Six-Shooter: Final Chamber (OL) - Name-A-Card Winner

The Event

This is a series of decks that was played for the online name-a-card event. The tournament had flexible deck-building rules, which I used to run a revolver setup.

The pre-cut decks (in order of play) were LD, EN, AN, FM, and FP. With 4 wins (LD/EN/FM/FP) and 1 loss (AN). This Outlaw deck, the final in the revolver, was played throughout the cut, and, after three excellent matches, won the event.

The State of Doomtown

Before talking about the deck, lets talk about Doomtown as a game; Doomtown is firmly supported by three pillars of gameplay:

• Creation: Creating an advantage by bringing components into the game. This pillar is usually associated with Slide and Swarm.
• Destruction: Creating an advantage by removing your opponents components from the game. This pillar is usually associated with Aggro.
• Manipulation: Creating an advantage by manipulating material. This is usually associated with Movement and Control.

This is a very high-level view, and every (functional) deck in Doomtown usually has components of all of these pillars, but there is a great amount of breadth in how much viable decks can be supported by the different pillars. These pillars are what makes Doomtown incredibly interesting as a deck-building challenge (along with the suit/value structuring, of course), and, when building a deck, factoring in the meta you're expecting to play can benefit you greatly, as each of these pillars can also be exploited more or less effectively by different cards.

Going into this tournament, I've observed an increasing trend of extremely aggressive decks. To the point that aggro is teching mostly to face other aggro. Most of the opponents I faced would be in this category; they were running cards that help you perform well in fights... but not necessarily ones that effectively get you into fights (as those cards aren't great vs. aggro; you don't need tools to get into a fight when your opponent also wants to fight).

This is the type of environments where Control thrives. Would I have played a Control Hex deck even if this wasn't the case? Probably; it's my jam. But the reason this deck did as well as it did can be attributed, in no small part, to the meta it faced.

The Deck

Right, so, this deck... lets start with the obvious. Bunch of low-value, low-cost, influential upkeep-less draw dudes in the start. This deck can not fight out the gate. If a Kidnappin' comes, it will be sad (and this did happen in the Semi-Finals), but not crushed; each dude costs no more than 4, even if losing a 2-influence dude, you will still have 5 at Sundown from the start alone (assuming Clem trait), and this is effectively a 5+ income home. The deck runs 13 deeds, 7 of which are saloons. The goal is, of course, to sit Clem in one of those Saloons and run the racket, but if you don't find a Saloon early, Frank works effectively as a back-up racketeer on any deed (opponents included).

Frank (if not needed to run the racket) and Shadow-Walking Hucksters are annoyances to the opponent, ducking into their deeds, forcing them to commit in if they want to push them out. Add in Blood Curse to reduce the amount of effective dudes they have to take deeds, Phantasm to clot their dudes together... Hex Control classics.

Traditionally this has seemed strongest out of Fearmongers... but Outlaws have gotten some very good support for this archetype. Frank is, effectively, at least as useful as a Huckster with a built-in Shadow Walk, which the deck tries to capitalize upon immediately, preventing the need to Ol' Howard to ensure Clem gets her deed (as he can run the racket if she didn't), and otherwise being a nuisance if she did. Morgan Lash and Jonah Essex (Exp.1) are juggernaut dudes, and, while this deck doesn't start out capable of fighting, the draw structure and economy of Protection Racket very easily allows playing these dudes out and transposing into a deck capable of fighting should the need arise (as it did, in the Finals match). Cliff's #4 Saloon also helps on this front.

The hucksters in the start are primarily chosen because their higher-value equivalents (Antheia and Larry) won't fail pulls. I've published this as it was played in the tournament, but I would highly-recommend if running this, to swap out the Bilton for a Whateley Estate. Bilton is more usually a liability (they will take it first for their own profits), and Whateley Estate helps not only cycle Jokers, but also anti-Mugging tech (which I found out I desperately wanted, in the Finals match). The Oriental Saloon is kind of shit for the deck, as Clem doesn't hold it well... given how great The Union Casino is for the deck, I would consider 3/1 vs. 2/2. Walters Creek Distillery also very desirable, but I didn't want to sacrifice Saloon count.

