Rodeo Clowns - Boot All the Things!

published Feb 26, 2015 | | |
Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

mysticpickle44 758

Overview:

This is a hybrid landslide/control deck that defends deeds with booting effects from Leon/Paralysis Mark/Run 'em Down and can outpunch traditional Morgan landslide builds with one strong shooting value at 6's.

Fourth ring Landslide? Are you for real? We know that with Landslide decks getting enough early money rolling is essential to preserve the momentum into the late game where it can really run away with the game. Looking at this early game, The Fourth ring is actually fairly comparable in terms of economic benefit compared to Morgan!

The average benefit on Day 1 from the Morgan home ability is 2 GR off a deed at the cost of exposing a 2 influence dude (most commonly Irving Patterson) that you'll probably have to save with a card out of your hand (Make the Smart Choice). The Fourth Ring ability by comparison gives you 1 less GR benefit but increases the quality of your hand by cycling one card, gives you one more unbooted influence bearing dude to work with, and you have one more card in your hand you didn't have to spend on saving a booted dude.

Add that to the fact The Fourth Ring starts with 1 more money than Morgan and at least on Day 1, they're just about on par economically with Morgan if not better! Of course this all relies on you being able to pull a hex off away from home.

Opening Strategy:

You'll want to use Travis if you opening hand does not contain either of these elements:

  • Paralysis Mark (to control/trigger home abilty)
  • At least 2 income generating deeds (early money is good)
  • One Good Turn (a decent shot at a ton of early cash)
  • Pistol Whip (only if an early kidnapping is likely: Sloane, Strong starting stud dudes)

You'll start the day with anywhere from 6-11 GR depending on how lucky you are with lowball/One Good Turn which is more than enough for a deed or two and Paralysis Mark. Start pumping those deeds out as soon as possible and maintain control of them with judicious use of your booting abilities.

Priority order to play cards:

1) Backup Huckster (only if Leon is dead)

2) Paralysis Mark

3) Deed

4) First Roan (really only need one)

Control Strategy:

Leon with Paralysis mark is your main workhorse here able to reliably boot dudes with value 7 or lower. As most starting dudes with influence typically have values of 6 or less, you'll have solid targets for Paralysis mark or Leon's ability just about every turn. Against dudes with value 8, you have around a 50% chance of succeeding and anyone higher than that you shouldn't try unless you're truly desperate to stop them.

For those higher value dudes, that's where Run 'em Down! steps into play. By equipping a dirt cheap Roan, you now have the ability to boot adjacent dudes regardless of value! You'll want to boot everyone you can with Paralysis Mark/Leon first then save Run 'em Down for the troublemakers as they appear. Remember you don't have to call them out and you probably will not want to most times unless you're certain you can out fight them (vs pure landslide).

You'll typically secure your income by booting influence bearing dudes as they step into town square on their way to nabbing your deeds. Or if they've already at your deed, carve a safe path for your influence bearing dudes with booting effects and wrest control back without fear of a call out.

Closing Strategy:

Once you've put out enough deeds, the board state approaches the point where the opponent's dudes are spread out far enough that they can't easily help each other. It's now time to start closing up the game.

This is where you start shooting out your expendable dudes like Travis, The Brute, and Bobo armed with Pistol Whip and Takin' ya with me to drive them out. Even if you run out of these cards, there's always the chance that you'll get lucky enough with your one maxed shootout value (6's) to at least tie on their hand rank! If anything it'll at least be easy to figure out what to discard.

If you see the board state approaching this position, it might be a good idea to hang onto the singleton Rumors for a turn or two to help speed things along!

5 comments
Feb 26, 2015 mplain

Man, I really appreciate your flow of ideas and your effort to make them work and explain them. Thank you for sharing! :)

Feb 26, 2015 mplain

The only thing that concerns me is that you only have 4x spells, so all that talk about being economically on par with Morgan will probably not apply half the time, even with Travis =_=

Feb 26, 2015 mysticpickle44

hahahah you're definitely right mplain! Sadly huckster skill checks don't count as spell pulls or this would be easy with Leon!

You've got about a 36% chance to get at least 1 Paralysis Mark every 5 card hand from a fresh deck so with Travis more often than not you'll find one but any other time it'll flying without pants improvisation time for sure! Lets say slightly more often than not on par with Morgan economically hahahaha >

Feb 26, 2015 AdmiralGT

How do you cope with people booting straight to your deeds? Is the main hope that people won't figure out it's landslide until it's too late and just assume a Hex deck?

Do you think you could replace Jake with Dulf? You lose an upkeep but you can at least keep control of your deeds in the early game.

An interesting deck for sure though!

Feb 26, 2015 mysticpickle44

Thanks Admiral! I haven't had too many problems with folks booting straight to a deed. I try to clear a path to that deed for my influence dudes and tie on influence there. If they send another dude to that deed later to chase my guy out that's still 2 dudes he had to commit to one location to chase off one of mine which is generally a favorable trade!

Replacing Jake Smiley with Dulf Zug could certainly help hold onto the deeds you place early and is probably a better choice if you're up against a pure landslide deck. However, I've found that money is particularly tight early on when you need it the most.

I ask myself if I'd rather have Dulf Zug's persistent influence for 2 days or have Jake Smiley and a cheap 2-GR deed like Jackson's Strike or B&B Attorneys at the end of the 2nd day and in most situations I prefer the extra deed. Again there's no wrong choice here as both dudes can be better than the other depending on what situation you find yourself in! :D