Bluetick is a card that adds an interesting movement mechanic on a 2-value that currently lacks horses.

Outlaws beware: Law Dogs can readily use this to catch up with your wanted dudes across town!

Although some crafty outlaws may note that with so many wanted dudes in their posse Bluetick allows them the ability to concentrate forces where a wanted dude is.

As a Sidekick Bluetooth can help keep your dudes alive at a pinch. That said discarding a 2 cost card hurts badly, so it had better be worth it!

There is an interesting synergy available comboing Bluetick with #Requiem For A Good Boy, also available on the 2-value. The effect is situational but offers an interesting way to turn around a shootout gone wrong...

8 value, zero cost Sidekick, this dude cannot be moved by opposing card effects... Hang on, let me read that again...

Yep. This card is good. Really good.

Eights are a popular value, able to be used by many decks. However prior to the release of Pedro, for the majority of decks the only real option on hearts was the Quickdraw Handgun (once Paralysis Mark received its much-needed errata, anyway). While the Handgun is by no means a bad card, if you were stacking the value then bringing four of them could result in them clogging up your play hand, especially if you were also using other Weapons or costly goods in your deck. Pedro's zero cost means that he's never going to get stuck in your hand as long as you've got a dude to attach him to. While a dude can only have one Horse, if there's already a Pedro in play you can just attach a new one and discard the old one to cycle the card from your hand.

Sidekicks are useful to have for decks that are looking to get involved in shootouts. If you take your casualties on them instead of your dudes, you've lessened the impact of a lost or tied shootout round, while your opponent may have lost a far more valuable dude. This capacity to absorb attrition is great for long, drawn out shootouts, or those times when a dude is forced to fight on their own. As their purpose is to absorb casualties and cycle back into the deck, they also help prevent excessive degeneration of your deck. Usually, you'd pay two ghost rock for a Sidekick, but not here.

The trait preventing your dude from being moved by opposing card effects is extremely useful. Once they are riding their trusty mule into battle, no longer can your stud or dude with all the useful attachments be Pistol Whipped out of the fight before they even get to do anything.

Pedro does come with a downside though. Your dude's value is reduced by three. I believe at the time this card was designed, Paralysis Mark could still target adjacent locations and was seeing a lot of play due to how powerful it was, so lowering your dude's value by three was a big deal. While it is definitely still a problem if your opponent has brought Shotguns, spells that target grit or value, or (hilariously) Forced Quarantine, in many matchups it simply won't be relevant. Even when it is, you can effectively negate the downside by attaching your Pedro to a low value dude who isn't going to care about the value hit anyway. As such, the downside isn't much to worry about as long as you're careful.

If I'm running eights I'll almost always bring at least two copies of Pedro in my deck. If it's taking advantage of the Horse or Sidekick keywords or wants to play and cycle cards quickly (e.g. Dead Man's Hand) then I'd increase that number.

There are folks who say that holster is cursed, and I've heard more than one tale of a gamer who brought a deck abusing this card to a casual gaming night and next week found their friends didn't want to play the game any more...

In all seriousness, it's worth a warning. The Legendary Holster is an incredibly powerful card that has become increasingly easy to build decks around with the expanded card pool. The ability to ace any one dude in your opponent's posse regardless of their value, bullets, or grit, is absolutely insane. As a result many people dislike playing against Legendary Holster decks, especially because there are very few effective ways to counter the card.

If playing against the Holster, you need to find ways to either avoid the dude carrying it, boot it before it can be used or lower the bullets of the dude using it to increase the chance of a failed pull. Mugging can be an effective tool for slowing a Holster deck down - to prevent the Holster being aced by the job it will be defended, with the dude holding the Holster being first choice to satisfy any casualties in case of a shootout loss. Just beware that if they have a Doomsday Supply in play that Holster will be coming right back if it gets discarded.

If you're looking at building a deck that utilises the Holster, I'd suggest you take a look at this article on the Pinebox forums.

