Unified Theory of Motion - Sacramento Sheriff (Tied for 3rd)

To finish off the Great Maze Sheriff Season, we had 12 ordinary hombres competin' for the title of "Last Sheriff" for four rounds of Swiss with our 1st placer having had boot the trip all the way from the Eerie East to claim the badge. Special thanks to David Orange for organizing a great tournament, loaded with special prizes, and for allowing me to run a "Funny Mustache Jacky" contest with 12 copies of Jacqueline Isham and a few sharpies...

This deck has been in the R&D phase for a long time, with each new set (for the last 10 or so) unlocking another single piece of the puzzle, all building towards a Grand Unified Theory: "That all Shootouts are an expression of Movement, and that Movement can be Economized by Gadgetry; and so to control all Movement, and thus all Shootouts, one must simply build the Gadgetry."

That said, this deck struggles a little with early aggression - the primary reason it has been released into competitive play only recently - though notably, not as much as other skill-combo decks because it has a super punchy little economy and solid structure. Between Post-A-Tron and Arnold Stewart, as well as using Flight of the Lepus to clear your (mostly out-of-town) deeds during lowball, it is capable of quickly generating a steady flow of ghost rock with which to play it's numerous fancy gadgets and well-spoken intellectuals. And it can shoot! It's stacked with both J's and 6's and has backup on 8's with only six off-value cards (3 deeds, 2 gadgets, 1 dude).

I'm fairly confident that if it can make it into the middle-phase of nearly any game that it can come out on top. Force Field powered by Recursive Motion Machine cuts through the best shootin' posses with laser precision (and is the deck's namesake). It can rush control points by hosting Technological Exhibitions and installing Miasmatic Purifiers. It can counter common parlor tricks using A Slight Modification and the Hydro-Puncher. It can hire "top hat jacks" (Buckin' Billy Ballard, Rémy LaPointe, Tallulah "Lula" Morgan (Exp.1), and Warren Graves) to go around town and hype the next show.

And so, I took it to 3-1 with the loss being precisely because my opponent, Sky Sithbunkard piloting Curfew, took the fight to me day one, between attacking me in my home (using Mugging to try and ace a Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton) and challenging Post-A-Tron to 3 different fights in two days (thank you Morgan Regulators!) to stepping on all my out-of-town deeds. Because of all these setbacks, I lost at time, having had run out of it. The other three games were with decks that mostly ignored me while we both "built up" a few turns before coming to blows - Theory shines particularly in that kind of matchup.

So yeah, if you believe in Science and would like to Decode the Mechanics of the Universe (and Doomtown), I recommend automating this deck into your local playgroup, or better yet, mechanizing your Outlaw suit to compete in the upcoming fan-hosted tournaments in 2017. Welcome to the Future!