The 7 Rides of Maggie Harris - 6-0 Swiss, Marshall Event 5th

Tournament report European Marshall Event 2016.

Deck: Morgan Stables - The 7 rides of Maggie Harris.

So this is the deck I started designing at the time Yagn's was spoiled. Basically I have been making gadget decks since QUATERMAN and have a love of the added abilities that gives you some edges in shootouts as well as a little bit more of a toolbox approach to different challenges. The values 8, J and Q have always been a staple in this deck, but the home has changed from Morgan Cattle Co. to Morgan Stables. 8's for A Slight Modification as well as 2 great gadgets on value and both Cooke's Nightcap and out of town deeds to start my economy. J's for Jackson's Strike , Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton and Outgunned . Q's for It's Not What You Know... some extra stud by Bio-Charged Neutralizer and the card most used in my decks General Store . Besides the specifics all the values have a load of influence and stud bullets. The total count of influence is a whooping 28(!) letting you compete with both spirit fortresses and slide without relying on your 3 call out actions/mobility: Run 'Em Down!. Throw in a couple of Personal Ornithopters to trigger your home ability and help you against kidnappings and you have a deck able to outgun and out-influence most other decks out there :D

A few notes on the cards and build. I tried with a less tight structure when HLF was at its highest to include more sidekicks (Scoop Hounds and I even had a Mutant Cow running rampant in the deck). It failed miserably. In the initial deck I also started J.W. Byrne instead of Maggie Harris - which gave extra stud and an extra influence (when combined with Yagn's), but the reliability and stability that Maggie gives to the deck is simply too strong. The added economy of starting 6 GR and not spend 3 on upkeep every turn helps as well ;)

Run Em Down is amazing and if you haven't played with this card yet give it a go. Not only is it good for calling out in homes, it gives an extra movement in the chess match and combining it with Morgan Stables gives you the possibility to take main street, draw and discard, and then call out as your second action - if you drew the card you needed, or you can just use the action to saunter by the so-called Eagle Wardens 'blockade'. Remember to move as many gadget riders as you want with this card - thus enabling them to use 'outgunned' for several rounds.

Maggie makes a lot of the deck. Being able to draw the Yagn's and Personal Ornithopters out every round FOR FREE just makes the deck tick. Especially early in the game where you go from 4 to 6 inf by pulling the first Yagn's and have a 4 bullets stud which is pretty intimidating for your opponent. I ended up discarding most of my Yagn's as it was cheaper playing them from my discard pile than from my hand. Oh and equip her with a flamethrower and a personal ornithopter and nobody will stop her job - but she will still be in the shootouts you want later in the turn.

Luke is a knack. Moving that Biocharged Neutraliser or throwing a forcefield into an unexpected kidnapping is bonkers. And he has 2 bullets. Thats 4 stud soon enough...

Of course we all know Specks and Jen, and this build also features Dead Billy because of the bullets and to be able to do a version of the flying zombie against the more resilient shooter decks. Last but not least - the lady of the deck Tallulah "Lula" Morgan (Exp.1) to mass drop influence and Nicodemus Whateley against decks who won't join the barbeque at townsquare.

A few things about Yagn's. This is an incredible card in so many ways. Its extra influence, it triggers J.W. and Jen, it helps in shootouts and the movement game (remember your opponents The Whateley Estate and lowball Coachwhip! cant boot you), it protects against most spells (raising your value and grit) and it protects against kidnapping as it raises your dudes bullets (seriously - EW blockade decks playing without Zachary will have a hard time kidnapping your dudes if they have one of these). Combine it with A Slight Modification, Run Em Down, Maggie or a bunch of other cards out there and go to town.

Of course, this deck relies heavily on you being able to know when to shoot and when not to - as well as reading your opponents deck as you need to know which of your utility cards (clubs) you need to hold on to for the shootouts. Just always be as legal as possible and do the hand rank manipulation afterwards.

