Fear and Grifting in Doomtown – Welcome to Deadwood Spoilers

Fear and Grifting in Doomtown – Welcome to Deadwood Spoilers

Nov 13, 2020 | Doomtown, News

by Derek McConnell (LastWalter)

I’ve been tracking spoilers for Doomtown since 2018, starting with the upcoming release (at the time) of Too Tough to Die, and here we are three sets later. Last time, in Hell’s Coming With Me I got my own card to spoil, Tawodi, but this time they’ve given me a whole article and I’ve got some great cards to share with you folks.

This ain’t my first rodeo

Grifters used to be popular and nearly omnipresent throughout decks. Nowadays, few of them show up in decks outside Den of Thieves, particularly since the errata to Rico Rodegain. Gone are the days of Travis Moone in every starting gang, as starting dudes have become more compelling and decks have become more consistent. My personal theory is that this is partially because the original cycle of grifters lacked influence. Additionally, most starting posses contained Willa Mae or Henry to catch bullets, along with some dudes with influence plus a designated stud shooter. After all that, it could be hard to find the ghost rock to pay for a grifter while also losing another source of influence. In Welcome to Deadwood however, the new grifters come buffed with the most important stat in the game, along useful start of the game abilities. You’ve seen the rest, now let’s look at the best:

Now that you’ve met Lew, let’s review what he brings to the Fearmongers. Firstly, he is the third Huckster 0 that only costs 3 GR. Lew has an influence advantage over Funtime Freddy, and a bullet advantage over Papa Marias, depending on what you need. Lew’s ‘Grift’ doesn’t demand Freddy’s ‘ultimate sacrifice,’ and allows you to search the top 6 cards of your deck for an abomination or mystical goods to start the game with. Note, however, that Lew must put any unkept cards back on top of the deck in the same order, rather than shuffle. This is not always a bad thing, as it allows you to exert some influence over that all-important initial lowball. If you see a full house or other high-ranking hand, you can break it up by taking a card. Forewarned is forearmed as they say, and Lew’s precognition can help you plan how to spend your initial ghost rock or plan your first day’s actions.

Beyond the corner case of fixing your starting lowball hand, Lew can snag variety of juicy targets. Prior to Welcome to Deadwood, there were 34 abominations for him to hunt, and another 18 non-Unique Mystical goods. Welcome to Deadwood adds three more abominations for Lew to procure, of which we’ve already met the New Varney Nosferatu and I’ll reveal the other two below. Note that our new grifter cannot grab Unique Mystical goods. Items such as Essence of Armitage, Magnum Opus Tenebri, and Stone Idol play well with abominations. By all means pack ‘em in your deck, just realize that Lew cannot find them for you.

You want this stuff, but it’s too rare for Lew to find.

Starting the game with at least one Mystical goods provides good synergy with several recent cards such as Bayou Vermilion Railroad, Vivene Goldsun, and Auntie Sinister hope to leverage an early Mystical goods. Don’t forget about our old friends, The Flying Popescus. This deck can swap out Papa Marias for Lew Esquilin and still use Bayou Vermilion Railroad to play a cheap Mystical goods each turn while impacting your opponent’s deeds. Lew helps ensure that the deck gets off to a good start, and you can add the recently spoiled Bad Beat to add additional economic pressure. Beyond that Lew can set up Abomination decks as well! He probably works best with cheap abominations, because you’re going to be putting them in your starting hand. The 3 value already has a few cheap abominations that we can steal from Anarchists, and Welcome to Deadwood has a new one to add to the mix:

 

Look at this thing! Paralysis Mark is BACK – well, not quite. However, here is another cheap abomination for Lew to find, and something to recur with cards like Ivor Hawley XP and Soul Cage.

I’ll leave you with the last of Welcome to Deadwood’s three new abominations. 