If you're the type of monster who would willingly side with the Reckoners, try running the Legendary Holster out of Morgan Stables. If you don't have the advantage of the first play on a turn, use cards like La Quema and The Stakes Just Rose to move your dude with the Holster into a shootout, use the home React ability, and instantly blast an opposing dude before they have a chance to lower your bullets or play Unprepared.

Allie Hensman is a defining card of the Outlaw CP Rush archetype. Such decks typically run out of The Sloane Gang or Desolation Row homes and are heavily shootout focused. Their game plan is to move in to town square early and bully anyone who tries to move across it, all the while generating control points through their home abilities and Allie herself. When supplemented with deeds these decks can amass an alarming number of control points extremely quickly, and are very good at putting the pressure on decks that want a few turns to build up, such as those running Gadgets or Spells.

Allie is such a strong card because once she hits play, if she's able to use her ability every turn she essentially sets a clock on the game. There is no upper limit to the amount of control points she can gain. This makes her invaluable against passive decks such as landslide, and a means of victory for decks of any faction that are centred around bullying the town square - with zero influence and zero upkeep there is no downside to running her out-of-faction. As an Ace of Spades, she's on-value for Dead Man's Hand decks and I'd always include one copy of her in such a deck to help close out games.

That low value does have its downsides. She's incredibly vulnerable to Soul Blast and Shotgun, and if a huckster can successfully Puppet her they also steal her control points for the duration of the effect. With the first play, the Fearmongers' Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo or the Nickel Night Inn can boot her before she can use her ability, and Lost to the Plague can stop her in her tracks completely. If you're investing in Allie as your win condition, consider bringing a Tusk to offer her some protection from these threats.

If your deck runs heavy on expensive attachments, the General Store is a must-have.

It's a solid deed in general - it's cheap, has production and control, and has a really good ability. Any ghost rock saved on an attachment can be spent on more dudes, deeds, or (if you're in a hurry to equip them all) other attachments.

The italic help text actually confuses things when it comes to one of the best things about this card. Because it's attaching a goods or spell via a card effect, you can use this deed to attach things to dudes in locations you don't control, and also to booted dudes. For example, you've got town square locked down and really want to give your big bullet stud a Shotgun. However you don't want to risk moving them to a deed to attach it because you think your opponent has been waiting for an opportunity to run a job. General Store lets you attach the Shotgun without needing to move your dude.

Looking for cards to round out your deck? Need to loosen your structure and want an off-value card that will stay in play and do something useful? Struggling for economy? Maybe you just want to play cards that feature references to the classic Deadlands: Doomtown CCG?

Jackson's Strike is a card that finds its way into an awful lot of my decks, on-value or not. It doesn't do anything fancy, it just gives you two more income each turn. However that's nothing to be sniffed at. More ghost rock means you can play more cards and afford higher upkeep costs. Seeing this deed early in the game is a great way to kick-start your economy. Later on when the control points are starting to pile up it's a safe play that still builds your board state for future turns.

As it's Out of Town and lacks a control point, opponents may be less likely to contest it than an in-town deed. Unless they have some movement abilities to take advantage of any dude they move there will have to boot, and while there will remain isolated from the action - a prime target for a Kidnappin' as you can send as large a posse as you desire after the claim jumper.

What are all these cowboys doing out there in the Weird West? Apart from shootouts, whiskey and meddling with forces we dont understand?

Well it turns out that the cowboy economy is based on ranching. And this is probably the best Ranch in the game: Each turn it gives a massive 3 income. This represents a huge boost to your economy. Be prepared to defend it!

Expect the jealous eyes of your opponents to turn to this valuable Ranch and contest it to deny you the income. It is Out of Town so they will normally boot to get there, but there are many extra movement mechanics that can cause an opponent to arrive unbooted unexpectedly, and that tends to result in conflict.

It is on a 7 value which is linked to a lot of other good cowboy ranching cards: Cattle Market, Ranchers Lariat, Pinto and the Run Em Down! action card all might be chosen alongside this one.