A last note on the deck - this is the actual deck I played during the Marshall event, but I thought I had changed it to contain 2 flamethrowers and not 3 forcefields. I discarded forcefields all day long - so I suggest that you are smarter than I and play it with 2 of each in the deck.

EU Marshall Event report:

First of all - thank you so much for arranging the Marshall to Scott, Jimi, Heidi, Jenni, George and Andrew! Best Doomtown tournament so far! And thank you to all my opponents - these were some of the most interesting games I've have ever had. The Danes had brought some Viking Spirits for our opponents as a small friendship gift (which I was happy to see was used in the finals) and with a total number of 5 danes participating I believe we were the biggest group of non-UK drifters coming to town that day. After the initial pleasantries of beating Whizzwangs gadget deck the night before, the games began.

Round 1:

David Avery - Org. Law Dogs

Going into the first match is always exciting especially with a deck like this which I had only tested in the Danish meta. David played some aggressive Law Dogs starting Xiong "Wendy" Cheng , Constance Daughtry , Travis Moone and Jake Smiley as far as I remember. I started by moving Maggie to town square and do my job to pull a Yagn's. He put a deed down and I played General Store and Cooke's Nightcap on each side of my home which he happily camped with Wendy on Cookes and Constance on the General Store while Jake was in the tonw square. The turn after I pulled a Run 'Em Down! and an Outgunned and proceded to run down Wendy and outgunned her and Jake to death.

When Constance was faced with the same prospective she decided that going home would be a better deal. After that my economy ran smoothly and I camped his deeds and took a win in time.

David told me afterwards that he was running 4X Old Fashioned Hangin' and 4X Bounty Hunter without drawing either!

Round 2:

Lee Marshall - MCC LH deck

A little bit more confident in my deck I started by moving Maggie to town square and drawing my Yagn's again. I then proceeded with putting down a General store - which Lee's Irving came sauntering over to. He then used it to play a Legendary Holster on J.W. Byrnes at home. Jen moved to the General store and was called out by Irving. At this point I was holding 'A Slight Modification' in my hand so I accepted and when he played his stakes to pull Byrnes into the fight I slighted him from joining. Luckily he wasn't holding 2! After a brutal gunning down of Irving he was left with 1 influence. The next turn he camped my General store with Byrnes, had Travis at main street and I put down the undertaker. He used my general store to play La Quema and also played Tommy Harden who moved to my undertaker. I moved into the undertaker with Maggie carrying a personal ornithopter and called Tommy out. I hoped to drag Byrnes over there or at least Travis to take control over the Town Square and then Personal Ornithopter out of there. However, Lee read my game and accepted with just Tommy. I decided to stay and drew a cheatin' full house against his cheatin' 4oaK. No punishment from his side and Maggie then Outgunned poor Tommy. At that point I either put down another CP or he had a deed - so he conceded as he had no more inf in his hand.

Round 3 Jason Handy - Eagle Wardens

http://dtdb.co/en/decklist/2157/eagles-marshall-10th-place-straight-flushes-all-round

I was delighted when I saw Jasons start with 0 upkeep and a little stud, as I knew it wasn't the usual EW blockade deck I was facing. With no initial Run Em Down in hand I just began slowly by getting my Yagns out and building my economy. I guess Jason was happy to take it slow as well as he put down a few out of town deeds (High Stakes here we come!). A quick check of his discard pile confirmed what I thought - he was running Coming Up Roses - which meant no (or very little) kidnappin'. I booted Irving out to the High Stakes to stiffle his economy and just place some solid studs on main street. Jason continued putting down dudes and when he felt comfortable he came out to join the party. I immediately called him out and the dance began. The next 3 days we were shootin'. I would turn on my flamethrower, show a legal 4oaK and outgun him, he would show a straight flush or a straight and play Coming Up Roses. In the end I had played 4 Outgunned over 3 days and diminished his pile of dudes so he couldn't win, time was coming up and he conceded. I loved his deck and as he said he wasn't expecting to meet anyone able to do a legal 5oaK again and again. I hope Jason will adjust the deck and it will tear up the UK meta.

