Hang 'Em Fast! v.2.2, 1st Place Sheriff, Toledo, OH, 8/2015

"What yer lookin' at here, pardner, is a top-o'-the-line Law Dogs Judge Harry Somerset (Exp.1) rush flush deck, designed to maximize the chances o' catchin' yer opponent cheatin'. Yer clubs don't cost ya nuthin' ta play, an' Steven Wiles is ready ta help rustle up them bounties. Andrew Burton writes up the warrants, Tommy Harden leans on the bad guys ta shoot straight, while Judge Harry Somerset (Exp.1) brings along his bailiff fer the muscle. Shootouts a'plenty ta shut down the shootin' in the other posse ta nuthin', raisin' the risk o' them varmints bein' caught cheatin'. Then when they do cheat, Tommy Harden bumps ya up, an' the cheatin' resolutions bring 'em low. Clubs run from Twos ta Jacks ta help hit that straight flush. Eights on backup in case ya manage ta get 'em in yer draw hand fer a four- or five-of-a-kind, though that doesn't tend ta happen much. Most folks go fer the straight flush and stay legal even if it means a flush, since cheatin' is outlawed in these parts. Now go out there an' clean up them streets, Deputy. Gomorra needs a little law an' order these days..."

Part of the nuance of this deck is always keeping the next day in mind. While there were games where I'd win before the end of the first day, most went to the third day before claiming victory. The Evidence is important to get out for running the job on day two, but given a choice between that and Steven Wiles, it's Steven every time. Yes, that does give the opponent a turn to drop something, but usually having a 3-stud with Gunslinger and Tommy Harden is enough to wreck a shootout deck and punch through whatever they play, and a turn-two win is the same as a turn-one.

Anyway, planning for day two has to be taken into consideration when starting out. Bad Company is HUGE for this, since it turns Jake Smiley into a 4-Stud target. A couple Sun in Yer Eyes takes the fight out of anyone, but with the meta changing and seeing No Turning Back hit me a couple times, it isn't a bad idea to hold a Sun back just in case they use it to get rid of all your hard work at sapping their strength. Faster on the Draw is really good at combating their playing a Sun on you, especially on day two when Andrew Burton swaps with Jake for the draw bonus. Keep Jake out of the fight after day one, because that influence becomes super important in games going to day three.

Cheatin' resolutions also require a bit of thought when the opponent finally does cheat. Odds are good there will be two in the play hand, and being able to use This’ll Hurt in the Mornin’ to change a cheatin' five-of-a-kind or full house into a three-of-a-kind or two-pair against my legal straight flush plus Tommy's hand rank trait results in a lot of dead criminals.

There will be mistakes made, and this deck is not unbeatable. I lost my first match at the Toledo, OH Sheriff event with it, but then it went on to win the whole dang thing. Never push the job to continue if there isn't a clear advantage. I've retreated from the job many times to lick my wounds and come back the next day with fresh shootouts and cheatin' resolutions. The basic strategy is to bounty the dudes with the most influence, but in some cases it's more important to disrupt what you think your opponent needs the most. In Fourth Ring, it's usually a huckster with influence. Morgan is always Irving Patterson or other 2 influence dude that they'll use with their home ability. If not, then it's usually a mad scientist. Sloane is a bit of a slog since they have a bunch of weenies that drag out the game, but they're usually running Shotgun, which will murder the starting posse real quick. Other Law Dogs is typically influence, followed by their ability, e.g. Xiong "Wendy" Cheng. Second day is always the opponent's Jake Smiley, as he seemed to be in nearly every starting posse I saw. Oh yeah, and put a bounty out on day two, even if the opponent survived day one and has a bountied dude already. Two bounty targets is potentially setting up for day three. Always plan ahead to encourage running the job every day.

And I cannot stress this enough: RUN THE JOB! The deck is designed to run the job. Even if there is Fourth Ring over there with a Blood Curse, don't risk letting the opponent secure their board state! The pressure of the job has to stay up, and I managed to secure straight flushes with one stud and three draw. Trust the deck to give you what you need to make the best of the situation. If the shootout goes south, run home. Try again the next day. I ignored my instinct to run the job because I had three cheatin' resolutions and only one shootout action, which cost me big time. When your gut says run the job, then run the job. Always run the job. There are a few extremely situational times when it is a bad idea, and those times are usually really obvious.

