Spirit move you, Manchester Epitaph sort of winner
VinceTurner 264
The sort of winner of the Manchester Epitaph. Game plan is to try and drag the opponent all over the place until ou manage to get an isolated booted dude then launch Gene at them via Sue. I'd been thinking about something like this for a while, then my friend Russ took something very similar to the London Epitaph and can back with a favourable report, spurring me to finish it off!
Round 1 Dan - Beyond the Veil 0-1 Dan was playing a tricksy Beyond the Veil deck. Obviously things became complicated once we both Spirit Trailed our homes. Sadly my deck failed to draw a deed for the first half dozen turns, clogging my hand and forcing me to get Geen out the way just to get economy stable. Dan on the other hand dropped half the totems in his deck on his Railroad. Some inconclusive shootouts occured, then Dan dropped the Chief. The between us the CHief had a ludicrous amount of control points, and without Gene I couldn't carry the town square fight.
ROund 2 Kirsty - 108 Righteous Bandits. 1-1 Kirsty was playing with Righteous Blesseds. Early days saw us chasing each other all over town, Asacichi and the home on one side and Mazatl and totems on the other, plus both playing a Railroad led to a lot of movement each turn! Amazing Grace was also a pain as it meant I was consistently losing control of my own deeds with no way to get them back. Eventually however I managed to corner Kirsty into a shootout, and although martyr's cry soaked all the casualties a Point Blank still took an ablative dude out. I think Kirsty made a play error at this point and stayed in the fight - despite signalling she had no cheating resolutions. Another five of a kind blew away the rest of her posse and gave me the win.
Round 3 Paul - Protection Racket 2-1 Early doors first turn saw Pancho, Emilia Vivaras and Allie try their hand against Gene and Mazatl. Sadly for them, my starting hand had a Point Blank and two INWYK (and I's won lowball). After Paul cheated all three hit Boot Hill in a single round, leaving Clem on her own at the Joker's Smile to try and stave off defeat. I camped the Smile to gain control and tried frantically to dig for some deeds to win, whilst Paul had cash a plenty but was looking for dudes. Eventually the Amzing Mongau came out, got a couple of hexs and a Legendary Holster. At which point I promptly ran away fromthe Smile and waited to win lowball. I managed that then jumped all over Mongwau with the Unprepared. He went down and before Paul found another dude, I managed to get the third control point to give me game.
Round 4 Lee 3-1 - Morgan Stables Lee was running tricks to get the Legendary + La Quema on JW. First turn however he reasoned JW, Longstride and Irving would be enough to take out Gene and Mazatl when I moved to take his Pony Express (honestly my hand was poor, and I just wanted to use the abililty next turn - plus deny cash). As it happened I had the Nightmare in hand, turning all his dudes into weak draws. In the end all he got was two pair, whilst I legal 4oak-ed. Between the two deeds he'd played and my one, there was enough influence to make it a turn one victory.
Cut to top 2 Me and Lee again. We'd already played a second friendly whilst we'd waited for the others (Lee won, he got the Holster and there wasn't much I could do to get it off despite all kinds of call out shennigans). As Lee had a long way to go to get home, and having just played again - a gentleman's agreement was made. Technically I think I may have won by default of it being my home sicty so I had all the time in the world to wait!
At the end of the day, it was a nice deck to play as a change from the recent ones but I'd suggest for a major tourney it lacks the answers to some common problems or consistency I'd want.
On the other hand both Lee and Paul arguably made play errors in their first turns in getting into a fight with me, and it demonstrated it could be quite devasting with all the resolution off just a single round...
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| Aug 06, 2017 NuFenix |
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Aug 07, 2017
Harlath
Good to see other ideas being explored in Eagle Warden, just like last week's tournaments. Appreciate your comment that this doesn't have the resilience/consistency of Spirit Fortress, but it looks more interesting to against play and pilot! Maybe Cavalry Escort (once the next set is out) could help upgrade this in major tournaments by giving further protection (on top of the 3x Pedro) against cavalry decks? Nightmare at Noon can be brutal, glad to see it coming through strongly in a decisive moment. I like the Hupirika Sue, Gene North Star, Spirit Trail and Point Blank combo. It sounds like a lot of cards, but two start in play and the totem can sit around in play waiting for a Point Blank. Well done on dipping for the line to give EW a win in the last Epitaph event and for doing it with something a bit different. |
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Aug 07, 2017
VinceTurner
I think if I was that worried about cavalry decks it'd be a better option to change to 2Unprepared and 2No Funny Stuff (or whatever the headline on 10 is) and up the Nightmare to 2 as well. I think if you're that bothered by cavalry your better served countering it via deploying your own headline first than trying to out horse them. Pedro doesn't hurt versus cavalry decks, but it's mainly there so you can't kick Gene out the shootout (in the same way the peacemaker is so you can't make him a draw). Oh - And Point Blank also works with 'any Shaman + Ghostly Communion shootout react', but sadly you miss the Sue react on that. But the noon ability would work with Sue + Gene. SO yeah, I was never short of the right cards for the combo but sometimes Gene got Unprepared and other times the deck's tendency to pull legal 4s when using Gene + Sue made it irrelevant! Lee - not sure it was a monumental mistake. Did you have to do it? Probably not. But how many times do you expect in the first turn to enter a shootout on roughly parity in terms of bullets/studs etc. and lose all three members of your posse in one round? I'd wager most times you loose some ablative chaff, and then go home. In this case, I happened to have possibly the card with the greatest swing potential in hand, your deck decided to spit out almost the worst hand it could whilst mine gave me fairly decent legal option from 2 stud/1 draw. Mistake? Maybe, depends on what your hand was looking like - maybe you were needing to cycle as bad as I was or needed the cash. It only looks a horrendous one in hindsight because of the outcome! |
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Aug 07, 2017
VinceTurner
Oh... and sac. the communion to Gene's ability after you use it if he's not high enough stud to do the job :D |
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Aug 08, 2017
Harlath
Thanks for your thoughtful response Vince, apologies for my delayed reply (I'm not getting dtdb email notifications, have raised the issue with our team!). I'm generally a bit nervous trying to beat horse decks to headlines as they're often on lower values than the headlines I'd want to play, so I worry they'll win low-ball (assuming similar draw structures). This is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Shan Fan Showdown! and any subsequent lower value headlines. :) |
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Aug 10, 2017
VinceTurner
One thing I note with many cavalry decks is that their first shootout action isn't always Calling the Cavalry. Sometimes it takes a bit of finesse to create the shootout at the time it suits you, so their action is a positioning one. Or it's about having an potential huge on table swing they need to deal with first - Mariel/Legendary. I've managed it more than a few times even when they had the Cavalry in hand and one lowball to get mine in first simply because without the knowledge I have a Headline in hand the logical course is something else first. All that beat said - Shan Fan seems really good! Not that A Fight doesn't look hilarious with Stone anyway... |
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Aug 11, 2017
Harlath
That is a good way to think about things - put another threat on the table with a strong action so they want to deal with that before playing their headline. |
Such a monumental mistake on my part to even try and fight before I had my toys in our real game. I should have just let you have the deed, build up, and accept what was going on.
But I didn't expect the game to go how it did, and you justly won. At least I got to see your deck in action with our fun game :)