Whateley's Spirit Fortress 1.1 York OP#4 Winner 03/01/16

A tweaked version of my Whateley's Spirit Fortress deck. This went 4-0 to win a 5-player round robin event in York.

In case you're not familiar with this archetype, the general plan is to get a deed out early and start playing totems there. If that deed is The Whateley Estate even better, as it's harder for your opponent to disrupt your setting up. You want a couple of dudes there to defend it, and everyone else nearby so that when you play Nicodemus Whateley they can all move there and between your dudes, whatever Ancestor Spirits they can summon and any other deeds you have control of you'll have a ton of control points and hopefully win the game. Everyone at the fortress gets +1 influence thanks to the home, so your 0 influence dudes can still be used to power up Nic, and the various totem effects mean that a fight there won't be easily won with plenty of harrowed token dudes for attrition battles and the ability to kick key dudes out of the fight with Red Horse's Tail.

It's by no means a perfect strategy, but if you can get your spirit fortress established early it can be really tough for your opponent to win. There are plenty of counters to it, Scoop Hound in particular can ruin its day and aggressive play before it's managed to set up is generally a good way to go. If you play fortress-style against landslide you're probably going to end up in trouble but you can adapt your playstyle to suit. It's also worth pointing out that you don't want to immediately rush all your dudes into the fortress unless you really need to, as that seriously hurts your mobility and ability to disrupt your opponent's plans while you build up.

Now for a quick summary of the games:

Round 1 vs Karl's Morgan Stables deck

The first few turns not much happened, as I kept drawing actions and spirits and Karl had spent his stash early on hiring another dude and then struggled to make money as with upkeep he had 1 production and lost several lowball hands in a row. Eventually the game got going. A misplay from me saw me lose Mazatl in a shootout at the Blake Ranch - he'd booted there and summoned an Ancestor spirit to call out a booted Irving, I should've used his ability to escape before issuing the callout with the spirit but I didn't, lost the shootout and Jen Qí rode in on her Mechanical Horse to finish off Mazatl. Karl was building up a strong posse in the town square and I was waiting for the Run 'em Down!. So it seemed was Karl, as he didn't move anyone when I played The Whateley Estate so I moved Butch in and finally emptied my hand of totems. Still fearing the Run 'em Down! I moved everyone into the fort and when it finally came it was a bit too late for Karl and his attack was blunted by the wall of totems. Travis was Red Horsed home, Zachary Point Blanked Wendy and the legal 5-of-a-kind did the rest. With Karl's remaining influence booted, I moved out and took control of some deeds for the win.

Round 2 vs Stephen's The Arsenal deck

I set up an early spirit fortess in the General Store, while Stephen started tooling up his dudes with gadgets and then out came a QUATERMAN (might even have been two, I can't remember). The Law Dogs and their Robocop allies launched a bloody assault on the fortress that lasted several rounds and saw me lose Butch and Jake, but ended with only a QUATERMAN remaining on the Law Dogs side and at that point Stephen retreated home to rebuild. A second attack followed with a Kidnappin' attempt on Zachary but this was defeated. Stephen then altered his gameplan and started moving to control my deeds, but thankfully I had just enough cash and Nicodemus in my hand. I waited until he'd booted out his shooters then dropped Nic and was able to get just enough control points for the win.

Round 3 vs Scott's Den of Thieves deck

Scott started off with his usual super-aggressive Sloane opening. I played a St. Anthony's Chapel and he started moving across town. I threw a lot of dudes into the fight but Scott had the stronger shootout deck and took out Zachary and Butch and I retreated home. Luckily for me, Scott wasn't drawing his Kidnappin's (instead playing several deeds) and I was able to recover my strength. The game then became a combination of chess moves and scrappy shootouts, and I just edged the luck to take out enough of his influence while controlling enough of his deeds to squeeze a win.

Round 4 vs Dan's Sanatorium deck

Dan had also been undefeated up to this game, and I knew his deck could cause me real trouble if he got the right cards. It was very controlly, with Paralysis Mark, Phantasm and Blood Curse in tandem with Tummy Twister, Backroom Deals and the Tax Office. Oh, let's not forget Puppet too. When I played a Chapel, Dan put a Tummy Twister there. I moved Mazatl over to his Tax Office. He played a Blood Curse, so I played Fire of Nanahbozho on the Tax Office so I'd still have control of it after being cursed. Dan played more deeds and a Tummy Twister on the Tax Office. I sent Butch to catch all the tummy twisters. Next turn, when I declined to pay Butch's upkeep Dan took control of him with Backroom Deals and he chased Mazatl from the Tax Office. Chess moves and hex-based shenanigans ensued, and at some point I was able to catch Steele Archer and remove Dan's annoying hexes and lower his influence in one sweep. Steven Wiles kept him in the game, but he couldn't keep him around indefinitely and I eventually got Nicodemus into play to seal the win.