In my opinion this is one of the most dangerous Gadgets in Gomorrah! It can turn even the lowliest draw chump on the board into a Shootout beast, at a cost and at significant risk.

Combos really well with Lillian Morgans and James Ghetty, both of whom get free Ghost Rock specifically to pay for Shootout abilities.

The main risk is if you end up losing a round of the shootout you may well end up paying the extra casualty cost. I like to imagine this is the result of your flamethrower getting holed by a stray bullet and immolating the user or his pal!

Countering this dangerous card one might perhaps think of employing Faithful Hound, Unprepared or Phantom Fingers. And remember the Shootout ability can only be used once per day, so when its gone, its gone. Send in a sacrificial dude to become a human torch and use up the Flamethrower ability then follow up with a second more serious attack. Or just run away until conditions are more favourable!

From the official v0.8 FAQ:

" If the ability has been used, the controller must take an extra casualty if they lose the round.

 In the event of tied hand ranks, the lowest poker hand still counts as the loser for this effect.

 In the event of an exact tie for hand value, there is no winner or loser (e.g. identical hands)."

I am rather fond of this card: It is cheap and on value for Dead Mans Hand decks.

Compared to the seriously punishing cheating resolutions like #Coachwhip or #Jaels Guile the cheating resolution effect is fairly weak in most situations. However, your opponent will probably be quite wary of cheating knowing that the Six-shooters are available in the fight. Of course, in a DMH deck, the cheating resolution might be exactly the thing you need to achieve the elusive DMH and a whole pile of casualties! Likewise this may be particularly useful in a deck aiming for Straight Flushes on lower values.

The Ace of Hearts has some expensive or highly situational choices: This is perhaps one of the best. I think in many decks it will mainly be competing with the Outlaw Mask for the slot.

Noets from the official FAQ v0.8:

 If this makes your hand illegal and you have not been hit by a Cheatin’ card this draw hand, you may now be.

 Can be used during lowball.

 If the modified card is discarded, it immediately reverts to its original value for the purposes of any effects that check the value of the discarded card.

Oh my goodness. I just realised my game group have been playing William Specks totally wrong.

As per the official FAQ here: pineboxentertainment.com

"As inventing a Gadget requires a Mad Scientist to boot, William cannot also boot to reduce the cost of a Gadget he is inventing."

We have been playing it that Specks could also do the inventing after booting, which I now see is garbage: Specks boots to reduce the cost of the invention, thus is booted and cannot invent, and so another Mad Scientist then has to be booted to invent the cheaper gadget!

No wonder my Morgan opponent always seemed to have the upper hand!

Clearly, playing William Specks correctly nerfs Morgan Gadget decks significantly, as if Specks is used to invent he is limited to paying full price. He is still a strong card and very useful starting dude, but no longer quite as overpowered as when misplayed.

So in essence Specks ability when used to invent allows you to invent a gadget onto any of your dudes, anywhere, inventing with a different Mad Scientist.

Combos well with Currency Press, Arnold Stewart and Decimator Array

This is a great card that is often the flashpoint for conflict.

Pros: Cheap 2 cost, one income deeds are always useful.

J-value good for spell and gadget pulls.

The Noon ability is very scary for anyone with a crucial high-upkeep dude on the board (looking at you Ivor Hawley & Sloane!) Expect them to respond to the threat by trying to contest control of this card. If you can play the noon ability you can change the whole tenor of the game, and maybe even force them to discard a lot of influence and thus put them into check.

Cons: The noon ability is a double edged sword. If you lose control of this card at the wrong time it could be used against you, so beware. If you see this hit the table try to contest it and subsequently keep some ghost rock handy to cover your upkeep if needed.

Combos with: Government keyword synergises with Constance Daughtry and Notary Public.

Puppet is a devastatingly powerful card. Any low grit dude facing a Huckster with this attached is going to have a problem.

Pros: There is nothing more satisfying than puppeting your opponents dude then using him as cannon fodder in a pointless shootout against his erstwhile allies.

