I have my first play session this weekend after learning the basics, any recommendations on what to play? im looking at dtdb net decking obviously, mainly asking to be pointed at something thats not too complicated to try. is one faction more straightforward and noob friendly than the others?
I would say some basic shootout focused deck would be a good start. Sloane Gang (not Desolation Row) or Law Dogs. 4th Ring and Morgan both demand a deeper understanding of when to start shootouts, when avoiding the opponent is the better option etc. Dont get me wrong, these are skills you have to learn sooner or later, but for your first game I think it is more important to understand basic strategies than more complex game plans.
What is your card pool? Just the starter box or do you have more cards at your disposal?
For beginners I 100% recommend shootout oriented Law Dogs. Lots of Debuffs and Control actions with Cheatin Punishment. It will help you get a grasp on some of the games key strategic concepts without overwhelming you.
Card pool is all the cards. Bonus is my premier core box that arrived this evening!
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Sloane Drow feels like bara rush. law dogs bullets feels remotely like burn. 4th ring with paralysis, blood curse, and forget feels like martell with lanni kneel. Morgan just pick a flavor deedslide or gadget.
I think the originial Sloane Outfit is way more rush oriented than Desolation Row.
I would recommend a Law Dogs deck running on two values pretty much max out. This way you have a decent draw structure and still enough room in the deck to experiment with cards you like and want to try out. 8s and 10s are strong values for Law Dogs, having a solid character/deed base and containing important cards as Unprepared, Bounty Hunter, Steven Wiles, The Evidence, Circle M Ranch etc. Just try to use the Bounty mechanic to your advantage.
Also, for your first games I would play a little bit more than the usual 12 deeds, just to make sure that you draw enough and have a stable economy.It is very depressig for new players to see all their new cards but not be able to play them because of a bad draw. But that is just my opinion.
And for your first games remember risking everything in one big shoot out at the beginning is more often than not the wrong move, no matter how tempting it might be 
This is true for almost any situation in card games, but especially in DTR ask yourself “What do I gain from engaging with my opponent right now, what does he gain from it ,is it really worth it and what do I lose if my plan goes south”.
If you are not sure how to build your first deck I can put together a rough draft and write some explanations for the card choices if you like.
wow that would be fucking amazing dude. i am definitely a bit lost on deckbuilding this early other than what i have read here or watched on youtube, i was just planning on netdecking anyways but a resource like you describe would be invaluable to me. its not so much the card choices that help me to learn, but the WHY of the choices is the most important piece of information in my opinion.
yeah sure thing, just give me a moment, I’ll write something down.
OK so first of all lets look at the Outfit card. You can boot one of your dudes to give an opposing dude a bounty. That by itself is a nice ability, but it really shines with cards that punish the opponent for having wanted dudes. Such cards are Bounty Hunter, Gang Yi, Clyde Owens, Wyle Jenks, Judge Harry Summerset, Too much attention. Noticed a trend here? Those cards are 8s and 10s. So why not use them as the main shooting values of the deck. For starters I would suggest to choose 2 values and try to play as many cards from that values as possible. Let’s start with dudes:
2x Gang Yi
2x Clyde Owns
1x Wyle Jenks
1x Judge Harry Summerset Exp
2 Steven Wiles
All those dudes (expect Steven who is just plain awesome) have abilites and traits that trigger if facing wanted dudes. Clyde Owens can really bring the hurt to decks that rather not engage you in shoot outs and stay at home. Remember that he can use his ability in the opponents home, so he is never safe from the swift justice of Clyde. Gang Yi is just a solid dude, 2 influence is always good, especially at only 1 upkeep. Combined with him being a stud makes him a dude you can almost always use for something. The same goes for Wyle Jenks, which is a bit more expensive but can really shine if you play against a deck that gives their dudes a bounty on its own. Sloane for expample, using Kidnapping (a card really prominent in the current meta) or Desolation Row.
The Judge is a rather new card and is an excellent choice for hunting down wanted dudes, because he brings a 2-Stud gunslinger token along, so in the worst case you just lose your token und return home without having lost one of your influence providing dudes. All in all, you have a pretty shootout heavy line-up, and a bit costly to be honest, but that can be compensated later.
Next, lets take a look at deeds with 8 and 10 value.