Take your time to look in the opponent's discard pile right away also. Knowing if they are running a bunch of shootouts and/or cheatin' resolutions helps with this deck. Really, it helps with any deck, but this one particularly. If the Judge gets aced or discarded , it's pretty much game over. Concede the match and move on.

Possible Substitutions Going Forward: I would take out two Make the Smart Choice and put in two A Fight They'll Never Forget. This comboed with Gomorra Jail secures control points whether they ace dudes or discard the bounty, which could help secure a win via control.

Threats Going Forward: Nightmare at Noon. This card could cause significant problems for this deck. Kidnappin' is a constant threat. Shotgun. Soul Blast. Anything that can take out the Judge or remove the studs from the shootout. In facing another Experienced Judge rush deck, I believe that whoever wins lowball will be far more likely to win the match, since they'll have the stud support and extra casualty soak from the Gunslinger. Then again, it could also come down to draw structure, and a 3x16 deck will likely out-draw this flush deck. Then again, they're likely to end up cheatin', and it could also come down to the shootout actions. So I guess I don't know. I haven't played another rush deck to find out. But my instincts say the Winner of lowball will have a significant advantage.

How The Deck Came To Be: This deck started as a Sloane Kidnappin' deck, and then evolved through over a dozen different versions before getting to where it is now. I began with using The Fixer to try to get Sloane and company to fire off Kidnappin' while running all clubs in the deck, but it was very unreliable, expensive, and Sloane was a huge target in town. I mucked about with four or five versions of Sloane Kidnappin' before catching on to Judge Harry Somerset, who has the job already built in. I went through that version a couple times, noticed that someone else had picked up the strategy on here, and compared my notes with those listed here. More playtesting went into it, and my final analysis was that there needed to be another stud in the starting posse to make it really work. A week after making that conclusion, Judge Harry Somerset (Exp.1) came out and I rejoiced. More revisions and playtesting occurred. I even took it to GenCon and went a morale-crushing 0-4 in my first qualifier. I almost gave up after that, as my friend had built a similar deck based off mine and went 4-0. My second qualifier saw me get 3-1, but since I had already made plans for Sunday I didn't take it into the semi-finals. I learned from those eight games, adjusted the deck yet again, took it to the Kalamazoo, MI Sheriff event and took second place, coming soul-crushingly close to winning. That final match was honestly the best game I'd ever played and more was learned. The deck was revamped yet again into the version listed here, which took me 4-1 and into top 4 at the Toledo, OH Sheriff event, and then managed to win the event.

Looking around the different tourneys, I didn't see too many folks playing Judge rush, and those that were would play 3x16 for the full house security, focusing on pumping up their dudes and going draw hand for draw hand in the meta of shootout full house decks. I always felt the focus shouldn't be on beefing up my hands but rather tearing the opponent's hand down by erasing bullets and forcing them to either cheat for a high hand rank or take a lower hand rank to stay legal. Forcing the opponent to make the hard choice and keeping that pressure up every turn will break the 3x16 structure most of the time. That said, I went into the Sheriff event losing my first match as I had four cheatin' resolutions in my opening play hand, and my opponent wouldn't cheat at all; in fact probably never worried about cheatin' ever since I couldn't knock his bullets down and he could fill out his full house legal every time.

Sheriff Match-ups: I don't remember much of the details, but I know I played Fourth Ring and lost, was given the bye for being dead last, then won the next three matches against Desolation Row, The Arsenal, and Fourth Ring. Finals saw Morgan then Desolation Row again. So I guess I got the cycle for the tournament as well, facing all four of the main contenders in Gomorra. :)

Big thanks to my buddy Chris for all the games we've played and strategies discussed, for coming down with me to the tourney, and for being a big factor in making the changes to the final winning version shown here. Thank you to Frogtown Hobbies in Toledo, OH for hosting, and thanks to the Michigan crew of Chris, Nick, Albert, and Michael for representing in "enemy territory". Apologies to all the Ohio players fer taking yer badge, but to be fair the final match was Ohio Sloane versus Michigan Law Dogs, and Chicago Fourth Ring already took our first badge in Kalamazoo. So blame them. ;) Finally, I dedicate this win to Sheriff Dave Montreal. Rest in peace, old friend.

I hereby retire this deck from my 2015 Sheriff Badge Series play. It was fun to finally see Law Dogs win a badge, after seeing Fourth Ring continue to crush it over and over. Good luck to all the other contestants out there in the upcoming 2015 Sheriff events!