Sloane CP Accumulation (Montclair Sheriff 3rd place)

I played this in the Montclair Sheriff event on Sept. 26. There were 17 players, and I went 3-2. My only losses were to the 1st & 2nd place players, so I ended up with 3rd.

Its a pretty basic Sloane deck with a splash of control. You want to send Allie Hensman, Barton Everest and Jacqueline Isham to town square and start racking up control points. Ideally Maria Kingsford gets Paralysis Mark and stops your opponent from moving around - you're pretty much guaranteed to succeed on anybody 8 value or lower, which is a huge chunk of starters, and I got lucky with a couple of key pulls to successfully hit Js. Ulysses Marks is there to grab some extra control from a saloon (which are the few low-value cards that risk failing pulls). You can hit a respectable total pretty quickly (ideally before your opponent builds up), and you've got enough stud right from the start to defend yourself, esp. on defense.

In practice it worked pretty well. I'm not sure the "Ulysses in a saloon" strategy makes much difference (it really only came up once out of five games) so I might drop Dead Dog Tavern and Killer Bunnies Casino for either another Kidnappin' or cheaper deeds, since economy was rough at times.

Game 1: vs. Desolation Row

He had a rough start, and I paralyzed José Morales to slow down his options. I ignored his dudes when they ran the job, and pretty soon I had enough CP on the board he had to try to do something about it. Due to Paralysis Mark he didn't have much mobility, I was able to dodge and he was forced into an unfavorable fight that I won. Fun game, 1-0.

Game 2: 108 Righteous Bandits

1st banditslide of the day. He hit me with 3 Rumors on Turn 2, which almost did me in but a combination of running back home & using his Pharmacy to unboot a key dude let me barely hang on. After that momentum went in my direction, especially since I knew the Rumors were gone. He tried to act like his deck could fight, but it was a bluff and I wrapped things up. 2-0.

Game 3: 4th Ring

Pretty standard 4R control, this is the player that ended up in 2nd place. Not many deeds on the board for either of us, we were basically fighting over a Tax Office the entire time since it was the only thing worth CP. Lots of booting & Blood Cursing my dudes, multiple Steven Wiles, and then a fight where my draw structure collapsed - with a Hex Slingin', he beat me by 7 ranks. I managed to hang on for another turn or two, but it was basically game over. 2-1.

Game 4: The Arsenal

A Sister Mary/Reverend Perry deck, running lots of Sword of the Spirit and Consecration. Everybody else hid at home, though, so it was lots of chess trying to avoid fights. The sister eventually came for a booted, wanted Allie with several CP at my home to try to get out of check - I dropped a Steven Wiles once she was already there but before she called Allie out. Tied hand ranks, and It's Not What You Know... (which I had swapped in just before the tournament started) gave me the win. 3-1.

Game 5: 108 Righteous Bandits

This was the deck that went undefeated and won the whole shebang. I knew it was a slide deck, but didn't appreciate just how fast it could pump out deeds. I thought I was in good shape with a turn 1 Kidnappin', but Hamshanks was the only legal target so it didn't actually help much. He flooded the board on turn 2 and (if I remember correctly) hit me with a couple Rumors and that was that. 3-2.