Hello, dear readers! Yorick here, taking a brief, *hungover* sabbatical from my adventures at the Everfest carnival to delight you with a most amusing tale.
While our efforts to locate the Seers has thus far not been fruitful, I did meet a most interesting fellow by the name of Mr. White. One night after Lexi and Briar had both had too much to drink, the two of them together challenged Everfest's very own strongman and consummate star of the show to a fight.
As it turns out, Mr. White is a fan of all sorts of games, and we placed a friendly wager over the ensuing big top brawl. He thought that the numbers advantage of my two companions would be enough to topple the showstopper, but I knew someone dressed that glamorously must be able to handle themselves...
The fight was over before it started. Everything that Briar and Lexi tried, he seemed to just do it better. (I'm pretty sure Oldhim could take him, but I'm certainly not going to give that lute smashing jerk the chance.)
Having won my bet with Mr. White, I was most pleased when he immediately honored our wager and created a card with my likeness in his very own card game, and his studio of legendary stories immediately went to work syndicating it.
However, as I was the first Bard to ever grace the game, there weren't many cards for my miniature cardboard counterpart to actually use, which means people playing as me would be at a distinct disadvantage. That is something I simply could not abide, so I went and found an overly enthusiastic player of Mr. White's games to concoct a winning strategy using yours truly. The poor dullard was so excited to brew up some winning nonsense with my new card that I didn't even have to pay him! I suppose time will tell if you get what you pay for, but in the meantime, enjoy that poor fool's efforts to make me shine!
Yours in harmony,
-Yorick
The special Promo for Pro Tour #1 was recently revealed to be Yorick, Weaver of Tales. Yorick is Flesh and Blood's very first Bard, with a one-of-a-kind effect that rivals even Shiyana in terms of the weirdness it can bring to a game. Yorick is only going to be legal in Ultimate Pit Fight, so any decks we build for our musically inclined friend should be 60 cards with an armory of up to 20 weapons and equipment.
Yorick's ability means all players combine their decks into one community deck at the start of the game. And that's it. During the game, Yorick has no hero ability to use or synergies to make use of. We are left with only generics to build our deck from- though in-game, we'll have our opponents' cards to use as well. Every other hero in the game will have some edge over us, whether it be from hero abilities or class weapons and equipment. That said, our present lack of class equipment certainly allows us to keep our options open…
Dress for Success
Every self-respecting Bard's wardrobe should be versatile, allowing them to fit into any number of situations. Talishar, the Lost Prince is the one weapon available to us, so it will be our weapon of choice in nearly every situation. But the rest of the equipment remains modular.
Spikey McSpikerson - for when you are trying to win the game and nothing more
Dapper Suite - for particularly fancy occasions
Knight Cosplay - for when you're hanging with Guardians and Warriors and want to fit in
Anti-Mage - for Wizard opponents you don't hate
Super Anti-Mage - for Wizard opponents you do hate (you didn't really need Talishar anyway)
Apologetic Anti-Mage - for repairing friendships with Wizards you just Arcane Barrier 5'd...
Playing to the Crowd
So what does the optimal 60 card deck look like for a hero with no inherent synergies to work towards when it will be shuffled in with multiple other decks? Anti-synergy. We're not doing anything special, so our deck is going to do its best to grind all the other decks in the game to a halt, and hopefully result in a game that resembles the power level of a Sealed limited deck, where we can win the game on our superior intellect (figurative), charm, and good looks.
How do we maximize the amount of anti-synergy that we can cram into our Yorick deck? First order of business is to figure out what we don't want to include:
Against...
- Runeblades: Minimize attack buffs and Go Agains.
- Rangers: Minimize Go Agains and attack buffs.
- Warriors: Minimize attack buffs and Go Agains.
- Guardians: No blues, and no attacks that cost more than 2.
- Wizards: No blues.
- Illusionists: Minimize yellows.
- Brutes: No 6 power attacks.
- Ninjas: No zero cost cards.
- Mechs: ...No mech items, I guess?
