108 Dead Man's Hands

I played this deck at the 2018 PAX Unplugged tournament. I recently heard that the developers also want to see decks that didn't win tournaments, so here it is. Better late than never :) I went 2-2 and finished 9th place (if I remember correctly) due to "strength of opponent" tie-breakers.

I traveled with my brother and our Friday night board game group all the way from Houston for the tournament, and we had a great time! My brother and I have been playing since Classic, and we got to cross an item off of our bucket lists: participating in an official Doomtown event and contributing to the setting (my brother even got to choose The General Store as a location of significance!). While I didn't make the top 8, I did have fun and drew my first ever DMH, despite playing with this deck for a while. Several, actually, including a natural DMH (no jokers) on just five cards.

Construction Notes:

I had been using 108 Worldly Desires in casual play. I think this deck works much better with that home card, but 108WD is banned for tournaments so I had to switch. I figured 108 Righteous Bandits would be close enough, but I wish I had done more playtesting since starting with one fewer ghost rock hurts this deck more than I thought it would. Building a Dead Man's Hand deck is a fun challenge, and I definitely recommend trying it. The look on an opponent's face when you pull a DMH is priceless!

Strategy:

The goal is to get the non-DMH value cards in play as quickly as possible. Gomorra Lot Commission can cycle any J-value deeds you draw; I chose J deeds that are commonly used just in case the movement ability comes in handy. Horace Manse is there in case Hamshanks or Natalya get aced (both frequent occurrences since opponents tend to focus a lot of attention on them). Ideally I want to play a Tlaloc's Furies on The Badger, making him a stud, and A Pair of Six Shooters on Hamshanks. That's a fairly reliable combination, particularly if you're at a location you control so Hamshanks can act as a lighting rod for opposing abilities. I wish their bullets were higher, so the more copies of Tlalocs in play the better.

Tournament Summary:

Game 1 - Played against someone who had never played Doomtown but had read the rules and was really excited to play and learn. The event staff loaned him a pretty standard Law Dogs deck for the tourney. He said not to go easy on him just because he was new to the game, but he made some rookie mistakes that allowed me to win pretty easily. At his request, after the game I gave some pointers on how to avoid those mistakes. I hope the tournament was fun for him! Always nice to add more Doomtown players to the community!

Game 2 - Played against the tournament winner, Pub Wars. Very well designed deck, and very well played! The link to this deck list has a fun recap of the tournament and of this game. I knew I was in trouble from the very beginning when he took over Gomorra Lot Commission, cutting off my production while ramping up his own. I played Pat's Perch, and Lawrence Blackwood immediately moved in. It quickly became clear that my only chance of winning was to start acing his dudes before I got steamrolled. The climactic shootout was at The Gomorra Lot Commission, where The Badger brought a knife (and Hamshanks) to a gunfight against Sloane and most of the gang. I got a DMH in the first round, which cleared away some bullet sponge dudes. We fought a few more rounds, but eventually my dudes were gunned down. It was clear I couldn't recover, so I surrendered. I'm sorry for not taking you up on a friendly game afterward, @jordan caldwell, but I lost so badly that I needed to take a break and mentally regroup before the next round! Next time :)

Game 3 - Played against a Fourth Ring deck using the original home card. Seemed like a standard spell slingin' deck. I was doing pretty well in the "chess game", but then I was too aggressive: several of his key dudes were booted and I saw an opportunity to remove some vulnerable dudes with influence and secure the win, so I went in guns blazing with Badger and Hamshanks. I drew a DMH in the first round, which got rid of The Brute and another meat shield. I should have listened to the little voice telling me to retreat and build up some more, but decided to forge ahead. I drew a terrible hand on the next shootout round, and after losing my primary shooters it was downhill from there.

Game 4 - Played against another Fourth Ring deck, this time running Sanatorium. I outmaneuvered his dudes and took over his control point deeds, and then he called out Xiaodan Li ("Captain Expendable", as I call him) in town square. He was probably hoping I would boot my dudes off of his control points to join the fight, but most of his dudes were already booted so I didn't take the bait. Xiaodan proved that dynamite comes in small packages by pulling a natural DMH on just five cards. That removed the entire opposing posse from play, which secured the win.