In my time playing Doomtown I’ve fiddled with nearly every archetype available, with varying degrees of success. The one thing I never really played was gadgets, so last night I decided to sit down and build something. After a while I came up with a decklist like this. I was excited about playing it and utilizing gadgets but I encountered two real problems with the deck.
The lack of Scientists on high values (10+).
The lack of aggressive interactions.
The first point was not that big of a deal. You can start 2-3 cheap scientists and get by. Also, there are some good scientists on 8-10, and these values are playable (though I like the higher values more for their gadgets and BainesMan Society synergy).
The second point was kind of a killer though. Each other faction has some way to force fights or force people out. 4R has tools like Paralysis Mark and Puppet to catch people out and make them vulnerable, or even phantasm to draw them in. Law Dogs have their bounty tech with the Judge or Bounty Hunter. Sloane has the threat of Allie or their constantly accumulating control points via Core Ability or Desolation Row. MCC only really has the slide…which doesn’t work if you want a tighter draw structure to support fighting gadgets. Short of going off value for Kidnappin’ (and 7 definitely seems off value for a Gadget Deck, especially a clubless/club lite one) there’s not a good solution to force fights that are meaningful. Adding EDS felt like a real stretch but it was on value and at least gave me something. It sucks to have to add more clubs in general if the goal is to go club-lite.
I’d love to see some sort of “Call-Out” or job gadget that marked a dude - it doesn’t have to be to discard or ace them, maybe just reduce their influence (permanently?) or something. Having all these Bio Charged Neutralizers and Asycoil guns means nothing if you can’t get into a shoot-out. Either way, I’ll try the deck out, and have fun with it, but I still feel like it lacks something crucial to make it work.
Arsenal has its own set of problems because of its faction - no cheap starting scientists, lack of affordable access to some of MS’s best tools (Pasteur, Graves, Jen) etc. If it was an MCC home I’d consider it, but it’s still relatively low impact. It’s really more of a defensive ability (my booted dudes can still call out) than an offensive one, since there’s no penalty for refusing the call unless they’re booted AND wanted.
My biggest issue with Gadgets right now is how slow it makes your game.
When I play Hexes, once I’ve got a few spells out I’m suddenly an enormous pain in the ass. Jumping around town with Shadow Walk, booting your dudes with Paralysis Mark, or reducing influence with Blood Curse can all be pretty powerful and just plain annoying. When I play Miracles, I’m suddenly a force to be reckoned with. Consecration is brutal against stacked shooter decks, both in shootouts and for lowball. Walk the Path lets me get back up from anywhere, and unboots them if they’re joining during a shootout (seriously wow, I got wrecked by this fact over the weekend).
But what happens when I play gadgets? I sit around at home inventing 1 gadget per scientist per turn. If my deck has failure pulls there’s always the chance I could just be booting my dudes to lose money. Once you’ve got a critical mass of inventions on the board it’s really powerful, but I agree with OP. Until I’m swimming in cash and inventions it feels like I’m just durdling around waiting for my opponent to win the game.
Wait what? James Ghetty, Nathan Shane, and Roderick Byre as fillers, Blake Ranch and Cattle Market for William Specks to buy at discounted price, Auto-Revolvers and Pinto for mobile firepower, Kidnappin’ and Pinned Down for aggressive play… I’m building my Gadgetorium decks around 7’!
Also remember that Auto-Revolver’s card text is actually a trait. This means that the ability works even when the dude with the gadget isn’t in a shootout, and they stack… If your whole gang is sporting these bad boys, every re-draw during a shootout gives you an artificial +4 stud. Wow!
Yeah, you still need to actually have a redraw. So if you’ve stacked your dudes to all be studs, it actually doesn’t do a whole lot. If you’ve got a bunch of chuds like Jake Smiley and Travis Moone then you’re all set
My experience with gadgets is that building them as a deck archetype is not really feasible in reloaded. The angle I’ve taken with gadgets is to use a few of them as enhancements just like a normal goods card. You don’t need to stack 12-14 gadgets to make a successful gadget deck. In fact, I’d argue that doing that will hurt you in the long run if you end up drawing a number of them as they will clog your hand.
Some of the most successful gadget decks I’ve built are only running 6-8 gadgets alongside other goods cards. This leads to less chance of multiple clogging your hand and still gives you the benefits of gadgets without having to boot out most of your posse each turn to build them.
I actually helped a new player construct an 8/9/K Gadgetorium deck starring Harold Aimslee as the leading man that has been doing fairly well. The general concept is to crank out expendable/reusable Quatermen to bully the town while you safely build up. I don’t think it will be winning any major tournaments or anything, but he holds his own against some seasoned vets. I think the deck runs something like 16 gadgets.
