Originally published at: http://gomorragazette.com/2015/07/11/a-bicycle-built-for-52/
by Dan Knight
What is it?
Bicycle is an alternate deck building format for Doomtown: Reloaded.
Why is it called Bicycle?
A Bicycle deck can only include a single copy of each suit/value card, much like a standard deck of playing cards. As such it is named after world-renowned card manufacturer: Bicycle*.
Why should you play alternate formats?
Simply put, different formats are fun. Easily the most restrictive of the alternate formats, Bicycle tests your deck building prowess in new and interesting ways. If you thought it was hard to choose between 4 copies of Kidnappin’ or 4 copies of Pinned Down (or some combination of each), try and decide whether you want a single copy of one but not the other. How about wanting to play efficient cash deeds like Pat’s Perch and having to go without Circle M Ranch?
Sounds good, where do I start?
Grab yourself a few like-minded crazy folk and do the same thing you would for any normal event of course!
No, I mean how do I build a good Bicycle deck?
Ah, well there are a few things to bear in mind.
- Everyone will be using the exact same 52 card values + jokers and only 1 of each.
- Nobody will be cheating… ever
- Statistically, the most common shootout draw hand is two pair.
Keeping those things in mind when you build your deck will help A LOT.
Most common shootout hand:
Let’s start by looking at that last point. Once you factor in the ability to modify your hand size compared to a normal five card poker hand, the hand you are most likely to see in a Bicycle Shootout is one or two pair. In Doomtown: Reloaded, that is a paltry hand rank of two or three.
The above table is based on drawing a 7 card hand (assuming 2 stud or 1 stud 1 draw) from a 52 card deck which means the maths is very rough. While not 100% accurate for Doomtown, given the nature of starting up to five cards in play, starting play hand, jokers, etc, it’s good enough for government work. It’s worth bearing in mind that this math is dynamic as more or less stud or draw can dramatically change the odds of a given hand.
For the curious among you, the odds of seeing a Dead Man’s Hand straight up in bicycle are roughly 115,511,760:1.
How do we use this to our advantage?
I’m sure you have already thought that Mario Crane is a GODLIKE BEHEMOTH in Bicycle, and for the most part you would be correct. His trait will always fire as you physically cannot cheat, and since everyone has to use the same values in deck, chances are you are more often than not going to be within 2 ranks of your opponent. So yes, Mario is really, REALLY hard to kill in this format. However, if everyone has access to him, they run the risk becoming locked in an eternal struggle and unable to kill each other. While undoubtedly fun to watch, doesn’t progress you any further towards actually winning. My personal preference for Bicycle is to ignore Mario completely and concentrate on doing other things (including packing cards to kill him – more on that later). A brief, personal perspective: I ran a Bicycle event for the release of the first Pine Box, and none of the four Mario toting decks made it to the final.
Everyone has the exact same 52 values in their decks:
As I mentioned above, this means that there are very few shootouts where you will have to suffer multiple casualties. You are unlikely to have to face down a full house to your high card and have all your guys spirited away to Boot Hill. It can still happen but it’s generally an anomaly like your opponent pulling both jokers at either end of a 3 card straight! – yes Andy I’m looking at you, you lucky bastard!
This means that Harrowed is a fantastic keyword for the format. At the moment we don’t have much in the way of harrowed to play with, and one of them is Mario. That doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s a phenomenally good keyword to have. Going home booted to that single casualty is definitely more preferable to losing a dude. In the same vein, cards like Arnold McCadish become incredibly useful.
Nobody can cheat:
There are a couple of things to consider. At first glance, this suggests that Law Dogs get a pretty bum deal out of the format. Phil, Lucy, and Tommy are the usual “go to” starters for a Law Dogs deck, and their traits and/or abilities are not relevant for Bicycle events. While this is true, it does not take anything away from the fact that they are all cost efficient cards for what they do. Tommy is still a zero upkeep stud, Lucy still has the best in-faction cost:influence ratio, and Phil is still first up against the wall when the shooting starts (sorry Phil). Because nobody can cheat, you can immediately remove those Cheatin’-related cards from your deck and make room for the good stuff.
“Key “ cards:
Hopefully you’re now ready to give building a deck a shot. Brilliant! There are, however, a few key cards you should bear in mind:
Cheatin’ Varmint / It’s Not What You Know – Both of these are still powerful hand rank modifiers in their own right, even when your opponent doesn’t cheat. I strongly recommend including both in any Bicycle deck. Especially since they can help you get rid of Mario.
Hex Slingin’ – Similar to the above but relies heavily on having an actual Hex in play to use. A two rank swing can win you the game.
General Strategies:
Card Draw: Circle M, Pony Express, etc. If it says “draw”, you should give serious consideration to running it – even over a card that you really like. Since you only have a single copy of your power cards, you want to try and see them as fast as possible.
Spot removal: Ahh Mario, you glorious Bicycle shaped pain in the arse you. Say hello to Point Blank. Hot Lead Flying is also worth a look at in Bicycle. Since you will be playing with a dude of every value, it’s actually pretty easy to pull off for two or three casualties.
Grifter: Travis. Hands down the best option for any Bicycle deck for similar reasons to the card draw above. Gina is an option if you’re not too fussy about what you draw and want a minor fix. Travis, however, is the real powerhouse for such a limited format. I can maybe see Freddy being an option, but only having a single copy of all those hexes means you can’t really afford to have your opponent ace one.
Recursion: While we’re talking about Freddy, recursion cards that pull things from your discard pile or Boot Hill are a seriously good call. 4th Ring has a lot of fun toys suitable for Bicycle and can build a lot of odd decks in the format. Richard Slavin, Raising Hell, Summoning etc. (I tried Rich Slavin / Doyle’s Hoyle with mixed success, but it was super fun to play)
Send Home effects: Wendy, Pistol Whip, and Arden Gillman are all really useful in such a limited card pool format. Both players have 13 deeds and are going to need to drop them to try and win. Getting your opponent’s dudes removed from the game for a turn by pinning them at home is crucial, as is…
Influence Manipulation: Rumours, Hustings, Incubation etc. More than any other game of Doomtown, Bicycle games are won and lost by control of the board. Yes, technically all games of Doomtown are resolved this way. However in standard Reloaded games, you can gain control by shooting all your opponent’s guys and then just sitting in the town on your own, something that is much harder to do in a Bicycle game.
Hopefully this has piqued your interest and you’re itching to give it a go. Just make sure you share your success or bad beats stories with us over on the forums J
To get you started I’ve put some sample decks together:
Law Dogs: Lawdogs bicycle
Sloane Gang: Sloane Gang bicycle
4th Ring: Fourth Ring clown cycle
Morgan Cattle Company:Morgan Cattle Company horse cycle
- If you are ever looking for a really cool themed pack of normal cards, Bicycle is well worth checking out, as they make LOADS of different looking decks. There there are also kickstarters from people with their own ideas too – my personal favourite are the 1800 series.