Snow White and the Seven Devils - Berkeley Sheriff

Creeped away with the Berkeley Sheriff wielding this horrid little patchwork of 52 signature cards, leaving behind a wake of mysteriously disappeared victims with only the smell of brimstone layered upon the remaining dust. These Sheriff season tournaments have been small - a four person round robin here (special thanks to Tom, Sky, and David for coming out to play) - as much of the California Doomtown community has moved along seeking safer streets. Alas, we had fun, including a post-game couple rounds of rice wine, and everybody went home with tons of special prizes (the one benefit of a measly turnout!) including the gorgeous Fate Chips courtesy Barry Figgins of Lyris Laser Studio and Ivory "Wooden" Homes courtesy Frank Kalal of Roku-mart.

Once upon a time there lived an evil two-souled sorcerous who, white as snow, cast her envious glance across town like a dark shadow chilling the air to cerulean frost. Bent upon night-snatching (Kidnappin') the brightest and best to conduct foul experiments upon in hopes of ripping a portal from this world to the next (Summoning), she consorted with seven of the most vile creatures that had set talon or foot upon Gomorra (Ivor Hawley (Exp.1), The Ghostly Gun, The Grey Man, The Harvester, Bobo, The Brute, and Funtime Freddy) in order to wreak her machinations upon the unsuspecting goodly-natured townsfolk.

This deck looks pretty straightforward, and in a way it is (it is pretty aggressive), but there is an increasingly deep permutation of possibilities as the deck demands the simultaneous tracking of all five gaming areas/resources - The field, your play hand, your deck, your discard, and your boothill - with strategic emphasis on the interactions between them. How is this so? Well, assuming when you use Funtime Freddy to start the game with either Mirror, Mirror or Ace in the Hole and your opponent asks you to ace the former, management between the piles becomes increasingly-deliciously complex. Cards in your play hand might be sent to your shootout draw hand; Cards in your draw hand may be sent to your boothill (Ace in the Hole) or back to your play hand (Fetch); Cards in your boothill may be sent back to your draw hand (Horace Manse) or back into play (Ivor Hawley (Exp.1); Cards in your play hand may be sent directly into play (Summoning); Cards in your deck might be sent to your play hand (One Good Turn…). It is truly dizzying. I find myself sometimes at the edge of "analysis paralysis" trying to send cards to their best destinations for the given match up. Fortunately the sake fixed the post-tourney headache.

This deck is first and foremost an Avie Cline deck. I wanted to build a deck that started her and thus played to her strengths. She is absolutely not a "starter" because of her high upkeep - thus the deck has to play to all of her strengths in order to justify the high daily cost. The great thing about Mirror, Mirror is that it turns her 0-draw bullets into an asset. Her Harrowed keyword also comes into play a lot - there are so many ties in doomtown that a big part of deck-making is answering the question "how do I beat the inevitable hand rank 7 tie?" And of course there is her Huckster skill. Since Freddy removes the only two cards under a value of six, Avie should be making every pull she needs without worry. Valeria Batten assists her not only by being a stud, but by ensuring you can pull off Sight Beyond Sight with 100% reliability.

I played a version of this deck out of Oddities of Nature, and that helped to offset some of it's economy issues, but the Full Moon Brotherhood is an incredibly versatile home that can be leaned upon to recoup spent ghost rock off Kidnappings (hint: "claim" their likeliest first casualty) or if your economy is already alive and kickin' can be outright leveraged into a card advantage. Or you can just use it to turn off your opponent's most nastiest or most defensive traits. Like writing the name of Jake Smiley on the wall in blood so as to run 'em into hiding. The breadth of this last trick (the "trait switch-off") is impressive.

So, if you are keen on scarin' the pants off your local playgroup, or spooking away the competition of your local tournament, I recommend conjuring this deck into your hands and sacrificing all the town's children to Her Infernal Majestrix...