Old No. 69 Mine

If Gomorra belongs to anybody, it's Sweetrock. They done come in right 
before the mother lode hit, and before you know it, they got their claws in everything. Most of the big claims're theirs, and plenty of the town's businesses, too. They can buy just about anything - even you. Pockets full o' money ain't enough, they're diggin' up ghost rock like gophers. Aim to keep it, too. They don't got the big guns 'round here, but the way they'll get ya, they don't need 'em.

Type: Tournament

Dudes
8 - Max Baine
7 - Billy No-Neck
2 - Sandra Harris
4 - ...And Scooter (inexp.)
7 - Montana Holland
7 - Byron St. James
9 - Ian Spencer-Whitney
9 - Dr. Reginald Branson
10 - Big Jake ... (inexp.)
J - Jim MacNeil (inexp.)
J - Walter Ponds
K - Austin Stoker

Deeds
A - Colorado Lode
2 - Smiley's Shaft
2 - Den of Eastern Delights
3 - Miss Greene's Room
3 - Rock Ridge Mine (well, it started it all, it could end it all, right?)
4 - Miner's Union House
4 - Fish Ridge Mine
5 - Ninth Circle Mine
5 - Lonesome Willow Strike
6 - The Labyrinth Mine
6 - King Willy's Mother Lode
Q - Desert Rose Lode
Q - The Steam Tunnel Lode
(I left all the 'evil' strikes out, as far as I could tell.)

Actions
A - Out of Ammo x2
2 - Crack Shot
3 - It's Just Coal x4
4 - Jailbreak x3
4 - Bankrupt Morals x2
6 - Foreclosure
6 - Arson x3
Q - Raid x2

Events
4 - Founder's Day x2 (might not need these -- swap for Bolt-Action Rifles if you don't.)
7 - Ghost Infestation x4 (The ghosts of all who died fighting Knicknaven will lend us their aid in our fight. And believe me, those Sioux and Ranger guys are pretty great aid, even if they are dead!)

Goods
3 - Blue Jeans x2
(I'm thinking you may want 2x Bolt Action Rifle, too.)

Fool's Joker x2 (or to taste -- I figured this one would work well with the Arsons.)

Notes: I have taken a look at the evil heinous Whateley 1st turn win deck, and I hope I have a deck that may counter it *and* stand up well against other outfits. It's actually a reworked Blackjacks deck, but to make it easier to counter the 1st turn win, I have done it with Sweetrock.

I saw in the Epitaph that 'corrupted Sweetrock' will help the Whateley/Knicknavin side of KC, so I specifically built this as a 'redeemed Sweetrock' deck.

I cannot playtest it against the Whateley deck because I just don't have the cards, and no one I know has them or plays decks like that, so I would not be able to test it against a seasoned player. Please, I'm asking you guys, try the deck, see if it works, tune it as necessary -- and USE IT or a variation of it (a Jacks variant works great!) if it works. The last thing I wanna see is a dark Gomorra -- Deadlands is all about being heroes against the darkness, not joining it.

...

Type: Tournament

Dudes;
1  Alfred Barkum, Sr.
1  Avarice
1  Basil Whateley
1  Billy Iron Horse
1  Captain Sim Yut-San (exp)
1  Mortimer Jones
1  Sandra Harris

Deeds
4  Dragon's Nest Strike
1  Fu Leng's Laundry and Tailoring
1  Knot Mine
2  Lord Grimely's Manor
1  Smiley's Shaft
1  Stuffed to the Gills Strike
1  Sweetrock Smoking Lounge
1  Tent City (Chinese Workers)
3  The 1st Bank of Gomorra
1  The Courthouse
1  The Intelligence Shop
1  Town Hall

Actions
3  Bad Tequila
4  Rumors
3  Seductress

Events
1  Eureka!
1  Full Moon
1  Ghost Infestation
4  Heavy Rain
4  It Was A Mountain Lion
4  Los Diablos Stampede
2  The Fair Comes to Town

Notes: This is the deck that won the 1999 Deadlands CCG World Championship at Gencon in Milwaukee.  When playing it, one normally starts with no dudes at all though it does contain several dudes which might be played later.  This has great shock value against an opponent who has never seen this strategy before but I will now reveal all.

