Mooooonteeeee Baaaaaank! EU 2016 Marshall Winning Deck

published Jun 05, 2016 | | |
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VinceTurner 264

7 - J - Q Spirit Fortress deck. EU Marshall winner, 22 points out of six rounds in the Swiss, won the final 2-1

12 comments
Jun 05, 2016 DoomDog

You get a star for the deck name :) Well played Vince, thanks for some great games!

Jun 05, 2016 DoomDog

You get a star for the deck name :) Well played Vince, thanks for some great games!

Jun 05, 2016 VinceTurner

General history:

Spent 2016 playing with Spirit Fortress aggro as I've gone off Law Dogs. This is the fourth iteration over Deputy/Outlaw tournies.

As with every deck, it has it's own little tricks. The basic play however is versus most deck drop a deed, fortress up and hope to be able to drop Nicodemus on turn 3/4 before they have enough influence to counter the 5 point control swing. If you can, drag their influence all over town until it's isolated, then launch a kidnapping with Mariel to make it an auto-discard.

Versus other fortress type decks, slide or deck that ramp up slowly over time the game plan is to advance across town square to get your totems on their deeds rather than your own, and again isolate their influence. Having 3 shamans to start helps with that.

Round 1:

Joachim. Morgan Stables gadgets.

Joachim was our German participant, and we mourned the cancellation of the German Outlaw event. With the start up Jen-Specks-Irving-Travis-Wagner Memorial I got lucky in my first hand with a kidnapping. A gamble but the first thing to do against the Jen based gadget decks I find is to launch it and get her off the table before she gets a Yagn's otherwise she not only becomes a beast in a shootout but magically makes your Nic target two higher. Fortunately it paid off. With Jen gone before she could gadget up, Joachim was on the back foot and didn't have influence to fend off the next turn's kidnapping to take Irving off the board abusing Mariel. That left little influence to fend off Nic, game over turn four. 5 points

Round 2:

Apologies - name's blurred. Original Sloane.

Always nice to meet a returning classic player, must say didn't see much of the deck. Start line up was the old speed control point style of Alie Hensman, Barton, Smiley etc. Turn one, I drop Maza's and start fortressing. Allie does her thing, random Sloane picks up a control point and Yan Li's hits the table. Turn two, more fortressing including a Silver Pheasant's, Allie does her thing, another Sloane grabs a control point. Enough of my dudes have sidled sideways into the Hideout to hold off control points. Turn three, Allie does her thing, another Sloane does their thing. At this point it must have seemed like it was going to plan. Then Nic hit the table. Half the opposing posse was booted out in town square, Barton got sent home with Red's Horses, the next dude with the second Red Horses then the final Smiley was gunned down on his own. Nic rigs the election for victory. Pretty much text book execution of how the deck works ideally.

Round 3:

Andrew Davidson. Original Morgan Lillian Movement

I've been playing DT since classic, but wasn't big into tournies back in the day. So, after fifteen or so years, I finally got to play Andrew. When I first started playing, we knew who he was because he had a card named after him and everything! I'd seen the Lillian deck at the Outlaw, and knew roughly what it did. Start was Lillian, irving, Jacqueline and Travis I think. It's got a reasonably tight draw structure and Hex tricks to move Lillian around. The economy gets going pretty quick thanks to out of town deeds for free. Thinking about it, I needed to isolate Irving, take him out with a kidnapping then try and brute force enough people to get past Lillian's 5 influence as it was unlikely to be beaten quickly by my own dudes.

So, lured Irving out to an out of town deed to cover Andrew's income, then nailed him with an auto complete Kidnapping. Totemed up on one of Andrew's in town deeds till eventually there was five of my people ready there to vote for Nic. Once Nic dropped and moved over Andrew had to step in and I let him make the call out to avoid triggering Jaqueline, who went home to a Red Horses's anyway after Lillian brought her in. Game try, but clearly Lillian was feeling a bit under the weather and went down under a hail of bullets trading for a Henry Moran. 5 Points

Round 4

Adam. Original Morgan Gadget Fortress

Adam was playing a very similar deck to the one he beat me in the top 4 of the Outlaw. I on the other hand was not. The most telling thing was I now had an extra Nicodemus when last time the game was decided by who found it first after we'd both realised stepping into each other's fortress was a death sentence. I figured this time surely I'd see it first.

Turned out I did, but Adam was a bit cagier than last time so I didn't manage to make serious enough headway into his influence to make dropping Nic a game winner. As the turns went by and Adam managed to get out Lillian and Steven Wiles (and pay for him every turn) whilst growing an ever larger amount of out of town deeds, it became apparent it was slipping away from me and the long game still favoured Adam. Time was called with hardly any control on the table, but even with totem boost Adam's mountain of influence won the day. 1 Point.