The Angler only costs 3 with 1 upkeep for a 0 Stud, can call out other 7s (Ambrose Douglas, Diego Linares, and Mariel Lewis all come to mind as potential hunting targets), as well as discarding a card to change his value (and thus his target!). Oh, and the Stone Idol and other value reducing cards let The Angler hook even high value dudes. Keep in mind what starters you are likely to see when building around The Angler, as they are the most likely dudes to be around to bump off.

Yes, it’s a good time to bring fear and loathing to your area. Welcome to Deadwood!

This concludes our Grifter articles for the upcoming Welcome to Deadwood expansion, available for pre-order through your FLGS or Pine Box Entertainment.

Play for Blood – Outlaw Grifters in Welcome to Deadwood

Play for Blood – Outlaw Grifters in Welcome to Deadwood

Oct 23, 2020 | Design, Doomtown, News, Organized Play, Tombstone

by David Lapp

In 2019, Pine Box Entertainment revived the Doomtown Badge Events. This included the Marshal round-ups at major conventions as a carryover from the AEG era of the game. PBE also introduced three new events: The Agent, Ranger, and finally Marshal of Tombstone for the major destination event in Tombstone itself. To coincide with these events, the cast of Saving Throw WildCards portrayed Doomtown characters in a three-part act known as the Twilight Protocol Trilogy (Act I linked). To thank the cast for their contributions to providing live fiction for the Weird West world of Doomtown set in 1882, Pine Box wanted to honor the cast’s characters from the original WildCards 5-season series on Twitch, by inserting them into the Doomtown game itself. This started in the expansion, ‘Hell’s Comin’ With Me,’ with the debut of Gabriel Prior. We even honored the Marshal himself with the Marshal Caves Callarman card. That left us with four remaining cast members, the next of which appears in ‘Welcome to Deadwood.’

 

 

Rosaleen Saorise Byrne is a character appearing in Wildcards videos set in Deadlands. Created by Meghan Caves, Byrne is the posse’s huckster with an intense loyalty to Gabriel Prior. She made her first appearance in Episode 0 – Character Creation. You can engage with the cast of WildCards and their fans on their Discord channel. Rosaleen was first spoiled during Meghan’s Savage Mysterium game here.

As the fifth grifter to be featured in our playtest articles, Rosaleen follows the trend thus far of card cycling/fetching. Arthur Dingler provides a peak into upcoming cards for a mulligan and Entrepreneur twist to lowball. Yasmin Tian allows a discard and draw while providing dual options for a Blessed/Kung Fu starting gang member. Sifting Squirrel provides the potential for additional cards with Shaman/Kung Fu First Peoples players, and Dr. JT Goodenough lets you start the game with a gadget in play. Rosaleen Byrne assists to help provide a more ideal starting hand by simply discarding and drawing exactly two cards. Providing one influence and the Huckster keyword, she can help cycle to a starting hex, cheatin’ resolution, deed, or whatever tool you seek at the time.

The first deck type that Rosaleen supports is any starting gang for Den of Thieves. The errata on Rico Rodegain hurt the original starting gang for this deck with the loss of influence. With Rosaleen, you have the chance to create an even better starting hand, have a solid second Grifter for use with your Outfit ability, and increase your starting influence. The decks ‘Jordan Caldwell’ and I played in the finals of GenCon 2016 can both be updated with Rosaleen. Here you’ll find an example of updating this playstyle to switch from a blitz to a swarm deck. Milt (or Fred Aims if you suspect landslide), Makeio, and Rosaleen (replacing Pete in the link) are your locked in starting dudes. Jake Smiley and Travis Moone swap out for Allie Hensman, Willa Mae, or Virginia depending on what you feel is best for your matchup. You can even bring in Barton Everest if you want to blitz.

Rosaleen is equally great in the ‘Sluckster’ style deck, replacing or adding to the general starting gang that includes Maria Kingsford and/or Antheia Pansofia just for the starting influence Huckster. Try her in this build from the Name-A-Card Online Event instead of Maria or this one from Origins 2019.

 

Spoilers!

