The spoilers have been a bit slower this time around, but now that we have a few for Frontier Justice, here they are all in one place.
The Flying Popescus (Alderac)
Fourth Ring now has several cheap hucksters with Valeria and now The Flying Popescus. For only four Ghost Rock, you have one influence and one draw that can get better. Once you have two hexes on the twins, they will get +1 influence. If you attach a mystical goods, they will be able to become a stud in the middle of a shootout.
Remember that spell Mirror, Mirror? These two would be able to bring an opponent down to 1-draw and then use their ability to become a stud afterwards.
Fancy New Hat (Run4games)
Fans of the classic version of the game will remember the New Hat. Doomtown: Reloaded has improved and now it’s a Fancy New Hat. Not only is it worth +1 influence, but it also prevents other players from reducing that dudes influence. If you’re tired of facing off against decks that thrive on Blood Curse and Rumors, you’ll be happy to outfit your gang with new hats.
The Fancy New Hat can also give +1 influence to some of the few dudes without zero influence some real value. They will be able to take control of deeds for you where they weren’t able to before.
Funtime Freddy (Whizzwang)
Funtime Freddy is the Fourth Ring specific Grifter. He allows you the option of pulling two spells from your deck at the start of the game and making your opponent make the worst of choices before the game even starts. It’s likely you’ll want to use Freddy to get two spells that would normally fail your pulls out of the deck before the game starts. A few of those that really stand out are Soul Blast and Puppet.
Freddy gets aced to use his ability, but don’t worry, he’s still an abomination, so you can get him back with Raising Hell. He’s also a huckster if you need that skill once you get him back on to the table.
Since your opponent chooses the spell, you may not get exactly what you want to start the game with. Fortunately, if you want a strategy around a “weaker” spell such as Ace In the Hole, your opponent will likely let you keep that over Soul Blast any day. The other spell is sent to your Boot Hill. The Whateley Estate will have no problem grabbing that spell back for you later in the game if you really want it.
Winchester Model 1873 (Strange Assembly)
The Winchester is an interesting weapon because it sits somewhere between the purpose of a Peacemaker and a Pearl-Handed Revolver. For only 1 Ghost Rock, you’ll get a +1 bullet bonus. At an added cost, you’ll have some defense against effects like Sun In Yer Eyes that will try to take your stud away. If you boot your dude and the weapon, they will get +1 bullet and become a stud. If you’re playing deputies, you can easily mix this with another 6, Faster on the Draw, for some serious bullet resilience in a shootout. Between the two, you should always have a stud available in the fight.
The real cost is that using the Winchester means that the dude will be booted. He won’t be able to move once the fight is over, and he won’t be able to trigger any effects that require booting, such as Pistol Whip or Swinford Finds Trouble.
Legal Instruments (Alderac)
Legal Instruments is a nice new improvement that can give a deed the government keyword. Right now, Rafi Hamid might be the only way to take advantage of the keyword right now, but he will help you defend it. Deputies also gain +2 influence and +3 value. Even old fashioned Philip Swinford will become incredibly important when he has three influence instead of one.
Legal Instruments also helps protect against some of the abilities that target value with a +3 bump. I suggest using the Instruments on a deed adjacent to your home. This way the extra control point can be defended easily, and you can move a deputy over to gain some quick influence if the game isn’t going your way.
Flight of the Lepus (Gomorra Gazette)
This Cheatin’ Resolution has several implications since you will be able to choose which dudes to affect. If your opponent is cheatin’, you’ll have the option to choose two dudes in either posse. Those dudes get moved home. In a shootout, you can also boot those dudes. This might allow you to send enough dudes in a posse home so that the shootout ends without taking casualties. Your dudes can escape or you can send the opposition home, your choice depending on your needs. Remember, you can only affect dudes in the posse when resolving this card during a shootout.
This card is still reasonably useful during lowball as well because you can use this card to send dudes in a strong strategic position home at the start of the turn, potentially making them fight all over again for those locations. You can also retrieve your dudes if you happened to over-extend the previous turn.
Louis Pasteur (Alderac)
Louis gives gadgets one of the things they will need to get truly rolling, the ability to stand dudes back up. If your deck is already built on gadgets with values 8 or higher, Louis will be able to pay 1 Ghost Rock to stand them back up. If you choose to play with a few values below 8, Louis can still be useful since his ability is a repeat. If you fail once, you can just pay and try again.
Louis is expensive and doesn’t have much in the way of bullets, but a Flame-thrower or Bio-charged Neutralizer can fix that quickly. He can also stand up several of your dudes if they have been confronted with the control style decks that try to keep everything booted. Don’t forget to check out all the dudes that might be able to use their Boot abilities more than once if you also use Good Stiff Drink. His ability isn’t limited to Morgan Cattle Company dudes, either. Dudes from other factions that you’re willing to pay for might be able to take advantage of Louis as well.
Gomorra Jail (Alderac)
The Gomorra Jail is the first deed that you can put into play at the start of the game. It will replace one of your Law Dogs dudes in a starting posse. If you don’t normally run all five dudes, the jail should be an easy fit for one extra Ghost Rock.
The deed starts with one control point and has a controller reaction that will gain more. Each time a dude is discarded during the High Noon phase, you can boot the jail to put a control point on the jail. Since the jail will be placed into play at the start of the game, you will have the advantage of it being easily defensible from your home. Just make sure you protect it since it will likely have several control points on it after your Bounty Hunters do their work. Look for inventive ways to force the discard in addition to shootouts, such as the California Tax Office, and you’ll have a consistent Control Point producing deed.
Keep checking back!
I’ll keep posting additional spoilers for Frontier Justice here. It releases on May 18th. Check some of my previous strategies here.