Round 5:

Jimi. 108 Wordly Desires aggro.

Tale of this game was if I recall correctly Jimi making a play error that I then leapt all over. I just remember Jimi having to send wave after wave of his troops into the Maza hideout to be mercilessly gunned down by 'voters'. Remember plenty of the banter with Jimi - the game? Not so much! 5 points

Round 6

Anders. Morgan Stables Gadgets.

Anders was on five wins at this point, so was a guaranteed top 8. As highest possible points of the X-1 I was a bit cagey but figured I'd probably top 8 if I lost.

We set off. No kidnapping for me, so Jen got her Yagn's quick, early turns saw some indecisive scuffles where we basically traded off dudes we didn't care about. The start of Maggie rather than Wagner Memorial meant Anders had a fairly steady stream of Yagn's/Ornithopters as there was no way I was going to walk into the Jen death machine and friends. Launching the job from the town square also meant he was reliably activating the stables.

Nic took a while to turn up in my hand, and by the time he did it was too late. A few supporting cast had turned up on Ander's side and whilst he wasn't in a hurry to step into my totems, I wasn't going to be heading out either. Tried to mill for as many dudes as possible to vote, but Anders was doing the same. Get the ten minute warning and we start counting the influence/control.

Get in to the last turn, and we both have Nic on the table, but I've got more unbooted dudes. Time gets called. We count up...

COmbined total of 23 control/influence each. Anders has one more control point, I have one more influence. It had been my action. If I had been a split second faster and just booted a dude to vote... my win on time. But that's the way the new end of game procedure works - I'm not bitter, just a good anecdote. 1 point.

Rankings come up - 5 th place, second highest Eagle Warden. 4th place... my nemesis Adam and his Morgan gadget fortress.

I'd meta'ed karma, and hadn't made any arrangements about where to stay and found myself having to turn up for day two. Fortunately, the best man at my wedding lived an hour away so didn't mind me impromptu borrowing his sofa for the evening. Proceeded to get drunk and not think about doomtown.

Day 2.

Quarter final

Adam (as above).

So, I had an hour drive in the morning to think about this and reasoned my normal game plan was not going to work versus Adam. Switched the start around - Black Elk and Henry Moran went out and Jackson Trouble came in. The plan being that I would use Butch to try and find a kidnapping (rather than simply deed + Totem that is the usual condition) and with 5 influence hace enough to force the Mariel against Jen. If not, then Jackson would cause trouble at the out of town deeds Adam needed for income whilst the rest of the team camped his Wagner Ranch, hopefully impeding his ability to churn out gadgets.

Turns out it was the later and it worked out pretty well for me. No Kidnpaping first turn, but I managed to charge across and dominate the Ranch taking it out of Adam's hands before he could use it then sticking a Silver Pheasant's on it turn it into a cash source for me. Jackson loitered for a while to deny some cash.

On the flip side, Adam seemed to be going a bit slow but did manage to charge over to my side and put an Auto-Gatling on my General Store, which took a bit of finesse to get a totem on in order to regain control. Jen got caught up in that crossfire and a took Jackson with her. Mariel also got gunned down but Black Elk had turned up to sit on a totem and there was only the General Store with control so influence wasn't a worry for me.

Adam on the other hand saw few of his deeds, and was under cash constraints. Nor die he manage to get many dudes out - Ashobel and Crane popped up. Crane got scary with a Yagn's but had no movement effects to get him into a fight - and Ashobel fluffed the gadget pull on the Force Field that would have really made him a monster.

At that point Nic came down for me start of the next turn. With enough voters to buy the win, and his mad scientists booted out - Mario had to walk it alone into the Ranch that was now my spirit fortress. I could boot him out with red horses tail, but three dogs and all my team were in the posse.

Mario was pulling a straight 8 cards I believe, whilst I was on something like 10 draw 4. Beating him by more than the three ranks if he stayed legal was going to be tricky. I knew Adam was likely to pull legal full houses, but I figured I had several rounds in me before I even had to consider running away - I reckoned he'd have to cheat eventually.

Round 1 - Legal full house versus legal full house. Mario lived, a dog bravely bit the dust and Smiling Frog decided there was no turning back. Round 2 - Legal four of a kind (me) versus legal full house. Mario lived Round 3 - Legal full house (me) versus cheating full house. Jael's Guile Activated to put Mario in the bin, and gave me game.

Very different game, and it seemed I beat my recent nemesis.

Semi-finals

And embarrassingly another name I've forgotten. 108 Wordly Desires Legendary Holster.

The most strategic game of the day. First lowball saw a Legendary Holster go into his discard, so the penny dropped. I was going to have to be real careful with shootouts as a 'natural' shootout with a holster dude would likely be with the opponent on the play from lowball thanks to Worldy Desires. A Stakes Just Rose or similar could be managed with Mariel/Red Horses potentially.