Cons: 2 GR is fairly expensive for a hex (but probably worth it!). It is on a low value so taking many copies might be risky if your Hex deck is reliant on higher value spell pulls.

Notes from the official FAQ: " Can be used to take control of an opposing dude that you already have a copy of in play.

 If you have taken control of an opposing dude, you can still play your own copy of that dude, as you don’t have a copy in play that you own.

 If you take control of an opposing dude, and then overlay it with an Experienced version, you retain control of that dude after Sundown because control reverts to the owner, which you now are."

Holy cow. That last one is a boss move. I am just picturing the opposing players face as you convert their dude into a better, more experienced one that is 100% all yours. Total pwnage.

Lucinda "Lucy" Clover is semi-useful as a cheap way to get 2 influence on the board as a Law Dogs player, at any stage of the game. Law dogs are not blessed with many cheap influence cards so this is important.

Her trait is nice to add bounty to the opposing posse, but really, truly, just forget it exists as she she is not at all suited to joining shootouts. She is easy meat for Soul Blasts, Shotguns and opponents can easily Puppet her due to her low grit.

She is often used in conjunction with the Law Dogs original home ability to "boot for bounty" and her high influence comes in handy here.

I would rate her more highly if she had the Deputy keyword, but she doesnt, so is less useful than say Constance Daughtry who can additionally unboot after adding bounty via the Law Dogs original home card and has potentially a third influence point in the right deck.

My advice: Go with Constance Daughtry, unless you are strapped for ghost rock.

Pros: Cheap influence.

Cons: Hopeless shooter, low value, low grit.

Combos with: Law Dogs original outfit.

This card is one that should be feared by all players. Cheap, and easy to invent, it sees a lot of play. Essentially it allows the forcefield wielder to buy their way out of a losing hand rank. If they buy their way to a draw? Guess what, both sides will take a casualty! Very dangerous as it permits even the lowliest chump dude to force the discard of your best guy in a 1v1 shootout, provided he has enough ghost rock to use the resolution ability. So before entering into a shootout with a forcefield guy, check the guys stash to see how many handranks he can make up. Deny him funds, and you have nothing to worry about.

This card is ideally countered by denial of funds. The other antigadget options include Faithful Hound, No Funny Stuff or simply a Shotgun to the face before the draw for the shootout even starts.

This is a nice little card to boost your economy and on a good value for a lot of decks, including those gunning for Dead Mans Hand. I am always pleased to see this card in my hand.

I also enjoy the way out of town deed mechanics open the board up and add some decisions to the movement game: Do I boot a weak influence dude out of town to contest this deed? Or do I keep my gang concentrated in town and allow my opponent uncontested income? Who will be sent to turf me out? Will a gun fight here be winnable without the support of the rest of my dudes? Will this distract my opponent from the conflicts elsewhere?

Its all good!

This card is a strong one: 2 cost/one production cards are always welcome as they are cheap, and thus easy to play in the early game.

The ability is truly useful for Sloane Gang and Law Dogs who benefit from the bounty mechanics. Need an extra influence as Sloane? Add a bounty to Fred Aims. Need to make someone wanted for an Ol' Fashioned Hanging or a Bounty Hunter? This is the card you are looking for.

It is on a useful value for those shooty decks that are not looking to suceed in skill test pulls.

To me, Barton Everest is an absolute must-take starting dude for my Sloane Gang.

As a two-stud, he is a strong shooter in the early game, and with a few buffs like an attached weapon or Bad Company (also on a 5 -value) he can get quite scary. He is affordable and has that crucial influence point to allow him to contest deeds.

His trait is the epitome of the Sloane Gang philosophy: a cheating hand is better than a legal one, but risks a nasty cheating resolution!

Tied draw hands are a frequent occurrence in Doomtown Reloaded. Any opponent in a shootout had better be packing anti-cheat or else they are going to get whittled down by Bartons inbuilt handrank trait.

