I will admit to being a little worried in the design phases about Yet Another low cost, no upkeep Influence source for the Anarchists. But this is their only 0 upkeep dude on a 4, and an ability to help the Property is Theft home. And if anyone actually knows my style, I am all about the chess game.

Why I feel Plasma Drill is not worth playing.

1. Self failing with less than a Mad Science 3. Playing a number of cards to increase your mad science allow you to succeed playing Plasma Drill, but that heavily adds to the investment in playing the card.
2. 5 value puts heavy restrictions on what gadgets you can build in your deck.
3. Playing it boots the MS who must then either trade it to another dude who will also boot, or you wait to use on a subsequent turn. There are some means of managing this cost such as Marty It adds heavily to the comburance of playing Plasma Drill.
4. 4 Gr to buy and another 1 to use. 5GR to make your opponent either discard a deed, or pay up maybe 2 or 3. While you might keep zapping their deed every turn, that’s a hefty cost.
5. This incredible investment to hurt your opponents wealth a few ghost rock is not enough to make Plasma Drill worth playing on it's own, so you have to then further invest in cards like The Place or more Plasma Drills to make it worth it.

To end it all, I would simply suggest playing more stud dudes with influence and cards with movement abilities. Parking a dude on their deed costs them more than using Plasma Drill most times. Since Plasma Drill leaves your dudes booted on their deed or in TS, you’ll have to fight it out the same as you would over simply putting your dude on their deed.

As of 9/26, it has been determined that A Slight Modification can be used to cancel an ability such as "Thunder Boy" Nabbe and that ability can NOT be used a second time that shootout because the line in Thunderboy's text that says the ability can only be used once per shootout. When canceled by ASM, it has been "used" but has had no effect. Therefore, it can not be used a second time if canceled by ASM.

Curiously, one possible counter to this card is to use the Bayou Vermilion Railroad ability on your own deeds as the first action, temporarily sacrificing a little CPs/income to make sure your Carter's Bounties/Shane & Graves Security/Steph & Gertie's Tonsorium remains available when a key fight rolls around.

Knowledge is power. Only this and Telepathy Helmet give you unrestricted access to the contents of your opponent's hand.

Are they sitting on two shootout actions and two Cheating Resolutions? Avoid shootouts if you can and choke out their card throughput.

No Cheating Resolutions? Or Shootout Actions? bully away and cheat like mad.

Steven Wiles? Do not overextend your position.

With only discarding (usually) one card per turn, and open discard information, the intel gathered from one Cookin' Up Trouble can remain pertinent for a couple of turns.

Of course, in the ideal universe, your opponent cheats on Lowball, loses, and you play this first action to look at the hand and discard an action, goods, or spell. But even if the planets have not properly aligned for you, I would say that it is usually worth the ghost rock to cycle this card and find out what you can instead of hanging on to it while you wait for them to cheat.

of course this competes with Coachwhip! for deck space, so it can be a hard sell considering the 1 cost on an action card. War Paint or Siege Of The Orphanage work on the proactive side of the Fours, and without that pesky cost.

But in this new age of Ricochet, knowing what is up the opponent's sleeve can make or break a game, and as the G.I.Joes say, "Knowing is half the battle".

The only problem with this card in in the top left corner, it has to fight against Unprepared for space in any deck.

I have gotten good use out of this in Law Dogs focusing on Noon Phase control in order to keep troublesome dudes from even showing up at the fight (or being able to call my dudes out).

I have also used this to boot deeds to surprising effect. Boot a Circle M Ranch to stop the card draw. Boot a Carter's Bounties before the big fight.

Even if you are not running Law Dogs, there are a number of effects that put control points on dudes - and the application of a little "Attention" can either serve to make them not cause you trouble (Jasper Stone / Darius Hellstromme) or get them booted in an unsafe location (Allie Hensman / Doris Powell)

So consider maybe mixing up your default 4x Unprepared and see if you can catch your opponent unprepared for your new tactics.

Since jobs can be some of the most powerful effects in Doomtown, being able to make sure that a particular dude cannot oppose your job can go a long way towards it being a job well done.

of course, the inherent limitation is that it only works on jobs that target locations. This means it cannot help with a Kidnapping, Ol' Fashioned Hanging, Curse of Failure, Mugging, or Forced Quarantine.

