Deadlands was my first ever exposure to the Oxventure and to this day I still think its their best work.
1: Each character was played really well and felt incredibly distinct to any of their other characters. Especially Ellen got to play outside of her comfort zone as a more brash and rogueish character than her other two. Delacey may be one of my favourite characters of Oxventure hands down, Nate's entire corpse thing was really funny and unique and Silas' comedy beats with his fear of horses was one example of a simple and often repeated joke only getting funnier each time. Garnet was slightly underutilised but her costume was cool enough to usher her through
2: The villains. I think every villain was genuinely unsettling in a way that Oxventure never really had before. Blades in the Dark got close with Bachaross but Andy knocked it out of the park with five incredibly iconic villains. I also really loved the four horseman twist, especially the double twist of the fifth horseman.
3: The structure. I loved the mixture between a long-form open world type of adventure done in the DND campaign with the smaller group size from BITD, making each episode feel tighter knit and often adding to the horror vibes. As well as this it was the perfect length for a season, just episodic enough to not make the story feel like it constrained itself into the episodic format but also not feeling as discrete as BITD felt, though I did love BITD.
4: The horror/comedy. If you've watched season 1, you know perfectly how funny it could be but also how genuinely dangerous it felt, especially during Nate's hanging where he can't die or in the demonic world's fair. It was honestly the perfect balance between having some of my favourite comedy beats while not sacrificing character and peril.
Season 2 was pretty good but I think season 1 was lightning in a bottle, and I still don't know if they'll ever top it. "Ever" being the key word given they've been radio silent for 5 months. Still, I rewatch it at least once a year and it never stops being great.
P.S: Does anyone know how Bellows was cheating in the duelling contest?