Originally published at: http://gomorragazette.com/2016/04/15/the-deeds-of-ghost-town-a-gomorra-gazette-round-table-review/
Gomorra Lot Commission
Chefonk. 2/5. Converting a deed that you do not need at the moment into GR is useful. I doubt that most decks would rather not sacrifice a starting dude for this deed. Perhaps this ends up in some sort of Slide deck, but then slide musters as many starting dudes as possible. Bandit slide with Xiaodan Li can start 5 dudes plus this deed. Discarding a deed might not be an issue, since you will probably draw into more deeds at Sundown. Meanwhile, that 1 GR might buy you another deed that you have in hand. The deed’s movement option is situational enough that one should not factor that in when selecting this deed.
Jhandy27. 1/5. I’m really not a fan of this card. I can’t see a situation I would ever want to discard my deeds at the start of the game. I get annoyed when I don’t have a deed in my opening draw hand. Without a control point, I can’t even really see people wanting to run this card at all.
Nu_Fenix. I would love to know why this became a Core deed! Unless you expect start with two copies of the same deed in your opening hand, and want to cycle your hand faster while gaining 1GR, I can’t see why you would want this. If you aren’t starting the game with this and are using A’s, take Pony Express instead.
Doomdog. 3/5. This strikes me as a useful deed for a Dead Man’s Hand Deck, letting you cycle Jack of Diamonds from your play hand and netting you a ghost rock in the process. As an Ace, it’s on value for some of the cards you have to run. I am not sure if I’d start it, though. This card helps out if you run duplicates of a key deed, or just have a hand full of deeds that you can’t afford. There are plenty of deeds that are commonly played, so you might be able to use the movement effect to jump to an opponent’s deed and get the drop on them.
Jedilanni. 1/5. I just can’t get behind this card. Would I sacrifice a starting dude to put this deed in my starting posse? My answer is always no.
Chefonk. 3/5. Playing gadgets has always required the built-in cost of booting the inventing mad scientist. Unbooting after inventing something is great for not losing too much tempo. Too bad that your dudes are stuck at the deed, so the tempo bonus that you gain from this remains questionable. Fortunately, gadgets such as Personal Ornithopter or Mechanical Horse help get your dudes where they need to go. The decreased difficulty is pretty much negligible as you need to be able to invent at other locations too, and your deck should still contain higher values. I think that the additional income, especially from horses, is deed’s strength. Yagn’s Mechanical Skeleton plus the above gadget horses are often played and now they also boost your economy.
Jhandy27. 5/5. Move over Marty! I have a core deed now! This is a direct upgrade (in most scenarios) to Marty, since Marty was vulnerable to kidnappings etc., required Lucky to be regarded as “core”, and lacks this deeds economic engine. Entering play adjacent to your house makes it easy enough to defend. This is very strong. Obviously gadget decks will slot this, helping them become a deck to “gauntlet” against.
Nu_Fenix. Goodbye “Lucky” Sky Borne and Marty, your services are no longer needed. I get to make it easier to invent, unboot afterwards, and possibly get increased production as a reward. Why would a Morgan Gadget deck not use this every time? I believe that the value of 2 stops it making an appearance in non-Morgan decks.
Doomdog. 3/5. Howard Aswell begins to look a bit more useful. I don’t see this being played outside of Morgan decks, but it’s definitely worth considering for ones that use high difficulty gadgets or have lots of gadgets and need the unboot effect to maintain an early tempo. With this, the Gadgetorium, and Marty; one scientist could invent four times a turn. Inventing an Auto-Gatling or two and plus few Auto Cattle Feeders here and there could turn it into a hard to assault economic powerhouse deed. The problem it has is that Mad Scientists already have trouble making a strong starting posse, so will they be able to sacrifice a dude to start this?
Jedilanni. 4/5. If you play science you start this deed. If you are playing against this deed you take this deed over. Gadget deck auto include.
Chefonk. 5/5. 2-for-1 deeds are always welcome especially when they are on a good value and have an awesome ability like this. Giving out bounty will be nice for Law Dogs decks with a slight government theme, but the movement is where this card really shines. Booting one of your public deeds is a small price to pay for moving any of your dudes from anywhere without booting to any other location. Let me repeat that. You can move any dude regardless of their location to any other location without booting. Movement wins games and this is on par with the most powerful movement cards we have seen until now. Sure you have to boot another public deed not to mention having one to begin with, but if you do, boy is it strong. Only a fourth of all deeds are public, but there are some really good ones you probably play anyway and the value of this card only increases as more public deeds are released.
Jhandy27. 4/5. This solves a big problem for me. What 3 of diamonds do I want to run along side my Yan Lis and Hustings if I want income. The ability is just icing. It’s going to be used quite often Law Dogs to lay down bounties. The deed’s real strength lies with the movement ability as movement wins games, not fighting.
Nu_Fenix. A 2 cost 1 production deed is quite common. Booting another deed is a very interesting ability. There are 5 Government, 13 Public, or 2 with both keywords (one which, Hustings, shares the same value) offers quite a few choices. Drow decks gain bounties faster, while Bounty Hunter or Judge decks benefit from another way to give bounties. The movement from a Public deed is the better ability for me, as non-booting movement to anywhere on the table is one of the strongest actions that you can do in the game.