So then, which jobs to use this for? Probably the best one to use this on would be Recruitment Drive, but of course they share a value, so that makes it hard to combine.

If you want to have a reliable job on tap, this can push Desolation Row or Office of Ancestral Affairs. Or dudes like Francisco Rosales, Takahashi Jinrai, or the Epidemic Laboratory.

if you fancy jobs like Signing Over the Stores, Technological Exhibition, A Coach Comes to Town, or All Or Nothing, this can help keep that one angry stud from thwarting your plans.

As for the "not being being affected by the job effects" part, you can use this to keep a disposable dude from being the victim of an Election Day Slaughter.

all in all, a difficult card to make use of, because it requires another card to initiate the job - which eats up a lot of cards. and ultimately your opponent might not have wanted to oppose in the first place.

and that doesn't begin to touch on the stiff competition in the 10 of Clubs department - Unprepared chokes out better cards than this.

Thunder Boy is a fantastic card for Law Dogs. At only 3 GR, 1 upkeep, for 2 inf and potentially 3 stud, he can slot in as a starter in almost any Law Dogs deck. The Deputy keyword is a plus for triggering things like The Law Goes Underground. Most Law Dogs decks should have no problems getting people wanted, so his ability is easy to trigger, making him a potential 3 stud. He combos well with Idol of Tlazolteotl if Jacks are on value. Just look out for Unprepared .

This is a really good option for dude spot removal that fits in basically any deck which can run the value. (Or doesn't mind splashing for it) A great alternative to Kidnappin' in decks that don't want to gain the bounty or have trouble putting up the initial bullet requirements. The 0 cost can also make it a little easier to fit into a low-to-the ground deck where Ambush, Bounty Hunter, or Ol' Fashioned Hangin' aren't reliable enough.

It's worth noting that Curse of Failure doesn't actually remove the dude from the board, it sends them home booted, almost completely useless, and more expensive. Effectively, this usually results in the opponent choosing not to renew their upkeep the next turn, but there are situations where they may keep the dude in play. Studs remain studs after all, so choose your targets for this card carefully

I've come across a couple interesting interactions. First, if the opponent is playing Karl Odett, CoF removes the Abomination keyword to shut down Karl's influence boost. This can lead to a HUGE swing if it's used successfully, though most savvy abom players will probably let their dude get aced or discarded first!

Second, this still successfully attaches to dudes wearing a Knight's Chasuble because the dude's attachments are discarded before Curse attaches. This may be obvious but it tripped me up a bit!

Overall a very strong card that fills its role well.

An Anarchist starting posse staple and for good reason. Asakichi might not bring much to the table bullet-wise, but her ability is loaded with utility, especially in decks that want to out-maneuver their opponent.

When crafting your hand early game, Asakichi's ability is worth using even just to clear bad cards out of your hand to allow for more draw the next day. I know I've had days where I just sent a dude to town square and immediately booted them home just to get the discard.

That being said, the movement ability is really versatile in a lot of situations. Sending a dude from your home or town square to a contested deed In or Out of town without booting can be exactly the play you need to get somewhere before a key noon ability on a deed goes off or tip the numbers of an imminent shootout in your favor. She can also help to pull a booted dude in a vulnerable position out of the fire, sending them home or somewhere they can be backed up.

A strong choice all around, while also being a body you don't mind too much losing as a casualty if the going gets tough.

There's not a lot to say about Xiaodan Li except that he's as close as it comes to being a free dude in your starting posse. With his value of 2 + Kung Fu 1, he's not going to be the best at pulling off techniques, but the fact that he can allow an Anarchist player to have 6 starting dudes makes him worth it even if you completely ignore his ability.

Xiaodan is basically the quintessential bullet catcher, serving as a body you can sacrifice or risk without too much on the line. His 1 draw bullet rating can make him quite relevant in a shootout, especially with cards like Ricochet in the opponent's hand, where you often want to pick a shooter who you can afford to lose if things go badly. He can also be turned into a pretty solid threat in his own right with cards like Bowie Knife or Consecration that turn dudes into studs and raise their bullets.

