The final con (7th Place GenCon Roundup)

One last go with this deck, before the new set cycles out several of the key cards of this deck type.

As ever, use Jia Mein (Exp.1) to get Fiddle Game for income, Putting The Pieces Together for hand rank boosting, and Forced Quarantine for control points. Don't cheat, whatever you do.

Game 1 vs. GDIAinsley's Oddities Of Nature (timed loss)

This game started off so, so well. I even kept Funtime Freddy in play due to getting a hex in my opening hand. Got some Fiddle Games out, got some PTPT also, managed to get some big, tough studs into play ( New Varney Nosferatu, Zeb Whateley-Dupont ) and started to Forced Quarantine some dudes. Then, alas, double cheatin' hand in lowball, with a cheatin' resolution played on top of it. From that, I lost: Jia, who was holding The Gambler's Gun (also had my 2 control points from Forced Quarantine), 6 income from Fiddle Games, and 2 hand ranks from PTPT. I managed to hold on until time, but barely.

Game 2 vs. Dreamy's Law Dogs (with Lacy O'Malley) (win)

Usual start. Early cheatin' lowball, but fortunately my opponent didn't play a cheatin' resolution on me, so I recovered fine from that. They suffered a lot from their deck cheatin' in lowball, as they were also running Fiddle Game/PTPT. Some big and bloody shootouts later, and all of their dudes were cursed, quarantined, or just plain dead.

Game 3 vs. RSDoom's Jonah's Alliance (win)

This game got serious quickly, with me laying down extra dudes and fiddle games, and him pumping up Silas Aims (Exp.1). An initial attempt on Silas by me using Curse of Failure went terribly, with all my studs being sent home (Silas) or being Blood Cursed and Unprepared, resulting in 2 of my dudes being aced. Ah well, I got to see what his deck could do.

Next day, double cheatin' lowball hand! Fortunately, either my opponent didn't have a cheatin' resolution, or chose not to play it, so I kept my fiddle games. That turn, I got a Putting The Pieces Together into play, while on the other side Allie Hensman did her thing.

Next, The Extra Bet came out, and it was fiercely fought over. Both Steven Wiles(for me) and Sloane (Exp.1) (for RSDoom) came out to fight over the casino.

This initially did not go well for me, as Jia could not play any conditions to make him a stud. Tyxarglenak got booted home, Steven got blood cursed, and Jia got Unprepared, making it 7 change 4 for me. I pulled a pair, he pulled a cheatin' 5 of a kind. Sloane took a Ricochet. We drew next round, and then lost the next by 1 (had to use my Comin' Up Roses to make it a non-terrible hand, running me out of cheatin' resolutions), and I decided to run at that point. With Steven, I had just enough influence to not lose that day.

Extra Bet shootout, day 2. Silas, Larry "Sevens" Swift and Big Nose Kate vs. Steven, Jia, Tyxarglenak, and the newly arrived Willa. Silas kicks Steven home, drawn hands. Willa and Larry discarded. Then, disaster! Only a two pair gets drawn! I thought it was all over for me, but fortunately the exact same disaster befell my opponent! Kate fell. The next round, he could not avoid cheatin', and Silas died to another Ricochet. The Extra Bet was finally mine. He was able to hire a last-minute Max Baine (Exp.1) to prevent a loss that sundown.

On the final day, Allie did her thing again, got hit by the Sanatarium, then the first Forced Quarantine of the game. Max and Rosaleen Byrne tried to defend her, but 4 big studs, including the newly arrived New Varney Nosferatu were one hell of a persuasive argument. (Though they nearly choked - the best I could do was a cheatin' 4 of a kind - made non-cheatin' by Heretic Joker (Red), but bumped down to a total rank 6 because of it- fortunately that was enough) Allie and Rosaleen went the first round, and Max the second. A win, but there were a few times I was sure I had lost.

Game 4 vs. Deputy Way's Protection Racket (timed loss)

We both got set up, and an early Kidnappin', just after my Putting The Pieces Together had come into play, took out my Tyxarglenak, and also a cat. A later attempt to quarrantine Jake Smiley (clearly his claims were utter lunacy!) was very costly, with Henry Moran and Zeb Whateley-Dupont being lost, in trade for Jake and Allie Hensman (Exp.1). This became a trend, with two further shootouts only resulting in cats dying for me. At time, I was in a shootout with Ulysses Marks and friends in an attempt to pull a last-minute win. Again, a cat died, and then I pulled an utterly terrible hand (rank 4 even with the 2 PTPT boosting it!), so I used The Law Goes Underground, sacrificing Tyxarglenak to nope out of there. With the failure of that job, I was 1C/5I, compared with my opponent's 5C/8I (It could have potentially been 2C/5I for me vs. 4C/2I, had the job suceeded and the shootout won outright) So, a loss at time. Maybe I could have pulled it back if I'd had a few more days, but I was already one dropped deed with CP away from losing, so who knows?

