Guns & Horses

This deck feels like it's trying to do a bit too many things at once (and I say this as someone who frequently runs into the same problem when deck-building).

Might it be better to split it into two decks - one grifter/robbery built around the DMH plus some Heists/Muggings, and another guns&horses deck minus the As and Js (and perhaps leaning more into nice 7s like Samantha "Sammy" Cooke, Marion Seville (Exp.1) and Run 'Em Down!)?

You´ re probably right, I´ m still learning the game and triying to find card sinergies while also wanting to maintain theme. Sadly fo me, it´ s quite a nightmare to find the right cards with the right values among the gigantic amount of cards... will continue trying...

I can totally appreciate the "nightmare" you're talking about. To this day, I still find Doomtown deckbuilding an interesting puzzle, and that's after pretty constantly playing the game since the start of Reloaded. As a newer player looking at this card pool, I can see it being daunting, possibly overwhelming.

When I make a deck, I generally follow this flow:

• Identify the key idea I'm going for. I usually start narrow, and grow if I feel there's room to develop another theme.
• Identify major synergies with that idea. This is where knowing the cards really comes in handy, but doing searches on DTDB can help unearth things, even for veterans.
• Come up with a good start for the deck. A good start usually contains: all 5 dudes; at least 4 sundown influence; at least least 1 stud dude; no more than 1 upkeep; at least 3 starting rock (after upkeep, but assume lowball lost); an intended shooter (at least a 2 draw); an intended chump (for if a shootout goes badly); if running skills, at least 2 skilled dudes who can reliably succeed your pulls (not relevant here).
• Come up with a draw structure for the deck. Roughly 40 cards being on your draw structure is a good baseline number, with more or less depending on how punchy you want your deck to be. That leaves 7 cards to be outside your draw structure. Generally, you'll base these cards around being highly-synergistic, or overall high power-level.

I'll go back and forth between these steps, but that's my general flow. Applying that here (for example's sake - definitely not trying to hijack your idea, and, certainly, you might take it in a completely different direction than me that does a better job):

• Key Idea: Swarm out weapons in outlaws. I'll re-evaluate the horse part if I think that there's space after.
• Major Synergies (from searching "x:Weapon" in DTDB): Andrew Lane (get guns in play), Pete Spence (as you've already found - more ways to get guns), Shotgun (one of the meanest guns in Doomtown, has great synergy with Andrew Lane for surprise acing).
• Start: Pete in (as mentioned); Marion Seville helps with the influence relatively cheap, will get his trait triggered when Pete gives him a gun for good bullets; Big Nose Kate for some upkeep-less influence, and works great to both hold and support a shotgun; Agent Provocateur or Jacqueline Isham to have your defensive stud (unfortunately, Marion eating the upkeep slot really hampers your stud options in Outlaws); and then Jake Smiley helps Sundown influence, and could be chumped in a pinch (as you have the minimum of 4 influence from the prior dudes). Running this in Protection Racket or Jonah's Alliance with Andrew Lane leaves you with a pretty healthy economy.
• Draw Structure: 3s looks fantastic here, with Shotgun, Sun in Yer Eyes (just generally high power-level), and a bunch of highly-playable dudes + deeds. 5s also looking good, with Pearl-Handled Revolver to studlify your big bullet dudes, Pistol Whip (another high power-level card), decent dudes, kinda shit deeds but whatever, we can suffer through that. 8s has Fleet-Footed to help kill folks with shotgun, Quickdraw Handgun for a pretty strong board CR, great economy deeds, decent transient dudes (always happy to run the 3x Steven Wiles). Off value, could be looking at a punchy CR in Coachwhip!, Unprepared (as probably one of the games best off-value includes).

I drafted it up here for reference. Again, there's a bunch of different ways you could take this than how I did; you could incorporate the horse theme, you could focus on melee weapons (maybe with Marion Seville (Exp.1) + Shan Fan Showdown!?), and so on. Hope this was somewhat helpful.

Thankyou a lot @ironcache for the extensive write up. I definetely need more plays and more deckbuilding experience :)

@ironcache Excellent comment which deserves to be a thread of its own in the forums.

Although I gotta say you lost me with the remark about having to settle for "" at 5 - on the contrary, I'd say emphatically that 5 offers the best Deeds of any value for shootout-oriented decks (Charlie's Place, Pearly's Palace, Hart's Tea Shoppe, Epitaph Branch Office, Shane & Graves Security) - the first two being particularly valuable for Shotgun decks).

(Also, it you're running Shotguns and stacking on 5s, Christine Perfect is pretty much a must-have.)

So this is where the puzzle kind of comes in to play, and to a large degree, card familiarity. I never make these shotgun style decks, so a lot of the cards that support them, really aren't on my radar. You're completely right about Christine Perfect, she should be in.

With respect to the deeds, I agree that Pearly's effect is very desirable, and should've been given further consideration for a shotgun deck. I also dislike 5/3 deeds in general, and am not a huge fan of 3/1s (ala Hart). I generally view deeds as economy, and I give preference to 2/1 or 3/2 (or better), and if it isn't that, it needs to be highly beneficial.

So this is where the puzzle kind of comes in to play, and to a large degree, card familiarity. I never make these shotgun style decks, so a lot of the cards that support them, really aren't on my radar. You're completely right about Christine Perfect, she should be in.

With respect to the deeds, I agree that Pearly's effect is very desirable, and should've been given further consideration for a shotgun deck. I also dislike 5/3 deeds in general, and am not a huge fan of 3/1s (ala Hart). I generally view deeds as economy, and I give preference to 2/1 or 3/2 (or better), and if it isn't that, it needs to be highly beneficial.

I'm gonna leave the deck as is, as I really only drafted it together for commentary here. But I agree with swapping in Christine and Pearly.

I'm gonna leave the deck as is, as I really only drafted it together for commentary here. But I agree with swapping in Christine and Pearly.