Playing Sweetrock, one should win the lowball and, with no dudes to pay for, this leaves 24 Ghost Rock in your vault. This should allow one to play enough control point deeds to exceed the total influence of the opposition.  The supporting actions and events disable or kill the opposing dudes so that they cannot take control of these deeds and so the game is won.

This strategy often doesn't work immediately - you might draw no deeds in your opening hand or there might be no events in the first lowball.  In this case, you can just wait and see what your opponent does.  If he does nothing much then you can try again on the second turn.  If he forces your hand by playing some control points of his own then you might have to play one of the dudes in the deck to keep the game going.   Note, however, that you can only have one non-Sweetrock dude in play.

You often have tough choices to make and one of them is whether to allow the Ghost Infestation to take effect or not - you will recall that Sweetrock is able to discard one of its six lowball cards before they are revealed.  The fear level now starts at 5 and was played at this level at Gencon.  This means that you need 6 control points to win and this isn't easy - even with the bonus point for big strikes which Sweetrock receives.  This is one reason that the deck only contains one Ghost Infestation - if there were two or more then you might be forced to play one.

This deck has been evolving ever since I first built it for the 1998 World Championship.  The original idea came out of discussions in London about a no-dudes strategy for the game Dune and whether the same idea might be used to win multi-player Doomtown.  I got to wondering whether the same idea might work in a duel too and decided that it was worth a try.  I didn't quite go all the way though - I started with Howard Findley, used Lions to whittle down the opposition and played big strikes during the Heavy Rain. Other events included Christmas Day, The Fair and Full Moon with lots of Bluff and Ace in the Hole to make sure that they appeared.  I didn't have all the cards that I'd have liked - for example, I only had two Dragon's Nests.  Even so, the deck was good enough to qualify and was only beaten by the two finalists - "Killer" Kerry Breitenstein and Ken "Spuds" Kurpiel.

These were the days of Rolling Thunder and the game was changing fast.   I kept expecting the shifting sands to make the deck obsolete but was able to retune it as each episode appeared.  The major changes were:

EPISODE 6 - The Maze Rats were clearly a major problem as they were largely immune to Heavy Rain.  My answer was to substitute lots of in-town deeds for many of the strikes while adding Stampede and Night Haunts to the mix.

EPISODE 7 - This contained the first of the event hosers - The Den of Eastern Delights and Apache Devil Dancers.  These made it hard to rely upon recycled Mountain Lions to win in the long haul but still left the possibility of a quick win. The Texas Ranger's outfit ability was another threat to Stampede/Heavy Rain but at this stage the outfit was very weak in other respects.

EPISODE 8 - Another event hoser, Drinks on the House, and an unkillable dude, The Ghost, made things start to look black. I experimented with the new event, Drought, but it clearly wasn't very good.

EPISODE 9 - Two major new cards made things look rosy again - Los Diablos Stampede and Seductress.  Los Diablos put an end to starting Howard as four of these went straight into the deck.  I reviewed the handful of dudes in the deck at this stage and the excellent experienced Capt Sim was added. The Flock looked interesting but innocuous at this stage.

PINE BOX - There had been awful rumours of major changes to Sweetrock but, while the changes were nasty, they didn't hurt the outfit much from my perspective - they were mainly designed to cripple the "Nothing but the Best" strategy of hiring the fastest guns in town.  The other significant change was to the Mountain Lion - it now aced itself too. This was a sensible change but had little effect - I was no longer expecting to go through my deck a second time.

At this point the deck started to get more exposure as I used it in some tournaments in NJ/NY/PA and won a Madman's Secret tournament with it.  Folk like John, Pat and Joe immediately saw it as a big threat and posted some warnings on the mailing list.   Fortunately, these were drowned out by the more extensive discussion of Chris Foley's Flock Fondue - another Lion/Diablos deck built around the Flock.  This did not start dudeless though and relied upon key dudes like Avarice to pull out the winning strike.  I secretly chuckled at the thought of how this would fare when its dudes were the only ones in the firing line.

What worried me much more was Pat's idea of using the Sioux as the foundation for a deck with no starting dudes - heresy!  After some feverish testing, all my three copies of Billy Iron Horse went into the deck - I wanted to be sure of playing him before the Sioux did.  In the course of this rebuild, all the insurance cards like Bluff, Ace in the Hole and Snake Eyes were ditched - they had to go to make room for the extra dudes.   Even so, the players in New Jersey may have the measure of the deck and I was fortunate that few of them came to Gencon.  The west coast players which I did confront are familiar with the concept too but may not have seen this particular mix before.  And surprise is an important advantage when playing this deck - you want to keep the opposition guessing as to what will leap out and bite him next.