He can be a bit of a liability if run in a skill deck since he has such low value, and 1 extra starting GR is certainly not nothing, but he's definitely good value for his price in basically any situation

A fantastic choice for any Anarchist starting posse, You'll immediately be able to tell how strong Randall is by how hard the opponents will try and kill him. His 2 influence does a lot to keep you alive against fast decks, but his real utility is the extra card draw he offers you. Combine him with a couple sources of discard like Asakichi Cooke and you'll end up with a lot of control over what your hand looks like.

He does have the downside of needing to be in a location with at least two other dudes, but in practice this isn't too hard to pull off most of the time. He often sits at home keeping your dudes who ran a job or ran from a shootout company and tellin' some tales around the campfire, but he can just as easily be sent in to shore up a heavily contested deed.

If you aren't going to be consistently able to get the card draw off of him, a dude like Jake Smiley provides basically the same influence for less cost, but it's hard to overstate how much an extra card every day can effect the power level of your hand.

It's worth noting for newer players or people who haven't seen this dude in action before, if you have Randall in your starting posse you do NOT draw 6 cards on the first day. His ability only comes into effect on the second day forward.

A home that brings an enormous amount of utility to Anarchist blessed decks, House of Many Faiths does a lot with its ability.

First, the ability to shuffle a card in your discard pile and hand into the deck is deceptively powerful. Not only does it let you clear things you don't want out of your hand, it can also effectively increase the frequency of any specific card in your deck. Being able to keep cards like Unprepared or job actions like Kidnappin' in your deck can help to adjust your plan for specific matchups, allowing you to run a few less of specific cards while still seeing them frequently.

I've found a lot of luck cycling in specific miracles I need to draw like Amazing Grace, or combining this ability with The Joker's Smile to keep jokers in your deck at all times and create a powerful draw engine.

HoMF doesn't quite provide the generalized mobility of the base 108 home, but being able to unboot a blessed and move them to town square, with +1 influence to boot, is nothing to scoff at. Unbooting allows the possibility of mollifying the boot cost of such miracles as Soothe or Confession or allows for running jobs like Epidemic Laboratory without taking one of your key dudes out of the action permanently. It often feels like having an extra dude available at all times, and can be key to controlling the position of dudes in town.

The downsides to the home are mostly that it doesn't do anything for you until you have a miracle on the board, so it makes sense to run enough miracles to get one in your opening hand pretty consistently. The "Move to town square" line of the ability can also be a mixed blessing. It's a powerful position for movement purposes, but can make using the home ability very dangerous against decks that aggressively control town square. Of course there's always Amazing Grace which can help stop your dude from being called out immediately upon hitting town square.

Overall the home is definitely worth it, and I personally would be hard-pressed not to use it in basically any anarchist deck with enough miracles. 5/5

@DoomDog

Mugging aces the Holster if the job succeeds. Since it's Unique, it cannot come back in play afterward. So it will not just slow the deck down, it will stop it right away.

However, you can discard the dude who holds the holster as a casuality if you're losing the shootout, then it's simply discarded.

@yoritomobobo

Using Pistol Whip against a job leader doesn't make the job fail. Your opponent must still lose the shootout. This is a common misinterpretation of the rules.

ref: www.reddit.com

Carter's Bounties is arguably the strongest deed available on the 10 value, especially for those decks planning to play aggressively and get into shootouts.

The ability to move any of your dudes into a shootout is powerful indeed, and helps get full value out of your best, most studly dudes who will remain threatening as long as you control this deed. Even booted dudes can be brought into the posse.

This also makes it easier to back-up those weakly defended, hard to get to out-of-town deeds in a hurry if a shootout starts with a defending dude looking outclassed. Movement effects from Shadow Walk or Horses can lead to unexpected conflicts anywhere on the board: With Carters Bounties you have the option to scramble a dude to counter the threat.

As always, deeds are double edged swords; if the opponent grabs control you had better beware!

Pros: Cheap, great Shootout effect to allow you to escalate a Shootout

Cons: Adds a strong method of escalating a Shootout that can potentially be turned against you too!

