Spirit Judo - Semifinalist Legends.

After deciding that Lacy was failing the Hex + Blessed deck, I wracked myself for a pivot. What I ended up landing on for a deckbuilding strategy was that I was just gonna run a "good stuff" list, and hope that the 52 cards I picked managed to carry Lacy. Not elegant, but hopefully good enough (wrote this before all the matches; we'll see how it turns out).

I committed myself to run one list for the top-cut. Just looking at table positions, if I was to try and take it to the end, the most likely matches would be Shekky (+ Lacy), then Carter (+ Stone), then Doomdog (+ Stone). In a usual environment, I feel like that would be a gamut of decks. However, with Carter and Doomdog running Stone (and Shekky running Shekky), I felt like my gameplan had to involve dealing with heavy aggro. The approach I decided on was to fight fire with fire.

I was between a few ideas, but ultimately landed on this one. The "Judo" part of this list comes from the start; while not necessarily being punchy (or novel), the start of this list takes my opponent's aggression and hopefully sends it back at them. BHG will get my dudes back into the fight if they get hit with any sort of send-home effects. Mixer will keep my Zach in top form. Given I'm in on a huge, semi-resilient Zach stud, Nightmare at Noon came next. At this point, I was debating to go pure good-stuff (thinking 3/7/K), but instead decided to give the deck its "Spirit" part ala Spirit Dance. This locked me into high values (9+, 10+ if I wanted decked Shaman 0s to be a lock). I landed on 10s (Unprepared, Spirit Trail, great FP dudes), Qs (Thirst for Blood, Ghostly Communion, Colt working well with NaN, also great FP dudes), and Ks (mostly for NaN, but the other cards are all good too). Shotgun off-value seemed too good with Zach + TfB giving it huge range; we accept those spell fails.

That's the list; Spirit Judo. Doesn't even run KF (I've shamed myself... or rather Lacy shamed me, as I really would've considered a Demon Bull KF list if not for him).

Here's how it went (updated as matches played):

Quarterfinals (vs. Shekky_Ducky's Lacy DMA): Day 1, drew a shotgun. He won lowball but lost a joker. Waited until he moved into position, and tapped out Allie + Ma (DMA). Planted the Shotgun, walked into town. I started the first fight vs. Allie. He only brought Allie, I brought the board. He didn't make any plays, and I saved the shotgun, hoping my 10+3 would beat his 5+3. He got a SF with his 2nd joker to my 4oaK with my 1st joker. Lost Rob. Retreated Allie (sensibly). He then started a 2nd fight with Jacq + Ma. I joined again with my board. First round was no-plays. I won, 4oaK vs. Flush (burning my 2nd joker for it). He played Hickok's Revenge and managed to get through the round with no casualties. We went to round 2, he PW'd Zach but I brought him back with BHG (but now my posse was all booted). He lost this round, FH vs. Flush, pitching Jacq and running with Ma. I unbooted Alexander and tried to call out Ramiro and Lawrence, but he wasn't having it.

Day 2, I draw up a hand with 2x Thirst for Blood and 1x Nightmare at Noon. He wins the lowball, and first action is a Mugging with his board. I join with my board. He pins Zach, and I misplay; rather than using Mixer on Zach, I use my 2x TfB on Enapay, and then pop NaN (leading to me having 10+2 vs. his 7+3). 3 poker hands were played for the fight: FH vs. Flush discarding Allie; FH vs. Flush discarding Lawrence; and 4oaK vs. Flush acing Ramiro. It was at this point he conceded the match, technically not in check, but only Ma to his name and little way for him to get back into it.

Semifinals (vs. Kacheese's Doc BHG): So I was wrong about Carter making it, and ended up in a early-aggro mirror. Both of us were rocking a resilience kit (his being Bloody Teeth + BHG, mine being the aforementioned Spirit Dances). Our T1 was underwhelming but felt good for me, getting General Store + Wong's out while he passed every action. T2 saw me get a Spirit Dance, and saw him get out a Hunter's. I thought this was going to be a start to bloodshed, but after moving a shaman there, he put a Fires on it (a nice combo, IMO). That said, we still engaged in some skirmishing on it, to no great consequence (he lost a Rob Wilby, I lost nothing but my Gunslinger). After losing my GS, I packed it up, but was apprehensive of his CP potential with the hunters engine. T3 saw me getting two shotguns and a Bloody Teeth of my own into hand. I used my General Store to play out a shotgun on Zach, and we started fighting again at his Hunters. It went south for me 5 vs. Full-House, and I decided to play a long-game; ace Gunslinger + discard Zach (hopefully get him back). After running, I then brought in Bloody Teeth and gave him a shotgun by Kacheese's General Store. I don't recall all the details, but T4 saw me putting a Spirit Trail on Kacheese's General Store to get my Bloody Teeth to Hunter's unbooted. He put a Owl's Insight on his Lydia. We once again fight there, this time with me acing Bloody Teeth, but ending the fight in control of Hunters. T5, more blood; I get Eagle Woman to my play hand. Play her out (w/ Enapay discount). I play her at home which. He pressures the fight into Hunters. This one was a brawl. Early on, I saw all 4 his 9-of-clubs in his discard, so I wasn't worried about Ricochet (and could eat an INWYK with the GS), so I cheated into him hard. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out; he did have the INWYK, then he used Owl's Insight and drew the most disgusting hand replacement I've ever witnessed. Suffice to say, I cheat again next round, knowing it was a risk, and pay the price as he drew the Ricochet off a re-shuffle'd discard. The fight continues to blood on both sides, and we end it with me having Mixer, Enapay, and Alexander on the board, and him having only Shifting Squirrel and Nathaniel. He runs a Curse of Failure (another 9 of clubs from Owl) on my Alexander with his Sequoia. Now at this point, I know he's hoping for money (my dudes are bountied to hell from fighting at his Hunters). I have him in check with a bunch of deeds, so I let the curse fire. He's still in check. He moves Nathaniel back from controlling my deed to his hunters with my Mixer there. He calls out Mixer with his abillity, I fight with Alexander + Mixer (5+3 vs. 7+0). He pulls FH, I pull one-pair. GG. My dudes exploded money, he played out influence, all over.

That's the end of this deck's journey. BHG beaten by BHG.

Lacy still sucks.