Action Sloane + Mario Crane [anti-control]

published Jan 22, 2015 | | |

mplain 1657

In its first iteration this deck was vulnerable to control decks due to very low influence. I playtested it against swider's Landslide deck running gunslingers and Takin' Ya With Me, made some appropriate changes, and I think it holds its ground well enough.

Fred Aims is back in the deck, replacing Lawrence Blackwood (which is very unfortunate). In a control matchup Fred is just as important as Allie Hensman - with the help of 4x This Is A Holdup he is able to hoard lots of influence, keeping you safe from losing to Rumors + Blood Curse.

Travis Moone's Grifter ability becomes more important now that the deck is running both shootout actions and economy/support cards, so depending on the deck you're facing you might want to mulligan more often. Having no influence, Travis cannot control deeds (unless there's Yan Li's Tailoring in play), so he mostly follows Mario around in case someone wants to Pistol Whip our favourite harrowed dude and get away with it (that is, if some weak dude calls out Mario, then you know something fishy is about to happen).

Pistol Whip and Make the Smart Choice can be used defensively to save your dudes from Takin' Ya With Me. Fight Landslide with its own tech!

One Good Turn is also back in the deck, but this time as an economy card. I found Hot Lead Flyin' to be not as useful as I hoped, because basically when you can play it, thing are going fine (Mario is not dead), and even then it only has 65% chance of working. Feels like a win-more card, I'd rather make my economy more reliable.

Hired Guns lets you return a discarded dude back into play, be it Travis or Allie fallen to a gunslinger + Takin' Ya With Me combo, or Mario Crane punished for cheatin' with Coachwhip. Thanks to all the economy actions the deck now packs, sometimes you can play your dude again right after they get shot.

Back Ways helps Fred Aims to get back into town after robbin' the Blake Ranch, when they think they outmaneuvered you and decide it's time to go after Allie. You can also use it to get her home to safety after she gets another control point.

Kidnappin' lets you hunt down their hucksters and high-influence dudes. Fred and Travis together have enough bullets to kidnap Mongwau, and this is also another way to get the bounty for extra influience and Back Ways. Preferrably kidnap lone booted dudes, or send at least two guys on the job, otherwise they can get away with Pistol Whippin' your kidnapper.

This is a Holdup gives you money, takes it away from the opponent, and buffs Fred Aims' influence to keep you afloat against control decks. Vital for those matchups, but if you start with lots of economy cards against Sloane or Law Dogs, use Travis to mulligan into (hopefully) more shootout actions.


With all these tweaks the deck can now hold its ground against Landslide. However, having less bullet-reducing actions (Make 'Em Sweat, Make the Smart Choise, Pinned Down) makes it weaker to regular shooty decks, especially the kind with [x16 x16 x16] draw structure. So you should tweak it depending on the meta you expect to face. Also, I haven't tested it nearly enough against huckster decks, both 4R and Sloane (Shotgun + Twist).

7 comments
Jan 22, 2015 Gazette_Alex

This seems like a really powerful variant.

Jan 29, 2015 Max_Hattuer

This deck is an awesome one, sir.

I did what I could to build this deck (I only have 1 base set), and it just destroys people in 2 player games, multiplayer not so much, still works, but it can go down much quicker due to people ganging up on you.

Feb 07, 2015 FallenLemur

Fantastic deck. I think it deserves to be in the Hall of Fame!

Feb 13, 2015 kemikos

I was just checking to see whether anything from EDS is worth putting into this...

Ridden Down: Useless, you have no horses.

Tail Between Yer Legs: Would be nice sometimes; it definitely has a place in certain decks, but I can't see it being worth losing any Cheatin' Varmints in this particular case.

Election Day Slaughter: This one might be worth trying to shoehorn in. Either oppose my job and probably lose dudes, or let it go and ace one? Yes, please...

Seems to me this deck is just crying out for Milt Clemons or (even better) Angela Payne, but they're so expensive...

I thought that Jake Smiley might have a place here, but the question is whether +2 influence is worth losing a bullet and the mulligan (I can't see replacing anyone other than Travis with him).

Also, unrelated question: Is there a specific reason behind having no jokers? I realize they're not necessary with this structure, but they might help keep Mario from cheatin' once in a while. Is it just that you don't want to risk one showing up in a draw hand?

Feb 13, 2015 kemikos

^ I meant play hand, not draw hand, dagnabbit...

Feb 13, 2015 mplain

@kemikos

Jack Smiley can be taken instead of Fred Aims, I guess, and then you can also replace This Is A Holdup with something else, maybe Election Day Slaughter. You can take this route if your meta is mostly aggro, with few Landslide or Clowns.

Why would you want Milt Clemons? All the fighting is done by Mario, there is no real need for another stud.

Tail Between Yer Legs seems nice, but in this deck Cheatin' Varming is just too important, as it helps your Flush to beat their Full House or 4-of-a-kind.

As for Jokers, I didn't do the math, but I don't think it's worth it. Jokers help you get a card you need, but they don't help you get rid of a card you don't want. That is, if you have a cheatin' pair in your 5-cards draw hand, also having a Joker will not help in any way. As for reducing the overall probability of drawing a cheatin' pair, I guess it's somewhere around 0.5%, so I just wouldn't bother (correct me if I'm wrong).

Actually, I get four cards needed for Straight Flush surprisingly often, with only one card missing, so maybe Jokers would actually be of some help. Needs testing.

Feb 20, 2015 benhosp

Jokers would actually allow you to win Lowball every now and then.