Game 5 vs. Rogue Dakotan's Protection Racket (win)

I started with a fiddle game in my starting hand, always a good omen. Got that and PTPT out day one. Day two, another fiddle game, and Johnny Brocklehurst, who lets me Forced Quarantine anyone, as long as -1 influence would reduce their influence below what is printed (so, anyone without a +influence bonus from somewhere, and not with 0 influence printed), he got out Hunter Protections and Allie Hensman to apply pressure to me.

Day 3, one more fiddle game and PTPT for me, and a lot of CP gain from him, matching my influence total of 5, including my Ambrose Douglas and The Sanatorium effect.

Day 4, things got serious with a Pharmacy coming into play, meaning I had to take action. Tyxarglenak, Johnny and Ambrose decided that Allie's shouting in the town square was some form of contagious madness, and went to go quarantine her for her own good. Lawrence Blackwood, Jimmy "The Saint", and Milt Clemons argued passionately against this, but sadly, their bullets did Ricochet, taking out Jimmy and Milt. Lawrence ran, and Allie had an "unfortunate accident" (got aced) on her way to the sanatorium. Jia went to go sit on Circle M Ranch, and Henry, with an influence from the Sanatorium, moved to take the pharmacy, but alas he was dogged with Rumors that he wasn't a respected doctor, but a drunken wastrel, and had to run home to escape them. Another deed put his control equal to my influence again. A quick PTPT ended this eventful day.

Day 5, and all the control coming from Hunter's Bounties is starting to chafe, so it was decided that bragging about how high your bounty was is another dangerous contagious madness. Lawrence was the first to go, but overcommitting my dudes (everyone except Jia) was a mistake, as it meant a new deed Ike's Place pushed his control over my influence. Jia had to dash over there and persuade the customers to spread their rowdiness over to the pharmacy, lowering its CP to 0. I survived another day, by the skin of my teeth.

Day 6, and Ike Clanton himself showed his head, went over to Hunter's Bounties, and got himself a bounty. See, it's contagious. So "doctor" Zeb Whateley-Dupont, "doctor" Ambrose and "nurse" Tyxarglenak went to "persuade" him to isolate for his own good, which he went along with willingly. Day 7 was similar, with the other Ambrose being isolated for Bounty Addiction, and also claiming to be the real Ambrose, when clearly the real one is my one. New Varney Nosferatu came in and tried to go take over the Circle M Ranch, but nasty Rumors once again surfaced, claiming that he wasn't just an unfortuately-disadvantaged-in-the-face-department gentleman, but an actual ratling vampire! Henry Moran had to go and comfort him from such vicious slander. And also take control of the ranch, hem hem. Jake Smiley darted over to Ike's place to try and win it back during Sundown, but Jia decided he'd had enough of all this pretending to be a doctor, and just shot him. His cheatin' hand had Bottom Dealin' applied to it, and the next hand was a High Card with two Heretic Jokers in it, resulting in effectively a -5 hand rank, and me (with hand rank 9) winning by 14 hand ranks! (actually 8, due to limits to this kind of nonsense. Closed casket funeral for Jake, Rogue Dakotan reckoned.

Quarter final vs. GDIAinsley's Oddities Of Nature (loss)

A rematch!

Day 1, I got a fiddle game and PTPT out, while they used a Summoning to get a Pagliaccio out. Also, all of their abominations (except Karl Odett ) moved to the town square, and The Pharmacy got built.

Day 2, Jia gets another Fiddle Game, and tries to run it, but the abominations oppose. I was able to Disarm the summoning spell following a cheatin' hand, so no more summoning shenanigans, but I decided to let the job fail. Another PTPT out, though.

Day 3, Yan Li's Tailoring gets built, and another attempt at Fiddle Game, which went south (Rank 7 vs. cheatin' rank 10, no cheatin' resolutions in hand). I used The Law Goes Underground to eject with no casualties, however.

Day 4, Opponent played Land Purchase, and I had another crack at Fiddle Game, which this time went unopposed. Land Purchase dug up a Steph & Gertie's Tonsorium, putting me in check. Henry booted over to the pharmacy to get this situation back under control, using the pharmacy to unboot himself. (This is where I went wrong! I should have had Jia unboot instead, then have him come help hold the pharmacy! Ahh well, hindsight is 20/20, and there was no guarantee of success anyway) Another Pagliaccio arrived at home, came over to the pharmacy, and called Henry out, with The Tattooed Man and another paggy coming to assist. He lost, badly, with the hand drawing all of the 9Cs in the deck, making all the PTPTs flip, and making it a rank 4 hand vs. cheatin' rank 8, and I still had no cheatin' resolutions in hand.

Verdict: still a potent deck, but needs some tweaks, like more cheap influence dudes in case of many deeds, could probably ditch The Gambler's Gun and High Stakes Haven.

(Please contact me if I've made any errors in these write-ups, people who I played) EDIT: whoops