Originally published at: http://gomorragazette.com/2016/07/15/nicholas-kramer-a-showstopper-review/
by: Andy McCormick
Hello everyone! I’m very pleased to bring you this week’s spoiler. As of late I’ve been getting back into the saddle as it, both Doomtown in general and with the horsiest faction in the game: Morgan Cattle Company!
I’ve always liked gadgets since my time with Classic Deadlands: Doomtown. When not playing classic Maze Rats in classic, I played Collegium. In Reloaded, I haven’t seen the classic mechanic of playing off the number of in-play Gadgets. Like some Collegium cards of old, Nicholas Kramer gets stronger depending on the number of gadgets that you control.
Nic just begs to join your Gadget decks’ starting posse. While Morgan isn’t exactly hurting for good stud characters, most of the ones at their disposal have upkeep. At five cost and zero upkeep, plus influence, he certainly rates as a solid starter for Gadget decks. In this case low influence isn’t exactly a bad thing as it lets his upkeep be zero. This zero upkeep warrants splashing him in non-Morgan decks such as Gadget Lawdogs builds.
As and Eight Value, Nic supports decent cards for Morgan such as Lane Healey, Force Field, and Flame-Thrower (more on this in a minute). Other recent and useful eights include: A slight Modification to get around your opponents shoot out action, along with deeds such as Lula’s Exploit and Cooke’s Nightcap that provide income…
Nic is a fighter! You get some gadgets out on the table and his bullets can get big fast. If you have some extra ghost rock, put both a flame-thrower and a Forcefield on him and he becomes a potential 6+ stud. With the influx of gadget tech and support, I believe Morgan Cattle hearkens back to the Gadget-happy Collegium of Classic. And that’s certainly not a bad thing at all.