your backup weapon, it does an excellent job as a support and can sometimes last a whole game without any issues.
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Don't forget that you can spend 2 charges in one fight action to get both the boost and the damage, or if you only need to deal one damage, only spend a charge for the boost. Well Prepared will eventually save a lot of charges.
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But the real juice comes with the Chainsaw, that you can cycle on enemies with Yorick's ability.
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If you use your last supply on an enemy, replace the Chainsaw with a Runic Axe from your discard pile or your hand. If this triggers an AoO, the Guard Dog is here for this.
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If you run out of supplies mid-fight, the best case scenario is to finish the enemy with Act of Desperation to recycle the Chainsaw on the same test or let the Guard Dog finish the work. If not enough, play a Runic Axe and tank the AoO.
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You don't always have to fight against enemies. If you only need to deal one damage and can afford it, a move action will trigger an attack of opportunity on your dogs which can finish the enemy or save a precious Chainsaw supply.
Overall, it takes a bit of juggling, but with a hard mulligan for a weapon, Prepared for the Worst or At a Crossroads, and Short Supply having high chances of placing a weapon in your discard pile, you should be able to get one on the board early and then Emergency Cache and Schoffner's Catalogue finance your cycling.
The life of a LumberWill can sometimes feel lonely, so what's better than a pupper to stray from the path with?
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Guard Dog plays many roles in this deck:
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Free engage actions
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Damage/Horror soak
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Aggressive tempo acceleration for the final damage
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To supplement the dog, we opt for a Precious Memento that heals damage upon big successes.
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Thanks to Well Prepared, the deck will oversucceed regularly, giving you a free damage heal per turn.
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If you need to, you can always load the Memento and cycle it with your ability, though it is better to do this with the dogs.
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You may ask: "Why not use the one that heals the horror instead?"
- The reason is that Plucky (3) and Guard Dog will also absorb a little bit of horror, and you don't want to deal more than one damage at a time on the Guard Dog or lose your Plucky (3) to a single damage. Furthermore, it is far cheaper to spam your to recycle Plucky (3) than Guard Dog.
Because the game is a race against the clock, being able to scoop clues when there are no enemies can really make a difference.
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Well Prepared can target both Precious Memento or Plucky (3) for 2 times +2 each turn.
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Plucky (3) will give you a static boost, bringing you to 3 skill values, and offers you the possibility to sink some extra resources if you can afford it.
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The deck will feel low on resources at the start, but especially with Act of Desperation, it is easy to reach 10+ resources by half-game.
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The situation can change rapidly, so always keep some resource security and some secrets on a Schoffner's Catalogue if you need to recycle a weapon or a Guard Dog, as they are pricy.
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Don't forget Lucky!, which will also save you a few failed investigations here and there.
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I already spoke about Schoffner's Catalogue, and they are an auto-include in William Yorick. They cycle with his ability and pay for the weapon cycling.
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Short Supply is a consistency enabler. Adding some assets in the discard pile makes Yorick's ability interesting from turn 1.
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Resourceful will help pick up some good cards that may have ended up in the discard. Targets include: At a Crossroads, Lucky! or even some assets at the beginning like Plucky (3) or Chainsaw. Feel free to commit the Precious Memento at the beginning of a scenario to pass a Resourceful test before using your ability on it later.
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Because some of our most important cards are not , we will upgrade Resourceful into Salvage to be able to target a Runic Axe during set up, or for cash, once we have enough weapons, and fuel Plucky (3).
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Ever Vigilant is just pure value because there are many assets. It brings both tempo and resources, which are the 2 most important things early in the game.
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Live and Learn is a good one-of for the ideal situation when:
- You fail the Chainsaw, get either the supply back or the damage, based on what you need most (probably the first), and do the test again to succeed. It's a feel-good card that is situational but should happen more or less every game.
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Daring and Overpower are essential in the deck, especially at the beginning when you do not have Well Prepared on the table yet. The draw is also helpful for finding your good cards.
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Vicious Blow can save a supply/charge on your weapons or even at the very beginning of a scenario, help you fist fight to play your first weapon from your discard pile.
