The Unholy Crusade

With the number of harrowed lawmen on the increase, some of the Law Dogs' finest scientific minds got their heads together to brainstorm the best way these new 'bulletproof deputies' could be integrated into the apparatus of justice. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the Weird West, this was just as much a meeting of manitous as a meeting of minds. The Mad Scientists' malevolent muses delighted in whispering twisted ideas into their ears, while the demons sharing the headspace of the harrowed proffered visions of power to tempt their hosts down darker paths.

Profane experiments were performed. The undead flesh of the harrowed had regenerative properties that far surpassed that of their living colleagues, making them perfect subjects for mechanical augmentation. The revenants also developed rending talons that could tear a man in two. Their unnatural resilience would enable them to endure superhuman levels of punishment as they advanced upon gangs of bandit gunmen, only to swiftly slash their quarry to bloody ribbons and pulverise any remaining resistance into a gory paste. Surely when faced with the threat of such retribution, no-one would dare break the law ever again!

Their only problem was that there were countless outlaws already roaming the vastness of the West, and good lawmen weren't returning from the grave fast enough to cover all that ground. They needed to find a way to make more...

Like many of you, when Claws were released I had ideas to use them in some silly fashion with Abram's Crusaders. They're a Melee Weapon, on sixes, same as Faster on the Draw. All you need are some Abominations or Harrowed to Deputise. However, like many fun deck ideas, I never got round to actually building it. Out for Blood's Sgt. Elijah Clay - a dude who is both Harrowed and a Deputy - provided the spark I needed to finally put something together. I took this deck to the York Peacekeeper event, won two games and lost one to finish third (due to wins at time).

Elijah's three upkeep meant he wasn't really starting posse material, so Mario Crane got drafted in instead. Having not used him in absolutely ages, I'd forgotten how good Mario can be, especially when you pump up his bullets so he can go into shootouts solo. Elijah being in the deck led me to look at queens as a value, and Vitality Tonic had to be in the mix somehow to help with the low number of Harrowed and Abominations.

Being on sixes for Claws meant I had access to Technological Exhibition to help invent the Tonic. As I was now including Gadgets, and building around Melee Weapons, Hydro-Puncher seemed like the next logical step. It provided a backup Weapon for my regular dudes, and could be combined with the Claws to make a truly scary super soldier, with the added bonus of being able to boot opposing Weapons to get into clawing range. The rest of the deck just built itself really.

A Deputised Mario with Hydro-Puncher and/or Claws was able to lay down the law in every game, only once falling in battle when he singlehandedly took on an entire posse of Entrepreneurs who Called The Cavalry. I drew a terrible shootout hand and had to reveal a legal two pair to avoid tripping an Inner Struggle that was attached to my home. Sgt. Elijah Clay hit play one game and was involved in a big shootout across town square from Curly Bill Brocius, which was cool. What really made me smile was making Rafi Hamid into an pseudo-undead super cop in one game, which sort of fulfilled his storyline destiny. Not that anyone would disagree with that when faced with his seven stud bullets!