Ravenslide - A Lesson on Influence

This deck made Deputy Way, former World Champion™, concede after the first play on the first round. As a result, I postulate that this must be the best deck in Doomtown's history.

The goal of this deck was to punish an observable trend of those that have abandoned God in their rigid starts; the core idea was to try to get to 6 CP by the first round to pressure sub-6 influence starts.

To start with, at the cheap cost of 2 GR, Raven is an easy include for the idea. It should be noted that Raven does not require that you actually control any opposing deeds for the CP, as long as your opposition also controls zero. Then, with an array of cheap 2-CP deeds, MCC is another great CP generator. The two work together fantastically, with Raven protecting the MCC deed.

Boring Math Fact: Including 20 2-CP deeds in the deck (as this deck does) makes the chance of getting at least one in the opening hand ~94%. If starting a decent grifter, the chance of not seeing a deed for T1 is negligible. So this is a fairly reliable 3 CP for round 1.

It should be noted how great 4s are for the deck at this point. Forcing a first round fight at the MCC deed makes Siege Of The Orphanage, a card that most other aggressive decks cannot capitalize on because of the situational positional requirements, work excellently in this deck. Tusk increases deed consistency and makes the low value starts less likely to eat a shotgun, The Extra Bet and Gateway Station are both good 2 CP deeds, and there are several great dudes.

It's not immediately clear how to squeeze much more CP out of this reliably. Deeds, Doris, and Roberto are all hard to make reliable (when factoring in needing to protect a 2-CP MCC deed). The key to really giving this deck the CP pressure it aimed for was to get 3 CP out of a Whateley start (6 total CP).

Making this work is incredibly tight; of MCC's 18 starting rock, Whateley eats 7 and all the income, and Raven eats a further 2. 1 needs to be left in reserve, or else Whateley's tears will repay the bank on losing lowball (which would obviously be a scoop, and is thus unacceptable risk). So that leaves 8 Rock left to pay for the remaining dudes. 3 influential dudes are needed for Whateley, but all of Morgan's true and mobile influence options come at a cost of 3+ on turn 1... 3x3=9... too much by 1 GR.

Enter Johnny. At 4 cost, it seems like the opposite of the direction the deck needs to go. But there's an important point to consider here; Whateley gives all dudes an ability, even the uninfluential. The first sentence of an ability forms a restricting condition to play the ability, but if that sentence is of the form "If X, then do Y", that condition is always met and the ability can be used (even if you do not meet the internal condition on X and thus do not get to do Y). So 0 influence dudes can attempt to use Whateley's ability, and then get interrupted by Johnny so that they don't pointlessly boot themselves. This allows any 1-cost chump in place of an influential dude, and net saves the 1 GR needed for the last cultist.

Less Boring Fact: The play that caused Mr. Way to concede T1 was MCC ability w/ Whateley on Whateley Estate... if you have no force fight in hand, what can you do, really?

But what if they know the trick? They can just start any 6 influence they want and starve out the 0 income start. Worse, what if they're playing Full Moon Brotherhood and just nullify Whateley?

This is why Whateley is not listed as a core starter. The deck can turn from a 16/16 first round 6 CP Whateley all-in into a 15/15 that is capable of playing a little longer game by subbing out Whateley with Ramiro Mendoza and John "Aces" Radcliffe (or Howard Aswell against FMB). With several cheap dudes and Johnny + Irving still as a start for MCC plays that generate further commerce, the deck can force a fight quickly. This alternate start beat the Deputy in every game we played up until he reconsidered his low influence hedonism (at which point he did get some vengeance; but the deck had taught the lesson it set out to by then).

Still very much a WIP on my end, but I was bored in the CDG airport so decided to write it up and release it raw. If your meta has some folks running stagnant, high-power, low-influence starting lines, or you're otherwise just looking for a fun deck that is guaranteed to be able to end the game in a few rounds (has been great for lunch-time Doomtown), consider giving it a shot; it isn't as janky as it looks on paper/browser.

And remember to praise him (even if this deck doesn't...).