Triggered by an odd question about how much stud is “too much” (as in, where having the exrtra card does very little to help your draw hand) A couple of us were discussing recently how far could you push a dude’s bullet bonus?
So he’s a theory exercise for you - using only a SINGLE copy of any card, how many bullets can you stack on a stud
The Rules:
Each card you reference can only be used once (to allow for hand variance and a level playing field)
You may not use Prescott Utter or Silas Aims (Their bullets are too fluid and pure guesswork - “I use Prescott and 20 Law Dogs” is just too easy)
I’ll start by offering:
Sloane + Flamethrower + Elander Exp + War Paint + Charlie’s Place for a total of 15 Stud.
If you’ve got the above combo, only you’ve got Remy LaPointe and ghost rock to burn in place of Sloane, and he’s teamed up with the 108 Righteous Bandits to fight alongside Yunxu Jiang at a location they control, with Longwei Fu at home providing support from a long way away (heh!). Oh, and because we clearly don’t care about upkeep costs here, that deed they’re fighting in isn’t one they own and they’ve got Jonah Essex with them, giving them another bullet for being wanted. Of course, this is A Fight They’ll Never Forget!
Remy LaPointe (fully buffed for 5 bullets) + Flamethrower (7 bullets if used twice with Elander) + Elander Exp (+1) + War Paint (+2) + Charlie’s Place (+2) + Yunxu Jiang (+1) + Longwei Fu (+1) + Jonah Essex (+1) + A Fight They’ll Never Forget (+1)
I had Remy originally - then remembered that he can’t use his ability after Charlie’s / War Paint. His ability caps out at 5 bullets, and he’d already have them
If we go back to Sloane I put you at 20 bullets though, so still pretty Badass
Jack O’Hara with Evanor and La Quema, plus all the above would be equally silly
Then why not have him joined by Sister Lois with Sword of the Spirit. She can use the spell for another +1, then boot it for another +1 in the shootout. If Jack’s been praying and has Holy Roller too…
Jack O’Hara (1) + War Paint (2) + Bad Company (3) + Charlies Place (2) + two flametrhowers (8) + Elander Boldam Exp 1 (5) + Faster on the Draw (1) + A Fight They’ll Never Forget (1).= 23
Opposes Another Jack O’Hara with a Mayfair Family Deck and a Mirror Mirror who plays concealed weapons and in the shootout copies Jack’s 21 Bullets (23), then plays unprepared on Jacks Flamethrowers and attaches Evanor (3) and a Rapier (2) then he plays Faster on the Draw (1) and A Fight They’ll Never Forget (1).
I missed a +1 from Faster on the Draw earlier. Also, with Blessed in the mix, a successful Consecration during lowball could net another +2. Given this theoretical deck is a massive pile of jank with no structure, you’ll still probably end up losing the shootout, so if you’ve got an expendable dude (like Sister Lois in the above example) she could bite the bullet as at this point there’s No Turning Back (+2). If your main dude is wanted before going into this shootout, it helps to have reputation for being Bad Company (+3).
I believe I’ve reached the point where the number of actions required is more than five, so you’d need some hand size boosts
Why? With unprepared you’ve already neutered 14 bullets
Drawing 35 cards, if your posse is 5 dudes big, and you can’t start Jack or Elander, that leaves 11 cards you don’t draw to make a shootout hand. You must draw a 5 of a kind at least
You can eek out an extra bullet by playing the Arsenal and giving your Blessed dude a Stoker’s Sabre. This allows you to use Sword of the Spirit a 2nd time (you need the Arsenal in order to boot the Miracle so that it can be unbooted and used again by Stoker’s or assume an unprepared from a previous fight).
It was never going to be pretty. Still, there’s room to switch things round a bit and go for massive overkill with Point Blank and a couple of Bottom Dealin’s for anti-cheatin’, and I’m sure it’s possible to put together something with a slightly better structure than what I quickly threw together during a break in work.
I think I can get to 32 definitively.
Jack o’Hara +1
With Evanor +3
And La Quema +1
Flamethrower +4
Elander XP +4 (use FT again and +1 bullet)
Lois Otwell + miracle +1
With sword of the spirit +1
War paint +2
Charlie’s Place +2
Faster on the draw +1
Fight we’ll never forget +1
No turning back +2
consecration +2
Stockers Sabre (on consecration ) +2
Holy roller +1
Bad Company +3
Jonah Essez +1
All totals 32 stud.
Fun challenge. Really curious to see what I missed (I’m sure there’s something)
Then you can Mirror mirror him to get a load of bullets more and repeat some cards.
Also, we haven’t contemplated multiplayer, you can mirror mirror again, or twice if there are 4 players…