- Shiyana: (Poor girl is fighting the same fight as us, albeit with some Specializations.)
- Merchants: No blues for Kavdaen; Genis is cool though.
After doing some of the strangest card searches I've ever done over on FABDB, I was led me to create this absolute beauty…
Yorick's Pile of Format Legal Cards
Weapons
- Talishar, the Lost Prince (1)
Equipment
- Arcane Lantern (1)
- Arcanite Skullcap (1)
- Deep Blue (1)
- Fyendal's Spring Tunic (1)
- Gambler's Gloves (1)
- Hope Merchant's Hood (1)
- Ironhide Gauntlet (1)
- Ironhide Legs (1)
- Ironhide Plate (1)
- Mage Master Boots (1)
- Nullrune Boots (1)
- Nullrune Gloves (1)
- Nullrune Hood (1)
- Nullrune Robe (1)
- Ragamuffin's Hat (1)
- Runaways (1)
- Spell Fray Cloak (1)
- Spell Fray Gloves (1)
- Spell Fray Leggings (1)
Loadout
- Back Alley Breakline (Red) (3)
- Back Alley Breakline (Yellow) (3)
- Belittle (Yellow) (3)
- Bingo (Red) (3)
- Brandish (Yellow) (3)
- Brutal Assault (Yellow) (3)
- Cadaverous Contraband (Yellow) (3)
- Demolition Crew (Yellow) (3)
- Eirina's Prayer (Red) (3)
- Eirina's Prayer (Yellow) (3)
- Knick Knack Bric-a-brac (Red) (3)
- Life of the Party (Yellow) (3)
- Moon Wish (Red) (3)
- Moon Wish (Yellow) (3)
- Push the Point (Yellow) (3)
- Regurgitating Slog (Yellow) (3)
- Rise Above (Red) (3)
- Rise Above (Yellow) (3)
- Stony Woottonhog (Yellow) (3)
View this deck on FABDB here.
...and don't mind Genis, he's holding these cards while Yorick 'acquires' some coin.
No blues, no six power attacks, no zero cost cards, no three cost attack actions, no non-attack actions with go again. The one area we had to give up some ground was minimizing yellow cards, but Prism decks are already going to be incredibly diluted via our hero ability.
In this majestic pile of format legal cards, you will find synergistic gems such as:
- Knick Knack Bric-a-brac with no cards that generate currency tokens or fetchable items!
- Six copies of Moon Wish with zero Sun Kiss!
- Regurgitating Slog with no Sloggism!
- Life of the Party with no Crazy Brew!
- Belittle with no Minnowism!
Also featuring single-card powerhouses like:
- Yellow Brandish and Yellow Stony Woottonhog!
- Six copies of Eirina's Prayer regardless of the presence of arcane damage!
- B.I.N.G.O.!
And that's not all! We even have some anti-synergy synergy! With 6 full copies of Rise Above, we can punish our opponents for attacking us by putting a garbage card on top of the communal deck for them to draw (admittedly they can also utilize this trick, so your mileage may vary). Verily, this is a playlist that only goes up!
"But Wait! Why Aren't We Playing ______?"
Coax a Commotion? This Round's On Me? These score major vanity points as they feature the bard in their artwork, but Yorick likely doesn't require me to be vain on his behalf!
Go Bananas? Opponents should all be able to use this better than you can; plus it's a zero cost.
Adrenaline Rush? Far too easy to have an opponent at lower life than you in UPF, which makes this too closely resemble a good card.
Rally the Rearguard? Rifting? Rally can play like a real defensive trick, and Rifting can potentially access Go Again.
Gorganian Tome? Gorganian Tome is funny with Yorick, because no one can ever draw more than 1 from it due to the graveyard also being communal; but several other classes can potentially get real benefit out of drawing a card, whereas we cannot.
Begin Your Legend this May!
If you're looking to demonstrate your mastery of limited fundamentals in a multiplayer environment, then look no further than Yorick, Weaver of Tales. Happy April Fool's Day!
