Civic Corral - Origins 2018 1st Place

Columbus Ohio was hot and muggy, and on this weekend triumphantly gay, as Origins and Pride combined to create a sea of nerdery and cosplay inside and field of sunburn and rainbow flags outside. Our posse hopped "from air conditioning to air conditioning" which the artsy culinary scene and public transportation system (surprisingly) would handily deliver: indeed I have never been on a bus with AC!

This deck, which won 5-1 the tournament but on a fateful coinflip like the 2017 Superbowl, underwent a minor focus shift and the inclusion of a Servitor which really gelled all the pieces together (see linked previous iteration). It's now a lot more efficient at maintaining control of it's own locations while simultaneously herding the goodfolk of Gomorra each away from the free development of their own labor conditions. In a word, if the previous deck had a competitive free market, this deck has finally evolved into a monopolized free market.

How? It may be strange to site the Rancher's Lariat as a means of absolute extraction of capital from ranches (including the high production ratios of Buffalo Emporium and Hellstromme Plant #9), like some fowl machinery from a John Henry fable, because instead of overextending unto both sides of the board, I can make considerable income by allocating a single dude (say, Jon Longstride) to my street whilst the rest of the Morgan Regulators control my opponent's street until the conditions of development and the home's "only 5 influence" trait force conflict out of irreconcilability.

My first matchup, with my bunkmate Jevon Heath playing Eagle Wardens Attire Force, cursing our luck of playing eachother right off, consisted of a lot of what I call “Mariel Math” - meaning, hesitation on my part to engage until I could be certain to deny him the right to use the printed ability on Mariel Lewis, whether through hard counter or by meeting or exceeding influence committed to the fight. Likewise, he hesitated oppositely. This translated primarily into a chess-match as we both developed our street, until a key dude was booted cementing the "math" in my favor, and the decisive shootout was won by Regulation.

Second match I fought Ken "Thunder Boy" Nabbe in the flesh, playing himself and a passel of shooty Lawdogs out of the original home. Bounties and deeds dropped on his side, ranches on mine, but for some reason the aggressive play I was expecting never came (perhaps he didn't draw his Bounty Hunters and Ol' Fashioned Hangin's?), so on a turn I won lowball I instead came to meet him in the townsquare where his posse was waiting, picked and subsequently won the decisive shootout which made chessing for the win a one move trick. I think a key moment there was whipping "Thunder Boy" Nabbe so that he couldn't poker well.

Third match I fought Jessica Penn and The Tattooed Man out of Oddities, again expecting aggression and being surprised. We both developed a few turns, and I staged an early fight which lost me a stud, and fearing Nightmare at Noon which I believe I saw in her discard pile, ran. A day or two later, the board ripened, and I spread my dudes across her deeds once more, this time managing to boot the big stud at a different deed (one I "declared war" upon using Raven) and fight the decisive battle at yet another, and it was over, especially considering that we both played fast. We then played an exciting side game with me switching to a Jasper Stone deck and getting beaten bad - that Servitor is really hard to get to work...

For my fourth match, I played Charles Penn, dressed as Nathan Shane mourning the death of Warren Graves, and running a deck built around the combo Decimator Array and Force Field (which is dominating the meta these days), which my deck was theoretically ready for. Our first match, I was painfully unable to get my economy going, and ended up feeding him dudes just to cycle the shootout cards I kept drawing in an attempt to draw into deeds. Each time, he not only obliterated that dude but earned a control point for it via Darius Hellstromme, and I quickly ran out of steam. I did manage however to notice that, like my deck, his deck didn't run a single spot removal, instead relying on the home trait to close games. This observation re-confirmed my strategy for what would be the finals match between us later.

My fifth (and semi-final) match I won by a coinflip against Stephen Wales running an aggressive Justice deck that packs a backdoor straightflush. Before I knew it, I lost a few dudes to an early shootout, and was in full retreat climbing out of near-check, when my opponent made a misplay that effectively cost him the game: revealing a cheatin' 5-o-kind in lieu of legel 4-o-kind to an on-table and unbooted Quickdraw Handgun backing my legal full house. Acknowledging the mistake while minding the stakes of the tourney ("Name a Card!"), I offered him a take-back upon the condition of him winning a coinflip fair and square. I flipped - he called "heads" and the coin landed "tails" - and that coin sealed his fate. For the rest of the match, he was on his backfoot, and I was within a few turns able to seal a win by one control point by stepping onto The Joker's Smile.

For the finals match, I rematched the undefeated Charles, and this time was able to get my economy going. Similarly, he drew into his gadgets early, so I proceeded to cat-and-mouse him for the better part of two hours (are there different rules for finals matches? what are they?), playing out deeds horizontally in an attempt to isolate his dudes and dismantle his combo using repeated Mugging. We were both exhausted, and he eventually conceded, much to my disappointment actually, because after maneuvering so long for the entire game, I believe I had him where I wanted him: Chuan "Jen" Qí was holding the game with 5 control and 4 influence, and had finally and mistakingly booted into the townsquare away from his other dudes, and I had Nathan Shane at home, holding a Peacemaker to his two cards in hand, ready to finally get a Pinned Down to "stick" through his A Slight Modifications. Oh well. Despite the fatigue, this was the highlight of the tournament for me, and if the timing rules were being enforced, would have likely played to his favor, as the circularity of me stepping on out of town deeds, him chasing me, me reclaiming my own deeds, him chasing me, more often than not left him in a position to win a tie-breaker.

All in all, a great time, with the outcome being: Is the world ready for Tomas Ramirez?