To be sure of avoiding a nasty Cheating Resolution like Coachwhip , I tend to start playing Barton more aggressively as the opponent depletes his playhand. If the opponent has no play hand cards, or his discard pile contains his best anticheat cards you can push Barton into fights with confidence.

A Pair of Six Shooters or Jaels Guile are nice to attach to Barton: Opponents will frequently be tempted to cheat to get a sufficiently good handrank to avoid Bartons trait, triggering your own anticheat.

Fred Aims has become a mainstay of my Sloane Gang decks. Although with 2 draw bullets he is unsuited as a frontline shooter, he is affordable and his trait is one of the best in the game.

Influence keeps you in the game, and it can sometimes seem a struggle to get sufficient funds to bring in a new dude with influence into play.

Your more durable gang members can quickly start racking up bounties by "breaking and entering", or running jobs like Kidnapping or Ambush. If paired with Mikaeo Kaleo those bounties can be transferred to Fred Aims, giving you sufficient influence to keep from getting knocked out. Another way to add bounty to Fred is via cards like The Evidence, or via the action of B&B Attorneys.

This dude can thus quickly stack up bounties to a ridiculous level. If you play using the Desolation Row starting home, becoming wanted can garner control points pretty readily, and Fred will usually be over 4 bounty without much effort.

As he becomes an influence powerhouse expect Fred to attract hostile attention. He should avoid shootouts whereever possible, unless the whole gang are involved. Avoid getting him Pinned Down!

Cards like Bounty Hunter targeting wanted dudes are his nemesis. Beware of the many jobs targeting wanted dudes: dont leave him isolated!

Dave Montreal is a strong card, but very expensive, and as a result rarely makes the starting line-up. His ability is quite defensive but useful in every shootout as a legal hand is nearly always possible with his bullet rating.

One tactic might be to use this ability to protect yourself from taking casualties shootouts s that are unfavourable, while hitting the opponent with abilities like Legendary Holster or Shotgun.

In order to get him into play it might make sense to use A Piece of the Action or Recruitment Drive to make him more affordable. Max Baine might also arrange a discount.

He combos with the Town Hall to reduce his upkeep, but this is obviously quite situational.

Rules note: if you play Calling The Cavalry and use the React on Cavalry Escort, it arrives after the window where Calling the Cavalry counts horses, so it will not count toward your hand rank.

Ruling: forums.pineboxentertainment.com

Corner case for Irving Patterson:

Note that if you run a job and have Irving join the Leader's posse (even if the job ends up being unopposed) does count as Irving joining a posse, thus, triggering his trait.

Note that effects which change attachment (such as the ability on Luke ) do not count as trading, which allows this to move off of the inventing Mad Scientist.

Related, if a card effect allows you to bring this into play onto any dude, it does not have to be the Mad Scientist who invents it.

Maggie is a solid addition to any Horse deck, and she actually does great work in Gadget Horse decks as well. You can use her to fetch a Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton or a good ol' Mechanical Horse from your discard pile, using a Mad Scientist to invent it and then attach it to any dude in any location. Now that's synergy!

Here's the rules clarification on that combo being possible: forums.pineboxentertainment.com

Pinebox Entertainment has ruled, that this card only interacts with effects that "take" ghost rock, but not ones that tell you to "pay" or "give" ghost rock. As of this writing, there is only one card in the game that says to "take" ghost rock and that is This is a Holdup!

So unfortunately, the effect of this card is kind of useless. It may be worthwhile due to paying for itself and then some over two turns, having two Control Points, and being a good value Dead Man's Hand and Kung Fu decks. But it might as well be a blank Public deed given that the only card it affects is so rarely played.

Notable Ruling:

• If a Totem's ability refers to "this location", it means Kabeda's location. Source

After noting the ruling above it's easy to see why she can be an essential part of a totem deck. She's a cheap and low maintenance starting dude who brings a nice shaman skill on her own. But, because of the ruling and her ability she is able to mobilize totems that would otherwise be easy to counter or avoid outright.

