I’m relatively new to Doomtown, and I started by building a fairly standard 4th Ring control deck. I had some fun waltzing around town with Shadow Walk, but I was too impatient for the control aspects of the deck and realized that what I really wanted was to get into more shootouts. So I switched to Desolation Row, added some dudes with lots of bullets and came up with this deck. I haven’t gotten a chance to play it yet, but I’d appreciate any feedback you folks might have on either changes to make or things to consider doing during the game.
Here’s a similar deck that took @Harlath to victory at last years’ Sheriff event at IQ Games in Huddersfield, which could be of some use as a reference. I can’t say I’ve much experience of playing a hex control deck (though I’ve played against plenty), but it can obviously work well with the Sloaners and it’d be interesting to see an up-to-date version of this sort of deck.
My Sloane control deck had a good record against control clowns (I think every match I played bar one was against 4th Ring that day, bar one game). It’s essentially “If you can’t beat them, join them”, using the Blood Curses and Paralysis Marks you’d expect to find in 4th Ring.
Paralysis mark is great anyway, and even better in desolation row: boot their best shooters at home so they can only oppose your jobs with draws.
Soul Blast gives you some kill cards - useful for killing chaff and restricting low value dudes with influence from entering shootouts.
I originally started with a lower value, corporeal twist style deck, but have decided playing the best cards (Paralysis Mark, Blood Curse) worked better!
For your deck:
have you considered Qs instead of 9s? Gives you general store to pay for your spells, puts blood curse on value and I think that “It’s not What you Know” is better than “Magical Distraction” as far as cheatin’ resolutions go. For dudes, it opens up Alice Stowe and Nicodemus, both of whom are viable mid-game finishers with the ghost rock you’ll generate.
Agree on the 1x recruitment drive. Works wonderfully with paralysis mark (Boot your opponent’s best dudes then recruit a game winning deed/dude). I’ve lost the odd game when I needed to see unprepared instead of recruitment drive, but overall a think it’s a big net gain.
Me too! I loved his art and flavour. I look forward to finding out what he’s up to.
He was in the first, flawed versions of Sloane huckster decks I made before I joined the dark side (the paralysis mark/blood curse side). 6 was a good value for splashing bobo out of faction too. Might give it another go now that Phantom Fingers and Winchester are out, better Hearts on 6 now.
The Jonah Essex version of the deck was fun, but not as effective. I look forward to including the forthcoming 8/10/Q value Jonah Essex experienced in future iterations of Sloane Huckster decks. We are getting a Jonah Essex Exp right?
I’ve definitely considered Qs, but I was thinking of cutting mostly 8s, mostly because I’ve had terrible luck trying to use This’ll hurt in the Morning as a cheating resolution. But on thinking about it, the rest of my 8’s are better than the corresponding 9s.
If I switch to Qs, what do you think of swapping in Max Baine (exp 1)? Netrunner is my primary game, and cost reducing cards like that are really strong, but is Max’s ability actually useful?
I rarely struggle for GR in desolation row, so I’d be more tempted by Tattooed Man, Jose Morales and the underrated Angela Payne (a back-up stud to park on your opponent’s deeds and crank out even more ghost rock, plus deny them income and maybe even bait a fight). I’ll confess that I’m only half speaking from experience here: I’ve used Angela Payne and found her useful, but rejected Max Baine Exp on the basis of theory rather than testing. Try both in the deck and see which works better! I prefer Angela to Jack O’Hara - a little more expensive to get in to play (Desolation row helps raise the higher initial fee), but her ability rapidly makes up for that and she doesn’t have upkeep.
Agree that 8s are much better than 9s. This’ll Hurt in the Morning can be frustrating, but overall I think it’s worth it. Adding Qs gives you the certainty of “It’s Not What You Know” and then “This’ll Hurt” can be used as a back-up/hail mary for shootouts, or for sniping cards in lowball.
As you’re starting Benny, he’s a great reason to add more blood curses:
he’s huckster 1, so passes it even on an 8.
he can blood curse himself to force shootouts with your opponent’s 1 bullet dudes while they’re at home. This sneaky trick (or the threat of it) has won me some games.