Doomdog. 5/5. Law Dogs and Sloane will like the ability to boot a government deed to give someone a bounty. Anyone else will like the ability to boot a public deed to move one of their dudes. Hustings is on value for this while having both requisite keywords. The Orphanage is also both on value and a Government deed. Ol’ Howard could snag this, helping out The Arsenal since their lack of bounty generating abilities has thus far really held them back.
Jedilanni. 3/5. Law Dogs with Government synergy will love this, while other outfits will use the movement ability.
Chefonk. 2/5. At first I thought this is really bad. The added difficulty didn’t seem much to me and 5 GR is a huge investment even considering its 3 production. The fact that your opponent can shut it down didn’t help me like this card either. Then I looked through my decks that rely on skill checks and realized that quite a few run main values that just barely pass the skill check for a lot of the spells. So maybe it is worth trying to get that one crucial Blood Curse to fail. This still does not make it a great card as it is still depends on the opposing deck. Still, I can see why people might consider this. That 5 GR is harsh though and it probably has no effect on gadgets as they are almost never invented in a location adjacent to this deed.
Jhandy27. 3/5. Whenever I see a 5 cost deed, I’m always dubious because of the difficulty of playing it turn 1 if it’s the only deed in my hand. As a 2nd or later deed, it’s quite strong because it can stop a lot of decks which are built to “just” pass their checks provided they don’t make a beeline for this deed. This can, however, be used to move opponents out of position. Definitely going to see use as well as annoying some skill checkers for sure.
Nu_Fenix. Will that extra difficulty at adjacent locations (which I expect to most commonly be town square) mean they fail more often, or are the values of their deck more than enough to pass the checks? I would use a single copy in a deck using 4’s simply to add more deed variety. If the ability ever did anything, I’d just treat it as a bonus.
Doomdog. 2/5. I find this deed a bit meh. It’s expensive to play for most decks and not all that likely to have any useful effect. Good players will play round it or just take it away from you. If they aren’t using spells or gadgets, then it’s just a blank 5/3/1 deed.
Jedilanni. 1/5. Making pulls harder is always a good thing, but 5 rock to put into play will be harder than the difficulty increase it creates. If it was Private instead of Public, I could get a little more behind it.
Chefonk. 3/5. I feel like this was printed because they realized 108 Worldly Desires should work if both players have 0 GR. Of course cards are well in advance, so this was probably planned during the design process of the outfit. It still feels like a cop-out. Regarding the card itself. it is a nice option if you are going embrace the Worldly Desires. With Xiaodan Li, Bandits can start with this plus 5 dudes, increasing the this deed’s usability. The increased income boosts your early game, but rembember to find a way of spending it before engaging in shootouts. Dudes like Sophie Lacoste and Carlton “Min” Rutherford help with that. Or you can start this and Longwei Fu. Use your income to play one cheap dude after another and throw them at the opponent wreaking as much havoc as you can with the outfit ability. Meanwhile, Longwei makes every one of your little chumps dangerous.
Jhandy27. 5/5. Well this is just plain amazing. It is immediately useful in Worldly Desires decks to trigger all of the dudes having the text “when you have less gr than your opponent.” This means that if you both have no ghost rock while YOU have this, you’re lower. The secondary usage for this is the well known bandit slide. The ability to start the game with 4 production is incredibility strong along with the fact it’s a saloon means that for 5 gr you can have both Clementine Lepp along with an instant safe haven to park her. Besides the production, you also get 2 influence and a control point that your opponent will struggle to move. This is going to be everywhere. Bandit slide becomes another gauntlet deck simply due to this interaction.
Nu_Fenix. The only Core with an income, so it feels like it really only costs 2 if you were to draw and play it on turn 1 normally. With the growing theme of rewarding you for having less GR than each opponent, I’m expecting this to be an instant hit in 108 decks.
Doomdog. 3/5. The 108 can still start 5 dudes and this thanks to Xiaodan Li. They also have plenty of cheap starters to choose from. Clementine and Forster Cooke will like this deed, and it could see play in 108 slide decks that want even more early production. It lets you benefit from Natalya, Shizeng Lu, and Carlton “Min” Rutherford’s traits/abilities when you’re tied for ghost rock. It gives you a less risky alternative filler saloon on eights if Cooke’s Nightcap isn’t working out for you.
Jedilanni. 2/5. What else can I say other than check out this thread http://gomorragazette.com/2016/03/22/design-semantics-and-the-problem-of-108-worldly-desires-companhursts/
Chefonk. 3/5. This deed provides no initial income, making it more of a mid to late game card that fits in with Morgan gadgets that need time to build up. Generating control points in a hurry while increasing your income can be the main win option if you manage to defend this deed and run the job each turn. Attach an Auto-Gatling to it, and you will probably have no difficulty in doing so. Another reason to run this is the big advantage it gives against non-shooter decks like Slide and Spirit Fortress. Your opponent will almost certainly not oppose the job and you can stack up control and income to match theirs. Those decks will probably have a harder time coming up with enough influence to deal with your steadily increasing number of control. Nines are a decent value for gadgets and most spell-based decks, making this a good one-of in those builds.
