Gadget Shan Fan Experiment

I'm also wondering if this deck would benefit from Raven or Darius Hellstromme enough to risk the penalty on either.

Help! Thanks :)

Without playing any cards on the table, your structure relies on two options: a 11/10/9/8, which is relatively weak, and hearts flush/straight flush. As you start to get your hearts on the table, your chance for flush/straight flush in hearts goes down dramatically, and your main cheatin punishment of Comin Up Roses gets weaker and weaker.

You have a solid base, but if you want to be shooty/aggressive from any sort of early point (which you need to be, if you want to use Post-a-tron), then I would suggest either concentrating on the flush/straight flush end of things, or moving more toward a tighter 3 value structure.

Regulators and this sort of gadget deck are fantastic at getting lots of big studs, so you can often get away with a little weaker structure than normal, but I think it's too fragmented as it stands.

Shan Fan is a lot of fun, and a great card, and you have 9 melee cards so thats a good spot to be in. If you lean toward the 3 value structure instead of the flush/SF, 7's and J's will be your best values. You'll also have to pick a different cheatin punishment at that point.

On the other hand if you go more with the hearts flush/SF build, just be careful what goods you plan to keep on the table, as that can seriously mess with your draw structure. For instance, perhaps keep your middle values of no more than 1 on the table, where end values like J and 5's (just picking some values out of the air) can have much more on the table.

Also remember that Shan Fan shuts down your own force field, but that's ok since you won't always have options for both at the same time. And when you do, you can pick which one you like the most :)

I think this sort of deck can be very strong, so there are lots of different options here!

I don't know why I counted Yagns as melee - so that makes 5 melee cards in the deck? In that case if you want Shan Fan to be the focus, maybe add a couple more Jaels? 5 isn't bad, but more = more reliable!

@Prodigy Great feedback. If I wanted to focus more on the Flush/SF would you recommend cutting the Shan Fan/Jael's and adding a wider variety of hearts values? I figured with the 4 or 5 stud bonus that I'll usually have that I can reliably hit the straight and use Comin' Up Roses to turn into SF. Admittedly my game time has been limited so this exists largely in theory...

I think I need something to add quicker control points to make them try to shoot me earlier.

Do you think Darius Hellstromme or Raven make sense?

If you're going to do some straight/flush structure, since you're not far from it, you could use some Decimator Array.

With 11 gadget weapon, including 4 that doesn't have a booting effect, Darius Hellstromme can be used to grab some CP. If you're looking to be a bit more aggressive, you could add some Kidnappin' which is on value.

Another funny way to "force" shootouts and allow you to generate CP would be to add one or two Technological Exhibition, which would allow you to search some sweet gadgets.

@Nobuyoki has good points, especially on Decimator Array. I'm a huge fan of Decimator array + Force Field, as you can essentially win every shootout by at least 1 every time you're able to boot a decimator (and as long as your ghost rock lasts).

There's no reason to drop Shan Fan/Jaels with the SF structure, you just need to drop enough clubs and other cards to fill in some hearts. If you have to get rid of diamonds, maybe add some Disgenuine Currency Press to make up for the loss of income with deeds.

Some lists from me and Tybarsunsong have various examples of these kinds of builds that you can also reference.