108 Worldly Blessed

The Edinburgh Sheriff event, rescheduled from last year due to the kit not arriving on time, finally went down on 2017-04-02. It was great getting to play in a Doomtown event again. The Edinburgh regulars were welcoming as always and one of the travelling players was a relative tournament newbie who'd decided to give the game another go following news of its resurrection, which was definitely nice to see.

I'd been trying to decide what to play for a while, and wanted to try something a bit different so ended up going with my latest attempt at a 108 Blessed chess deck. I definitely think there's something in this style of deck, but I haven't quite managed to nail it yet. I spent the night before the event running through potential deck improvements in my head, but being a long way away from my cards prevented me from tweaking things. This was a good thing, as I really wanted to see how this build worked, and playing it at a tournament definitely gave me a few ideas to try out.

After a lot of messing around with starting posse options Max Baine ended up not being a starter, though I might try reinstating him. To squeeze everyone in and still have at least one ghost rock I moved from The 108 Righteous Bandits to 108 Worldly Desires (having the really powerful home ability also helped). As the deck wants to play chess rather than charge out into town to trade lead, I decided I'd try a less shooty structure and hope I wasn't playing against too many aggro job decks, but I think this was its main downfall in the end as it fell flat against @Neramoor's Stables deck that charged at me with a couple of Run 'Em Down! and didn't have the shootout advantage against @Harlath's shooty slide. Adding a third main value is definitely something I'd look at doing.

The idea behind the deck is to play it like a dudes & deeds deck with added maneuverability and location control thanks to Amazing Grace and Walk the Path. Randall, Fool Me Once..., Circle M Ranch and Gomorra Gaming Commission all can help you see lots of cards and get the off-values into play quickly which should help your economy. There are enough high bullet throwaway dudes in the deck that you can threaten shootouts, and if you have a Moving Forward or Takin' Ya With Me they can also be an opportunity to improve your board state or guarantee damage to your opponent's. Wins can come through quickly throwing out deeds, using Asakichi and Walk the Path to bounce Doris Powell around for 3 more CP, and the tried and tested Nicodemus Whateley vote for victory method. A combination of deeds and Nic helped me see off @Sauronsbeagle1's Den of Thieves and @Whizzwang's Law Dogs. Hunter Protections was a late addition to this arsenal, but I didn't use its ability all day so can probably be dropped. A deck focused around using that and 108 Righteous Bandits or Walk the Path to move your booted dude out of harm's way would be another thing to try.

Extra thanks go to @scottw for providing a lift to and from Edinburgh and @Harlath for a place to stay the night (and kindly passing down the 108 wooden home awarded for top of faction), along with the guys at Black Lion Games for running the event.