At the time this article was initially written, I had mistakenly posted the linked list noting that Rosaleen replaced Gina, having thought she was value 3. Upon further review of the deck, I’d like to provide you with spoilers that include a couple of the heavy hitting actions in ‘Welcome to Deadwood,’ along with a new experienced dude. 

 

 

Honoring Name-A-Card prizes awarded at PAX Unplugged, both Bad Beat and Play for Blood have their names derived from that round-up in 2018. Play for Blood is guaranteed to make an environment changing splash with the ability to increase your hand rank on ties. Alternatively, you can use the Noon action instead, should you not expect an upcoming Shootout or are trying to dig for a specific card. Bad Beat provides players with a second cheatin’ resolution on value 7 with a Bottom Dealin’ feel to it. With Bad Beat causing a player to replace their hand with the top 5 of their own deck, this allows you to not have to run a looser draw structure you generally find from running Bottom Dealin’. The ability to steal ghost rock if they’re still cheatin,’ makes this card appealing to play in lowball as well.

 

 

In the above referenced Twilight Protocol Events, players and the Badge winners helped influence both the Doomtown storyline and upcoming cards. As a result of the Ranger Badge event, Willa Mae MacGowan joined the Ranks of the Texas Rangers. The Experienced version of this card allows you to save a dude that had been targeted by Pinned Down or Black Owl. Additionally, Willa Mae can save a dude in her posse and end a shootout if that was your only other dude.

The following updates the linked Den of Thieves list with the additional cards to try out:

Den of Thieves
Dude (19)
1x Jake Smiley*
1x Rosaleen Byrne*
1x Travis Moone*
1x Makaio Kaleo, Esq.*
1x Milt Clemons*
1x Allie Hensman
1x Fred Aims
1x Buford Hurley
1x Funtime Freddy
1x Genesee “Gina” Tailfeathers
1x Lawrence Blackwood
1x Ol’ Howard
1x Black Owl
1x Marion Seville
1x Barton Everest
1x Virginia Ann Earp
1x Willa Mae MacGowan (Exp.1)
1x Travis Moone (Exp.1)
1x Antoine Peterson

Deed (10)
1x The Orphanage
1x Notary Public
1x Yan Li’s Tailoring
1x Hustings
1x Clanton Ranch
1x B & B Attorneys
1x Town Council
1x Gateway Station
1x Ike’s Place
1x Hunter Protections

Goods (10)
2x Bowie Knife
2x Shotgun
4x Tusk
2x LeMat Revolver

Action (13)
2x The Stakes Just Rose
2x Sun in Yer Eyes
3x Coachwhip!
1x Play for Blood
3x Kidnappin’
1x Bad Beat
1x Ricochet

 

Whatever style of Outlaw deck you prefer, Rosaleen is sure to find her way into many Outlaw deck builds in a post Welcome to Deadwood environment.

You can pre-order Welcome to Deadwood, shipping in November, through your FLGS or directly from Pine Box Entertainment here.

Gleaning Weapons for the Law Dogs

Gleaning Weapons for the Law Dogs

Oct 16, 2020 | Design, Doomtown, News, Strategy

by David Avery
(with an introduction by Tamsyn Goodnow)

Our layout designer and graphics-user interface expert, Tamsyn Goodnow, has always had a soft spot for gadgets, and decided to name this card in commemoration of herself and her father. Believe it or not, Goodenough is a variant of Goodnow, and the J comes from her dad’s first name (John). The T is obviously from her own name.

Plus, when coming up with the card name, she discovered John Goodenough is the name of a Nobel-winning chemist and physicist! Her dad has a passion for physics that was passed down to her, so how could she NOT name a mad scientist in honour of her father?

 

Dr. JT Goodenough joins the high-minded academic inventors who support and assist the Law Dogs. Based on his ability to create weapons we can assume, or at least hope, that he holds a PhD rather a medical doctorate. Likewise, Dr. Goodenough will likely conduct most of his tinkering at the Law Dog’s Arsenal or Fort 51 locations.