The Games

Quarter-Finals vs. Tybarsunsong: Clippy's Revenge

This was a rematch from my round 2 Swiss Opponent; a 7/8/9 gadgets deck starting Clippy. With very little force fight (the 7s were Pinned Down and Grim Servant O' Death; only 1 Curse of Failure in the deck), I was pretty free to walk around town with my annoying dudes. I swarmed out 5 deeds very quickly (the first of which was a Cliff's next to home, which helped me get some stud presence). I also ended up getting a couple Phantasm on Tomas, and, after pushing all of his presence was pushed out of town square, a studlified José cleared his dudes out of my deeds for the win (solidified definitely with both Rumors in hand).

Semi-Finals vs. Neramoor: 5 Dudes and a Van

My opponent was playing Mech Horse / Decimator Array gadgets (turns out my Finals opponent teched his deck very appropriately... more to come there), with Disgenuine + Doomsday economy. I saw a High Stakes Haven early, which really helped ramp my economy, whereas my opponent not finding any of his deeds both hurt his economy, as well as ensured that my home kept giving me +2 minimum. We continued to build up. Played Phantasm on Tomas, Shadow Walk on Maria, played out Larry and put a Blood Curse on him. and Epidemic + Oriental on either side of my street. My opponent, despite getting a little choked on economy, did manage to find 2 Decimators to remove his upkeep, and get a Mech Horse on Jen.

Then came the All-In Kidnappin' on Frank which I could not contest, as he was at High Stakes Haven alone, and the deck doesn't start a stud regardless (nor did I play one out at this point). Frank got pulled into the van, never to be seen again.

Following the All-In, I played out Alice to try and let me protect myself going forward (truly... I don't know who is paying me for protection, but they haven't adequately taken stock of my starting muscle), and also a Union Casino. Ran my Epidemic freely, gave Alice a CP with my massive economic advantage. In the following couple rounds, I managed to get out a couple more hexes, putting a second Blood Curse on Larry, a Blood Curse + Shadow Walk on Tomas. My opponent got out a Buffalo Emporium, which, along with a Doomsday Disgenuine, really helped their economy stabilize a little.

My opponent played out a Blake Ranch, which I sent Tomas to take. Opponent did another All-In Kidnappin' on Tomas to take it back, but this proved to be more fatal for my opponent than Tomas (though, plenty fatal for Tomas; he also ended up in the van, never to be seen again); with all his dudes booted, and 3 Blood Curses to play (or already having been played) on his dudes, I was able to push for check, and, with Jake + Alice available, Mech Horse did not have enough gas to clear it.

Finals vs. Doomdog: Karmatic Outlaw Mugging

My opponent was running a 2/3/5 deck with Aces as a side-value, using a Mariel Lewis posse out of The Spiritual Society. I won't go into great details of this game (partially because this write-up is already absurdly long, but primarily because this match was recorded with me muttering the whole way through on my thoughts of the game - I will edit this into the write-up once posted by PBE). The paraphrased version of it would be that it was an excellent game of Doomtown, against a great opponent, who, while was able to mug poor Tomas dry of hexes, had no means of challenging the influence advantage of my high-value dudes with his spuds (after Tawodi got aced to prevent tutoring his influence), and conceded the match as time was approaching as a result. There was a lot happening in this game, and I would recommend checking the video (if you can stand listening to me ramble and stumble through the game).

The Lessons

• Having trouble with control? Run force fight cards.
• Be careful with how much you commit to jobs. Too much or too little can be very costly. An example of where it might have been too much was the costly second kidnapping for my Semi-Finals opponent. An example of where it might have been too little was my Finals opponent's Tawodi job, which could have helped equalize their influence, instead resulting in her getting aced (this was also precarious though, risking TS control upheaval).
• Doomtown deck-building is incredibly nuanced, and very meta dependent. My opponent was undefeated up until the finals because they made an excellent meta prediction and tailored their deck accordingly. That same tailoring resulted in the cards that would've very much helped it against this deck getting cut. Which doesn't necessarily mean it was the wrong call; as far as I can tell, this archetype was not seeing much play outside this deck in the tournament. All the same, if you have the opportunity, consider what you are likely to see in the field, and plan your deck chiefly around that. Also consider what your bad match-ups might be, and, if you deem them likely, consider if there are any tweaks that can be made to support your deck against them.
• Think through a move, then make it (not vice versa). Don't be the guy in the YouTube video who does something, and then immediately asks himself why he didn't do something else instead.