This little gem here has been since day one the premium defensive card for shootout. The first very good reason to consider this card is to use it if your deck need some time to set up at the beginning of the game or need to protect some key dudes from job like Kidnappin' or Curse of Failure. Having your guy safe at home with an unbooted dude to play this on the opposing player job's leader will make sure to make that job fail and protect your dude. Just make sure to not bring him in the shootout. :)

Its second strong use is in lose to win oriented deck, which intend to use a lot of expendable dude to call your opponent and inflict casualties on him, regardless of the shootout result,using cards like Takin Ya With Me. Using this will allow you to remove any small dudes the opponent take along to soak up casualties, making sure that any casualties he takes will be with the dude you left in his posse, aka the one you REALLY want to take out

Even out of these considerations, it's always a cool tempo play allowing you to protect key deeds against single dudes that try to sit on it, or simply to remove a big loaded dude with a lot of bullets and try to win the old fashioned way in a critical shootout.

Overall a classic very strong action that is easy to fit in a variety of strategies.

This is one of my favorite cards to play with. It is so deadly! :) It is so much more than just using your influence to fight.

First thing to note is that it allow you to call a dude no matter the situation: meaning you can for example, call a dude at your opponent's home, or call a dude with your booted dude. A good combo i like to use is to pair this with The Spiritual Society outfit, booting one of my dudes to boot a dude with lower influence, and then call him using this, knowing he can't refuse and i'll have the advantage (since i have more influence than him).

One other thing it's quite good at is dealing with big threats. Most of the time, a dude with a tons of bullets won't necessarily have a ton of influence either, making it a potential easy target for a suicide shootout with this. And all his bullet boosting actions won't help him either! :)

Overall a quite underappreciated card, in my opinion.

I think it was the card art that first drew me into my love for Lillian Morgan, the plutocratic huckster locked in struggle with her stepdaughter #Tallulah Morgan for control of the #Morgan Cattle Company.

For what it is worth I am siding with Lillian. She is an oddity, a huckster in a faction normally set up for steampunk gadgetry and cattle ranching and not obviously well equipped for magic.

One wonders how exactly Lillian charmed her way into her position as the matriarch of the outfit and what exactly led to the feud with her stepdaughter... Did the paterfamilias of the outfit, the late Mr Morgan pass on in a, how to put this.... witchlike way?

In any case, a lot of fun can be had suprising opponents of the Morgan Cattle Company by fielding Lillian as part of an unusual Morgan hex deck: a playstyle known as "Lilly-hammer".

Lets start with her massive cost. 8GR plus three upkeep is a big hurdle. But consider pairing her with the original Morgan Cattle Company home and you see she can boot to build any deed in the current game, even the 5GR cost ones. Why not build the #Town Hall and lower that influence bill? Obviously she would have to move to that deed booted as per the outfit card. Now she is vulnerable, but is she? Her trait means she can pay to call 3 dudes to her side to join her posse to her aid if she gets in a firefight, then run home booted leaving her minions to fight on after the first round.

Or she can pay the costs for a Flamethrower to get the fireworks started.

If a second fight beckons, why not get in character and mix up a cocktail? One Good Stiff Drink and the shootout mooks can come running again. I like to pair Tyxarglenak with Lillian as a bodyguard. I figure Mrs Morgan is not above keeping an Abomination servant for her close protection, and probably not above Raising Hell to bring him back after getting him aced.

Another favoured tactic is to use her trait to bring in Hired Help to do her dirty work for her. I usually pack 4 of these and use them a lot. That token gunslinger gets seen a lot when Lillian is around.

When tooled up with hexes and a few choice actions she becomes a formidable opponent. Her immense influence means she will control any deed she occupies. Should she spot a dude out of position and booted and feel the need to call someone out, a well timed #00137...It's who you know action can turn her into a raging 5-stud for that shootout.

Lets talk hexes: Fetch is a good choice to keep her alive if the opponent cheats. Soul Blast is a good choice as if it fails Lillian will be sent home booted. Mirror Mirror is a must, and Heartseeker makes for a knockout punch for pesky opposing shooters. Hex Slinging adds a little hand rank manipulation fun. In the right deck Soul Blast can be used on enemies, or on herself to zap her out of fights and back home!