Early turns really set me thinking as five control points hit the table. My shamans charge across the table to slap a random assortment of totem's on the 2 control deeds to let me establish dominance of them. The opponent seemed reluctant to go after them, but that might be because the only stud (Ramiro) had been sent to my Jackson's to deny me cash.

Between my maza and two silver pheasant's on opposing deeds cash wasn't bothering me much.

Mid game, we've both played a few dudes to get some influence down and without shifting me off the big control point sites I wasn't too worried. Nic was in hand, but couldn't be deployed for the win so kept him back.

Then Junior landed on the opposing side bringing a Legendary Holster with him to make me really think. The game turned into one of cat and mouse as Junior with Asakichi Cooke tried to pin my dudes down into a shootout whilst I danced a way and onto other deeds.

I managed to sneak a Kidnapping in to remove the Allie hensman that had stacked up 4 or so control. It was an auto-success from Mariel if there wasn't a Stakes in hand to bring Junior in before I could Mariel. There wasn't, somewhat fortunately. At which point my opponent remarked it would be nice to see a kidnapping of his own. Turns out he'd burning through his deck to get one to close the deal with Junior but had cycled twice without seeing it.

Time drags on, the ten minute warning is given. Becomes apparent I'm not going to manage a 'clean' victory, but with Allie gone I've most the control points and an edge on influence once I drop nicodemus. A whole lot of chess moves go on with everyone jostling for position, but when the clock sounds the balance of points are with me.

Final

Round 1

Dave Hogg, 108 Wordly Desires Dead Man's Hand.

Wasn't entirely sure what Dave was going to be doing in terms of precise cards, but hard heard it was Dead Man's Hand so there was only so many options.

Starting line up included a Badger, who first turn became a stud thanks to a Tlaloc's Fury. My window of opportunity for a kidnapping vanished fast. Maza's on my side got fortressed, Dave occupied town square. A General Store next to Maza's suceeeded in tempting Dave over to take it. Over a couple of turns, and a few careful moves, I got Dave to commit Badger to a shooutout in the Store to try and take out Moran/Deuces. The scuffle is a draw. Xiadan Li trades with a Spirit Token. As the only dude left, Badger opted to withdraw. That left me free to launch an auto-completing kidnapping on Randall, putting Dave down to just three influence. That couldn't hold of Nic next turn.

Round 2 Dave opt to change out Randall in his starting line up for Hamshanks - pretty sound move now he knows I'm packing dangerous kidnappings. This game goes a lot longer, Badger has to wait a bit to get his Furies, but I can't leverage a kidnapping to get him off the board. Dave develops his economy and a string of 1 influence dudes appear to take Nic further away from Mayor. On the flip side, Dave can't break into my fortress as it's swiftly established (at one point a lowball cheat from him allowed Owl's Insight to drop 4 goods before upkeep - including the eponymous Monte Bank). My deck's massively degenerated, but so's Dave's as he repeatedly Hired Guns to keep him below my cash and with dudes to play.

On the plus side my own economy is going guns, with just short of thirty ghost rock, so most of my dudes other than Nic are out as well.

A kidnapping on Laughing Crow showed me he had them, so would need to be careful about how Nic landed. That was also the turn I realised both I and the active judge had missed 2 ghost rock from the Monte Bank. Oh well, only two ghost rock.

Two turns later, we're running out of time and I drop Nic. He meets a kidnapping, I let it resolve. I go to drop the second Nic I had in hand... only to realise I was 1 GR short due to mis count and playing a Rick I didn't strictly need to.

Moooooontteeeeeeee Baaaaaaaank! Goes to time next round when I try and drop Nic and Dave launches the kidnapping. Nothing I can do, I lose on points total. All for the sake of remembering Monte Bank (the second kidnapping in a turn would not be so scary if all it was were a bunch of draws walking into my totem'ed Travis defended home).

On to game three. Both my starting hand options didn't have a deed so I was less than happy with my start. Actually, I had nearly given up and accepted that for the first time all tournament my deck had crapped out in the starting hand and for the sake of a Monte Bank I'd thrown it away. In the end, I kept the first hand. It had the Monte Bank in it, and that was about all the cash I was going to see.

I drop a Pack on my home, charge my team to Companhurst's and pass the turn. Dave hadn't seen Tlaloc's.

Next turn my first action is to drop a Red Horses's on Companhursts. Dave gets the Tlaloc's but doesn't fancy a swift round trip. Butch gets the Monte Bank.

Badger launches a kidnapping on Butch - I presume Dave was looking to whittle down my Shaman's + influence, and with Mariel and Lydia at the pub able to kick him home, Butch and his + GR a turn was a sound target.

