Rabbit Runs to the Hills (2026 Winter Online Round-Up)

I entered this tournament late because there were odd numbers after someone dropped out - I didn't sign up initially as I'd only have limited time to play for the first couple of rounds. As such, I thought I'd bring something fun I hadn't tried in a while to see how it did in the current environment. I had decided I would go with whatever the least represented faction was, and that ended up being First Peoples. I'd played the faction quite a bit recently, but one thing I hadn't done with them was Kung Fu! I ended up going with the Tao of the Jade Rabbit as my focus. It seemed like the way to go as the Kung Fu dudes available mostly sat on the same values as its Techniques, none of the dudes available have great synergy with the other two Taos, plus there's the new Jett Can Cega and Guandao that work really nicely with it.

Filling out the rest of the deck was a bit tricky. A starting gang that could do Kung Fu was not one that filled me with confidence when it came to the Straight Flush structure which is commonly used in Kung Fu decks (you need more Clubs than usual). I instead went with a 3-value Full House/4oaK structure and relied on Jade Rabbit to be able to bring my Kung Fu dudes in to support shootouts and kick key opposing dudes out to tip odds in my favour. Inner Struggle and sidekicks would help in the very likely event of tied shootout hands by providing a little bit of attrition.

Aces were a good tertiary value. As well as the cards mentioned above there are some solid deeds, Allie Hensman for pressure, Pair of Six-Shooters for more Cheatin' Punishment and Mind of Quicksilver which is a neat utility card for Kung Fu decks. I needed more Cheatin' cards so in went a couple of Bottom Dealin's and I made room for New Town Hall to give me another pressure card as I was finding it hard to fit in any removal. Kidnappin' was the only really viable option and that would fail pulls for some of my dudes, plus I didn't feel I had enough stud and draw to allow too many off-value cards. The 3-value structure meant I was very reliant on my Kung Fu pulling its weight in shootouts, there wasn't room for any surprise actions.

I started Matthew Rising Sun for the first two games, but I swapped him for Jett Can Cega to have more starting cash. This also switched an off-value card from the deck for an on-value one. It did mean I started no mobile stud, but I managed to draw a Guandao or Pearl-Handled Revolver early on in every subsequent game so it didn't end up being a problem.

Game 1 vs Deputy Way, House of Many Faiths. This one ended pretty quickly. I built a deed and Deputy Way came across town to sit on it. I went to defend it, Lunar Leaping Matthew Rising Sun into the fight with the intention to combo and saying that I hoped Deputy Way didn't have an Unprepared or this fight would probably go badly for me. He did have Unprepared and shut down my combo. To make matters worse I could at best get a Cheatin' full house to his legal 4oaK, ate a Ricochet and then a Point Blank too on top of the shootout loss.

Game 2 vs Deputy Melnyk, Farnum's Consortium. This one went over an hour before I conceded. Pretty early on I saw it was landslide and started to play accordingly. Annoyingly a This'll Hurt in the Mornin' sniped a Charlie's Place from an early lowball hand when I couldn't pay for it and had my other copy in hand ready to play that day. This really slowed down my income and made it harder for me to pressure, so he began to build up. Multiple Sunday Bests combined with Ragged Mules proved difficult to deal with, twice managing to get into my New Town Hall and remove its accumulated control before I could call the intruding dude out. The only shootout took place when Al Swearengen got hold of a Shotgun. However he was standing at the Cattle Market so I sent Alexander Sequoia in to fight him. The callout came as Deputy Melnyk forgot the deed gave dudes there a value boost, and Jett Can Cega Lunar Leapt into the fight to help put Swearengen in Boot Hill. Allie Hensman was safe from the Shotgun as they kept going by in lowball hands, but she wasn't building control up quickly enough to threaten the Consortium's tower of influence.

Game 3 vs Wramsey, Smith & Robards Trade Show. It was quickly clear he was playing a Hearts straight flush deck. He built loads of gadgets while I got a bunch of deeds and dudes out, including Allie. Scoop Hound hit the table so my focus was on how to shut that down before it shut me down. There was also a Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton and QUATERMAN PRIME to deal with. Eventually a town square shootout broke out. He used a Whistle Stop as his first shootout play so I hit the Scoop Hound with Faithful Hound and discarded both for good measure. Hart's Tea Shoppe booted the Yagn so I could kick John "Aces" Radcliffe (Exp.1) with his See-Through Spectacles out of the fight. PRIME was the only stud left and couldn't get the straight flush on his own. The loss of the Specs meant he had to go with a Cheatin' full house. That got hit with Bottom Dealin' making a pair with an extra -1 rank from Inner Struggle vs my 4oaK, leading to a total blowout.

Game 4 vs Shekky, Deadwood Miner's Alliance. Another quick game. I had one of those opening hands that said 'fight', so I went to fight day one. I could reliably full house so my plan was to hit Shekky early and take out a dude or two to reduce his straight flush odds and moving pieces to pressure with. Lots of Pistol Whip from him & Kung Fu from me left the shootout looking in my favour, but luck was all on Shekky's side with two straight flushes over two rounds to my full houses. I opposed the subsequent Meet the New Boss with Alexander. Both my Jokers showed up but so did a Bottom Dealin' so I missed out on the Full House that would have won that shootout as Shekky only got a flush this time.

Game 5 vs Vince, Fort 51. I got stud weapons out early on Jett and Miles, and used the neat Sunday Best/Kiva of Fathomless Reach combo to move Rob Wilby past Thunder Boy in town square to deny Vince some income. He tried to shut that down by taking the Kiva. The first attempt saw Rob Wilby get kung fu kicked home and Dr. JT Goodenough taking a trip to Boot Hill. "Thunder Boy" Nabbe and his pair of Hydro-Punchers moved in with backup and my Rob caught a Ricochet defending the deed so I left the Kiva and started building up my street. Vince wasn't seeing more gadgets. Sheriff Eli Waters hit play but didn't last long, falling in a town square shootout without any support. I got a few more deeds out and Vince was spread thin and in check. The Mayor's Office sealed the win reducing Stewart Davidson's influence.

This deck was really fun to play when it worked. I think the times when things didn't go my way were more down to bad luck and my opponents having the right cards to counter me than the deck being a dud, but I don't think the Jade Rabbit Tao is as scary as it used to be. It's a lot easier to shut down its tricks with the new Combo rules, and in a competitive environment you're very likely to see the cards that can do that.

The suite of Kung Fu dudes available to First Peoples is still very thin so it would be nice to see a few more options for them in future expansions. I will point out that SuAnne Bettelyoun is a pretty good one, but her trait makes her a bit of a weird choice for Jade Rabbit. Pros are she can use Rabbit's Deception to send a dude home booted without leaving the shootout herself. Cons are it does nothing if she gets booted, and she can't use it to escape from a bad situation, so I ended up not using her. Jett Can Cega was really cool and a great addition to the faction. It would be nice to see a couple more dudes who have interesting synergy with the Taos across both Kung Fu factions, as I think most of what they currently have to choose from are weird mid-power level gimmicky dudes. First Peoples are also really missing a big stats beatstick type of Kung Fu dude who can drop mid-late game and boss the town.