Lillian needs mobility to go on the rampage: Shadow Walk can help. On this note: As you have the ability to churn out a lot of deeds using her influence, the rarely played and doubtless unexpected Secret Tunnel followed by a devastating ...Its Who you Know can have the effect of an enraged 5-stud plutocrat turning up to take names and kick ass after seeming to be safely on the other end of the street.

A Horse might also help get Lillian where you like: I favour the Personal Ornithopter as it allows you to bail on unfavourable shootouts and is a good value for pulls. A Telepathy Helmet might just help keep Lillian in the fight for a long time, and frequently I find she can pay the big bucks every turn to see the opponents play hand.

So all in all, Lillian Morgan makes for some jazzy, janky decks and a fun game with an unusual style.

Bluetick is a card that adds an interesting movement mechanic on a 2-value that currently lacks horses.

Outlaws beware: Law Dogs can readily use this to catch up with your wanted dudes across town!

Although some crafty outlaws may note that with so many wanted dudes in their posse Bluetick allows them the ability to concentrate forces where a wanted dude is.

As a Sidekick Bluetooth can help keep your dudes alive at a pinch. That said discarding a 2 cost card hurts badly, so it had better be worth it!

There is an interesting synergy available comboing Bluetick with #Requiem For A Good Boy, also available on the 2-value. The effect is situational but offers an interesting way to turn around a shootout gone wrong...

8 value, zero cost Sidekick, this dude cannot be moved by opposing card effects... Hang on, let me read that again...

Yep. This card is good. Really good.

Eights are a popular value, able to be used by many decks. However prior to the release of Pedro, for the majority of decks the only real option on hearts was the Quickdraw Handgun (once Paralysis Mark received its much-needed errata, anyway). While the Handgun is by no means a bad card, if you were stacking the value then bringing four of them could result in them clogging up your play hand, especially if you were also using other Weapons or costly goods in your deck. Pedro's zero cost means that he's never going to get stuck in your hand as long as you've got a dude to attach him to. While a dude can only have one Horse, if there's already a Pedro in play you can just attach a new one and discard the old one to cycle the card from your hand.

Sidekicks are useful to have for decks that are looking to get involved in shootouts. If you take your casualties on them instead of your dudes, you've lessened the impact of a lost or tied shootout round, while your opponent may have lost a far more valuable dude. This capacity to absorb attrition is great for long, drawn out shootouts, or those times when a dude is forced to fight on their own. As their purpose is to absorb casualties and cycle back into the deck, they also help prevent excessive degeneration of your deck. Usually, you'd pay two ghost rock for a Sidekick, but not here.

The trait preventing your dude from being moved by opposing card effects is extremely useful. Once they are riding their trusty mule into battle, no longer can your stud or dude with all the useful attachments be Pistol Whipped out of the fight before they even get to do anything.

Pedro does come with a downside though. Your dude's value is reduced by three. I believe at the time this card was designed, Paralysis Mark could still target adjacent locations and was seeing a lot of play due to how powerful it was, so lowering your dude's value by three was a big deal. While it is definitely still a problem if your opponent has brought Shotguns, spells that target grit or value, or (hilariously) Forced Quarantine, in many matchups it simply won't be relevant. Even when it is, you can effectively negate the downside by attaching your Pedro to a low value dude who isn't going to care about the value hit anyway. As such, the downside isn't much to worry about as long as you're careful.

If I'm running eights I'll almost always bring at least two copies of Pedro in my deck. If it's taking advantage of the Horse or Sidekick keywords or wants to play and cycle cards quickly (e.g. Dead Man's Hand) then I'd increase that number.

There are folks who say that holster is cursed, and I've heard more than one tale of a gamer who brought a deck abusing this card to a casual gaming night and next week found their friends didn't want to play the game any more...

In all seriousness, it's worth a warning. The Legendary Holster is an incredibly powerful card that has become increasingly easy to build decks around with the expanded card pool. The ability to ace any one dude in your opponent's posse regardless of their value, bullets, or grit, is absolutely insane. As a result many people dislike playing against Legendary Holster decks, especially because there are very few effective ways to counter the card.

