Fort 51 9/10/K JT Goodenough

I have been bouncing around a few different ways to build gadget focused Law Dogs decks. Dr. JT Goodenough being the main inspiration to try out some of these builds.

Here are the links to the other variations:

A 6/7/9 Law Dogs deck with just a splash of gadgets with JT Goodenough

https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3642/dogs-6-7-9-goodenough

A 9/10/J Fort 51 gadget-based deck, very similar to this deck

https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3644/fort-51-9-10-j-jt-goodenough

This variation is going for 10/J/K

This decks goal is to use JT Goodenough to start the game with a strong weapon gadget on good shooters and to use that strong start to bully your opponent early on.

By going for higher values, I am able to use Yagn’s Mechanical Skeleton. One of the downsides is that I don’t have a Mad Scientist with enough skill for Hydro Puncher to not be a risk. I still included 2. It’s great to grab with JT Goodenough and 1 or 2 cards that can fail pulls seemed like a risk I was willing to take.

This variation sacrificed some draw structure strength in favor of playing more off- value cards. One of the main reasons for this is that 10/J/K is a combination that is pretty light on Cheatin’ Resolution effects. Below is my examination of the Cheatin' Resolution effects that were most pertinent to this deck.

Cheatin' Resolution Analysis

For a start, I already have 2x Hydro Puncher that are a low enough value to make me fail my pulls for inventing gadgets. For that reason, I decided to stick to Cheatin’ Resolutions that were 9+ Value.

10’s has Jael’s Guile. Jael’s Guile doesn’t really knock your socks off, but it’s OK. In my opinion, Jael’s Guile doesn’t feel that impactful unless you are discarding dudes. Booting dudes isn’t nothing, but it can definitely turn out to be low, or no, impact. Also, your opponent can see the Jael’s Guile coming (which is a good and a bad thing). On the other hand, this deck does have a fair number of boot actions with Unprepared, Too Much Attention, and Hydro Puncher. So that can really help increase the chances that when Jael’s Guile goes off, it can actually discard your opponent’s dudes. There is also the minor side benefit that when Jael’s Guile can pair up with a Hydro Puncher to make a dude a stud.

Jael’s Guile also competes with Walk the Path. This deck commonly has a small number of big studs who are loaded up with gadgets. Walk the Path is a no ghost rock way to help ensure that those big studs are in as many fights as possible. Also, the Jael’s Guile is a weapon. This deck already plays a lot of weapons, so it seemed sensible to diversify my hearts so that my hands don’t get clogged up with too many gadgets.

Jacks have Champion, which doesn’t seem that good for this deck as it competes with Yagn’s Mechanical Skeleton. Jacks also have Flight of the Lepus. Flight of the Lepus is a good card with a lot of tricks. Sometimes, Flight of the Lepus doesn’t really save you when you are losing a shootout. For that reason, I didn’t think that going hard on Flight of the Lepus was the move here.

Kings did not really have any appealing options regarding Cheatin’ Resolutions to use. The Winning Agenda is solid. I have several 2 influence dudes and also Yagn’s Mechanical Skeleton gives an influence buff. However, King of clubs is a very competitive slot. Nightmare at Noon, Point Blank, and even Election Day Slaughter beat out The Winning Agenda for this deck imo. Another point against The Winning Agenda is that it has a ghost rock cost. With all the gadgets and the Vamoosin’, I think that the ghost rock cost might be too much for this deck to afford.

After all those considerations, I figured that I would go off-value for my Cheatin’ Resolutions. This put me onto “It’s Not What You Know”, Ranger’s Bible, Ricochet, Devil’s Six Gun and Consecration. I decided to lean heavily on Ricochet and I included one Consecration. I chose those options because they have no ghost rock cost & them having a casualty reduction element. Consecration has the ability to get booted by Padre Ernesto and also use it’s ability which is pretty nice as well.

Some Challenges the Deck Faces

The first big one is ghost rock. This deck plays a lot of expensive dudes, a lot of dudes with upkeep, gadgets, and Vamoosin’. All of that costs a lot of ghost rock. Also, I am not playing all that many deeds in the deck. It is not uncommon for me to be using Fort 51 to remove bounties just for the income. I can easily see swapping out some cards for more deeds.

At 15/13/12, the deck doesn’t have the tightest structure. I figured I could get away with a weaker structure because I will often have a high bullet stud. However, if you end up not having a big stud, you can really run into problems.

