DMA 3/5/7

Realizing that (especially with the extra GR for Hank), starting Johnny was a difficult proposition, and there were cheaper studs on 7's, and Pinned Down was on value, I switched up from 8's, ditched Johnny, and ran this deck for the last two rounds of Swiss.

In the fourth round of the tournament, I faced off against RSDoom - but this time I started Florantino for a little extra flexibility in my starting GR. Below is my report from this match.

Holy Ground, shmoley ground - my Deadwood Miner's Alliance came to blow the tops off RS Doom's Black Hills. While the inevitable conflict pleased Raven, Ol' One Eye found himself beguiled by Rosaleen Byrne's charms, and threw his support behind the no-good outlaws. Now, the Eagle Wardens were pretty influential in their fancy dudes, but that didn't matter none wherever Ike Clanton started his provocatin'. Which tended to be the Bairds that Rob Wilby had stumbled into. A pretty little town developed - Black Hills had a Bairds on one side, and a silent sigil on the other, while DMA had a Harts Tea Shop and an Orphanage all on one side. Florantino proved to be Charley Bull's Huckleberry in a mash-up in town square, and thanks to a sneaky cat and Hank's help, Florantino then ran away to fight another day.

The next day, Ms. Byrne was woefully Unprepared to throw down, as her Bowie Knife gave her no help against both the Mixer and studly Mazatal (who, with the help of a certain spirit, swooped in all studlified and with a permanent Raven boost). It seemed like everything was Comin' Up Roses for the Black Hills Guardians when the Outlaws had to cheat... but turns out that they would still have needed at least three cards of the same suit in their draw to take advantage! Meanwhile, having kept an eye on her own deck, Ms. Byrne knew a Joker was in the cards... and thus she ended up taking out both her opponents with five straight off the top of the deck. Even the movement powers of the Black Hills can't help when there's only two dudes to cover off 4 possible CP from deeds (not to mention the extra CP provided by that rascal Florantino), and thus, it was proven once again that it is better to be lucky than good. Many thanks to my gracious opponent for the excellent games tonight (as always), and look forward to gettin' more in again sometime in the not-to-distant!

Unfortunately, all work and all play and no sleep makes Deputy Way a dull boy... against Deputy Greg in the fifth and final round, I made two big blunders:

1) I walked Rob unnecessarily into a shotgun blast.

2) I missed sitting on California Tax Office the turn it was played, and then paid for Alferd Packer's upkeep as well.

"But Deputy Way, those are three errors!" "Shuddup - if'n I could count good, I wouldn't have had to discard cards due to not havin' enough money to pay fer their stinkin' upkeep!"

These proved to be fatal errors, as Jessica Patchett is a very strong closer, and she would have otherwise stuck around and kept causing major trouble.

Report from Deputy Greg: Hank Ketchum dispatched a band of rowdy miners to try and conquer the town, with only Raven's anarchists standing in the way. Things started slowly, some dudes showed up, a few deeds. Then Jessica Patchett and her cats came to town. Blood was spilled. The anarchists managed to scrounge up a shotgun and get a little revenge, but the clock was ticking. Dynamite Jacc thought about trying to save the day, but he was too preoccupied contemplating the existence of a tea shop that appeared across the street. But as luck would have it, some meddlesome accountants from the California Tax Office set up shop and Jessica had to high tail it out of town. With the threat gone, the anarchists were able the breath a sigh of relief and were eventually able to take over the town.

Still, my opponents did well enough that I squeaked into the Top 8 cut with a 3-2 record in Swiss. More to follow...