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Take Heart comes because with 2 bases , it is relatively easy to fail a test, and both cards and resources are crucial in the early game.
Upgrades:
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A second Chainsaw is of course the next purchase for this deck.
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Backpack (2) is the obvious and insane, especially in Yorick, replacement for Prepared for the Worst.
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Emergency Cache (3) offers the possibility to refuel the Chainsaw directly! This will give your Schoffner's Catalogue a breather and give you more space to play other assets from your discard pile.
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Eucatastrophe is a great way to leverage Yorick's ridiculous . Wait for the or start a basic investigation, pick a -2 or worse, get a clue and any card from your discard pile.
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Upgrading the Runic Axe with Saga to replenish 2 charges each turn will heavily increase the consistency of the last remaining copy of Runic Axe. Inscription of the Elders is another really good option to get a few clues over the course of a game.
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Salvage is a better Resourceful in this deck.
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Setting up a weapon as early as possible is your main concern, and this card will increase consistency by getting one directly, removing from the game one that is in your discard pile to pay for one in your hand or to get a Schoffner's Catalogue out of your discard pile to pay a weapon in your hand.
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A side use is during the late game to get resources out of a weapon that will not be used anymore and place them into Plucky to get clues or pass tests.
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Overpower (2) will help with getting more cards out of your deck, and Vicious Blow (2) will save a few supplies/charges/tempo here and there.
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A Charisma can help having 2 dogs on the table. It's a bit overkill, but if you're having too much xp...
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Another option is Scrapper, which will enable you to spend your resources on all 4 skills.
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9 comments |
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Aug 12, 2023 |
Aug 12, 2023A clever deck as always! I like Well Prepared combo-ing with Precious Memento for clue finding and/or big boosts with Chainsaw, it's a really nice touch. I've always wanted to make a Chainsaw deck as well but have never thought of a good way to go about it - this looks like a great implementation to me. |
Aug 13, 2023Needs a second chainsaw so you can make jokes about juggling them. |
Aug 17, 2023Nice deck! Well Prepared feels to really merge all the pieces together. With that base, I was thinking on the possibility of making the deck a bit more flex as a variant, with the addition of Winging It (works well with Short Supply) and perhaps pushing the idea further by changing Guard Dog with Professor William Webb (+2 and synergic ability). Also, the classic Baseball Bat seems to like Well Prepared (and Heavy Furs would be a nice lumberjack coat!) |
Aug 21, 2023On the weekend, we were just talking about the idea of well prepared and precious memento within my group, and then I see this! Great deck, Chainsaw, Plucky and Memento are great well prepared targets. There's actually quite a few ways to build Precious Memento and Well Prepared, but I think you've got a very strong one, albeit with a lumberjack theme :D |
Aug 23, 2023Hey Valentin, thank you for this series. It's excellent and has some of my favourite decks in it. I was hoping that you might consider adding a section to the decks for starting without In the Thick of It? I know it's a really powerful card, but I'd love to have the option to run these decks without it and 3xp behind at times. I'm not confident enough in AH deckbuilding to work out what would be the replacements in some of these decks. |
May 07, 2024Great deck, huge fun playing it! Any tips for addition/mod after Hemlock Vale release? |
May 07, 2024
Since Plucky (3) already soaks Horror, I would consider getting a second copy instead of Precious Memento, especially since the damage is already managed by the dog. Then, Long Shot could definitely find some space, instead of Lucky!, and maybe some Strong-Armed further down the road. In the early deck Wolf Mask is a winner for sure, and maybe one Pushed to the Limit to compensate for Short Supply. That's a lot for one single expansion! |
May 15, 2024I did a lot of editing now to have the deck for my liking with Vale cards: I start with 2 Glory instead of crossroads but hunting jacket instead of one keepsake (Ill upgrade crossroads for glory asap though)
I get rid of the wolf mask for 2nd well prepared and the first cleanig kit and a pelt shipment for second cleaning Kit after the backpack I skip the second Cache and plucky. If the soak is not enough I probably can replace the Emergency cache upgrade for plucky, still land on 30 XP with pelt shipment hopefully accelerating me there |
Fantastic work as always! Looking forward the rest of the 40k series!