Law Dog mad science has always had the vexing problem of what do you do if you don’t draw a gadget weapon in your starting hand. All Law Dog decks in general tend towards aggressiveness, and want weapons with which to enforce the law. If you are based out of the Union’s top-secret weapon test facility at Fort 51, however, gadget weapons are essential to make your deck function. Thus Dr. Goodenough and his ability to jump-start the Law Dog’s weapons programme.

Akin to the Fearmonger’s Funtime Freddy, the good doctor allows you to keep a weapon that you retrieve from your deck. While Dr. Goodenough is an obliging chap, his selections are imperfect, as your opponent has the final say on which weapon you keep and which goes to discard. If you play your cards right, however, the discarded weapon may not have gone far. 

Alas, fetching weapons is a full-time job and Dr. Goodnow ends up booted from exertions. To support Dr Goodenough, you may want to start at least one other mad scientist to invent subsequent weapons in your deck. Quincy Washburne and Dr. Erik Yaple are both good choices. You may want also want to consider Dr. Dayl Burnett if you are trying to invent particularly difficult weapons like Yagn’s Mechanical Skeleton or the Bio-charged Neutraliser. 

The final mad scientist to consider is Janosz Pratt. Janosz works particularly well with Dr. Goodenough, as Janosz can use his ability to play whichever gadget your opponent discarded at the start of the game. This can leverage two card weapons combos such as Yagn’s Mechanical Skeleton and Hydro-Puncher or the Electrostatic Pump Gun along with a Net Gun. You can also use Doomsday Supply, Technological Exposition, or even a reformed Pete Spence to get back the discarded weapon. 

None of the scientists I’ve mentioned above are great shooters. In fact, they are all draws and only two of them are deputies that take advantage of the ubiquitous Faster on the Draw. Thankfully, the Law Dogs have a variety of good starting shooters. “Thunderboy” Nabbe with a Yagn’s is a terrifying immovable 6 stud. Here is an example deck running out of Fort 51. Just swap Padre Ernesto For Dr. Goodenough and select Hydro-Puncher and Yagn’s for JT at the start of the game if you can. Ideally you want the Yagn’s, but even if your opponent tosses it, the Hydro-Puncher lets you come out swinging. Your primary ways of making dudes wanted are the outfit ability for low influence dudes and Dr. Yaple for anyone with more than a 1 influence.

Another possible shooter is Hattie DeLorre armed with an Electrostatic Pump Gun, who can thus turn even the biggest shooters into quivering zero draws. This deck out of the Law Dogs original outfit uses this tactic to try and strip away all your opponent’s bullets. Again, swap Padre Ernesto for Dr. Goodenough. The deck uses only two weapons, Electrostatic Pump Gun and Net Gun, making Dr. Goodenough’s choices both obvious and useful. It doesn’t really matter which one your opponent selects, because you should plan to use Janosz Pratt to play the other. Faster on the Draw is a key card in this deck as you don’t have any mobile studs. With Nightmare at Noon, however, it may not matter. You can use the gadget weapons, Hattie, and Nightmare to turn the opposing posse into a ragtag band of 0 draws. You have aggressive cheatin’ punishment in Coachwhip and I’m Your Huckleberry, hopefully leaving your opponent in an unwinnable situation. 

Finally, Prodigy used this deck to win the GenghisCon: Agency Badge Event this year. Try swapping Dr. Goodenough in place of Dr. Yaple and use Dr. Goodenough’s ability to retrieve an Electrostatic Pump Gun as well as a Hydro-Puncher. Prodigy explains the deck in detail in the notes, but in summary its main focus is an aggressive shooter using The Arsenal Noon ability to start fights. 

Dr. Goodenough is likely to become staple for post Welcome to Deadwood Law Dogs gadget decks.

Welcome to Deadwood is available for preorder through your FLGS or Pine Box Entertainment here.

Worship and Wushu

Worship and Wushu

Oct 9, 2020 | Design, Doomtown, Strategy

By David Hogg

he upcoming expansion for Doomtown, Welcome to Deadwood, contains a suite of dudes designed to shake up starting gangs as each faction gains access to a new Grifter dude.  This week we’re going to look at the Grifters from the Anarchist and First Peoples factions.

