Doomtown Frontier Justice Set Review

Doomtown: Reloaded Frontier Justice – The Definitive Set Review!

At least definitive to me.

I go by card by card assigning a grade to each card in the set. Did this for the first two and people have contacted me saying they missed it, so here we go. I usually like to post these up at http://www.gomorragazette.com but the main site’s down right now, so I’ll drive some traffic to my own page instead!

My grading scale goes like this:

A – This card is a great choice of all decks for at least one archetype.

B – This is a good card, for sure worth considering it if it’s on value.

C – This card is worthwhile, but situational. Perhaps worth revisiting if future cards make it work better later.

D – This card is very situational in use, really best for non-competitive, casual, or theme decks.

F – This card is a coaster. Hopefully with pretty art.

Of course, +/- delineates the spaces between those grades.

Cards:

Funtime Freddy – The 4R grifter. Abomination. Huckster. It works with everything and it’s a cheap stud. Though clowns didn’t get a lot of love in this set, this card is more than enough to improve an already tier one archetype. Grade: A+

 

The Flying Popescus — Another good huckster with a decent ability, 8 value is great for Paralysis Mark decks. It’ll be interesting to see this get better with Valeria based mystical goods developing. Grade: B

 

Andrew Burton – Another blessed as a back up for Abram. He competes in starter space with Rev. Inbody already though, both being low value, no influence and having decent abilities. I do like the jump that Burton can give you on the wanted front to get off that early Bounty Hunter, or ensure your Arsenal has an offensive target, combining nicely with Too Much Attention. deputy keyword is also useful, though I’m not sure as of yet where I’m landing with my various Law Dogs starting posses. It depends on the build, but he’s a good choice for your grifter if you’re running Blessed or Deputies for certain. Grade: A-

 

Elmore Rhine – I have my eye on this card because I’m wondering if Law Dogs Dudes and Deeds might become a thing in the future. I have some control thoughts, but his price and upkeep are quite high. On the flip side, 3 influence is cool for the home ability. The 5 value needs some love for dudes. He may be okay dropping late game, though I’m not sold on it. Noon ability is quite situational, though works great against Desolation Row. Grade: C-

 

Howard Aswell – A cheap mad scientist, but the ability is lackluster and can whiff if you’re not heavily invested into ranches. I’d rather play Travis, though he could potentially be useful in Gadgetorium. Grade: C-

Louis Pasteur – This is the set of the Q value, which gets some really interesting items. Louis is expensive but Morgan has great abilities to get cash. His ability has the potential to be ridiculously good with his MS2 rating gives an 8 or higher a success on unbooting someone. Plus he’s a stud and 2 Influence! I’m going to be building a deck around him at some point, but haven’t’ figured out how to best utilize him yet. Grade: B+

 

Benny McGill – A cheap dude with a forced call out ability. No influence, but no upkeep either. I’d throw him into Sloane huckster decks with 2s as values perhaps even as a starter with the 0 upkeep. Grade: B

 

Marion Seville — This card is very interesting. It’s on value for 7s which is great value to run in any Sloane deck, 2 influence which is rare for Sloane, yet not a stud by nature. Melee weapons look to be a thing, so he’ll need some development in the future. With so many options at making studs out of Sloane shooter builds, he’s at least worth throwing in on value, and may be worth building a deck around when Melee Weapons have more options. Grade: B+

 

J.W. Byrne – I’ve already predicted this card will be underrated. Perhaps it’s a bit difficult to assemble everything on here to make him super awesome, but I love cards like this and Jen Quan and find with how inexpensive they are, they end up better than not. This makes Q values viable across the board, and I’ll be looking at builds that exploit his traits. Grade: A-

 

Shane and Graves Security – Those wanting to play 5s as a value just cheered a little. This is a great defensive shootout card, cheap 2 cash for 1 production. Grade: A

 

Gomorra Jail – Well this is mechanically probably the most interesting card in the set, allowing a Law Dogs player to start with it. It thins the deck, allows LD to set up a kill zone and gives a control point to start. However, with no production, it is a cash at the start. I’ve already seen some good decks built around it, but I don’t think I’d run it in deck outside of LD bounty hunt for the time being. Perhaps in Dudes and Deeds as a cheap control. Grade: B+

 

Diable en Boite – This card is bizarre mechanically. It costs nothing, but boots a mad scientist which is rough. The low value hurts other gadget builds but this is a lose-to-win card perhaps, since you attach to a dude who you’re hoping is going to be killed and then cycle a card off of it. Perhaps is just me, but I’m going to struggle to figure out how to build a deck competitively around it, may bear some casual testing. Grade: D

 

Legal Instruments – An improvement that adds a control point, confers a keyword and assists deputy builds. Very interesting and could be part of a new Law Dogs Archetype. I like the idea of a Deputy Gomorra Jail kill zone with Government/Deputy Tech. Should be a solid card, and the 4 Value needed some goods. Grade: B+

Recursive Motion Machine – For now, this card works on QUATERMAN and that’s it. It combos with Flamethrower or Forcefield, but oddly. It competes in space with the Winchester Model 1873 and Holy Wheel Gun, which are two of the better goods in the game. I don’t see this being used outside of casual play. Grade: D

 

Winchester Model 1873 – I mentioned this above. If your’e running 6s and not gadgets, this would be your go to weapon. It’s cheap, it protects your studs from sun in yer eyes, it makes your draws into studs, though it does have the drawback of failing to Unprepared if you lose lowball. Solid card for shooters. Grade: A

 

Fancy New Hat – Underrated card like none other. I’ve been using this as an off value to frustrate people since K doesn’t have dudes who really can make use of the value yet for structures, but I can’t wait until the day I can justify using it in structure. It turns off blood curse. It turns off rumors. It turns off incubation and provides protection by more influence. Very solid. Grade: A-

 

Confession – Blessed are starting to get interesting with this set. This allows you to manipulate bounties but you have to play it on your Blessed with skill 1 or above for it to work. I see this combing very well with the Arsenal, giving unrefusable callout abilities against booted dudes. Getting cash is a nice touch too. I still think the blessed are a ways off though. Grade: B

 

Shield of Faith – This is a card I think will be underutilized, but will be VERY annoying, especially if you have a couple attached to a blessed and your casualties get reduced by more than 1. It turns off Hot Lead Flyin, Takin Ya With Me, Point Blank, Shotgun, Soul Blast, all sorts of goodies. I’d consider running 7s in a blessed deck for this, or at least splashing. Grade: B+

 

Rope and Ride – A little bit of an interesting horse tech to add. It allows you to dictate who can join shootouts as long as you’re camping town square. But it’s still pretty situational, and I’d rather have a Sun In Yer Eyes if I’m running 3s. Grade: C-

 

Incubation – What an interesting control card. They run away from you and boot home, or you paralysis mark them, then slap this on. It works as a Blood Curse this turn, and next it forces them to boot or gives it again. This is a card to build a deck around control build wise. Grade: B+

 

Flight of the Lepus – Jackelope Stampeeeeeeeeeddde! I just gave some people flashbacks. You know who you are, classic players. Well this doesn’t have that power level, but it’s great for reloaded. Helps the jack value, is very useful and I’d consider it heavily as my anti-cheatin’ tech for the deck whether on value or not. Grade: A+

 

Overall, this set really opens up a lot of the decks that were baby ideas in Faith and Fear and really adds to the variety of the game. Probably my 2^nd favorite saddlebag to Double Dealin’ so far.