Badger and Xiodan come in. Butch defends on his own, but summons a Nature Spirit into the fight.

My options were a legal full house, or a cheating five. Pretty lucky, and I decide to go all in. If Dave had a This'll hurt in the morning to play, the chances were actually still reasonable I'd get a four, plus the dog was going to soak three casualties first. Dave revealed a cheating four. Apparently when he first looked at it and discarded he thought it was legal. No cheating resolutions came back my way, and Xiodan was going to get aced - but I had It's Not What You Know to force the issue and see Badger aced too.

That was a huge swing that I wasn't expecting and put Dave on the back foot. Black Elk grabbed a many Speak as One, and Butch sauntered into town square preparing for the next turn.

Dave manages to drop Forster Cooke off a Hired Guns, which bolster's him a bit - but he's still not able to fend off Nic when he lands. Butch danced into Compnahurst's to avoid the call out, Nic gets dragged over by booting a spare totem and Black Elk boot's over but summons granddad to vote from the dead once he gets there. Sum total of voters = 5, Dave has 4 influence and no more cash.

A dejected set of bandits try and enter the pub only to get Red Horse Tailed, Marieled and finally the lone Asachi faces off against my horde.

I play conservatively, taking a legal full house over a cheating four. Grandad has voted by now and with a Pack Awakens in place, he was good cover. Dave's has to reveal a cheating full house - Jael's Guile activates to put Asakichi in the bin and the game is mine.

Pretty quick end and not what I was expecting from my starting hand, and that abortive kidnapping was crucial.

At that point, almost twenty years since I first started playing Doomtown - I walked away with the first EU Marshall.

Thanks to all my opponents, everyone who turned up and played, the TOs/Judges (except George who missed my Monte Bank and nearly cost me the Marshall - MOOOOOOOONTTTTEEEE BAAAAAAAANK) and AEG for bringing back this excellent game.

And Scott for mentioning Maza. Better than Whateley's hands down!

I'm now going to leave Spirit Fortress alone for a while, and maybe go back to Dogs...

Jun 05, 2016 DoomDog

Yeah. I could have gone for a cheating 5oaK on Aces in that shootout, but I must've discarded the wrong card when using my draw and didn't notice it until I looked at my hand again after choosing my final five. As you had It's Not What You Know... you'd still have won the fight anyway and got the bounty money so ultimately the game would have gone the same way.

Jun 05, 2016 discojedi10

Launching the job from the town square also meant he was reliably activating the stables.

By this, do you mean he was having someone ornithopter in to help with the job every time? It has been ruled that moving as a result of a job doesn't trigger the Morgan Stables react.

Jun 05, 2016 VinceTurner

Discojedi - wasn't aware of that ruling (and presumably neither was Anders). So nope, I was just letting him do it on account of moving around - incorrectly.

Live and learn...

Jun 05, 2016 scottw

Could somebody please link to this ruling? Myself and the head judge had to provide an 8 minute time extension to a game at the marshal and could not find this ruling anywhere, we then had to make a decision based on what the cards wording said. However it was pointed out at the time that this decision although incorrect would be the ruling for the remainder of the event as a precedent had been set.

Jun 05, 2016 scottw

Please not it should read "possibly incorrect"

Jun 06, 2016 DoomDog

I believe it's covered here: www.alderac.com

I asked that back in January, it may have been overturned or ruled differently elsewhere - we need an up-to-date FAQ document!

Jun 06, 2016 LordManHammer

Well done @VinceTurner and a great writeup!

You definitely deserved the victory and our game was the closest Doomtown Game I have ever had!

I am sorry we didn't meet in the final - but perhaps next year...

I will see if I can get my deck and report up later today and I suggest we take all further Maggie discussions at that thread.

Well done and love what you have done with kidnappings!

Jun 06, 2016 VinceTurner

I'm not sure people love it when I use it against them!

It's not that different to Kidnapping/Wendy/Carter's that's been doable since the start of the game - it's just one less card required but at the expense of having to work around the influence issue. As it happens, I found more often getting the bullets was the problem - if Moran's booted in low ball and Deuces is off toteming somewhere you're kind of stuck.

Realised things I should mention are potential changes I would make...

Rick should go out to be Clint Ramsay. Never once triggered his ability, so strictly inferior to Clint.

Whateley Estate can go. Every time I had it in hand, I'd already fortressed on Maza or General Store. Putting it down would have just given my opponent 2 control points. Would swap for a second It's Not What You Know probably.

Buffalo Rifle - never got it on to Mariel to really work right. Better off as a 4th Many Speak As One.

Jun 06, 2016 LordManHammer

Yeah - playing against a lot of EW blockade decks teaches you the same - they'll auto kidnap you IF they have the bullets for it (which is why they should start Zachary Deloria imo :D