Sidearm Showman was a deck I put together to farm pistol kills that turned out to be way more fun and viable than I originally expected. It's still getting tweaks but I am happy with where it is currently at enough to publish this. While I have it tagged as Veteran, this is Nightmare viable, though I do recommend learning the nuances of the deck first, and refit it to your personal style, because just slapping it on won't work for everyone.
From my experience, this deck alone solves the entire teams ammo issues for the entire run once you get Highwayman and Ammo stash online. Plus its a unique way to shake things up and play in a way you wouldn't typically think of.
Deck Focus: Vanguard / Support
Character Recommendation: Hoffman, for very obvious reasons. Alternatively you can use Karlee as a solid secondary pick.
Weapon Recommendations: Tec-9 / Glock Auto, Molotov Cocktails, and whatever ammo type your team is not using for primary.
Deck Procedure: Heavy use of pistol to scout ahead while team scavenges, which will spawn ammo for the team to keep them well supplied, and molotov cocktails for you. You will use molotovs for crowd control, chokepoints, and saving the day. You will get a chunk of temp health, damage resistance, and a boost of speed to either get in or out of a horde to help ensure full team survival. Primary weapon is really more of a backup weapon as only pistols blend well with the deck focus (with one exception that I mention below.)
Optional Cards / Personal Preferences Section:
The deck I listed is catered to my last session using it. There are a few cards I will occasionally swap in and out, and it doesn't takeaway from the overall focus of the deck.
1. Compound Interest
I use this specifically while I am teamed up in a group. If I quickplay just to kill some time, I make sure to run Share the Wealth instead. Trusting strangers with your money or asking them to trust you with theirs is sometimes more of a headache than a video game should ever be. Compound interest is still better for solo queue, but I've had poor experiences with trying to get everyone to cooperate financially when we just met. Take care of yourself first.
2. Run and Gun
I just like the extra mobility. I tend to be a bit of a laggard and peek at every possible loot spawn location, so this is entirely to make up for the fact that I'm crap at being frontline when I see shiny stuff. Honestly, if you don't need it, Bomb Squad works wonders in this exact spot in the deck.
3. Amped Up
This was something I was testing for later in the runs when your team might be a bit banged up. It provides you with the temp health and damage resistance that gives you the confidence to charge ahead despite maybe having a bad run so far. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but this is definitely a "put whatever you want here" card. If you are running shotguns as your primary, Buckshot bruiser is actually a pretty decent pick here. Alternatively, Shredder, Marked for Death, or any of the team boosting cards are a good option to help round out your deck in this spot as well. A personal favorite of mine, that I use often in this spot, is Pep Talk, where you get damage reduction while reviving teammates. Combined with the temp health and movement speed boosts, this is the "save the day" card that lets you tank a horde while reviving a downed teammate in a clutch situation. It's one of those "how the hell are you still alive" cards that synergizes with the rest of the deck very well.
4. Demolitions Expert
Having the extra damage to finish the act is really nice, but if you need one more card to perfect your version of this, this card doesn't add anything that isn't already there. It's easily replaced without affecting the overall mindset behind the rest of the card picks.
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Reasoning behind the card picks and order (This is lengthy and not really necessary to use the deck. It's just for personal record and to help understand the theorycrafting behind the deck.):
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Starter Card: Compound Interest
The whole deck is built around you not needing to hoard ammo or use much copper. Since you will be mainly using your pistol, the only thing you should really need copper for in the store is accessories and health. This helps the overall economy of the team because you will build up more copper at a faster rate and use less of it due to the inherent self-supply of this deck. This means you're basically the Bruce Wayne of the team, lots of money and a belt full of useful things to throw at the bad guys.
First 5 card options:
Ammo Stash / Highwayman / Pyro / Offensive Scavenger / Double Grenade Pouch
These are the core cards for the whole deck. Don't sleep on these. Grab them as soon as you can. Combined with the starter card, the entire deck is built around these 6 cards. In this order, unless you have a specific reason to go out of order. This ensures the highest amount of copper for you to build interest on as fast as possible while keeping the team stocked up on ammo so they aren't getting slaughtered by empty mags.
Marathon Runner & Run and Gun:
Kiting and mobility. You're going to need it. Run and Gun is an optional card, mentioned above.
Improvised Explosives:
Extra damage. You're probably struggling with damage by this point in the act. This card fixes most of that.
Cold Brew Coffee:
The update on this card fits so beautifully with this deck it's almost like it was made for it. This one card almost completely negates all of the negative states we've accumulated from the other cards. This rounds out the deck and patches up the holes we made in our stats.
Fire in the Hole! / Numb / Fleet of Foot
These cards are the "get in, get out, and look good doing it" set of cards. Fire in the Hole primes you to run through a horde if needed, Numb combined with Fleet of foot gives you that protection and move speed needed to tank any hits you might take while running without slowing down to death. 8% increased damage resistance is much better than -7%, and that's why numb goes first. If you have to have one, numb has more usefulness by itself than fleet of foot does. This ain't running away, you're only getting to a better view so you can set the world on fire and see it in it's full glory.
Amped Up
I explained this at length in the Optional Cards section above.
Demolitions Expert
Just a little extra damage. This card is honestly whatever you want. it's kind of the "padding" at the end of the deck. Damage is great, maybe something specific to the act you're running. Plus you can shift this spot where ever to throw in a different card. It's your deck once you start using it, so do what you will.
Final note to the reader: Hey, you! Thanks for reading. This is the first published deck I've shared. I like to theorycraft weird and interesting builds in games and this was my first crack at that in Back 4 Blood. I'd really, really super appreciate it if you could leave me some feedback on your take on the concept and execution by giving me a thumbs up or thumbs down rating here on the website. It will help me better discern if the deck needs more improvement, a complete overhaul, or maybe a couple finishing polishes. Either way, thanks for reading. Now go play. Seriously, this probably took you like 20 minutes to read. Bravo for that though.
Build and guide by SwiftDeathSK on January 9th, 2022.
Team effects
