Originally published at: http://gomorragazette.com/2015/09/13/fighting-magic-with-science-morgan-cattle-crashes-the-circus/
Welcome back to Gomorra! Since we last checked in, a whole passel o’ dudes got sent to Boot Hill, courtesy of Mr. Hawley and the Fourth Ring’s minions. At Gencon, the circus put on a show led by David Hammond and Nick Glazer that overwhelmed Gomorra’s defenders. Here is a typical Clown Control deck that took down a sheriff event in the Weird East. Even cyberspace isn’t safe from the Fourth Ring’s machinations as Gozik soul blasted his way through the Gazette OCTGN tourney. As one tourney season ends, it is time to beat back this oppressive force and reclaim Gomorra from the Circus’ grip.
Before entering battle against the Fourth Ring, know thy enemy. Paralysis Mark, Soul Blast, and Blood Curse are the unholy trinity of hexes that they use to defeat their foes. Paralysis mark boots your dudes, leaving you into bad board position. Blood curses either lower your bullets and influence during noon or your dude’s bullets during shootouts. Soul blast aces your dudes or gets their huckster out of a bad situation.
Another common Fourth Ring strategy deemphasizes hexes and sends forth abominations to control the town square. The Brute, Paggys, Tyxarglenak, Smiling Tom, dearly departed Bobo, and Ringmaster Ivor Hawley are the usual performers. Raising Hell and Soul Cage ensure that abominations arise from anywhere, even Boot Hill.
A quick summary of how the 4th ring takes over Gomorra.
- Booting multiple in-town dudes with Paralysis Mark, the Oddities outfit ability, and/or Leon Cavallo. This locks down opponent’s movement and/or allows the circus to snipe dudes at will.
- Using spells and/or actions that reduce your influence while raising your dude’s influence with the Oddities outfit trait.
- Gomorra Parish, Undertaker, and Buried Treasure allow the Circus to ace their own dudes and gain even more production.
- Shadow walk augments Fourth Ring Huckster’s regular movement.
One can fight fire with fire, but today, I’m certainly not fighting hexes with hexes. Instead, stand back everyone, while I try (Mad) Science. Let’s start by bringing out Quaterman, a Gadget dude who can’t be booted or have his bullets reduced. Next, counter the Fourth Ring’s penchant for influence reduction by wearing a Fancy New Hat. These hats also work wonders for making those difficult Science pulls. Haberdashery aside, Mad Science can invent a Ballot Counter that uses ghost rock to up the influence on an attached dude. Remember that influence cannot win games, it only prevents losing and thus living to fight on tomorrow.
Mobility is one of Doomtown’s key concepts. Countering the Fourth Ring’s many ways to boot dudes is thus paramount in defeating them. Pharmacy, Missed!, and Louis Pasteur are a trio of Queens that offer different mechanisms for unbooting dudes. The French scientist is particularly clutch since as long as you have ghost rock, he’ll be happy to unboot any nearby dudes. Quaterman’s trait negates any of the Fourth Ring’s booting shenanigans.
Telepathy Helmets ensure that when bullets start flying, you keep those precious stud bullets. If you don’t win lowball, pay the ghost rock to look at your opponent’s hand and see what tricks they have. Once again, Quaterman demonstrates its versatility by also preventing any of the Circus’ bullet changing or reducing tricks.
Go on the offensive with weapon Gadgets such as Flamethrowers and Holy Wheel Guns. Both add bullets, while the latter is easy to invent and docks their dude a bullet while targeting abominations. Stoker’s Sabre and Rapier increase a dude’s value, making them harder to boot and also provide conditional bullet boosts. Force fields share a value with flamethrowers, but for the right amount of ghost rock can force tie hand ranks and an opposing casualty.
Morgan Cattle Company and the Law Dogs tend to favor Mad Science more than the other two core outfits. Janky players can attempt Sloane Science since Roderick is a drifter, while Kyle and Elander are both cheap to play out of faction. Booting to invent imposes a non-trivial tempo hit upon the intrepid Mad Scientists. Packing a few Kidnappins’ or Bounty Hunters (if playing Law Dogs) can cripple or slow down Fourth Ring by taking out a key huckster right out of the gate. Fuel your economy via Reserves and/or Buried Treasure.
Here is a Morgan Science deck that has an 8-1 overall record as well as a 2-1 record versus Fourth Ring. It uses some, but not all of the above ideas (hey, you try cramming a bajillion ideas into a 52 card deck). It is an 8-J-Q build, the same values used by many 4R decks. Hey, I said I wouldn’t fight fire with fire, I never said I wouldn’t draw structures with draw structures… Kyle and Louis can invent Telepathy Helmets and Quatermans without risk of failure. Other than the starters, these two gadgets are the only cards that fail Flamethrower and Bio-Charge Neutralizer pulls. That is 6 out of 52 cards that I consider an acceptable risk of invention failure, considering their overall purpose in this deck’s game plan of retaining mobile influence and firepower.
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