Abram's Crusaders (10+J+K) Nuns with Swords

Hi @mplain, I've played a couple of games with a slightly different version of the deck that @qkieu spoiled to you. :P I thought I may as well pull the cat out of the bag and share it with the public - here's the link: dtdb.co

I'll briefly desribe my card choices here and compare them with yours: 1) Sister Lois Otwell - I don't like the card at all and I think it does not belong in the deck (flavor factor aside). Blessed 0, expensive, mediocre stats, no relevant special and little contribution to the game plan. Surely you can find something better. ;)

Speaking about game plan - I think you are playing to few jobs - see your comment on turtling decks. There is very little you can do if you draw the wrong part of your deck. You have no way to engage into shootout barring 4 jobs. This means you'll get stomped by a Landslide opponent or anything that prefers to stay at home and has betetr cycling that you do. That's why I started the deck with the 3x4 Job package (4 EDS, 4 Recrutiment Drive, 4 Meet the New Boss - the card is a sleeper - it's much better than it looks at first sight), Eventually it proved to be too much 'al in' and I shove 1 of each to make room for some opportunistic shootout actions. With 9 jobs tou have much better chance to actually have some form of advancing your board presence and less chance to get stuck with useless clubs that you can't cycle against peaceful opponents. Ok, now - with that kind of gameplan in mind, there are two things that need to be considered:

1) What if you draw too many jobs? Here's where Dumbstruck shines (and Rev. Perry) - you go with your job (they hopefulyl don't oppose, or oppose and die), untap and follow up with another job. This leads to some very powerful sequences.

2) With very few shootout actions, it may be problematic to actually win against heavy shootout decks (Deso Row, Law Dogs). That's why I feel you need to have as much permanent stuff that help in the shooutout as possible - hence I start with Tommy and Sister Mary (as opposed to Abram Exp 1 and Philip for example). You don't really have much room for reasonable chetin punishment and Tommy can save the day at times.

This approach has its benefits - if your opponent is scared to fight against 4+-stud Sister, you can actually do something meaningful and win the game rather than durdle around staring at your hand full of clubs you can't cycle.

As far as the spells go: I am testing 4x Dumbstruck for now to see if it's good enough against clowns to skew the % in your favor. If not, then: 1) The Sword&sister archetype is not viable at all apart from casual paly. :P 2) In casual play, you may want 3 of them, not a full set.

I don't like Consecration (tested it - 2 copies, same as you, it's very bad). The reason is that it doesn't help you win the shootout. You go with Sister Mary on the job - they oppose with a couple of dudes, you both show 4ok, you save yourself with Consecration, they sac Travis or other cannon fodder. Now what? If you flee, you've just traded 1for1 cards-wise and lost tempo. If you fight another round, you risk losing Sister which may cost you the game (but it's not a guaranteed loss - with 3+ income it's not that hard to rebuild). I don't think Consecration saves any problems of this deck - I replaced it with another deed and Faster on the Draw until I come up with something brilliant. :D

I also play 1 Evanor to increase the consistency. I'd rather have 1 dead card fewer when I fail to draw a melee weapon.

So, yeah, that's that. I really think the deck has something going on and it can be polished further so that it can stand a chance against the metagame. I certainly feel like the pieces are there. You just need to find the correct game plan and card ratios so that you have both enough of shootout actions/cheatin punishment to stay a force in shootouts and enough of your skeleton that not only creates your voltron-nun, but as well allow you to execute a proactive gameplan.

@pvdelhey man, I'm glad you showed up! I was beginning to suspect that the mysterious "pudel" was @qkieu's imaginary firend ;) Thanks for the feedback!

Sister Lois Otwell is actually quite good if you can reliably turn her into a stud. My pre-TLS version of this deck runs 4x Consecration and 4x Sword of the Spirit - it's all there to have a reliable 5+ stud. Her ability is actually quite nice, she either gives herself +1 bullet, or she protects another dude from Shotgun.

Tommy Harden rocks, there's no question about it, but I really want at least two starting Blesseds, and if I take Tommy then I'll have to take Rev. Perry Inbody as well and then I lose influence. Like, your version has 2 starting infl, +3 if you get a couple spells early. In my case it's 5+2, I feel safer that way. But yeah, your setup looks interesting, I should try it out.

Consecration is there not to prevent casualties in the shootout, but to provide a stud dude with lots of influence - I love the card very much, and in shootouts I use This'll Hurt in the Mornin' or Flight of the Lepus instead.

Overall, this deck is untested, I just threw something together to serve as an example for my review. I realized that it lacks ways to combat Clowns and Landslide, but decided to publish it anyway. I'll do actual testing and tweaking once TLS is on Octgn. And I will certainly take your suggestions into accout.

Thanks for sharing your insight! :)