Spirit Fortress Edinburgh Deputy 5-0

5-0 in Edinburgh's round-robin Deputy tournament in May 2016 (The Curtain Rises was legal and the recent errata to Paralysis Mark & Hot Lead Flyin' etc was used).

Fairly standard Spirit Fortress, using Spirits and plentiful dudes (all given influence by totems) to vote for Nicodemus Whateley.

Many Speak as One worked well with Telegraph Office, turning it in to a very efficient producer with high control points - your ancestor gets extra influence from a totem, effectively turning the Telegraph office in to a 2 cost for 3 production private deed with two control points, an excellent deal! The plentiful Token dudes give you lots of leeway to cheat in shootouts, unless you think your opponent is running Coachwhip!. This is a Holdup! was a disappointment and rarely used, I allowed it to clog my hand too often. The theory was to use Mazatl or ancestor tokens to steal money from my opponent, but I was generally scared off from doing this by the threat of jobs targeting my shaman while he set up the robbery away from the safety of my totems. Point Blank worked well due to the plentiful studs, as did Outgunned given the volume of send home. Perhaps I should drop This is a Holdup for another Outgunned and something else. Spirit Fortress is a bit tedious, but it is brutally effective.

Thanks to my fellow Edinburgh players, lots of tight games despite Spirit Fortress's efficiency:

• 1st game against last year's Edinburgh Sheriff playing Sanitorium: only won thanks to the game going to time, confident I'd have lost with another ten minutes of play. My opponent only drew one job all game (an early Election Day Slaughter, with Mariel Lewis sacrificed), and one or two more would have given him the game.

• 2nd game v Dave's Law Dogs (made the cut at multiple sheriff events last year): again, got lucky with my opponent's Bounty Hunter and Ol' Fashioned Hangin' failing to show up despite the game lasting 5 turns! MVP: my opponent not drawing any jobs/Bounty Hunters.

• 3rd game: Law Dogs that rapidly reached ten influence with the judge in play?! However, a lack of deeds and the judge's upkeep let me slowly build to a win, with outgunned and cheating cards shifting some key shootouts. MVP: Lydia Bear-Hands and tokens for helping me win a war of attrition against gunslingers from the judge/bounty hunters.

• 4th game: Den of Thieves - I drew in to a strong opening hand and was able to force early shootouts at totem locations thanks to getting a pair of two control point deeds in to play. MVP: Mariel Lewis for sending home my opponent's massive stud Silas Aims.

• 5th game: Righteous 108 Bandits. I almost lost Nicodemus to a Rabbit Takes Revenge. I hadn't played against a well made kung-fu deck before, and was often surprised by the power of combos. I was bailed out by It's Not What You Know.... Lesson learned: don't get in to a shootout against a kungfu deck with a full discard pile and six cards in hand! MVP: California Tax Office for discarding Bai Yang Chen before the decisive shootout.

Sorry to everyone for playing Spirit Fortress. At least there's a neutral shaman ("Professor" Duncan) in The Curtain Rises...