2x Circle M Ranch
2x Pat’s Perch
2x Carter’s Bounties
1x Gomorra Jail
1x Baird’s Build and Loan
Nothing special here to be honest. Circle M Ranch is one of the best deeds and Carter’s Bounties is also pretty good. Gomorra Jail supports your game plan, although it does not provide income.
On-Value Goods are often somewhat of a hit-or-miss.
3x The Evidence
1x Quickdraw Handgun
4x Scoop Hound
The Evidence is a nice way to get additional bounty on the opposing dudes, or remove it if the opponent depends on it (Desolation Row tend to run the Aims brothers which get a huge boost from having bounties on them). The Handgun is a solid anti-cheating card and the bullet bonus is also nice. Scoop hounds has a pretty specific ability, depending on the cards the opponent plays to determine how good it is. But worst case, you can use it to soak up a casualty because of its sidekick trait.
Actions are really important in this game. Fortunatelly, the 8 and 10 actions are really useful and complement your basic game plan pretty well.
3x Bounty Hunter
1x This’ll hurt in the Mornin’
2x Too much attention
2x Unprepared
Bounty Hunter is an incredible card, allowing you force a shootout with wanted dudes. This should be the main punishment for wanted dudes and your opponent is definitely expecting this card. Cards that can hit the opposing dudes regardless of their location are really strong, because they allow you to engage in shootouts that you normally could not start. This’ll hurt in the Mornin’ is a pretty good anti-cheating card and I feel safer if I pack one, although this means you have one less Bounty Hunter available.
Too much Attention allows you to boot a wanted dudes, which is a good way to stop them from hassling you or to make sure they can’t refuse your callout. I found that this card is pretty much always useful. Unprepared on the other hand is one of the best cards in the game, because it protects you from so much stuff that can wreck you in a shootout. Shotgun, Soulblast, etc. You will play against shotguns sooner or later and you will need an answer for that. One can say that this card is so necessary that you should replace the 2 Too much attentions with it, and to be honest, it is really hard to argue with that. But for learning purposes I suggest that you try out as many cards as possible.
That’s it for the draw structure. This are 32 cards and will be the majority of your deck. Now its time to choose a starting posse. There are a few things you have to keep in mind. First of all, you want at least 4 influence. Anything lower and a opponent who can bring up controll points quickly will win in a short time. Other than that, you should keep the upkeep of your characters to a minimum. 0 upkeep is pretty hard to achieve, but 1 or 2 is also viable. In your case, you want to have a dude with high influence for the ability of your Outfit, so lets start with Lucy Clover. She provides cheap influence, although costing one upkeep. Fortunatelly, you can also start with Tommy Harden. He is a decent shooter that has no upkeep. These two grant you 3 influence and cost 7 GR. Now its time to choose some cheap bodies that can be thrown under the bus in case you have to cover casualties early on. Philipp Swinford is a good starter, providing 1 influence, having no upkeep and an pretty useful trait that can be triggered even if he is at home. So with 4 influence you are ready to go, so you can fill up your ranks with other good dudes. Travis Moone is a nice, cheap grifter that allows you to mulligan your starting hand and after that can die horribly in a shootout. You can also start with Rev. Perry Inbody. He will stand one of your dudes, which is a really strong ability. You have to pass his skill check first though, but with the majority of your deck consisting of 8s and 10s, this should not be the problem. So your starting posse looks like this:
Lucy Clover
Tommy Harden
Philipp Swinford
Travis Moone
Rev. Perry Inbody
You have 4 influence, a decent shooter, cheap bodies and a ability that lets you reuse your dudes if booted. There are of course a lot of possibilities here. Other good starting dudes are Wendy Cheng, Jake Smiley, Andrew Burton. As you get more games in you can change this according to your preferences.
Now its time to fill up the rest of the deck. I think the best way to do this if I list a couple of cards that would fit the deck and explain why and how you can use them effectively.
You want around 12 deeds, so you have 4 slots left. There are a couple of deeds that are good in alomst every deck and you should think about using them.
Califorina Tax Office is a good protection against the ever-present Steven Wiles
General Store grants you the ability to play goods for reduced cost, which is always nice.