MOUTH OF HELL - for such a large set, this had surprisingly little effect.   The Ghost Infestation was the only significant card and I only added that after seeing Tom Kassel using it to good effect in his Boomtown deck in London.  Burnt Offering was a possible problem but almost immediately this became mired in controversy and was banned from play at Origins.  I didn't play in the main event there and this was won by a different Sweetrock deck - Mike Nickoloff's Sweetrock Shooter.  I did play the deck in the Kansas City tournament at Origins though - the small chance of being caught cheating was worth ignoring.  It did quite well but was beaten by the reigning champion, Kerry Breitenstein, who was also playing a Sweetrock cheater.  She started with lots of influence dudes and I could not wear them down fast enough.  I now saw Sweetrock as the major threat and when Chris asked why I wasn't starting with Sandra, I acted upon his suggestion by replacing the two extra Billys with Sandra and Mortimer. This paid off well at Gencon because I met the LA Sweetrock players like Mike again and again.   I started with both Sandra and Mortimer in this case and usually won the pull for at least one of them.

It's not clear what the future holds.  Reaping of Souls contains interesting cards like the experienced Lord Grimely's Manor and the Nicknevin event but these seem marginal.  It's the rumoured cards from future sets that will be more significant.  On the one hand, Eye of the Storm sounds like another potent event hoser while on the other hand, Scrye talks of a card which will remove all dudes from play!  Gomorra is not getting any safer for ordinary mortals and could be a ghost town for some time to come ....

Type: Fun

Dudes
Lilith Vandekamp
Howard Findley (The girls need a good accountant)
Kansas City Kara
Cassidy Green
Elizabeth King
Arizona Jane
Ezzie
Sheila Mirabella
Vampiric Dance Hall Girl
Camille Sinclair
Rachel Sumner
Black Jack (Experienced) (Who's gonna argue with him as a pimp....)

Deeds
Red Hill Hotel
Buffalo Chip Saloon
Sunnyside Hotel
LAD Saloon
The Gilded Feather
The Golden Crack (just don't ask....)
Golden Mare Hotel
Old Moon Saloon
Green-eye Saloon
Look Homeward Mine
Pikes Puddle Mine
Thunder Gulch Strike
Harlot's Haven Strike
Drop In The Ocean Strike
Foales Folly

Actions
Deputize
3 Seductress
2 Foreclosure
2 Bad Tequila
2 Jackelope Stampede
2 Friends In Low Places
3 Rumours

Events
Eureka!
2 Major Earthquake
2 Dealers Choice

Goods
2 New Hat
Shotgun
2 pearl-Handled Revolver

2 Deaths Head Jokers

Notes: There are two versions of this deck. The Sweetrock version isn't quite as thematic as the Blackjacks version but wins more often. I prefer the Blackjacks though, as it's more fun. Booting all those hard working girls for Ghost Rock, while Werner Braun sits at home and does the accounts. Oh, and in the unlikely event that a client gets out of hand, Black Jack can sort them out, personal likes. Neither of the decks are really built to be played seriously, but they can hold there own.

Western Corporate Office

Type: Fun

Dudes
2s Sandra Harris (sw)
5s Mick Caples (sw)
6s Robert Northrop (unexperienced)(sw)
6s Benny Hibbs (dr)
7s Byron St. James (sw)
9s Mr. Prim (sw)
Js Jim Macneil (sw)
7s Billy No-Neck (dr)
9s Kansas City Kara (dr)
Js Werewolf (dr)
As The Amazing Xemo (cl)
7s Prof Susan Franklin (cl)
9s Eagle Rock (sx)

Deeds
4d Lucky Horshoe Lode
Ad Dragons Nest Strike
Ad Stuffed to the Gills Strike
Ad Gomorra Gazette
7d The Carpenter's Shop
7d Old Moon Saloon
7d St. Martin's Chapel
9d Callaghan's Ditch
9d Top of the World Lode
9d Water's Edge Strike
9d Fountain
Jd Bat's Breath Mine
Jd Whiskey Nick's Joint
Jd Pikes Puddle Mine

Actions
Ac Cheatin' Varmint (x2)
Ac Human Shield
Ac Manitou's Revenge
Ac Only Winged 'Em (x2)
7c Drinks on the House
7c Snakebite (x2)
Jc Grave Robbin'
Jc Quickdraw
Jc Take Ya With Me (x2)

Events
7h Ghost Infestation
7h Long Arm of the Law
9h New Science Magazine
9h Undead Miners
Jh Drought
Jh Sleeping with Shadows
Jh Stampede

Goods
7h Holy Wheel Gun (x2)
Jh Prof Parnham's Miracle Elixir

Notes: Keys to this deck:  Aside from your starting characters and strikes, this deck consists of aces, sevens, nines and jacks.