Yasmin Tian is the self-appointed guardian angel of Deadwood’s Chinatown, protecting the inhabitants from criminals and industrialists looking to exploit them.  In-game, she provides great versatility.  As a three-cost dude without upkeep, one bullet and influence, she’s a good value body to fill out a starting gang. On top of that, she also has the Blessed and Kung Fu keywords.  Both are rated zero. While she’s unlikely to be the star player of your deck, she presents a solid, well-priced backup option when building around those keywords.  Being of low value, she will have a hard time mixing the high pulls required to cast Miracles with the low pulls she needs to succeed at Kung Fu Techniques. As such, she is most likely to see use supporting one or the other.  That said it’s not impossible to mix the two.  For example, the Raking Dragons Technique can be used to lower an opposing dude’s value, and the Miracle Retribution uses a target dude’s value as its difficulty. Thus you could use one to set up the other.  Taking advantage of cards like Nunchucks and Tlaloc’s Furies to raise her Kung Fu or Blessed rating also opens up the possibilities.  Her Grift is a straightforward and simple ability, allowing you to clear an unwanted card from your opening play hand and replace it.  If you have a hand full of good options, but can’t play them all early on, then using her alongside House of Many Faiths will let you replace a card and then add it back to your deck with the outfit’s ability.

Here is the Blessed deck pilot by Jordan Pridgen that reached the finals of the online Ranger event. The deck aims to take advantage of the extra options provided by Walk the Path and Amazing Grace to outmaneuver its opponents, while House of Many Faiths and the Joker’s Smile work together to retrieve and place Jokers back in the deck to bolster shootout hands. Try it replacing Asakichi Cooke with Yasmin TIan and drop Doris Powell to start Willa Mae MacGowan over Stevie Lyndon. For some additional updates, you can also try dropping the 3, King value cards to add a second General Store, a second Twilight is Upon Us, and a Ranger’s Bible.

This Kung Fu deck starts Yasmin and uses its Kung Fu dudes to fight for control of town square. From there it builds up control points by playing deeds and hiring Allie Hensman.  Starting Companhurst’s and using the Drunken Masters outfit ability helps Yasmin succeed at Techniques even when she pulls one of the Coachwhips.  With a couple more deeds in play, even the sixes will allow success. Try it starting Yasmin instead of Hiram.

Sifting Squirrel is a young Sioux Nations shaman who regularly converses with the Spirits, trying to glean information about goings-on in Deadwood from their chatter.  Similar to Yasmin, Squirrel also costs three sans upkeep, and provides one influence, making him a viable addition to your starting gang.  He differs, however, by having zero bullets.  He has the Shaman keyword, increasing the number of cheap Shaman dudes with influence available to First Peoples skill decks.  While only skill rating zero, he can boost this via cards such as by St. Anthony’s Chapel or Fire of Nanahbozho. Both cards happen to play well with the faction’s defensive strengths.   As several of their outfits make use of Spirits in some way, having access to another cheap Shaman with influence to fight alongside Mazatl further opens up their starting gang options. At the same time, his Grifter ability also offers support to Kung Fu decks.  Squirrel’s Grift is similar to Yasmin’s. Instead of discarding first, however, you draw first, giving you more options to choose from when deciding what to discard.  If you discard a Spirit or Technique you get to draw an additional card, giving you a larger play hand for the crucial first turn.  Tao Technique cards can be played from the discard pile through Combos, and if you are using the Office of Ancestral Affairs, you may be able to put a Totem Spirit into play from your discard pile.  The card you discard to trigger the ability may not necessarily stay discarded for long.

Here is an example Shaman deck that starts Squirrel.  The deck aims to build up control points on its deeds with the aid of the Office of Ancestral Affairs, and features a mix of Spirits and Totems to help defend those deeds. Try it replacing Butch Deuces with Sifting Squirrel.

