UK WWE Marshall 51 Dogs - 2nd Place

So this was the deck from today at the UK Marshall that ended up undefeaed in the swiss but lost in the final.

The deck is based around trying to deploy what I consider some of the highest effectiveness hearts swiftly, to create extremely unfair board states and shootouts. Ecah card is decent in it own right, but often two part synergises with others to create intricate engines. IT isn't particularly interested in going deep on bounties - just wants engouh to turn Nabbe and Vamoosin on, and anythign extra gets turned into filter via the home.

Your economy needs a bit of safeguarded as the dudes in the deck aren't cheap and you also have to usually pay full whack for the gadges too. But hopefully a reasonably tooled up Nabbe should deter too much interference.

Values wise you're 12/13/13, so the first time round your deck before you pull the off values out and on to the table you're usually chucking out pairs and two pairs (usually legal) during lowball, and by far and away unless you get let loose on the studs you will be looking at a legal full house in most shootouts.

So here's the games:

1 - Dan - SPiritual Society Tale of this match up was DAn did not get a deed early on, a Pat's PErh turned up late. Being pressured on teh ghost rock I feel hurt them as from my own plays of Eale Wardens I know they have good dudes but expensive upkeeps - we talked abotu afterwards how lack of SIlver Pheasants Bounty really hurts their economy (the eagle eyed will notice this is the first non-Eagle Wardens deck I've played since winning the 2016 Marshall with SPirit Fortress :P).

Anyway, I let Dan take the town square and get the extra card finesse fro the home and Alexander - turtling at home for a bit and defending my deeds whilst I built up the Hearts arsenal on my dudes and my economy. With Mariel in the starting posse, I needed to secure a Yagn's to be sure of Nabbe sticking around. COnsistently winning lowball let me keep the ghost rokc flowing on my side and them strapped. Eventually my dudes were a bit more prepared so I moved out into town square. The first scuffle wasn't really conclusive but it got alexander sent home. The next turn the lead really flew, their star shooter in Zachary (a lot of hats made them quite powerful) got vamoosed eating into their draw, when the lead stopped flying there were a lot less Eagle Wardens on the table and enough control points to clinch the game.

Round 2 - Dave Property is theft - a lot of card draw and filter in and out of shootouts to try and craft a hand full of shootouts plays that leads to large enough stud bonus to draw a stragiht flush in clubs.

They put an Attorney out first turn, that basically turned off my bounty generation fora while - you can just about manage a Nabbe activation if Yaple can drop a bounty on them start of shootout, but consistently staying in their turn was not going to happen.

They move their team around to grab town square and turn Randall on. I'm a bit wary of Felix to start with and the large stud they could have - so they get a fair few turns of finessing their hand whilst I build up. FOrtuantely even with influence on my deeds I can still get enough GR to function.

Once ready I walk out intot town square to start something.. a lot of shenanningans come my way from Pistol Whip, Faster ont eh Draw, Sun in Your Eyes... but thanks to Nabbe having the Yagns/Hydro puncher combo that stick it out through the barrage, and I keep the Nabbe activation in reserve to turn stud after the sun in your eyes is deployed.

End result of the ludicrous stud on their side and respectabel o mine is I t for a cheating 5 rather than a legal full house, they get the stragith flush. Up one to me, but a Coming up Roses changes their straight flush to a identical straight flush but now a +2 hand rank. Oh well, I lose a spare Mad sctientist and go home. No-one has anywher enear enough control points to get over each other moutnian of influence so no risk. Next turn go again as time is called- but this time a Vamoosin sends Felix home. A well timed Knightmare also locks Dave out of their headline. My deck chuck a four of a kind legal at me... Dave's craps out and delviers a two pair. After casualties are resolved, there's not enough influence left to cover my contol any more so win to me.

ROund 3 - Dan Original Law Dogs shooter (without so many convuluted skilled tricks as me). First turn Attorney is annoying, but when my Nabbe gets Hydro/Yagn combo and marches to town swaure their Nabbe can onyl counter with Peacemaker.

Essentially this is the tale of this game, we're both buildinf and deploying but I keep them out of town square and squat on their Attorneys by brute force of my goods/spells being more unfair than theirs. My economy is also running better - I manage to pull of the Maggie trick to grab a Yagns.