It's a bit low on influence, but if you're lucky the Ghost Infestation will come into play early keeping you alive until they can beat the fear level of 4 (hopefully 6 when the Stuffed to the Gills comes out.  With Stuffed and Dragon in play, it is not a problem for you to surpass that total and hopefully win in a two player game.  Shootouts aren't a problem usually.  The lowest this deck pulls (excluding discarding or winging your starting characters) is a pair of aces in 5 cards.  I was consistently drawing 3-4 jacks in 5 cards in the late middle game.  This deck cheats about 60-75 percent of the time and usually (even when not cheating) pulls a 3 of a kind or higher; usually full houses and 4 of a kinds.  Jackalope Stampedes are very dangerous to this deck.  I was lucky when Mr Bones was fiddling around his sad tune, after cheating, I drew non-cheating hands.

The Mad Scientists are in there for your gadget pulls, barring the occasional ace, they usually succeed.

Feel free to fiddle with it and let me know your progress! redadept@idworld.net

Type: Fun

Dudes
Howard Findley
Jim Macneil
Big Jake
Mr. Prim
Max Baine
Alfred Barkum Sr.
Will O' The Wisp
Byron St. James
Exp. Robert Northrop
Mick Caples
Avarice
Mortimer Jones
Sandra Harris

Deeds
The First Bank of Gomorra x2
Knot Mine
Lord Grimley's Manor
Town Hall
Smiley's Shaft
Dragon's Nest Strike x2
Stuffed to the Gills Strike
Colorado Lode

Actions
Rumors x4
Bad Tequila x4
A Secret Tunnel x2
Seductress

Events
Heavy Rain x4
The Fair Comes to Town x4
It was a Mountain Lion x4
Founders Day x3
Christmas Day x3

Notes: The deck is meant to kill the oponents influenece by acing their dudes and other means. In the mean time you can utilize cards like heavy rain and christmas day, then drop a couple of heavy control point strikes and influence dudes into play and win. It also has first turn wins about 10% of the time with a heavy rain and a good strike on the first turn. Lord Grimley's is a big help and a secret tunnel boosts it. Teh doubles of some of the deeds are basically to ensure you get them into play. It is similar to a dudes and deeds deck but relies on events. It's largest flaw is against someone sporting a Den of Eastern Delights. Maze Rats also give it trouble by killing heavy rain and turning it on you. Those are about the only two problems with it. It does great against the soux cheese influenece killer deck with mountain lions.
 
 

Type: Fun

Dudes
AS - Shouting Tom
2S - Sandra Harris
3S - Mortimer Jones
4S - Ferret's Eye
5S - Mick Caples
6S - Robert Northrop
7S - Byron St. James
8S - Max Baine
9S - Stone Man
XS - Big Jake
JS - Jim Macneil
QS - Howard Findley
KS - Austin Stoker

Deeds
AD - Colorado Lode
2D - Smiley's Shaft
3D - Knot Mine
4D - Elysium Fields Mine
5D - Tent City (Chinese Workers)
6D - The 2nd Bank of Gamorra
7D - St. Martin's Chapel
8D - Pony Express
9D - Spirit of Kentucky Shaft
XD - Orphanage
JD - The Gaping Maw Strike
QD - Town Well
KD - The Clock Tower

Actions
AC - Lady Luck
2C - Crack Shot
3C - Massacre at High Noon
4C - Ace in the Hole
5C - Dust Devil
6C - Pistol Whip
7C - Luck of the Draw
8C - And Stay Down!
9C - Snake Eyes
XC - Hostile Takeover
JC - Take Ya With Me
QC - Claim Jumper
KC - Forgery

Events
2H - Earthquake
4H - Founder's Day
8H - It Was a Mountain Lion
XH - Culling of the Blessed

Goods
AH - Kenny
3H - Maze Runner
5H - Roan
6H - Holdout Knife
7H - Buffalo Rifle
9H - Pair of Six-Shooters
JH - Double-Barreled Shotgun
QH - Bowie Knife
KH - Quick-Draw Holster

Notes: If you couldn't tell, this is a bicycle format deck.  It does very well in both one-on-one and multiplayer.  However, as most Sweetrock players know, we sometimes lack firepower to dive into the Town Square shootin'.

