Silly Judge OR How The Game Ended On My First Action!

What would be a suitable substitute for The Evidence (only own 2 base, F&F, and Frontier Justice)?

Why not drop a wiles and add Rafi. Then if someone tries to snipe your jail Rafi moves everyone there

@LawDogplayerRafi is a 7, so he doesn't fit into the draw structure at all (though it is less important, because most of the time you would draw Flush/SF). More importantly, there most likely won't ever be a situation where you can afford Mr. Rafi. The deck I played yesterday had 1 Steven exchanged for 1 Wylie Jenks. But it made no sense, because I never ever got close to 5 credits before the game was over. Besides. If they move to my prison, you just make The Job on that dude. Only rarely did I actually get to add control points to the prison, since people preferred to have their dude Aced, rather than let me have more points. The reason the Jail is important, is that you need that 1 CP to actually win if you wipe the opponent's posse and I don't have the ghost rock to play a CP.

@PaxCeciliaDunno. I didn't use the Evidence at all, so any 8. You could also go to 4x Pat's Perch if you wanted to. However, afterwards I think The Evidence is quite important to get bigger dudes wanted, and hang them the same turn. You could sub in Legal Instruments. That gives Tommy and Philip a lot more influence to make dudes wanted. It'll hurt your draw structure slightly, but perhaps actually make you lowball structure better :)

Interesting concept. But if you don't get Faster on the Draw or Steven Wiles in your starting hand, you only draw 6 cards, and with that you'll probably get a Flush. Considering that Andrew the meat shield is booted at home, "they are likely to lose their entire starting posse" sounds a little far-fetched...

And once you do manage to remove one of their dudes, what's going to happen next turn? You boot the Judge to put a bounty on somebody's head and lose the whole turn? Unless you draw into The Evidence, that is.

How useful is Pistol Whip? All your dudes come on the job booted, so you can't play it aggressively. On the other hand, Bad Company would ensure that you come well-prepared on the second job, while Hiding in the Shadows would protect Tommy Harden from your opponent's Pistol Whips.

Anyway, looks like a fun deck :)

Also, Bottom Dealin' doesn't look particularly strong in this deck, as you're likely to give your opponent a Flush. On the other hand, Flight of the Lepus could send their whole posse home, and that would make the Job succeed automatically.

@mplainThere are also 2x Stakes to pull Andrew in as a 2 Stud. This is no way for sure though, but as of yet, 6 cards has been fine as long as I can reduce my opponent to 5-6 cards as well.

I thought about changing the Pistol Whips beforehand, but just kept them. They turned out to be nice in the followup turn where you might need to move some dudes around etc. However, if I should revise the list, I'd drop two of them for Bad Company. I think you're right, that that is a strong card here. Hiding could be as well. Perhaps even better, as Tommy is so strong.

I did get some mileage out of the Quickdraw Handgun (both the bullet bonus and the cheating resolution) but I still think I'd change those to The Evidence as well.

Flight of the Lepus is an insteresting idea. I didn't get to use either of my 2s a lot, so might be worth trying. Seems you got a good idea, of how the deck should work :)

In general, I know that it looks like a pile, but it performs very smoothly. The key in this setup, is that you put all the 'luck' factors on your opponent's half. There are so many shootout cards and with the Flush as the lower bar, it is up to your opponent to have a solution in his or her starting posse / first play / shootout actions in hand, because nothing on your side changes. You just make the Job and watch them cry, or die in the attempt.

Have been on the other side of Silly judge and lost... Good deck that can make suprise win in first action.

I just faced this with Morgan. Lost 1 dude almost every turn (except in turn 2 when I managed to boot Judge Harry Somerset with Run 'em Down!) but I was well in the game with deeds and dudes played constantly. At the end, the Judged happened to draw a cheating hand in a shootout and Coachwhip! made short work on the whole concept.

I'd love to see what happens in a mirror match ;)

So I played the 'lucky' 4th Ring deck.

Although my win was lucky - I think I found out how to counter it (with the 4R deck I was playing), and there were several plays against it. The speed of the deck goes down in day 2. If you can boot or kill the Judge it loses. Deedslide is really hard for the judge to do anything about, especially with Dr. Ashbel in town (I think bounty hunters and a little income would do well for the deck). That said - playing in a tournament this deck is a monster. Id give it odds 75% in any game of winning - so if you like those odds give it a try at the next tournament and see if you can Hang 'Em High! with the judge deck (there is a name for the deck @aermet69).

I think this deck is really agressive and has a good chance of actually pulling its 'thing' of in a tournament where decks are not build to anticipate it - thus either having an enourmous impact on your starting posse or surprising you by devastating you turn 1.

