La Bomba Shelter

It's "Another Dumb Deck Idea!" by twoeyedjack.

Big bullets. That's what I was contemplating this time. Problem with big bullets is that they are usually to expensive to keep around for long or require some extended build-up to get into play via gadgets and weapons. Then comes the risk of losing your big bullet dude from a bad shootout, and having to start over again.

This deck revisits an old concept from Reloaded's first couple of months of release, the cruise missile deck. Those long-in-the-tooth cruise missile drops like Bobo and Steven Wiles are here again, but now they have The Grey Man and Denise Brancini joining them. Starting with The Harvester puts a huge threat on the board from the start, and Travis Moone can get his gun tricks on by experiencing him for free into the 3-stud Travis Moone (Exp.1) beast. Since hucksters have more or less died off in my meta, I needed a solid huckster to boost Bobo as soon as he hits the field, so starting good old Steele Archer for a Huckster 2 is likely the best option.

The strategy is simple--move The Harvester to Town Square, use the home ability to lower their best shooter's bullets, drop a cruise missile dude or two, and then run Kidnappin'. Use Faster on the Draw and Unprepared to mess up their bullet count and shootout possibilities, and punish them with This'll Hurt in the Mornin' if they cheat. Even though there are no Deputies to turn into studs in this deck, the net 3-bullet shift in your favor makes Faster on the Draw really effective in any big bullet shootout.

To really take advantage of big bullets, though, LeMat Revolver is a must-have. Hand them out to every dude you got. Multiple LeMats is how you can leverage the resolution ability if the opponent decides not to cheat. Your legal two pair can potentially bump up 8 ranks to a dead man's hand with two LeMats in the posse, whether your opponent cheats or not. Shouldn't need to be said, but that's huge.

Still, The Harvester is a walking basket of influence eggs, and you need to protect him while you chew up the opponent's dudes. Enter Pedro! A free sidekick! Be very careful with these guys, though. That -3 value makes Shotgun and other value-dependent effects super effective, so be aware of what your opponent is running in that department, and keep an Unprepared handy for it.

Running all that stud action is great, but having a bit of draw to swap out what you don't want for potentially what you do want is always nice. Mountain Lion Friend is perfect for this. Cheap draw support that can also absorb casualties alongside Pedro, which can keep your cruise missiles around for a second shootout round if necessary. Make sure you use Denise for casualty soaking too. You don't want to give your opponent's jokers back to them, so run her out to get shot up when you play her.

The low cost of the dudes and goods in the deck and the strategy of blowing away your opponent's influence over and over means the deeds don't need to be anything particularly special. There aren't a lot of control points here since more consideration has been given to on-value, abilities, and production. They won't pop up too often since there are only 9 deeds, but with a bit of perseverance the cruise missile bombardment will cripple their influence enough to let you walk onto their deeds instead.

The deck is not as fast as I would prefer since The Harvester has to walk to Town Square to set up for Kidnappin' and to use the home ability, as well as all the equipping and trading to get the posse ready. The opponent will see what's coming a mile away and has a few turns to mount some defense. But seeing The Harvester with three Mountain Lion Friends, a Pedro, and a LeMat come lumbering out into Town Square is just too much fun to pass up. The deck's draw structure is effectively 3x14 since The Harvester is already on the field, so lowball win chances are better than slim to non-existent. I could see trying to swap around some cards to get a 16/16/10 value structure, but I wouldn't go any further than that since a Kidnappin' cruise missile deck needs a good draw structure to reliably win. However the LeMats and the sheer number of studs plus draw bonus from Mountain Lion Friend might allow for a slightly looser structure while still getting powerful shootout results. The lower value weakness from Pedro is also slightly problematic considering the deck's chances of winning lowball make Unprepared a bit harder to use effectively against Shotgun and Legendary Holster. I'd like to get The Joker's Smile and The Whateley Estate in here to cycle jokers back in for repeating legal 5oaks, but the multiple LeMat strategy might make that moot and Denise might be better off being a consistent 2 stud in the later stages.

Head on down to La Bomba Shelter. "Another Dumb Deck Idea!" by twoeyedjack. Have fun!