Masterpiece Theater (25 Stud is the current record)

Card draw simulator
Draw: 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 all Reset Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% – 0% more

Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.

Inspiration for
infinite potential	1	0	3

goreshde 483

I love this deck. This is a multiphase deck that is ultimately a Dead Man’s hand deck that when it fires gets them all the time. Some fun things I have done with this deck include. 3 Dead Man’s hands in 1 game.
Getting a 25 Stud in town square.
Having more cards Aced then I have left in my deck.

The game plan for the deck can be broken down into 3 phases. Phase 1, Get Danny Wilde in town square with at least 1 mask and some bounty.
Phase 2, Ace or play every card you can that is not on value for a Dead Man’s hand.
Phase 3, Get in as many shootouts as you can. The goal is to thin your deck down a fast as possible to start drawing Dead Man’s hands in every shootout. There comes a point in the game where that is all you do, the trick is getting to that point. Let’s talk about how you get to phase 3. Keys to phase 1. Avoid shootouts like the plague. Your goal needs to be to cycle through as many cards as you can to hit Buried Treasures, Outlaw Masks, and the evidence. Everyone else should threaten their deeds without booting in hopes they stay off yours. This just gives you more money to play more of your hand. The only goal of phase 1 though is to get the Mask on Danny and then use the evidence to ace itself and increase Danny’s bounty by 2. In a game last night I got all 4 masks on Danny with 6 bounty for a total of 25 influence. While nice, usually 1 mask and 2 bounty is enough influence to keep Danny safe. Once you think Danny is safe you move him to town square and start phase 2. Keys to phase 2. Ace Ace Ace. You can start this early with Buried Treasure, but with Danny in the middle you now have a card drawing machine that Aces as it goes. It’s the engine that powers your ace machine. The only non-DMH card that is on the never ace list is Zachary (at least until you hit phase 3). His job is to protect Danny at all costs. You have to worry about kidnappings, but Zach is there to be a huge stud during phase 2. Even as a lowly 9 stud people are going to avoid him (unless they have a Sun In Your Eyes). You still want to equip masks to Danny (general store, or have him move off Town square for a turn) and use the evidence to increase his bounty all throughout phase 2. If you are playing against Land Slide I would not Ace Allie and make sure to keep 1 Evidence on a dude without burning it in case they burn all your bounty with an evidence of their own. It’s hard to do mentally but EVERYTHING else is on the Ace list. I might love Marcia but even she needs to get Aced if that is the only non-DMH card I can target. Your goal here is to thin the deck as quickly as possible. They might sit on all your deeds but you have 7 money generating action cards and more than enough influence in town square to prevent them from winning. . Sometimes you will have to Ace a DMH card, but keep track of it. You can thin them a little, but try not to. You should try to play as many studs as possible as well during phase 2 while still trying to avoid a fight. Eventually you will get down to only a couple non-DMH cards in your deck and then you are ready for phase 3.
Key to phase 3. Fight whenever where ever. If you didn’t have to ace Allie you are in luck. You can just use her to win. Danny should be in the teens with his influence by now, if not higher so they can’t win. The first time you accept a shootout or call someone out your opponent will probably be surprised. With a couple studs you are looking at a worst case scenario of 4 of a kind cheating as your shootout hand, while a best case scenario of DMH is likely to happen (even without Zach). Fight them over here, fight them over there. Chances are they built up quite a few dudes so you might have to get in a few battles. You now own town square (unless they want to take on Zach, which will go badly for them) and should start taking their deeds as well.