Build up your Dudes early on and then work on maneuvering your Dudes around town.

The 8H (Mountain Lion) is _very_ dangerous and if you don't like that "cross your fingers" feeling, feel free to swap it out for something else.

If nothing else, let me plug the bicycle format here. I feel that it is much superior to the "open" format (although I must admit you lose out on some of the "intended" flavor without Cheatin' cards, etc).

Type: Fun

Dudes
Sheila Mirabella
Mortimer Jones
Elizabeth King
Sandra Harris
Cassidy Greene
Hank Gallagher
Austin Stoker
Maze Dragon
Vampiric Dance Hall Girl
Big Jake
Byron St.James
Katie Karl
Kansas City Kara
Pox Walker
B.B Gutmansen
J.P Coleman (exp)
Max Baine
Mick Caples
Dr Reginald Branson
Arizona Jane
Lilith Vandekamp
Whiskey Nick
Jessie Freemont
Jim MacNeil
Bob Bidwell
Clell Miller
Nash Bilton (exp)
Will of the Wisp
Werner Braun
Howard Findley
...And Scooter
Becky Henrick
Philip Blackmoor
Billy No Neck
Lucky Ted

Deeds
Knot Mine
Rock Ridge Mine
Smiling Lizard Lode
King Willys Mother Lode
Stuffed To The Gills Strike
Hells End Mine
Smileys Shaft
Nasty Docs

Actions
3x Crack Shot
3x Grave Robbin
3x Snakebite

Notes: This deck is great fun to play and is actueally quite powerful. the idea is to get out a few cheap dudes fast, then a couple of big strikes and then the big guns like austin. In a shootout its very easy to make a flush because of all the dudes in the deck.Katie karl,mortimer and elizabeth make playing dudes easy and the nasty docs is just plain fun to use because of all the little dudes around. I am considering taking out the crack shots and putting in quick draw holsters instead.
 

.

Type: Tournament

Dudes
AS      Charlie Landers
2S      Cassidy Greene
2S      Sandra Harris
3S      Elizabeth King
3S      Mortimer Jones
3S      Bob Bidwell
3S      Father Juan Navarro exp
4S      Arizona Jane
4S      Hank Gallagher
5S      Lillith Vandekamp
5S      Mick Caples
6S      Josef Nicolai Rosescu
6S      Robert Northrop
7S      Billy No-Neck
7S      Will o' the Wisp
8S      Becky Hendrick
8S      Max Baine

Deeds
3D      Knot Mine
3D      The Intelligence Shop
4D      LAD Saloon
4D      Sunnyside Hotel
5D      Lonesome Willow Strike
5D      Tent City
6D      Casino Morongo
6D      Golden Mare Hotel
7D      The Lucky Dog Lode
7D      Old Moon Saloon
8D      Pony Express
8D      Stagecoach Office

Actions
3C      Diversion (2)
3C      Hired Guns
4C      Bucket Brigade
4C      Jailbreak (2)
5C      Degeneration
5C      Warrant (4)
6C      Arson
6C      Bounty Hunter
6C      Foreclosure
7C      Bad Tequila (2)
7C      Drinks on the House
7C      Run Outta Town
8C      Lynch Mob (4)

Events
3H      Eureka!

Notes: The five 5C is kind of risky, but the Warrants are essential (and I don't own any Framed) and Ezzie would devour this deck so the Degeneration sticks it out until tossed to the Stagecoach Office.  You can generally build up a massive posse, and you'll get enough control points quick enough to force your opponent to move out - splitting up his bullets and booting his dudes.
 
 

Type: Fun

Dudes
Howard Findley
Sandra Harris
Sheila Mirabella
Max Baine
Mortimer Jones
Big Jake...
Mick Caples
Robert Northrop Exp.
Jim Macneil
Byron St. James
Avarice
Humphrey Walters

Deeds
Lord grimley's Manor
The 1st Bank of Gomorra
Town Hall
Knot Mine