Originally published at: http://gomorragazette.com/2016/01/25/arnold-stewart-a-bad-medicine-preview/
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by Alex Wirges
I was sitting in the Gazette offices when an old prospector ambled in. At first, I thought it was McDroste, but this dude was clean-shaven and didn’t smell half as bad. Still…
“Alex, spoiler time for Saddlebag 9. You have a deadline, so get to writing already,” said Orange in his best Jolly Jonah imitation.
I stared at the card and read an re-read the ability. And had an idea; a wild, crazy, way outside the box idea. Discarding five cards at a pop, made Arnold seem like an every-turn Shifu Speaks for a Kung Fu deck. I brewed up a deck list and slotted in a quartet of Arnolds into a 108 Worldly Desires deck. The only gadgets were auto-revolvers which added more power to the deck’s draw based shooters. In theory, it seemed really strong, in actuality, it was a clunky mess that failed techniques and blew up gadgets. “Perhaps, I’ve lost my touch.” I pondered and I tweaked it some more. Something still didn’t click. Perhaps, it was just luck, perhaps it was just me, but it wasn’t working. I’d get obliterated for dawdling too long, and the synergy I was attempting to force just wasn’t working. The article I’d planned to write was a dud. So I stepped back and thought about Arnold a bit.
I found that this card warranted more than a strategic discussion. This card’s design seems to foreshadow a shift in Design focus for the DTR team, and I have yet to decide whether it is a good or a bad thing. I am convinced, however, is that it’s an extremely interesting shift. When Doomtown: Reloaded hit store shelves, out of town deeds were few and far between. And they stayed that way. As the game moved through this arc, and now as we approach the end of it, there is no scarcity of out of town deeds. Beyond that, there are now out of town deeds with control points. The conflict appears to extend past Gomorra’s city limits and into the surrounding hills. Why is this important?
Arnold represents a significant shift in design philosophy. Dudes and Deeds has always been a strong archetype, played well out of MCC. Out of town control points have always been powerful in the archetype, and we’ve seen the deck use gadgets as well. Arnold is the card that marries the two together in an elegant manner. Reloaded has bits and pieces of it’s predecessor’s personality and most of the DNA. To me, Arnold feels like a relic unearthed and brought forward in time. If Reloaded featured as many strikes as classic, most folks would declare this card as broken.
Jury remains still out on how good Arnold really is, or even whether he is actually any good at all. I do suggest, however, that this is a Very Important Card. I believe the card heralds in a new era for Doomtown: Reloaded. Out of town deeds are becoming more important – and cards like Arnold are going to place a larger focus on them. This effect is going to ripple throughout the meta game. Movement tricks and feints will become even more important than they already are, while shootouts will become more sporadic and spread out.
Arnold may be lookin’ to strike it rich in the Maze, but he’s going to bring a lot of trouble with him. And no doubt he will find himself staring down the barrel of a gun or two, hopefully before he ever finds his Mother Lode.
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