Totem? DMH Near Killed 'Em - GenCon Marshal Runner-Up

Surprising nobody more than myself, somehow this deck managed to sit down at the final "table" of this year's online GenCon tournament. If you like being anxious about starting GR, have I got the deck for you.

I came to this deck because I wanted to run Office of Ancestral Affairs. I hate having a core card with functionality I'm not exploiting, so that restricted me to Shaman right away. Finally, I asked myself if OoAA could thin out my discard quickly enough to play a consistent DMH.

Office of Ancestral Affairs - The only real path to victory if you need more than a few points. The deeds in this deck mostly have high economy and low CP. The hope was that I wouldn't have to commit to something that could lose me the game until I was ready to use the home. I never, ever, ever, ever, ever ran this when it could be contested.

Alexander - First card that goes in every FP deck and usually the last card to leave the starting gang. Hard to say more.

Tsintah - Shaman that can be a stud if you get a totem or a Spirit, but no upkeep.

Black Elk - 4x Hired Guns plus Black Elk XP being on-value to support DMH made Black Elk the best value return for the starters. I always got him out. He always made a huge difference. He can solo the OoAA job. He's a 3 bullet bonus reservoir for Doc Holliday.

Eva Bright Eyes - Doc Holliday's dark apprentice. This poor little girl has encouraged more murder in this deck than I care to admit. Supposedly a bullet catcher but almost as often she's a backup Shaman to keep Silver Phesant's Bounty generating income, or sending people on tasks with Spirit Trail.

Lydia Bear-Hands - Boo. Boring. Meh. If I put Turtle's Guard on her I can boot it for Turtle's Guard for one dude forever instead of all my dudes now. 2 inf/0upkeep stays at home and keeps me alive.

Doc Holliday - When I ended up with 1 wealth, 3 income, and 5 inf with two high skills in the starting gang, that extra GR felt best as insurance against bullet reduction. Doc Holliday makes Enapay or Tsintah shoot as hard as Steven Wiles with the same buff.

MVPs

Hired Guns/Steven Wiles/Daomei Wang/Black Elk XP - This was surprisingly effective at keeping me flush with stud on top of a huge base of influence with zero upkeep. Bringing 2 studs to a fight usually guarantees landing Doc's buff.

Chief Stephen - OoAA and Stephen are highly effective together. He was relevant in about half of my wins. He can solo the job. Allie on the other hand only showed up once and that was alongside Stephen.

Maza Gang Hideout - Solo OoAA job when my opponent is in town square? Yes please. This was a late change to the deck, it was always the deed I wanted to see first. Got up to +7GR once with the help of The Place and some Spirit Trails.

LVPs

Turtle's Guard - I know this sounds insane because it's so good on its own. For this particular deck, I think I always wanted another Sun-Touched Raven when I used it. Once the deck got going, most of the time I found myself dealing with 1 casualty when I had them.

Outgunned - I guess I thought it would shore up my earlier FH, 4oaK hands with my big Doc Holliday bonus. I never played it.

Cooke's Nightcap - Since OoAA just takes the liability of this card and turns it into a normal deed with insane economy, I thought I couldn't go wrong. It's on value, too! It wasn't ever worth playing unless it was my first deed.

Still Undecided

Aces - Despite gushing above, spells and DMH are not fast friends. This last version of this deck only ran utility totems specifically because I could afford to fail most of the pulls. Eva can't fix any of the Ace pulls. I'll seriously consider something other than Sun-Touched Ravens (or Turtle's Guard) for the future.

Ike's Place - 3 cost meant I couldn't play it in my opening hand if lowball went poorly. Using it to stack extra points was fun and put pressure on if I could defend it, but it was even more painful to watch it shut down my Silver Phesant's and other buffed deed. A version of this deck that can play/defend this from turn 1 could probably do something interesting with it and one other deed.

In the end, my spotty DMH draws (every other hand with 5oaK) could not conquer 19/0 drawing DMH every turn. This deck also lost pretty badly to decks that could blitz turn 1 in the two preceding tournaments.