EW - Pinkerton Outlaw Event, Kansas City First Place

Howdy guys, went off my usual path of Den of Thieves to give my version of Warden's Blockade a shot, taking original inspiration from a deck kollatt had posted on here. In my opinion the 2 cards that got the biggest boost from nerfing Hot Lead Flyin' was Pistol Whip and Unprepared (Unprepared was already amazing before hand, but now its probably the most impactful card in a shootout that you can run). Pistol Whip is great when paired with Mariel Lewis, especially if you find yourself with less influence in the shootout but sending one of their guys home changes that. I wanted to see if Enapay and Zachary Deloria were absolutely necessary, and if i could remove them from the deck completely to have a more economically comfortable start. Turns out i could.

I decided to go with 4s over 7s but this is totally a judgement call. Im probably less likely to cheat here than my opponent, so Coachwhip! becomes an important card to have when facing decks that want to consistently make 5oaK hands.

Also, Turtle's Guard is a great card. Except for a single Strength of the Ancestors its our only spell, but if our shamans leave play it doesnt hobble the deck. However, i am going to remove the Richard Faulkner and replace him with a "Professor" Duncan just to have one more Shaman available.

Our Pre Rico Setup that's highlighted over in the list doesnt matter, cause its mostly guys we dont want to draw in our opening hand. gonna cycle them all away.

Post Rico Setup : Rico Rodegain, Mariel Lewis, Willa Mae MacGowan, Mazatl, Jake Smiley - So this setup leaves us with 4 Rock and 2 income, which i found to be a really comfortable amount. Mariel is the star of the show, and moving her to town square is usually your best first action per game. Draw all the cards, control town square and immediately call out any intruders to make them boot their posse to engage you there. Turtle's Guard and Willa Mae MacGowan provide excellent insurance should something go horribly wrong, and the combination of Mariel, Pistol Whip and Unprepared are usually enough to swing most shootouts to your favor. Repeatable sources of control like Allie Hensman, Epidemic Laboratory, and The Union Casino help close out longer games.

Matchup against Slide : Rico Rodegain, Lydia Bear-Hands, Marcia Ridge, Mazatl, Jake Smiley - Funny enough I actually think Richard Faulkner is awful in this matchup, mostly cause we want to deny them money, but if they get out their Androcles Brocklehurst then Ol' Richy boy gifts them 3 rock each turn, so kind of a bummer in limited functionality. The matchup itself isnt too hard though, we just really wanna dig hard for Allie Hensman and Epidemic Laboratory each turn, making sure to use the Outfit to Ace all the cards we dont want to see anymore, namely the battle actions. Sit on their deeds, deny them income and grow control.

Overall throughout the tournament i was never really bummed by not having the extra influence Enapay provides or the extra stud from Zachary Deloria, and i think the deck is tighter without them. We probably need an extra shaman as i suggested above, but mostly the incredible draw engine of the Outfit helps us to get to our Really Really good club action cards. I mean, if you Pistol Whip, Unprepared, and Mariel Lewis your opponent all in the same shootout, they probably dont have much to continue a fight with, and that was usually the story for most of my games.

I do think Den of Thieves can make a deck with 5s and 10s that is also insanely good, and my opponent in Top 4 was running such a deck that I really only eeked by in the third game due to tiebreakers when time was called. My other Den of Thieves opponent next up in the Finals somehow fit shamans and Turtle's Guard into his Sloane deck, and was pretty super great (Having actually been my only loss earlier in Swiss)

Overall the Kansas event was a greatly run tournament, Don Eisele provided tons of prize support and is a fantastic TO, and the store was super too. Good times were had by all.