If playing against the Holster, you need to find ways to either avoid the dude carrying it, boot it before it can be used or lower the bullets of the dude using it to increase the chance of a failed pull. Mugging can be an effective tool for slowing a Holster deck down - to prevent the Holster being aced by the job it will be defended, with the dude holding the Holster being first choice to satisfy any casualties in case of a shootout loss. Just beware that if they have a Doomsday Supply in play that Holster will be coming right back if it gets discarded.

If you're looking at building a deck that utilises the Holster, I'd suggest you take a look at this article on the Pinebox forums.

If you're the type of monster who would willingly side with the Reckoners, try running the Legendary Holster out of Morgan Stables. If you don't have the advantage of the first play on a turn, use cards like La Quema and The Stakes Just Rose to move your dude with the Holster into a shootout, use the home React ability, and instantly blast an opposing dude before they have a chance to lower your bullets or play Unprepared.

Allie Hensman is a defining card of the Outlaw CP Rush archetype. Such decks typically run out of The Sloane Gang or Desolation Row homes and are heavily shootout focused. Their game plan is to move in to town square early and bully anyone who tries to move across it, all the while generating control points through their home abilities and Allie herself. When supplemented with deeds these decks can amass an alarming number of control points extremely quickly, and are very good at putting the pressure on decks that want a few turns to build up, such as those running Gadgets or Spells.

Allie is such a strong card because once she hits play, if she's able to use her ability every turn she essentially sets a clock on the game. There is no upper limit to the amount of control points she can gain. This makes her invaluable against passive decks such as landslide, and a means of victory for decks of any faction that are centred around bullying the town square - with zero influence and zero upkeep there is no downside to running her out-of-faction. As an Ace of Spades, she's on-value for Dead Man's Hand decks and I'd always include one copy of her in such a deck to help close out games.

That low value does have its downsides. She's incredibly vulnerable to Soul Blast and Shotgun, and if a huckster can successfully Puppet her they also steal her control points for the duration of the effect. With the first play, the Fearmongers' Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo or the Nickel Night Inn can boot her before she can use her ability, and Lost to the Plague can stop her in her tracks completely. If you're investing in Allie as your win condition, consider bringing a Tusk to offer her some protection from these threats.

If your deck runs heavy on expensive attachments, the General Store is a must-have.

It's a solid deed in general - it's cheap, has production and control, and has a really good ability. Any ghost rock saved on an attachment can be spent on more dudes, deeds, or (if you're in a hurry to equip them all) other attachments.

The italic help text actually confuses things when it comes to one of the best things about this card. Because it's attaching a goods or spell via a card effect, you can use this deed to attach things to dudes in locations you don't control, and also to booted dudes. For example, you've got town square locked down and really want to give your big bullet stud a Shotgun. However you don't want to risk moving them to a deed to attach it because you think your opponent has been waiting for an opportunity to run a job. General Store lets you attach the Shotgun without needing to move your dude.

Looking for cards to round out your deck? Need to loosen your structure and want an off-value card that will stay in play and do something useful? Struggling for economy? Maybe you just want to play cards that feature references to the classic Deadlands: Doomtown CCG?

Jackson's Strike is a card that finds its way into an awful lot of my decks, on-value or not. It doesn't do anything fancy, it just gives you two more income each turn. However that's nothing to be sniffed at. More ghost rock means you can play more cards and afford higher upkeep costs. Seeing this deed early in the game is a great way to kick-start your economy. Later on when the control points are starting to pile up it's a safe play that still builds your board state for future turns.

As it's Out of Town and lacks a control point, opponents may be less likely to contest it than an in-town deed. Unless they have some movement abilities to take advantage of any dude they move there will have to boot, and while there will remain isolated from the action - a prime target for a Kidnappin' as you can send as large a posse as you desire after the claim jumper.

What are all these cowboys doing out there in the Weird West? Apart from shootouts, whiskey and meddling with forces we dont understand?

Well it turns out that the cowboy economy is based on ranching. And this is probably the best Ranch in the game: Each turn it gives a massive 3 income. This represents a huge boost to your economy. Be prepared to defend it!

