Tony "When In Doubt, Use More Gun" Morgan

This is a 3- or 4-player deck for Tony Morgan meant to leverage his excellent 5 rating.

Mechanics

Tony comes geared pretty well for combat with a few special considerations that one must be aware of:

• Tony starts with not 1, but 2 Firearms in his deck that does not count towards his deck size. This puts him in a good position in terms of weapons availability.
• Bounty Contracts only activates if Tony gets the kill.
• Tony's .38 Long Colt gets +1 for each Bounty on an enemy.
• If the kill was made with Tony's .38 Long Colt, you get to replenish your supply of Bounties by one.
• Tony's ability gives him an additional Engage or Fight each turn if used on enemies with at least one Bounty.
• Tony often fights at 6 or higher, either due to Bounties or from Weapon effects. Since most "cannon fodder" enemies clock in at 2 or 3 combat, he often "overkills" his targets.

So what conclusions can we surmise from these special points?

Tony obviously benefits greatly from good management of his Bounty Contracts. Each Bounty gives him a three benefits ⁠—

1. +1 on his Long Colt
2. One Resource on enemy kill
3. An additional action per turn

⁠— and we should take advantage of each benefit as much as possible.

Our Deck

First, because Bounties are so valuable, we want to extend our supply of them for as long as possible by getting that final blow with Tony's .38 Long Colt. Once again, we look to our basic "cannon fodder" enemies who typically come with 2 to 4 health. Our selection of Firearms manages to churn out a pretty consistent 2 damage, which means most basic enemies will require two shots to defeat. Unfortunately, Tony prefers to load his Long Colt only 3 rounds at a time, so we want to conserve our Long Colt's Ammo for the final hit. Therefore, the fact that the .41 Derringer is single-handed means that should we get both guns out, we can use the Derringer to soften an enemy before finishing with the Long Colt, a combo we cannot execute with the 2-handed .45 Automatic.

Second, Tony's Bounty reward only triggers if he is the one to deal the final blow. In the unfortunate event our Firearms are insufficient in getting the job done, we still want to defeat the enemy if possible so we can prevent damage. To that end, we have included Coup de Grâce and Small Favor to handle those annoying situations where an enemy is left with a smidgen of health. Both cards come with 2 to commit to skill tests, and Small Favor can even double as an inefficient method to soften an enemy up for your Long Colt if you're in need of an emergency Bounty.

Third, because we're often overkilling our "cannon fodder" enemies, we might as well get some benefit out of doing so. The magic number we're aiming for is +2 of the target. Our deck includes Lucky Cigarette Case for a renewable source of card draws, Quick Thinking for the occasional extra action, and "Watch this!" as a resource booster. To help us hit our +2 goal, we include Overpower, Narrow Escape for situations where we're caught unprepared and need an action to ready a Weapon, and Daring Maneuver for cases where we need to clutch out an important +2.

Next, we have the interesting Sleight of Hand + Colt Vest Pocket combo. As great as consistent damage output is, sometimes you just gotta pump some lead without worrying about pesky things like Ammo or Attacks of Opportunity. For a Fast action, Sleight of Hand lets you get out your Colt Vest Pocket and, assuming you can get a Bounty on an enemy, commit 4 attacks at 2 damage each all in a single turn. If you have Leo De Luca out at this point, you can unload the entire Colt Vest Pocket! In a similar vein, if you're in a good position to reclaim some Bounties, Sleight of Hand can also allow you to get out your Tony's .38 Long Colt and get a couple shots off without expending its Ammo.

Lastly, we have a smattering of cards to round out our deck. Our deck is chock full of Event cards with great effects, but also valuable skill-test symbols. Crystallizer of Dreams allows us to double-use these cards at the low cost of a fairly innocuous Guardian of the Crystallizer, which we can use to proc Bounty effects. Leo De Luca is included since extra actions are always good. Though we do consistent damage, nothing quite cleanses like fire so we have Dynamite Blast to go boom. Since we're not taking Dodge or Heroic Rescue, Warning Shot serves as a disengage in case we need to pull multiple enemies off allies. Furthermore, it also combos with Dynamite Blast to lure enemies away from us so we don't get caught in the explosion. Investments in our case is not meant for that big 9/10 Resource payout, but simply acts like an extra Emergency Cache that has the potential to get a larger payout. "You owe me one!" is situationally useful, but having 3 test icons makes it decently flexible for our Crystallizer.