Round 4 Dan Knight - Eagle Wardens

http://dtdb.co/en/decklist/2158/eu-marshal-2016-ew-blockade-top-8

Dan was playing some kind of wannabe shooter deck imitating another shooter deck by someone named David Hammock or the like ;P Dan and I have a love of gadgets and he is one of the great players in Doomtown - so I knew I would be in for an exciting match.

I decided to show Dan how a real shooter deck works and as I was holding a Run Em Down and some A Slight in hand I immediately used my starting Yagn's to run him over when he came to town square and start shootin'. To be fair I knew Dan's deck from dtdb.co and Benni from Denmark whom I spar against a lot (@doowa) was playing a similar deck except for exchanging the 6's for 10s ( http://dtdb.co/en/decklist/2149/harrowed-blockade-v-2-eu-marshall-top-8# ) - so I knew that I needed to stifle his card draw as much as possible and hurt his economy (EW is an expensive outfit). We exchanged blows and Dan fell back from main street. The opposite happened the day after. And I took back town square at day 3. Besides the shootout shenanigans this effectively stopped Dan from concentrating on stopping my income which led me to get superior influence, bullets and a few Marty's in place which in the end led me to be able to out attrition him in the final shootout (the only shootout where I willingly made an illegal 5oaK to ensure that I took out a dude, it also cost me a 5stud coachwhipped Lane Healy but you know, to make eggs you need to throw someone under a train or something). A little before time during the shootout Dan realized he couldn't win the attrition war and conceded the game.

Round 5 David Hogg - 108 Worldly Desires DMH

http://dtdb.co/en/decklist/2151/108-worldly-dead-man-s-handits-1-2-eu-marshal-2nd-place

Great to meet David at last as he is one of the friendliest and most active on the diverse foras of Doomtown. As I see it there are 3 great gunslinging outfits at the moment (besides stables). Den of Thieves (expect attrition and heavy cheatin'), EW blockade (card draw advantage and harrowing) and 108 Worldly Desires (lowball advantage and extra stud). There is no doubt in my mind that 108 Worldly desires is the most annoying of the three to play against as losing lowball EVERY TURN is extremely challenging for some decks. David decided that he needed to be aggressive against my deck and I decided I needed to teach him how we MCC handles aggressive 108. Luckily for me a forcefield and outgunned halted his initial assault and cost him some dudes and he changed tactics to camping influence at my out of town deeds and placed the ogre at my Undertakers. He then proceeded to either have Steven, Daomei or a Hired Guns in hand for the next turns thus slowly halting my aggression against him. We were nearing time and although I had the upper hand at the moment I feared a last turn Steven would swing it. Luckily I had held on to Lula and at last the economy of my deck kicked in and I was able to play her as last play just after he had played his Steven Wiles winning me the game on time. Good game and excellent chess matching!

Round 6 Vince Turner - EW - BtV

http://dtdb.co/en/decklist/2150/mooooonteeeee-baaaaaank-eu-2016-marshall-winning-deck

Going into round 6 I had an idea that the fine looking gentleman on the opposite side of the table would be sporting some kind of fortress deck. And indeed it was. However, an early Kidnappin' in his lowball showed me to be aware of the Kidnappin' and Mariel combo so I was careful not to let my studs run too far away from the other guys. Vince was kind enough to accept my invitation by horse to a shootout in his home annd we exchanged a few dudes for fun. Slowly I got set up on my side of the street while he did the same in his Silver pheasant feathered spiritual hideout. He tries a kidnapping against Irving which fails as he miscounts the influence he needs to use Mariel - but I was holding A Slight, just to slight him for trying to kidnap one of the good cattle people. He lost a few dudes, which was a nice boost to my economy. Just before 10 minutes was called Nic hit the table on his side and I was put into the dilemma I always have with this deck against Fortress decks. I was sitting with a Run Em Down and could run into his home and start shootin' Nic to pieces, but he only needed to survive first round, then he would just boot home. I decided to leave his Nic alone and concentrate on getting my own Nic and influence in play. He had a good economy with Silver and enough dudes to play 9 CPs against my 8 influence but I had again kept Lula in hand and saved up for her - so when he booted out I played her and with enough CPs she had no upkeep. The next turns we both just played dudes and deeds and I got my own Nic out for the REAL election. The difference was I had more CPs on deeds - he had more dudes to boot. In the end we counted CPs and Influence and we both hit a combined 23 inf + CPs, with me having 1 more CP. Tight and great match! To be honest I don't know who would have won if we had more time. He had more dudes to boot, I had 2 CP on hand and a few more dudes as well I think. I would love to play Vince next year as well!