For example, Kabeda Hakurei is capable of producing call-outs at Town Square or any in-town deed while in Town Square using Mother Bear's Rage. She can also activate Silver Pheasant's Bounty from an adjacent deed booting her location instead of the deed Silver Pheasant's Bounty was originally attached to. Or use Red Horse's Tail to boot opponents in Town Square. This sets her up as quite powerful if you can keep her in Town Square. It's also worth noting that her ability doesn't require booting so pairing this ability with a Spirit like Strength of the Ancestors makes her a great Town Square camper.

Technical Errata from Rules Compendium v0.8.0 published July 6, 2018:

Tom can only move to your home or to a location that has another dude.

This makes Smiling Tom in line with the Faction update in Rulebook v1.4.0 published July 6, 2018, so that he can move to the location of any Fearmongers dude, rather than just those from the Fourth Ring Outfit.

Other errata images available: 108 Worldly Desires, Auto-Revolver, Bad Company, Concealed Weapons, Desolation Row, Focusing Chi, Forced Quarantine, Henry Moran, Hot Lead Flyin', Ivor Hawley (Exp.1), Junior, Morgan Cattle Co., Mugging, Nathan Shane, Nicodemus Whateley, No Turning Back, Paralysis Mark, Rico Rodegain, Undertaker, Unprepared, Unprepared Promo, The Wretched

February 13, 2018 - pineboxentertainment.com

Nicodemus Whateley Errata wording reads:

While your dudes are at in-town deeds, they gain the ability: “Noon, Boot: If this dude has 1 or more influence, give Nicodemus a control point, to a maximum of 3.”

At the end of Sundown, or if he is ever at home, Nicodemus loses all his control points.

Other errata images available: 108 Worldly Desires, Auto-Revolver, Bad Company, Concealed Weapons, Desolation Row, Focusing Chi, Forced Quarantine, Henry Moran, Hot Lead Flyin', Ivor Hawley (Exp.1), Junior, Morgan Cattle Co., Mugging, Nathan Shane, No Turning Back, Paralysis Mark, Rico Rodegain, Smiling Tom, Undertaker, Unprepared, Unprepared Promo, The Wretched

February 13, 2018 - pineboxentertainment.com
Showboating has been banned and will no longer be a legal card for organised play events.

From Design Team, Emre Guzelsu:

Showboating’s ban stems from 2 main reasons:
First, the card violates the fundamental contract of DTR of player interaction being the game’s primary driver. A card like Showboating allows you to win the game simply by casting spells to no actual effect. While the card opened up a variety of new win condition paths, it ultimately just fueled too many NPE (Negative Play Experience) decks. As such, pulling it from the environment is the best path forward in protecting the game’s health.

Second, the card has been an incredible drag on design and playtest. When literally every skill check has to be measured against whether it fuels Showboating, that’s a severe indicator that the card has problems. By hitting the Fortress deck type (which these changes should do), we can hopefully open up the design of Spirits more in the future. This would be impossible with Showboating in the meta as any good card for Eagle Wardens was fundamentally a good card for Fortress. Hopefully this will make our job easier in providing fun and balanced cards to the players, and allow us to free up space to not need to measure every single card against its enabling of Showboating.

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, you always shuffle the deck after searching it.
2. If you get a gadget horse, you will have to invent it as normal with a mad scientist, but do so immediately.
3. As to whether or not the card is worth it, it's not bad on it's own, but the existence of Maggie Harris makes it a bit obsolete.

Also, if you're running a lot of horses you probably want your 6 of clubs spot free for Calling the Cavalry.

If you don't have those available, however, this is a fine way to get horses out on the board if your deck depends on them, and it fits into your shooting structure. Make sure there's a good reason to include it rather than just including more horses though.

I want to like this card but I have a few questions.
The first question is does the player shuffle the deck after searching? If the horse is a gadget, like Mechanical Horse, can it be played right away or should the player wait for the next time to act? My final question is would one ghost rock be worth pulling a card from your deck or discard pile?