Spread 'Em & Dead 'Em - 3rd Place 2024 Gencon Marshal

My "fun but probably won't do that well" deck that did much better than expected for the '24 Gencon Marshal event. I swear when I bring decks like these they do better than my 'try hard' choice, which in this case would have been a 7/8/10 Saved by Grace blessed deck. I had so much fun playing this deck online that I ended up getting a lot of practice with it (thanks to Kacheese for all the practice games!), and ended up tuning the deck quite a bit over the weeks leading up to gencon, and combined with some luck during the tournament, it added up into the top-of-faction and the top 4 before I dropped out.

This is a 2-value quasi-slide that likes to build up the town, spread opposing dudes out, then come out swinging when the time is right - either to murder some key influence, or to straight up win the game as they are forced off my deeds to come fight.

Lots of versatility and synergy in this deck: Big Nose Kate plays really well with Kim Lloyd, "Ma" Florence Aims, and anyone with a shotgun, and is also flexible to chuck worthless shooty cards early (also buffing influence potentially to keep from losing early), while Frank Stillwell of course plays great with the home, but also is great for forcing opponents to spread out dudes to either call him out, or to hold down locations to try and stop use of the home all together. A mustang on Frank makes it impossible for an opponent to protect a deed as they play it.

Both Ike Clanton and "Ma" Florence Aims make for alternate starters (usually in place of Kate): Ike for decks starting Allie (which I did in my game against shekky_ducky), or Ma for passive/landslide decks.

It doesn't shoot particularly well, nor does it have the best movement, but it has enough of both to be dangerous when both are combined, and key cards like shotgun or fancy new hat can be grabbed by Pete for some handy toolbox options.

Faithful Hound are mostly there for gadgets, which this deck is weak against (especially Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton), but are handy sidekicks in most other situations.

All in all a very fun deck to play, with a couple Gencon highlights being:

*In my first game against Indy, running Encroaching Darkness, we both built up for a few turns before I came out swinging. Of her 3 influence dudes, I pistol whipped one home, and coachwhipped the other, before handily losing the shootout... but in the end there were no more pieces for her to maneuver and that was that.

*In my first game vs Laura, my 4 dudes vs a lone Willa (I may have pistol whipped someone home), I suffered a Bad Beat that took me down to a rank 2 vs her 10, and I lost all 4 of my dudes to that lone willa mae! (bad beat is probably the perfect cheatin' res against this deck with its weak structure...) I was very close to losing many times, but was able to build back enough to eventually seal the win, only after running Petes job to get a shotgun for her Allie.

All in all a great day, and a fun few days of Doomtown! Many thanks to Pinebox and the Doomtown community that has become a second family to me!