This deck has a real problem with repeatedly taking lumps in shootouts (which I suppose every deck does lol.) This problem stems from both the Agent Provocateur dude suite and the quantity of dudes in the deck. Because of Agent Provocateur, I skewed my dudes towards 4+ cost bombs. Additionally, I am playing a low number of dudes in my deck. This means that my deck doesn’t have a lot in terms of cheaper dudes who I can lose when I tie/lose shootouts. So both of those factors together can add up to me having to lose expensive, high impact dudes (often with a big gadget) when I lose a shootout.

To mitigate this risk, I have I put in all the available on-value dudes who could be a good bullet catcher. My criteria for a good bullet catcher was for the dude to cost 3 or less, and ideally have 0 upkeep. My final breakdown ended up being 6 “bomb” dudes that are good to use Agent Provocateur on and 3 bullet catchers. I did some quick math to see what the odds were of drawing one or more “bomb” in my opening 5 cards. It worked out to ~%50 chance.

I considered not using Agent Provocateur. While looking at the dudes in these values, they are almost all really expensive (often 5+ cost.) So, Agent allows me to save Ghost Rock in my starting gang while also helping me afford the expensive dudes in the deck. I could totally see swapping out the Agent for something like a Rob Wilby maybe to help by having a starting bullet catcher.

My Thoughts on Various Cards in Consideration

Outgunned: I often have high bullet dudes. It seemed like an effect I could pull off. I decided against it because it was pretty similar to Point Blank.

Supressing Fire: I have big bullet dudes that are sometimes not studs (Hydro Puncher, Thunder Boy) I also have several actions that boot opposing cards. I could probably pull off the mode where I turn dudes into a draw.

Election Day Slaughter: Sometimes, I have troubles with decks avoiding fights. This is a way to force the action.

Bass Reeves: This dude is blessed, on-value, and an absolute bomb. Also, my deck is pretty good at putting small amounts of bounty on several dudes (Fort 51, Dr Erik Yaple, Deborah West) I also have Agent Provocateur. In the end, I figured that Bass Reeves was close to Clyde Owens in function. They are both super expensive but have powerful abilities. I could easily see playing either of them. Playing both is probably too much.

Cavalry Escort: This is a sidekick and it can also move dudes with gadgets into fights. It can also get strapped onto your bullet catchers to really help guarantee that you have soak.

Devil’s Six Gun: Solid gadget. Has a cheatin’ res, which is nice. It also has a 3 cost. Which means I can probably give anyone out there a bounty with Fort 51. I went for Consecration instead, but I could easily see switching it over.

Wyatt Earp: Another expensive bomb

Virgil Earp: An expensive bomb that could go in. This one has the advantage of no upkeep. But soooo expensive lol.

Aunt Lou: Overall, solid dude. I avoided a lot of the dudes from other factions. I wanted to keep the upkeep down. It also can really suck to increase their influence with Yagn’s Mechanical Skeleton because it increases the upkeep even more.

Carter Richardson: This dude is reasonable. Could totally be playable in the deck. 2 upkeep is rough though

Clint Ramsay: I passed on vanilla Clint because I have his XP version in the 10’s

Coineach Ken: My deck doesn’t have the biggest suite of different factions. But he is a no-upkeep dude that can be decent in the deck. He is also a blessed, which I could take advantage of.

Frank Bryant: This dude can make unrefusable call outs. That could be a useful tool to have more of in the deck. I do have my reservations regarding out of faction dudes. On the other hand, it would be another faction for Coinneach.

Xiong “Wendy” Cheng: Another expensive bomb. I don’t think I have any way to really take advantage of the discard part of her ability. It would 99% of the time just be a send home action. Not nothing, but not amazing. Roger Wilcox: Totally playable in the deck. I have enough gadgets to turn his ability on.

Black Elk: Big stud, low upkeep

Flight of the Lepus: I think 0-1 of this is the right number to play. I couldn’t find room for it. Maybe 2xVamoosin and 1x Flight could be fine. I’ve found that Vamoosin’ can be quite strong. So many decks have only one dude who can fight.

Shan Fan Showdown: Sometimes I have a melee weapon. I took a pass on it because of the anti-synergy with Point Blank (and also Nightmare at Noon). I also don’t see a lot of decks that I would need to turn off those effects. Could be a good metagame call, I suppose.

Sword of the Spirit: This one seems marginal to me. +1 bullet is ok, it’s a spell that doesn’t boot, which is nice for Padre, I can probably turn on the Melee effect inconsistently. If you have the melee weapon and this spell, it can be totally devastating for some spell decks. So maybe I should be going for more of this?

Bio-Charged Neutralizer: This card is great. It’s off value, but powerful and is super useful when you are done making gadgets and want to start having your Mad Scientists go and start fighting.