First of all: Hi! First timer and it’s always scary, but I figured to step up in hopes of some newbie help.
I have been playing the game live with only my own card pool available, split to 3 decks for friends to play too and so our live meta hasn’t been anything too special. A week or so ago I joined OCTGN in hopes of more frequent games and have been beaten since. I’ve faced landslides, control clowns, gadgeteers, heavy shooters and some that I can’t give a name to.
So my question is this: What would be the general maneuvers of countering/reacting to/overcoming each archetype? Specific cards to counter them, playstyles, etc. All help is welcome!
Shooters I can get to with studs and resolutions
Landslide I guess would need some fast mobile influence(?)
Clowns should be just allowed to roam the streets and it’s better to go to bed.
It is absolutely normal to lose on OCTGN when you are a new player. Most people there are regulars and we play much more often than people who play only with their playgroups/friends. I would say that you should keep playing your favourite deck tweaking it between sessions, it is much easier to understand match ups and notice strong and weak points of particular decks if you know your own one really well. Don’t give up and you will start winning games sooner than you might expect.
Cheers for the reply! My plan certainly isn’t to give up and that is why I’m throwing the question here, to jump start my catch on you pros and better understand the “real” meta
Tweaking a deck can only go so far and what I’d rather get pointers on is the mindset when playing against certain set ups. What to expect from archetypes and how to respond to it? I see these archetype titles thrown around and some discussed, but very little discussion on how to play against them, similar to how Gomorra Gazette handled the topic on their “Desolation Row – Understanding and countering a strong Doomtown: Reloaded archetype” -article.
Ok so against clowns (4th ring), early aggro, don’t let them use home ability in early turns, focus on attacking hucksters, when they have many spells in play it is hard to win a game. Deedslide, try to control their deeds to lower their income, try not to overspend to be able to play more dudes with high influence into play. Against Des Row and oryginal Sloane I usualy let them complete early job/ gain CP and try to prepere for the shootout the best way I can. LD is the most tricky since they are early aggro so basically you react to their aggression. And Gadgetorium, try to limit their income in early or focus on killing their ms.
Also, how you deal with different deck types depends on what your running. Draw structure is very important in many decks (not all though). Your answers to the various strategies is going to depend heavily on what values you want in your deck. Also what is really available to each faction. It really is so specific to each deck.
What decks / gameplay are you wanting to improve?
Thank you again @swider! That is the sort of thought process I was looking for
I get that what I’m playing has impact on it, obviously, but when the deck is set and I sit down at a table, there is no more room to adjust the deck or its draw structure. There I can only take a look at my opponent’s starting board and try to adjust my play accordingly.
So as @swider mentioned, I can have a general idea of who I should generally play fast against (4R), slow (DR/Sloane) or something in between. At that point my deck is what it is, but I can have a basic understanding of what I am up against and how to proceed.
This topic was for the basic tutorial. Advanced, outfit specific maneuvers can wait for now
Playing slow against Sloane is sometimes bad idea. This is why I suggested playing with one deck while tweaking it, rather than answering directly as I did later. I also agree with everything jayjester said above.
Also don’t assume a spell deck will have poor shootout ability, they are often tightly stacked. You need to have a key concept and work from there, but have slots in your decks for ‘meta’ cards. For example I often have 1 evidence in my decks in case the Aims Brothers are getting silly bullets / influence due to their bounty.
Ah, I see what you want now. The difficulty though in answering, how do I face this opponent, is I’m not sure what tools you have. If you are facing law dogs, many of them play bounty hunter. when facing bounty hunter there are multiple ways of dealing with them effectively. Soul blast works very well, so does pistol whip, but you rarely see those two cards in the same deck. There are a dozen different ways to deal with just the bounty hunter decks. There are many, many types of decks to learn and face up against. I’ll try to boil the game down to DT-RL:101, This may give you both deck ideas, and things to know on what to face.
Law dogs: Be very weary of spreading out too much. Law dogs like to control the outcome of a shootout, and force you into shootouts you don’t want to be in (arsonal, duster, bountyhunter, Good old hangin’). Find ways to take the fight to them. If they are running low values, your studs will end up booted at home, a zero stud, or become a draw (pistol whip, sun in your eyes, faster on the draw, . They also really like to punish cheaters. Mid range Dogs are more often gadgeting, you’ll face force fields, holy wheel guns, steven wiles, and some of the strongest but costly dudes in the game. High value dog will often go blessed. They will survive bad rounds of shootouts. They are the dogs that are hard to put down. We may see some high value gadgeting as well. These decks do seem to be either slower, or put everything into the early game on just a 2, may 3 dudes.
I’ll do the other factions soon. This is just my opinion and experience, there is much more to it as well.
