Basics on how to build a deck in Doomtown Reloaded – Deckbuilding 101
Deck Building 101. Building a good Doomtown deck is rarely a matter of just throwing the most powerful cards together and shuffling them up; there are always draw hands to consider. Every turn you will be playing a hand of lowball and possibly getting into shootouts and/or making pulls from your deck. The basic structure of the numbers in your deck will be a big factor in how well you navigate these areas. While there are no real hard and fast rules to putting together your masterpiece, there are some basic draw structures that it helps to be familiar with.
Full House/ Four of a Kind
This build involves choosing a few numbers and loading them up to give yourself a good chance of pulling a Full House or (ideally) a Four of a Kind. How many “blocks” of numbers you go with is up to you – some decks will focus on only two main values and leave room for a variety of other powerful cards, while others may want to pack their deck tightly within the chosen values to increase their odds of pulling well. Taken to the extreme, you can choose three values and completely max out the cards, creating 3 values of 16 cards each. Coupled with a 4 man starting posse, those three values comprise your whole deck of 52 cards, offering you unparalleled consistency in shootouts – the absolute worst you can do with any 7 cards is a 3 of a Kind, and a Full House or Four of a Kind is very likely, even in low bullet fights.
While these decks are reliable shooters, they do not often have the card makeup to produce Straights, so if you miss your Full House, you will often end up with 2 Pair or a 3 of a Kind. Additionally, these decks will cheat more often, as you are loaded down with the same values. Lowball can be a double whammy, as you can have a propensity to cheat and have statistically higher hand ranks. If your opponent is playing a decent cheating card suite, with cards like Coachwhip! and One Good Turn, you will often end up poor and booted, while they have great economy through Lowball wins and One Good Turn money.