Well - I was number 1. Going 6-0 against some of the greatest players in the world felt pretty sweet. I decided I needed to think less and play some Blood Rage to forget the chess matching of the day, but it was still 3 am before I got some sleep...

Top 8:

Leonard smith 108 Worldly Desires - LH

http://dtdb.co/en/decklist/2127/cambridge-deputy-kit-winner-108-legendary-desires

I didn't know Leonard but he told me this was his first Doomtown tournament, although he had been playing Magic before. Well done! Ah well... I finally met my old nemesis. The clogged hand. I drew a handful of gadgets and lost both my jokers in Lowball (which he of course still won). Then he played LH and danced out on main street with Ramiro. I tried getting rid of the hand by playing some of the gadgets but just drew into other gadgets day 2. Day three I finally saw the General Store which Ramiro promptly took over. With 4 A Slight in my discard pile Leonard smartly locked me down and with no deeds and no way to empty my hand I was just camping his deeds to avoid losing and he was happy just to let time pass as he was winning. In the end there was no way I could stop the momentum he had gained by using my lack of deeds to be in control of the game the first four or five days - so I conceded before time. Well played by Leonard and I hope I'll get a chance for a rematch another day!

So all in all I ended up on a 5th place. I was very happy about the games - except the last, which could have been much more exciting if my hand hadn't been clogged, but that's why you normally bring Travis. It had been a great tournament and a very tired Danish team watched the finals, cheered for the winner and went home after having rampaged around the British isles once again.

So, afterthoughts.

Maggie - during my second game (I think) my opponent challenged my use of Maggie to trigger Stables react. We consulted the judge and his call was that Maggie did trigger it. In a later match it was challenged again and time was halted. The head judge and organizer had to review the rules forum which after 8 minutes of failing to get a ruling they had to make a judgment call, and in order of fairness it would have to stand for the whole event, and they ruled Maggie to trigger the stables react. However, after the event I have consulted the rules team and have been discussing the workings of it and the correct ruling is that Maggie should NOT trigger the stables react as it is the job that moves her, not her ability. This does not diminish her usefulness in the deck but it does give food for thoughts on how to trigger the stables - the ceremonial call out from Irving with an ornithopter should do this nicely. Run Em Down works as well, as does Dead Billy.

Travis - I will bring a Travis in my deck for any tournament going forward where there is elimination rounds. I wouldn't start him before the elimination rounds but it is too important to have a workable starting hand in these rounds. I would exchange him for Luke in those matches. Not sure what would need to go though...

Warren Graves - get rid of him. Never played him once as he is too expensive. He will work nicely in another deck with A Piece of the Action though...

Includes - might want to include a single Flight of The Lepus to hit EW decks or the like with kicking out their shaman dudes before outgunning them.

Alternative builds - db0 suggested Point Blank which I am all for, but it would be instead of something else and I wouldn't like to destroy the draw structure too much. It might also work quite well with 10 as one of the main values - those unprepared are quite sweet :D

I think that's it. This is a very vey consistently good deck. It has a few weaknesses but they can be played around and when its up and running it is extremely hard to stop. And with the right cards you can be running from day 1. Good luck!