Death-touched Raven II (Copenhagen Peacekeeper)

This was the deck that got me a close second place this weekend at the Peacekeeper event in Copenhagen. With six players, we decided to play round-robin to get a few more games in.

Like Thomas, who has posted the deck that got him a 3rd place, I was expecting to see quite a bit of hand rank manipulation. So to counter that, I planned to use a combination of blocking it with Shan Fan Showdown! and aiming for Dead Man's Hand, to ensure that even if they got some manipulation through I had a chance of matching or beating their hands. The deck aims to cycle through as many cards as possible, putting as many non-DMH cards on the table as it can.

My first game was against Patrick's The Arsenal. He got a load of gadgets into play pretty quick, but while he was building up I managed to cycle through some cards and get one of my 0-cost deeds that I used as a target for Establishin' Who's in Charge. By the time we started shooting, I had a couple of Rapiers, which only meant that Patrick couldn't use both of his Electrostatic Pump Guns. However, I still managed to pull of a Dead Man's Hand, using both of my Jokers (red). I believe that was where Patrick lost his Willa Mae MacGowan, while I managed to hold on to mine the entire game, giving me more freedom to enter risky shootouts. Some minor skirmishes followed, where Patrick generally had a Pedro on Tommy Harden, to keep him in the shootout and cover minor casualties, while I seemed to have Steven Wiles for whenever I took a casualty. However, during that time I managed to get a few more deeds and add two more control points with Establishin', for a total of 5 CP. Meanwhile, Patrick didn't have much luck finding deeds, so eventually I managed to whittle away a dude or two and close the game.

Second game was against Henrik, a relatively new recruit who was using the new Fourth Ring starter deck. I don't remember that much from this game, apart from letting a Curse of Failure go through on Mazatl so I could corner Valeria Batten for a favorable trade. And I'm pretty sure I hit a DMH again, since I got at least one of those in all but the last of my games.

After this we had an internal matter to settle as I faced Benni's First People deck. He started more High Noon influence than I did, thanks to Enapay, meaning he would be able to use Mariel Lewis and I wouldn't, so I had to let him take Town Square. Instead we maneuvered around a bit while building up our streets. Eventually I was able to send Butch Deuces against his Enapay at my General Store, giving me three ghost rock from The Gomorra Gazette, a new hand of cards with Baijiu Jar and then withdrawing from the fight with The Highbinder Hotel. This gave me some momentum, and from then on I seemed to have Steven ready whenever we needed to send our Mariels against each other. Now I was able to pressure Benni, winning whatever shootouts occured, until he ended up booted at home, and I could take over enough CP to win.

The fourth game was a quick one, against Thomas and his Outlaws. Thomas started by booting a couple of dudes in Town Square, in what turned out to be a trap, intended to lure me into an early shootout where he would be able to use his hand of clubs. After his Willa Pistol Whipped my early Steven home, I decided to send her home with Mariel, hoping that if I managed to win, he would have to take Jake or Angélica as casualties. Thomas was betting hard on winning too it seemed, since he used both his Grim Servant O' Deaths to bolster Angélica, rather than bring Willa back. However, I managed a Dead Man's Hand against his cheating Full House, effectively winning me the game.

The last game was against Anders, another The Fourth Ring deck. He had won three games and lost one, while I had won four, so this game would decide the winner of the tournament. As his grift, Anders used Funtime Freddy to give me a choice between letting him have Soul Blast or Puppet. I chose Puppet as the lesser evil, and Anders quickly loaded up with Phantasm and Shadow Walk as well. Due to the hexes I was reluctant to go to town square for my card draw. I played a few deeds, with Gomorra Lot Commission helping me cycle any ones I didn't dare play for fear of leaving too many CP to allow Anders a sudden win. Instead, he proceeded to slowly grind through my dudes, taking them over one by one, then letting them fall in shootouts. At one point, Ivor Hawley (Exp.1) showed up, bringing back Funtime Freddy and the Soul Blast, but he quickly had to skip town since he couldn't pay the California Tax Office which I had been carefully not using, hoping Anders would forget about it so I could catch Leon if he ran out of GR. By the time the ten minute warning was called, both Leon and Valeria each had a Puppet, a Shadow Walk and at least one Phantasm, and Leon was camping in my home. The last two or three turns I had only been able to hold on by repeatedly hiring Steven, with Mariel being my only other dude, kept somewhat safer by her Rapier's bonus to her grit. I chose to play Francisco Rosales before my Steven of the day, not wanting to risk Steven getting Puppeted. With Fransisco taken over, Steven instead got booted by Leon, Blood Cursed, Phantasmed to Town Square and then became the victim of vicious Rumors. At this point, I thought I'd lost, until I recalled that Mariel was carrying a Baijiu Jar. I quickly checked Anders' deeds and found that she was right where she needed to be, at his Explorer's Lodge. Since I couldn't leave the deed without loosing the game, this made a shootout inevitable. After having sent the first of his dudes that came calling out into Town Square, I called out the next one who showed up. Unfortunately, Anders was in a better position. While I was able to send Freddy home, he Shadow Walked both Valeria and Leon in. What was worse for me was that he had a Test of Wills to negate my Rapier. Some time during this fight, time was called, but we still had to finish it of. We both revealed cheatin' full houses. I got to respond first, using This'll Hurt in the Mornin' to discard two Kings, which got replaced by ... two Kings. This was nowhere near as effective as the It's Not What You Know... Anders was holding, so the Circus won out in the end.