Arnold is remarkably cost-effective, no-upkeep influence vehicle! If you're looking for long-term influence in The Fourth Ring he's your man hands down. As most Fourth Ring decks take awhile to develop while you search for hexes, Arnold buys you that time and then some. How many 2 actual influence (no Jake Smiley doesn't really count) no-upkeep dudes are out there? Besides Irving Patterson if you're Morgan Cattle Co., Arnold is your only choice!

But there's more! Arnold can also resuscitate your dudes assuming they weren't mangled up too badly in whatever shootout they were involved in!

Things to like about Arnold:

NO Upkeep! - Most Fourth Ring control decks like to take their time building up hexes before moving in for the win. Upkeep costs from dudes like Dulf Zug tend to eat into your precious cash reserves and after the 3rd day start to cost more than Arnold without all his other benefits!

High Value - a 7-value is nigh immune to unaugmented Shotgun and Soul Blast acing which is something Irving Patterson and Jake Smiley simply cannot say!

Amazing ability - If you're facing an odd number of casualties, this ability essentially reduces the number of dudes you'll have to lose by one. That's like a free hand rank if you're tied or on the losing end of a shootout. If you're running The Fourth Ring you're almost certainly packing high value cards in your deck so the pull on Arnold's ability isn't usually too much of an issue for most of your classic bullets sponges like Travis Moone.

Be aware that since this ability is a react, you can use it even if Arnold isn't even involved in the shootout!

I don't really like this card. In most of my decks i try not to lose shootouts and a seven doesn't really fit into the draw structure of a fourth ring deck. That means you're going to want to start him but there are other starters you can get started for 5 ghost rock or even two other starters for that price. He has influence but if you're interested in Arnold then you are interested in his ability so you wont be moving him around and risking the chance to lose him. His ability is also very specific. Its not very often that you will be only be losing by one hand rank. The problem with Arnold is that he is expensive and just not really that useful.