4R Shutdown (8-9-10)
The Albatross 19
This deck won 2nd Place and went 3-1 at the Sacramento Sheriff event, only losing to the winning deck. The idea with this deck is to use Leon and various spells to lock your opponent out of the game. It's actually really effective and a lot more brutal than I anticipated. Shadow Walks, especially on Leon, help get you out of any bad situations if they have a similar plan.
It starts with crazy wealth so you can almost always buy any dude that finds their way into your hand. Paralysis Marks and Phantasms either keep the opponent from moving out of their house or move them into your home (ideally) so they have to boot no matter where they move and can't attach any cards.
With your opponent locked down, you can put out as many deeds as you want without worrying about defending them. And you can easily stroll into and take over any deeds they play (though you're stifling their economy so they're not likely to be putting down too many).
The main problem I encountered with this deck was with play hand. It gets money really well (I think I topped twenty at one point and bought my way into two Cheatin' Varmints -the Resolutions- during a shootout round), is a shooty deck, and doesn't struggle for influence. But a couple of games went long because I couldn't get through all the shootout actions in my hand (hard to get into fights when your opponent is fully booted at home) and therefore didn't come across as many deeds for the CP. The deck this lost to was playing similar strategy but with MCC and won by avoiding fights but putting out too many CP for me to take over. I like having a lot of [Cheatin'] Resolutions in hand to scare my opponent into playing it straight or win even if they were fair, but it might be worth it to swap a few out in favor of some more spells.
This’ll Hurt in the Mornin’ was pretty clutch and allowed me to ace several Stevens and important cards because my opponents were flat broke. And with all the GR, it was easy to use Cheatin' Varmint to make sure I didn't just win, but their dudes were aced as well.
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| Aug 22, 2015 The Albatross |
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Aug 22, 2015
davido
If money isn't an issue, I'd drop the Recruitment Drive and go 4x Unprepared (SOoooooo Clutch against the mirror match or any goods based deck that manages to attach things). Too much attention also is worth a slot - boots Allie and frees up a PM or Phantasm target. |
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Aug 23, 2015
mplain
Only one starting huckster? If Leon gets Kidnapped early, spells will clog your hand just like actions do, so it'll be even harher to draw a replacement huckster. Also, not running Blood Curse is an 8+ deck seems criminal :) |
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Aug 23, 2015
davido
It is a bit odd to not see Blood Curses in a high value pull deck. But that would otherwise dilute a tight draw structure of all non-starting dude cards across suits being 8-9-10. My (worse) build off this type of thing with a 3 consecutive suit/value (8-9-10 of Hearts) would try for the Straight Flush in hearts or clubs with several 7's and J's. But that's just me bringin' the jank :D |
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Aug 23, 2015
davido
re: T1 early Kidnapping - they have to have it, then run it. Bigger danger these days is a Burton Bounty/T1 Judge Harry job. This deck has a very tight draw structure and Brute/Travis can overall sop up to six casualties, across two rounds. Hex Slingin' plus Cheatin' tech can also manipulate hand ranks. I've played versus this deck and T.O.ed the tourney in question. It does take a lot of nerve and skill to pilot this - the OP has both in spades. t is NOT quite the 'same old, same old Clown Control. |
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Aug 24, 2015
The Albatross
I was a bit worried about starting out with just Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo, but it was never even close to a problem. Most people have been avoiding 7's in local meta (mostly DMH and high value hucksters round these parts lately) so it's not too much of an issue. Plus I had most of my opponents locked down so they were never unbooted to start the job. But the draw structure for shootouts is solid and there are plenty of [/Cheatin'] Resolutions to make sure things go according to plan if they somehow manage to force a shootout that I can't get a bullet soak (like The Brute or Travis Moone) into. In all my games I was able to buy at least one extra huckster. And if Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo bites it then there's always Recruitment Drive if I need to search for one or Max Baine (Exp.1) if money is tight. Haha, yeah, there should probably be some Blood Curse. The other version I made of this deck was an 8-10-Q, but I hadn't played around with 9's ever and wanted to see how it turned out. Like I said, I think I'd like to swap some clubs out for a couple more spells in future. |
Edit: My husband was also playing with 8s at the tourney and took several of my favourite This’ll Hurt in the Mornin’s. So I was actually playing with 1 or 2 fewer and probably used Reserves to make up the difference. Given the abundant GR, though, if I still had to skimp on This'll Hurts, I'd go for Rumors instead of Reserves.