15 comments
Nov 18, 2015 Gambler777 Didn't see it mentioned, but if you drop an Undertaker on the board, every time a dude goes to boot hill, even via card effects like your home ability, you gain 2 GR. I had a similar build that had cheap dudes to throw out into shootouts while I aced out the rest of the deck. Then, move Danny or Clem to The Union Casino to buy CP's, or bring Chief or Allie to town square for the win once my deck was down to DMH's.
Nov 18, 2015 mplain Very cool deck concept, will definitely give it a try, thanks for sharing! :)
Nov 18, 2015 mplain Could you elaborate on your choice of dudes? Some of them (Junior, 2x The Ghostly Gun) are rather unexpected. Would starting Zachary Deloria and Travis Moone instead of Smiling Frog be reasonable? You lose 1 starting influence, but can assemble the combo quicker. I also wonder about your choice of deeds. You have off-value utility deeds and saloons. Did your testing show that this works better than on-value deeds?
Nov 18, 2015 db0 This deck is just silly. Glorious, but silly! :P
Nov 18, 2015 goreshde Junior is in there to make sure I don't do something stupid and play or ace all my Ace of Clubs. He can be replaced, but he can't be Aced and his high cost makes sure he is always in my deck. The Ghostly Gun is a stud that really helps me hit DMH. While expensive he is incredible for the deck. While this deck does hit DMH a lot, you also hit 1 card short of DMH a lot. Ghostly Gun fixes that. 90% of my decks use Grifters, but you don't need one here. Smiling Frog is there to pretend like you enjoy shootouts early and to cycle cards out of your hand faster. You want to hit phase 3 as fast as possible and he helps speed the deck up. You can change it out. I just find getting the engine going faster is better in the long run than potentially protecting the heart of the engine. My first iteration of this deck sucked. I made sure to have Aces and 8s dudes deeds actions and items. I liked the concept and decided to embrace the jank. The deck worked a lot better once I did that. So instead of even thinking about on-value cards I just want the best card for the deck. If you like certain deeds more, use them instead. I have brought this deck to two tournaments now, going 2-1 each time. The first tournament my loss came once I hit phase three but didn't have enough studs in the deck, so I redesigned it with a lot more studs. The second tournament my loss came from time (confessions was my opponents MVP and slowed me down a lot). I finally hit phase 3 (only 4 non-DMH cards in the deck) and was just able to get into 1 shootout.
Nov 20, 2015 Woody Once phase one kicks in it is downright scary. Great build with only a couple weaknesses like he mentioned... but don't all decks have that? Danny, Masks, and Zach are just a filthy dirty combo and I love it!
Nov 22, 2015 mplain `@goreshde` just in case, Junior can still be aced from your discard pile with Buried Treasure. His "cannot be aced" trait only works while he's in play.
Nov 22, 2015 Woody It says he can't be aced by card effects. Isn't that a card effect of Buried treasure?
Nov 22, 2015 mplain `@Woody` the rules say that "Traits are game effects that are always on while the card is in play". So, Junior has to be in play for his trait to be active. Well, unless specifically ruled otherwise by the rules team for some reason.
Nov 23, 2015 jaythejester I see some similarities between this and my Never Say Can't deck. Ultimately I chose not to go DMH since recycling the dudes and jacks for DMH is more difficult than cycling a club straight flush. This deck has a lot better early draw structure, and massive potential power with Zach. I really, really like where Goreshde is going with this deck, but there are some tweeks I would make to it.
Nov 24, 2015 mplain I tried this deck, and I have mixed feelings about it. I played against Abram's Crusaders, by the time my opponent had enought miracles and melee weapons to feel confident, I already had several Outlaw Masks and some bounty on Danny Wilde. We entered a shootout, I drew 19 cards and revealed a joker-less DMH, he aced a dude and fled. After that it was just both of us doing our stuff, buying deeds and goods. He didn't try to engage anymore because he realized he couldn't win a shootout, and I just aced all my extra dudes so i didn't have enough influence to control his deeds. The game ended in a stalemate after an hour of playing solitaire. That said, I fear that against a Sloane deck with Kidnappin', Sun in Yer Eyes, and Pistol Whip, the game would be much shorter. The combo is very vulnerable in the early game. Still, very cool deck idea! :)
Nov 24, 2015 PaxCecilia Looks like it could really use a way to start shootouts on your terms. Any way to squeeze some Meet The New Boss or Establishin' Who's in Charge to help out with control points on your side of the board?
Nov 24, 2015 Whizzwang This is the most ridiculous thing I have seen for quite some time, You glorious beautiful bastard!
Nov 24, 2015 goreshde PaxCecilia that is a great idea. Lady Luck is okay. It is really in there just to make sure I cycle as fast as possible. Late phase 2 and phase 3 they are dead cards. A great improvement to this deck would be to replace one of them with an Establishin' Who's in Charge. This gives me a way to churn out control points late game. If they start to avoid me at all costs (it does happen phase 3) like mplain saw this gives me a win condition. This deck is not perfect and an early game Kidnapping can really slow it down. While Danny helps the engine a lot buried treasure can still get the job done, it just takes a lot longer.
Nov 29, 2015 jaythejester Buffalo Rifle could be very good in this deck. on value, and allows Zach to participate in normal shootouts from town square (keeping his bonus from Danny) Also, Sarah Meoquanee I think would be better than Angelica. She's on value, 1 higher bullet, and can join in from anywhere. Only downside is she's a stud only one shootout per day.