Expect the jealous eyes of your opponents to turn to this valuable Ranch and contest it to deny you the income. It is Out of Town so they will normally boot to get there, but there are many extra movement mechanics that can cause an opponent to arrive unbooted unexpectedly, and that tends to result in conflict.

It is on a 7 value which is linked to a lot of other good cowboy ranching cards: Cattle Market, Ranchers Lariat, Pinto and the Run Em Down! action card all might be chosen alongside this one.

In my opinion this is one of the most dangerous Gadgets in Gomorrah! It can turn even the lowliest draw chump on the board into a Shootout beast, at a cost and at significant risk.

Combos really well with Lillian Morgans and James Ghetty, both of whom get free Ghost Rock specifically to pay for Shootout abilities.

The main risk is if you end up losing a round of the shootout you may well end up paying the extra casualty cost. I like to imagine this is the result of your flamethrower getting holed by a stray bullet and immolating the user or his pal!

Countering this dangerous card one might perhaps think of employing Faithful Hound, Unprepared or Phantom Fingers. And remember the Shootout ability can only be used once per day, so when its gone, its gone. Send in a sacrificial dude to become a human torch and use up the Flamethrower ability then follow up with a second more serious attack. Or just run away until conditions are more favourable!

From the official v0.8 FAQ:

" If the ability has been used, the controller must take an extra casualty if they lose the round.

 In the event of tied hand ranks, the lowest poker hand still counts as the loser for this effect.

 In the event of an exact tie for hand value, there is no winner or loser (e.g. identical hands)."

I am rather fond of this card: It is cheap and on value for Dead Mans Hand decks.

Compared to the seriously punishing cheating resolutions like #Coachwhip or #Jaels Guile the cheating resolution effect is fairly weak in most situations. However, your opponent will probably be quite wary of cheating knowing that the Six-shooters are available in the fight. Of course, in a DMH deck, the cheating resolution might be exactly the thing you need to achieve the elusive DMH and a whole pile of casualties! Likewise this may be particularly useful in a deck aiming for Straight Flushes on lower values.

The Ace of Hearts has some expensive or highly situational choices: This is perhaps one of the best. I think in many decks it will mainly be competing with the Outlaw Mask for the slot.

Noets from the official FAQ v0.8:

 If this makes your hand illegal and you have not been hit by a Cheatin’ card this draw hand, you may now be.

 Can be used during lowball.

 If the modified card is discarded, it immediately reverts to its original value for the purposes of any effects that check the value of the discarded card.

Oh my goodness. I just realised my game group have been playing William Specks totally wrong.

As per the official FAQ here: pineboxentertainment.com

"As inventing a Gadget requires a Mad Scientist to boot, William cannot also boot to reduce the cost of a Gadget he is inventing."

We have been playing it that Specks could also do the inventing after booting, which I now see is garbage: Specks boots to reduce the cost of the invention, thus is booted and cannot invent, and so another Mad Scientist then has to be booted to invent the cheaper gadget!

No wonder my Morgan opponent always seemed to have the upper hand!

Clearly, playing William Specks correctly nerfs Morgan Gadget decks significantly, as if Specks is used to invent he is limited to paying full price. He is still a strong card and very useful starting dude, but no longer quite as overpowered as when misplayed.

So in essence Specks ability when used to invent allows you to invent a gadget onto any of your dudes, anywhere, inventing with a different Mad Scientist.

Combos well with Currency Press, Arnold Stewart and Decimator Array

This is a great card that is often the flashpoint for conflict.

Pros: Cheap 2 cost, one income deeds are always useful.

J-value good for spell and gadget pulls.

The Noon ability is very scary for anyone with a crucial high-upkeep dude on the board (looking at you Ivor Hawley & Sloane!) Expect them to respond to the threat by trying to contest control of this card. If you can play the noon ability you can change the whole tenor of the game, and maybe even force them to discard a lot of influence and thus put them into check.

Cons: The noon ability is a double edged sword. If you lose control of this card at the wrong time it could be used against you, so beware. If you see this hit the table try to contest it and subsequently keep some ghost rock handy to cover your upkeep if needed.

Combos with: Government keyword synergises with Constance Daughtry and Notary Public.