Jhandy27. 3/5. This card scream “silly win condition” to me, but I can’t see how. I can see stacking a few CPs if your opponent is turtling up effectively creating your own Allie if you happen to have a dude with a skill. Note that it doesn’t say which skil, so it will most likely be a skill you don’t actually use. I see this as a very strong card, and nice to see 9 getting some love for a change.
Nu_Fenix. Assuming your opponent doesn’t walk to the town square immediately after you play this, this is one of the safest jobs you can ever run. Whilst it needs a skilled dude, starting with two of them in your posse still allows you to do something with the other. Even if the ability never gets to trigger again, it becomes an acceptable 2/1 deed. Once you go beyond that, it becomes a more interesting target for the opponent to sit on and either deny income or try to win with the control points from it.
Doomdog. 4/5. This deed can act like a game winning time bomb for skilled decks that are able to defend it. Spirit Fortresses and Scientists can attach Totems and Auto-Gatling’s respectively to defend it, while Blessed can put some hard-to-kill dudes in the way to defend any attempts to take it. Hucksters can use their Puppets, Phantasms, Paralysis Marks, and Blood Curses to keep opponents away. Jank combo with Prayer or Mayfair Family Deck making your meanest shooter into a skilled dude to take advantage of this? Heck yeah!
Jedilanni. 5/5. Another way for skill decks to win faster.
Chefonk. 4/5. 3 GR for 1 income is not the best stat-line for a deed, but both abilities are useful in nearly every situation. Many decks run at least a few Casinos and Saloons, so sooner or later you will be able to generate more GR or cycle cards from your hand which might help in getting more Casinos or Saloons on the table. 10s are good values for a lot of decks. Even off-value, this deed will see play.
Jhandy27. 4/5. Much like Notary Public, I can see this card being used quite a lot simply due to the number of deeds that trigger the Distillery. This card feels like it can slot into most decks and be used. Check you decks and you’ll probably have at least 2 casino/saloons in there.
Nu_Fenix. Made in the same way as Notary Public, although an additional ghost rock more, it rewards you for booting deeds which are Casino (5), Saloon (9) or both (3, with Union Casino sharing the same value). Free money and hand cycling are never a bad thing, although the reduced number of deeds that trigger this deed compared to Notary Public is a shame.
Doomdog. 3/5. Useful in a deck with plenty of saloons and casinos, though they’re mostly grouped around the low-mid values. Sloane has some synergy with casinos and saloons via Ulysses and Buford. The 108 have Forster, while Law Dogs might be running sixes and tens on value and could get some use out of this. The Union Casino is on value with it and is both a saloon and casino so would benefit from both effects. And of course, everyone loves Clementine. Failing that, it’s an ok option for a filler deed at 10.
Jedilanni. 4/5. 108 loves to throw cards into discard. It is a high value for Kung-Fu, but usually worth the risk. For the rest of the outfits, who doesn’t like 2 ghost rock?
Chefonk. 3/5. Ok first off Q is a good value and high enough for spell and gadget decks. 4-for-2 and 1 control point is nice, so this might see play just for this were it not for the card text that can hurt you pretty bad, loosing the game bad. While you cannot discard cards during sundown, you do get todraw an additional card. Drawing more cards is always great, since card draw wins games. On the other hand, not being able to play cards is a bad situation which takes time to get out of and not being able to discard in order to get the dude you need desperately or a deed that provides the much needed income might be a literal game breaker. Spirit Fortress will be happy about this, other decks should really think long and hard about playing this as it is not a deed that you can simply play without a planned-out setup.
Jhandy27. 4/5. I think this card is going to be some folks’ best friend and others worst nightmare. This allows you to have an extra card every turn, but at the cost of not discarding at the end of the turn. Caution: This can lead to clogged hands if you don’t have some other card cycling mechanism in your deck. If you can play your hand out every turn, this becomes an amazing card.
Nu_Fenix. I can’t decide how I feel about this card. I discard one less card during Sundown (so typically 0 now), but in exchange I’m getting an extra card, and who doesn’t like extra cards? I’m glad I have an extra choice for Q deeds now, as I’m not a fan of Testing Range or The Pharmacy, so having a third deed provides more options at that value.
Doomdog. 3/5. Another Holy Ground deed, but there’s still not a lot that interacts with that keyword. Abram Grothe will be happy though! The trait is potentially dangerous as you could end up stuck with a bad hand of cards, but if you can keep playing cards, then this deed gets you more options next turn. Killer Bunnies Casino will cancel out the downside of the trait.
Jedilanni. 4/5. Another Holy Ground deed with great value for pulls. This card is a double edged sword. Its ability may hurt, but if played wisely becomes an extra card per turn.
Go to roundtable reviews of Ghost Town’s:
Dudes
Goods n Spells