B&B Attorneys lets you raise the bounty so you can get even more ghost rock for getting rid of wanted dudes
Yan Li’s Tailoring has good stats and more influence is always good
Town Council lets you use your Outfit ability with increased influence so you can get that bounty on opposing high influence dudes which would otherwise require you to boot a couple of your own dudes
Charlie’s Palace more bullets is always nice, also pretty good stats.
The Pharmacy stands dudes and grants 2 CP, although a bit expensive and only giving you 1 income
For your first deck I would not overload you deck with goods, the 8 cards you are playing is enough for now. But if you find a card that you want to play you can always make room for a couple more goods.
Now actions are a pretty wide range of different effects. You probably will be in a couple of shootouts so for now lets look at actions that let you win those.
Sun in yer Eyes, Pistol Whip, Couchwhip and Faster on the Draw are all really good cards for winning shootouts. The problem is, the all have rather low values. And you need to pass the skill check of Rev. Perry Inbody. Here you have to contemplate the balance you want to play. If you include these, you may fail the skill check, but on the other hand these cards are all really strong and worth the chance of failing the check in my opinion. You could play cards with higher value, such as Tail between yer Legs, Cheatin Varmint, Flight of the Lepus or Pinned Down. These cards are also viable for shooutout focused decks and can pass the skill check.
Another option is to drop the Reverend and just go ham on those low value cards.
Now you want to play a couple more dudes, 15 in total is a number I feel most comfortable with, because you do not want to have your whole hand full of dudes and not be able to affort them. With the 8 on-value dudes and 5 in your starting posse, you have two slots left. Wendy Cheng, Prescott Utter, Mortheimer Parson, Philipp Swinford Exp or neutral dudes like Ramiro Mendoza or Mario Crane are good options.
Now lets see what this turns out to be:
Starting:
Lucy Clover
Tommy Harden
Philipp Swinford
Travis Moone
Rev. Perry Inbody
2x Gang Yi
2x Clyde Owens
2x Steven Wiles
1x Wyle Jenks
1x Judge Harry Summerset Exp
1x Wendy Cheng
1x Prescott Utter
2x Circle M Ranch
2x Pat’s Perch
2x Carter’s Bounties
1x Gomorra Jail
1x Baird’s Build and Loan
1x General Store
1x California Tax Office
1x The Pharmacy
1x Town Council
3x The Evidence
1x Quickdraw Handgun
4x Scoop Hound
3x Bounty Hunter
1x This’ll hurt in the Mornin’
2x Too much attention
2x Unprepared
3x Sun in yer Eyes
2x Tail Between yer Legs
2x Cheatin Varmint
2x Faster on the Draw
2x Joker
I think this is a fairly standard Law Dogs Bounty based deck. You could drop the Reverend and choose some lower value cards, start with Wendy Cheng, etc. From here on there are a many options to change this depending on your preferences.
I hope I was able to help you a little bit and of course this is all up to discussion. Maybe someone comes up with something better suited or notices something I overlooked.
Also, sorry for any spelling errors etc, I didn’t reread it and english is not by native language.
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dude this is fucking incredible. thank you for taking valuable personal time to help a brother out. not sure anyone in the thrones community would have taken this much time to help a rook out 
thanks again, assembling this now. I shall report how it goes tomorrow evening.
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No problem, happy to help. Looking forward to hear how it went.
Yeah when I started thrones a couple of years ago I learned some things from the team covenant videos but that was basically it.
unfortunately the play date got canceled due to illness but i have the deck assembled and will play it at gencon if not before. will post results eventually.
Incubation or under the weather?
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update: i wasnt able to play last weekend but found out there is a sheriffs event near my house on saturday so ill be playing this list there!
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So your first time playing the game will be at a Sherrif’s event? Enjoy!
kind of. I played the tutorial with my girlfriend, and maybe 5 or 6 games with the starter decks with a friend.
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Good luck!
Let people know you’re new. They won’t go easy on you, but they might be willing to explain why they did certain things…well, after they’ve sent all your Dudes to Boot Hill. 
If you have specific questions as to why something happened and you don’t get answers there, please feel free to ask here, and someone will help you out!
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Other than running myself through the tutorials, my first time playing was at a Deputy event. Jump in the deep end and start learning!
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at the sheriff event now. lost game 1 but gave him a good match! one lucky shootout away from beating those dirty sloan assholes!
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i won game 2! pulling full houses and 4 of a kinds like a STUD!
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