A mid game atemtp to old fashioned Hangin her gets hwarted by everyone coming back to defend - and then Nabe getting dragged in with a Walk the Path. Ends in a draw on 4 of a kind legal despite my better stud bonus (because 5 of a kind isn't actually that easy for this deck) - so I simply discard Maggie and Dan discards their bullet catcer too before wisely runnign away home from my statistially more powerful posse.

The next couple of turns though see both Clive and Deborah deploy as well as a return of Maggie - plus gadgets everywhere. My influence is colossal, but there's is more than enough to hold off my limited control. Potentially I could move Clive into the their home and force a call out (there's a lot of bounty over there from the job and my control of the attorney as well as home). But the net result would likely be my dudes pulled out of position and booted. Witht eh clock runnign down, I was happy to just continue building by influence and knowing that it was going to have to be Dan to come out of home eventually and get a load of booted dudes if they wanted to avoid the time out.

They provacateur their Wendy in, so this happens. Shannanigans occur as half my team is Yagns - so Clive goes home but is dragged right back with Walk the Path. I kick their Tommy Harden out with a Vamoosin, they bounc back with a Stakes - so I punch their dog before it eats one of my goods. Time is called, I roll witha legal full house. Their Cheating 5 meets a Ricochet - so Nabbe is in bin and I take no casualties. End shootout and go home - win due to both more control and influence.

Final - Dave Property is theft again as per prevous. Final is a timed best of one - so feeling okay due to previous win. FIrst hand has a Ricochet and a Unprepared in it, and I win low ball. But rest of hand is pretty trash outside a deed for some cash. Dave deploys felix to TS on their own and boots to card dilter vai action. I move out. I make a mistake here - I should have called Felix out immediately n order to unprepared them whilst I have winner. Instead I move some dudes in to acvoid booting - neglecting that Asakichi can just discard a card to move Delix home. Dave does this right before I can call out - there was a solid opportunity there to remove the most troubelsome dude from play. Annoyed at myself we go to the next turn - my deck deliver more trash to me, a second ricoshet and a Shan Fan. My hand is starting to get clogged and whilst Nabbe has a puncher he doesn't have a Yagns. More posturing in town sqaure leads to a call out on Nabbe. Whcih I accept - in hindsight I'm reacting to my misplay lat turn. Dave now has winner and a ton of unbooted dude in TS - this is not the same situation. Low and behonld - Nabbe eats a Pistol WHip due to no yagns. Yaple and the Father then go down to a stragiht flush as the best by 6 cards deliver is a two pair.

On the roeps a bit as down to 3 influence and one is a Agent. But huge cash reserve so just need any dude really. GO to next turn - miracle and deed I cannot play (as control would lose me the game most likely) and unprepared. Utter trash for this scenario. Nabbe moves into my Surveyor's to prevent the check after dave plays his third control and moves asakichi to my sureyors. This starts the inevitable ight. If Dave can retain control of that deed they win as I have no influience in hand. Goodengou boots to join - perhaps a mistake. Anyway, Nabbe eats another pistol Whip. Felix gets Unprepared, so Dave has very low stud. I have top five, which deliver a surpising 4 of a kind. Win by one casualty in the end.

But... Dave doesn't discard Randall - so despite all his team going home booted - he can use Askakichi to move randall to my office and take the control. Goodenough is there but booted so can do nothing and that's the loss. I feel like that was lost due to two mistakes on my part - not jumping on Feix turn one when I could, and then letting that cloud my judgement and get into a fight turn two without Yagn's cover on Nabbe. Oh well.

Changes I would make... Ditch the Shan Fan for a Vamoosin - removal of key dudes from shootouts trups hadn rank manipilation denial at the moment. Ditch the Jaels - theres enough cheatin punishment already, and I never felt happy to see it. 4 Walk the Path seems fine. In fact, there's an entire argument to pivot the 9s into K. Consecration is in someways defeatist in that it pushes the opponent out of risking a Ricoshet unless you tirggered it in lowball. The spades and diamonds aren't great - and you're already sitting on Ks in clubs and hearts that could be pushed higher.

But given I havent played in three years, overall I'm quite happy I managed to put something together and come so close to a second Marshall. Always next year hopefully.