I think that judggling around with the different actions in the deck can fit it to your playstyle, but agree with the pistolwhips AND I think the deck would be nice with 4 'Stakes'.

To be clear, I do not think this deck is unbeatable in any way, shape or form. 75% seems reasonably right. It won 4/5 games the other day and it was halfway a surprise and halfway anticipated within the league night - but no one had specifically prepared for it.

Having 4x The Evidence will certainly help giving you a chance of keeping the pressure up in round two. The balance between The Stakes and Sun In Your Eyes is hard to choose. I think Sun In Your Eyes is more important personally. But I don't know.

What I do think about this deck, is that it is hugely NPE, and I honestly don't think such a deck should exist. We all know and love the turn 1 Kidnappin'/Ambush, but at least that involves actually getting the card in your opening hand - this does not. There is nothing to prevent the Job from happening, not even bad luck. The existence of this setup completely shuts down any attempt at starting larger dudes in my opinion.

I really like the deck concept, but... I played against this deck yesterday, and out of four games, it didn't win a single one. Two games I played with my Deputies deck, and other two games as aggro clowns. I was consistently able to draw legal full houses and punish my opponent for showing cheatin' flushes. Having even two 1-studs gives a shooting deck very good chances to beat a Flush.

@LordManHammer I disagree with you on the use of 4x Stakes: as with any Flush deck, it is more important to give your opponent less stud bullets than to give yourself more. Sun in Yer Eyes is porbably the most important card in this deck, and I'd rather take 4x of those. Especially if I was going to drop Pistol Whips.

@mplain Well then I agree with your disagreement. I also think that 4 SIYE is more useful.

One of my thoughts on beating this deck is also drawing a legal full house. But hopefully your opponent should be able to dwindle your bullets down with all the shootout actions that you are left with maximum 1 stud and some draw.

I dont know - I still think it is a very viable tournament deck.

One other option I'm looking into is replacing Andrew Burton with Rev. Perry Inbody, who'd let the Judge to both put a bounty and go on the job, all on the same turn. This would make the deck twice as fast from turn 2 and on. However, this would require taking higher values. I'm quite happy with Flight of the Lepus in this deck, and I'm okay with It's Not What You Know (you can play it once you win one lowball or claim one bounty, and it lets you deal with legal full houses), but there are no viable options at K' (Point Blank is really strong, but all your dudes come on the job booted, and comboing it with Missed probably isn't worth it). I'd keep Faster on the Draw despite the fact that it can fail the Reverend's pull, and probably Sun in Yer Eyes too.

There's also an option of running Shield of Faith (pseudo-Harrowed) or Walk the Path (allows playing Point Blank), but I don't think it's worth the trouble. Still, as more high-value actions and miracles get released, Rev. Perry Inbody might become a more viable option.

I can see the idea of the Reverend, but it defeats one of the primary attributes of the deck in my opinion. The option of hanging a dude, before your opponent has had even 1 play in the game. As soon as you give them the option to make one or more plays before doing the hanging, you give them options to counter your strength.

By example: My game against @LordManHammer. He started Leon as one of his dudes, who was my primary target of attack. With the Reverend build, Leon would get at least 2 actions before the hanging begins. He'd move to Town Square on the first, and on the second he'd boot the recently unbooted Judge. This would render the entire deck useless. Or in other words, it'd be an entirely different deck.

One change I've debated myself was changing Philip for Lucinda. If they reveal a cheating hand early (due to the negation of bullets), she makes the entire posse wanted, leaving the Judge ready to hang people on the following turns, as well as giving you more access to Control Points on the prison and Ghost Rock from killing those dudes. However, this leaves you somewhat vulnerable for the slightly longer game, if you don't see Pat's Perch early due to your upkeep of 3.

You are a madman, but this deck is so tasty.

This is the Rush Deck to base Rush Decks off of.

I stomped this deck with my quarterman/shotgun deck. Not enough draw structure. It looses in the shootouts.

This deck based on just 3 values will be a monster

@madmapsIt could be, though you have to watch out for losing the Lowball then. A first play Shotgun/Soulblast could easily ruin your day - as well as cheating cards. That is why I went for the Flush/SF build. But try it, it might work!

Super-Mario laughs at your puny attempts at flush and your only 1 CP turn 1 :P

But it's an interesting take on the aggro-flush concept for sure :D

Played this deck tonight using Lucy instead of Phillip and I really liked the change. She gives the deck what it needs(money) and makes their posse wanted for turn 2. I can't really see this deck being most opponents that are prepared for it but this deck can definitely wreck someone that doesn't know what it's up to.