[Moscow OP3 Winner] Morgan Flyin' Zombies

Our second tournament this year, with 8 participants. The field:

• 1x Morgan Cattle Co.
• 1x The Fourth Ring
• 2x Law Dogs
• 1x Abram's Crusaders
• 1x Eagle Wardens
• 2x 108 Worldly Desires

Deckbuilding Restriction: no more than 16 deeds per deck (because Slide is cancer).

Rounds were 55 minutes. When going to time, the current player finishes his Noon play (including a shootout), then his opponent makes one Noon play, then go to Sundown.

The first tiebreaker was Control Poins total (not Control + Influence), then Influence total. If you won by 3+ CP you got 3 victory point, if you won by less than 3 CP then you got 2 points and your opponent got 1.

This deck is a slight tweak of my version of Morgan Flyin' Zombies, originally by @Prodigy. You can read about how the deck works here.

The biggest change is that I decided to start "Dead" Billy Jones, instead of playing him from the deck. Unfortunately, with only two mad scientists in my starting posse, I often cannot use William Specks' ability if I want to keep inventing stuff and cycling cards in my hand, and then his upkeep hurts. I could replace him with Kyle Wagner, but then I'd be left with only 4 influence in my starting posse...

Also, I removed the single Kidnappin' in favor of the fourth Press - in accordance with the Polish Principle of Inevitability (ctrl+F for "Rumors"), if I get my economy going and bring out Pasteur, I should be able to win without having to resort to bloodshed.

Tournament report:

• Round 1 vs. Daniil (Abram's Crusaders)

My opponent quickly started spitting out Holy Rollers and Melee weapons, and got Lay On Hands on Reverend Perry. The game went slowly: in every shootout I'd use Force Field to tie our hands and send Billy home, and he'd save Sister Mary with Lay On Hands. I surely regretted my decision to remove Kidnappin' from the deck. At some point we suddenly realized that there were 7 control points on the table, while each of us had only 6 influence. It was time to make my move. Daniil used Perry to unboot Sister Mary -- and pulled another copy of Lay On Hands, the single card in his deck which could fail the pull. He then preceeded to fail Walk the Path by pulling a 6. Extremely unlucky. In the resulting shootout I removed some influence from his posse, and that was the end of Abram's Crusaders. 3:0 (3 points total)

• Round 2 vs. Victor (Eagle Wardens)

Victor was playing a version of @kollatt's Warden Blockade deck, without Hot Lead Flyin' but with Turtle Guard. That spell is super annoying, considering that you can have multiple copies and use them every turn. I really think it should've been "discard after use". Still, I managed my way around it, one turn by hitting his only shaman with Unprepared, and the next turn by having 3x Slight Mods in my hand - I cancelled two Turtles and still had one left for Willa. Interestingly enough, if you get past their hard turtle shell, those shamans get quite soft and squishy. Mariel was a constant threat, but I had a lot of influence thanks to Yagn's, and was able to counter his Pistol Whips with Slight Mod. 3:0 (6 points total)

• Round 3 vs. @gozik (The Fourth Ring)

So, gozik went back to playing Clowns. No Paralysis Marks, but instead his 7+10+Q deck had the nasty Pinned Down + Takin' Ya With Me combo, plus Fetch to help assemble it. gozik wins the first turn lowball, with two Soul Blasts hitting the discard pile. I invent the Ornithopter, give it to Irving, and send him to build a deed. Naturally, gozik plays another copy of Soul Blast. I send Luke to intercept his huckster, gozik decides to try to ace the Erand Boy but fails, pulling The Brute and only managing to send Luke home booted. Irving survives. Next turn, gozik equips Puppet, and the dance begins. Over the course of several turns, I get Luke and then Specks puppeted and killed in a shootout, and Irving pinned down and taken to the discard pile. Unprepared and Slight Mod keep the rest of my posse alive, while my superior economy allows me to hire new dudes with influence. In the end I lure Valeriainto a trap, countering one Soul Blast with a Slight Mod and negating the other spells with Unprepared, and finishing the opposing posse off with INWYK. We go to time during during the shootout, and after it ends I make one final play, occupying a CP-producing deed, which results in me having just 1 CP more than the opponent. 2:1 (8 points total)

• Round 4 vs. Andrey (108 Worldly Desires)

My good friend Andrey is playing a deck that I lended to him, my 108 Good Stuff deck that I used in an OCTGN league back in Spring. It's a very strong deck, but it looks like Morgan Flyin' Zombies have an edge over it. Thanks to Force Field I don't have to cheat, which renders his Coachwhips mostly useless, and Dead Billy can soak random casualties from Takin' Ya With Me. My saving grace probably was the fact that after the Paralysis Mark errata I replaced two of the four copies of Kidnappin' in my 108 deck with Pinned Down, and so my mad scientists got some breathing room to get the presses printing. In the long game I had the edge in shootouts, and so I inevitably won. 3:0 (11 points total)

• Final vs. @gozik (The Fourth Ring)

Naturally gozik also made it to the top, and he seemed eager for a rematch. This game actually went well for him, and he managed to lure me into a shootout in which I had only bronze bullets, while he had Tyx, Val, Popescus, and Arnold. Thanks to what looked like a direct intervention from Lady Luck herself, I drew a cheatin' 4-of-a-kind, while gozik only managed a cheatin' full house. INWYK, that'll be five casualties please. Ouch. gozik tried to recuperate, but I quickly got all my systems operational, and soon there was nothing he could do. Victory!

Some of these games were extremely lucky for me, still I think that this deck is more than capable to hold its own in the current meta (whatever it might be in those slide-infested lands outside of Moscow). If you didn't have a chance yet, give it a try! :)