Welcome to Deadwood is currently available for preorder from your FLGS or Pine Box Entertainment here.

Taking the Gyrocopter View: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting Started in Business 

Taking the Gyrocopter View: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting Started in Business 

Sep 14, 2020 | Design, Doomtown, News

by David Avery

Arthur Dingler, an Austrian inventor and resident of Deadwood, operates an autogyro service (Dingler’s Whirliwigs) for visitors and denizens of the town. From this lofty position he gives Deadwood’s prospective Entrepreneurs an eagle’s-eye view along with a short-term glimpse into the future. In the Deadlands plot point book, The Last Sons, Arthur is one means for a posse to obtain access to Devil’s Tower.

The first and most obvious decision for Arthur is whether or not to keep or get rid of your opening lowball hand. This is particularly important as Arthur raises the stakes on the first low ball by adding an extra ghost rock to the pot. So, if you can win it, you probably should. If Arthur sees a high card or a pair, you probably should leave it there and hope for early economy boost. If you are not that lucky, Arthur gives you the opportunity to change your first lowball hand in one of two ways. 

Shuffle back in – In addition to avoiding a crushing lowball defeat you may also want to shuffle those five cards back in to ensure key cards stay in your deck. Nothing frustrates a Doomtown player more than watching cards significant to their draw structure or game plan go to discard after lowball. Arthur lets you fix this for at least the first turn. He also provides limited protection for your jokers. A Joker might win you low ball, but normally you want to save them for shootouts later in the game.

Discard – Many Entrepreneur decks rely on playing goods. If they can’t draw those goods into their hand, they then rely on the card game staple of playing them from their discard pile. Arthur helps these decks by giving you a ten-card starting discard pile: five from his ability and five from your first lowball hand. This hopefully lets you find the goods you are looking for, thus getting your deck off to a good start.

 Maggie Harris is an engine for most horse-based decks, whether they are robotic or normal. She can, however, only lasso horses found in the discard pile. Even if your first five cards contain a horse, Arthur can seed the discard pile with the next five cards to corral plenty of horse flesh to power the inevitable calling of the cavalry. 

This deck by Harlath uses Arthur to set up Maggie and Irving to power a fast escalation. Try it using Arthur in your starting posse instead of Henry Moran.

Morgan Stables allows a cunning, but ultimately cowardly, Entrepreneur player with a legendary holster to rush in and bushwhack some hapless dude. But this strategy only works if you can get your hands on the corrupting leatherwork. Doomsday Supply can help by letting you grab the holster from your discard pile even in a shootout.

This deck by AtotheJ can be updated from it’s Top 4 GenCon finish in 2019 to accommodate the most latest Doomtown expansions and swap out Kyle Wagner for Arthur.

Gadget decks can also use discard pile interactions. The Smith and Robards and Gadgetorium outfits both need gadgets in hand to perform. But if you don’t draw a gadget in your starting hand, you can be at real disadvantage. As such, many gadget decks play discard pile interaction. For example, you can kick start your economy by putting on a Technological Exhibition to invent a disgenuine currency press before your opponent can block you. 

This deck uses both tech expo and doomsday supplies to play gadgets quickly and power up Nicholas Kramer and set up a hearts straight flush using decimator array. Swap out Willa Mae MacGowan for Arthur.

Welcome to Deadwood is currently available for pre-order with your local store or online here.

Community Classics: Booted Dudes Episode 1

Community Classics: Booted Dudes Episode 1

Jul 30, 2020 | Community, Doomtown

On July 1st, 2020 – Pine Box Entertainment celebrated our third anniversary. With the world being what it is, and our focus on our upcoming projects – we sort of forgot to celebrate. No worries though, we’re still going to do so, and in style. Over Doomtown’s storied, and often unpredictable, past there has been one thing that has driven it. The community.

In order properly celebrate, we must celebrate the community. So we’re excited to post and share Booted Dudes Episode 1 for posterity and your enjoyment! Expect more in the future.