Upgrades

Our upgrade path is going to continue to highlight our strengths of consistent damage, turn economy, and buying the damage we can't dish ourselves. We'll also want to get as much use out of our Crystallizer of Dreams as we can as the ability to get two uses out of one Event card is just so valuable.

Our Priority Upgrades include:

• "You owe me one!" ⇒ Relic Hunter - allows us to have two Accessories, so we can have both Lucky Cigarette Case and Crystallizer of Dreams up at the same time.
• Daring Maneuver ⇒ High Roller - while a riskier card, having to gamble 3 Resources for the same +2, High Roller is reusable which allows us to free up an additional card slot.
• 2x Overpower ⇒ 2x Sneak Attack - a testless 2 damage is certainly nice, and is a good softener before you take an enemy off your teammate. Furthermore, it's an Event card which means Crystallizer can let us reuse the 2 for skill tests, the same amount Overpower would've given us. We do lose out on the extra card, but if we're triggering Lucky Cigarette Case each turn, we should have a decent card economy anyway.

Our Nice to Have Upgrades include:

• Daring Maneuver ⇒ Well-Maintained - we only have two Long Colts, so if we can pull one back, it's very much worth it. We've taken this over Extra Ammunition because, while we get the same amount of ammo "refunded", it's both Fast and we get a second change to trigger Long Colt's ability to play a 2nd Long Colt at no cost.
• .41 Derringer ⇒ .41 Derringer (2) - a straightforward upgrade making it easier to land our 2 damage. Since we aim to overkill on damage anyways, the prospect of getting an extra turn out of it is very alluring.
• Narrow Escape ⇒ Double or Nothing - since the Taboo makes this card 3XP, it's a little pricey. However, the effect combos super well with Quick Thinking or "Watch this!", so if you can afford it, it's still valuable.
• Investments ⇒ Hot Streak - another straightforward upgrade; 7 extra resources immediately without all the waiting.

Our Only Situational Upgrades include:

• Warning Shot + Dynamite Blast ⇒ 2x Reliable - if the scenarios aren't giving you "cannon fodder" enemies but only "chunky big-bois", the high cost for Dynamite Blast for 3 damage on a single target just isn't worth it. In that case, slap two Reliable's on your Tony's .38 Long Colt to get an extra boost in your skill tests.
• .41 Derringer ⇒ Switchblade (2/3) - exact same effect, but the Switchblade has the benefit of never running out of Ammo. If you find yourself in scenarios that just absolutely swarm you with "cannon fodder" (like Swarm of Rats, this is a viable replacement/upgrade.

Why Isn't "X" Included?

The class has plenty of interesting cards, so here's why some of them didn't make the list.

• Lone Wolf - this is a great alternative for Investments in a lower player-count game; however, as this deck was built for 3/4P, it's not too often Tony starts his turn alone which makes Investments a bit more consistent in the long run. The fact you're the hunter also puts you in a position where you want to be with allies so you can peel enemies off of them.
• Contraband - our Tony has a habit of throwing away guns instead of reloading them. Unless we can drop Contraband on a fully-loaded Long Colt or Derringer, it's usually not worth it. Furthermore, the + skill test icons aren't as useful for us as is.
• Easy Mark - a good card if you can pull off the reaction ability for all 3 cards, but taking up 3 card slots is just a little too space consuming.
• Decorated Skull - a great card in its own right. However, because we're constantly striving to be 2+ on our skill tests, Crystallizer of Dreams's ability to double-use Events is a bit more valuable than trading an action for a card and a Resource.