My first impression of Eagle Wardens is that Many Speak as One is broken. So I wanted to make a deck that focuses on this Spirit and the first thing that came to my mind was making EW version of Baineslide.
I’m not an expert on Baineslide so I’m not sure if this amount of dudes is enough, as my playstyle doesn’t involve a lot of dudes in a deck. Also I’m not sure if totems are good option as they require some early pressure to be able to spread them and Baineslide needs time to ramp up.
What are your thoughts? Should I stick to 10/J/Q/K? Or maybe I should go for more aggresive approach and go for early pressure and shoot in town square?
The outfit ability requires that you boot a dude in town square, preferrably with high influence. That means you’ll probably have to fight there. Totems cannot be attached to the town square (barring Harry Highbinder). But you can attach several The Pack Awakens to your home and keep a shaman there equipped with a Buffalo Rifle, which will provide you with an army or 2-stud tokens to defend the town square. Add Takin’ and Point Blanks…
But Buffalo Rifle is on the same value as Many Speak As One, so sacrifices have to be made. How exactly do you plan to use Ancestral Spirit tokens?
Hm maybe I missed something but what exactly do you think is broken? You can’t move the tokens anywhere and they only last for one round. They help you defending that one location, can soak up casualties and grant a influence bonus for a turn, which is all pretty good, but broken?
If you can pull that off (not get the token called out as soon as it enters play at town square), then the spell basically says: “draw two cards and discard one”. Thats not too bad, better than Spirit Guidance. The hard part, of course, if pulling that play off. Need some extra mobility.
Well you need to be there at some point in order to cast the spell. The token is an option to use depending on the board state but not some kind of killer trick. Mazatl is also a nice choice to use with this home.
No matter what tricks you have if you’re against a strong shooter who camps Town Square you’re going to have to fight to use your home ability. The cool thing about Mazatl or Many Speaks is that if you can draw them away from TS you can move in and use the home ability without leaving a sitting duck there for the rest of the turn if that’s what’s needed. EW can be very good at the mid game “chess” moves against your opponent, getting them out of position then creating engagements where they have the upper hand.
I really like this idea. You could consider starting Bloody Teeth and Lydia Bear-Hands to try to utilize the Harrowed keyword to abuse TYWM further as well.
Just remember that TYWM doesn’t work that well with tokens because when the game checks for the highest bullet rating among your casualties it can’t find the tokens (they have been removed from the game already) so they have a null (0) bullet rating.
If your opponent has dudes with 0 Bullets it’ll work fine though.
As a LD player that had to rely on BHers for wanted-punishment for like the first 6 straight releases, I’m well aware That’s what originally got me thinking about trying to abuse it with Harrowed because Tokens are only so-so for it.
This is my first stab at the deck concept. Might have to start Smiley, but then you’re very strapped for first turn GR (only 3) if you lose lowball, which is likely given the tight draw structure and high values. Otherwise you’re stuck with only 3 Influence.
Alternatively you drop Black Elk and accept the fact that you’ll fail some of your Spirit Dance pulls…which seems yucky given it’s 2 GR to attach.
Another thing to remember is that token dudes at locations with The Pack Awakens get Harrowed. So if you can send them home booted as casualties, they’ll still count as 2 bullets for TYWM until the shootout ends. This will likely matter the most when at home…but still not bad.
This may actually be viable to run out of Sloane if we see some drifter Shamans. Seems too far off the wall to work out of EW where you can’t start Highbinder.
So I thought I’d just give my 2 cents on the eagle wardens after trying to build a deck with them. I think the cards that naturally fit into the deck are undertaker, no turning back, taking ya with me and I’d also argue that john “aces” radcliffe is a pretty good steal with the current faction power. I love that you include a lot of multiples with deeds because it’s so easy to cycle the stuff you don’t want.
That’s what originally got me thinking about trying to abuse it with Harrowed because Tokens are only so-so for it.