108 Righteous Moves (Manchester Tombstone Winner 25-08-18)

a.k.a Chess Overkill!

One of the things that The 108 Righteous Bandits do well is play the movement game. Between the home and Asakichi Cooke you have a good base for moving dudes around and forcing opponents to move out of position to chase after them. Add some horses and support cards to that and you've got a deck concept. I've built 108 Horse decks before but never taken one to an event, so when casting around for something new to play at Manchester I figured it was time to give it a go.

While the deck is structured to shoot, due to the general lack of stud bullets the first few days should be spent building up and taking opportunities to frustrate your opponent with movement plays. Steven Wiles will help with aggressive pushes, ideally with backup stud from "Mahogany" Jackson, Shi Long Peng and Carlton "Min" Rutherford. Mostly you want to try and fight on your terms, picking on opposing dudes with little support. Pistol Whip can tip the balance even more in your favour by removing a stud or a bullet catcher.

Against most opponents you should be safe building up your street as you have a healthy amount of influence and zero starting upkeep so can still get by with an opponent camped on your deed early game. Ideally Agent Provocateur should stick around providing home defense until she can replace herself with one of your mobile stud dudes.

This deck would probably benefit from the inclusion of Raven. I have to admit I didn't think of doing so until I got to the venue. Ridden Down could probably be swapped out for a different 8, as the only times I saw it in my hand were when I didn't have any horses in play.

Thanks to Fanboy3 and everyone who turned up as I had some really good games. Due to scheduling mix-ups and train strikes only five of us made it out, so we played round-robin to ensure a full afternoon of Doomtown.

Round 1 vs Russell's Gateway To Beyond

Russell was playing a Spirit deck with a lot of moving parts. After a bit of building up on both sides I played Hunter Protections and used it to place a control point on Hiram. Mazatl moved over there and became the new target of the Run 'Em Down! I was setting up for. With the lone shaman trampled under hoof I retreated home and then another shaman moved in to plant a Tse-Che-Nako's Weaving, shutting down my control-generating plan by keeping the deed booted. A lot of chess moves followed, and I managed to set up a Epitaph Branch Office and get a control point on Asakichi Cooke with it. Having Steven Wiles standing watch over her in Russell's home kept her safe. I had the economy to keep Steven around but Russell eventually called him out and I didn't draw a good hand, sending him to Boot Hill. We were nearing time and Butch Deuces launched a desperate Kidnappin' attempt on Asakichi which paid off, but at the end of the game I was still ahead on points thanks to owning more deeds after some tactical Pistol Whipping earlier on.

Round 2 vs Jamie's Sloane Gang

Jamie was playing a fairly straightforward town square blitz deck. I switched Hiram out of my start for Androcles Brocklehurst for the extra influence, which certainly helped me last a little longer. An early attempt to take out Allie Hensman failed, but I managed to win a close shootout and remove Lawrence Blackwood from my Circle M Ranch which bought me more time. I tried to keep Barton Everest out of the way so I could attack the CP-laden dudes in town square again but the arrival of Ramiro Mendoza made my job harder. I thought I'd managed to dodge them but a Stakes Just Rose brought Bad Company Barton into the shootout. His trait cancelled out the Inner Struggle attached to Jamie's home and a cheatin' 5oaK was enough to send some of my influence to the discard pile. A brave/desperate solo attempt by Emre, The Turkish Bear to take out Allie also failed and that was game.

Round 3 - Bye

Round 4 vs Dan Knight's 108 Drunken Masters

Dan was playing his old Worldly Desires straight flush deck out of a different home. I knew the key to winning would be preventing Xui Yin Chen from making his horde of draw dudes into studs, so I needed Run 'Em Down! and Pistol Whip. Luckily both were in my opening hand. Dan saw this coming and the moment I played a horse Xui Yin moved out of town square. I rode in and called out Randall, predictably Xui Yin moved in with The Stakes Just Rose and I Pistol Whipped her away. Dan thought he'd even the odds by Pistol Whipping my stud away but having not played for a while he'd got his whips mixed up and misread a Coachwhip! as a Pistol Whip. This error led to a decisive shootout victory for me.

With it being a quick game we played a rematch. This time when I made my move on town square Dan actually had a Pistol Whip. The loss of stud forced me to go with a Cheatin' hand that was hit with a Bottom Dealin' causing the game to go the other way.

Round 5 vs David Kitkat's Law Dogs

From chatting to David before the event I knew he was playing one of Harlath's Law Dogs decks so I had some idea of what to expect. Even without that information, when his first play was giving a Fancy New Hat to "Thunder Boy" Nabbe I'd probably have twigged what his deck was doing. Thankfully for me he didn't draw any Bounty Hunters!

A couple of times I managed to get into a town square shootout without any bounties on my side and a Pistol Whip to get rid of Willa Mae MacGowan only for David to draw a legal 4oaK with a joker. While it was a mistake on my part not to switch Hamshanks into my starting posse vs Law Dogs, he showed up early and followed Carlton "Min" Rutherford everywhere (except into shootouts) to protect him from gaining bounty.

David had several deeds in play and I was also building up my street, with Charlie's Place being my key location where Hamshanks and Carlton would hang out. The +2 bullets were a great help in securing good draw hands, and also helped me not lose spectacularly in one shootout. My best option was a cheatin' full house but I was up against Tommy Harden and I was sure David had a cheatin' resolution in his hand. I went with a LeMat Revolver three pair against a 4oaK. Acing Xiaodan Li was an acceptable loss that could have been far worse.

Eventually I gained the positioning advantage. Again it was Pistol Whip that won me the game, using it to boot David's remaining influence home and allowing me to claim all his deeds.