[DD] Anti-Fortress DesRow (1st Place 2015 OP Kit, 9 people)

I took first with this deck in a 9 person tournament yesterday. It was designed with one major purpose in mind: beating Spirit Fortress. You have two means to do so: infinite influence and Scoop Hound.

The general strategy is to send Allie Hensman to town square, use her ability, then use the Desolation Row job to rescue her back home. In this way you'll accumulate the CP needed to win. Weapon up your dudes and make the job unstoppable, and get additional CPs on your dudes from the outfit job.

Your start will generally be Allie Hensman, Jake Smiley, Barton Everest, Rico Rodegain, and Jacqueline Isham. Get Fred Aims out there ASAP, though, and once you do just keep doing the job with him. Best possible scenario is to get Angélica Espinosa out there for all-around protection. The start and initial strategy, though, may change on matchup, which is where Rico comes in.

:: Against Spirit Fortress :: If you see Beyond the Veil, you want to start Fred and Angelica instead of Barton and Jacqueline. At the end of turn 1, you'll have 5 influence and that will likely be enough. Keep running the job on Fred + picked up Allie (you can back them up with Angelica if they oppose) and your influence will ramp to at least 7, then 9, etc. You will also be looking to get gear to Fred and one other dude (likely Angelica) to get ready to assault the fortress. For Fred, you want the Outlaw Masks and a Bluetick. Your goal here will eventually be to run Allie, then run the job with Fred, then move Fred back into the Town Square to take advantage of the Outlaw Mask influence. If you don't have a Bluetick, Asakichi Cooke also can get you moved. Protect Fred with your stud dudes and you should be fine.

Since you are accumulating CP every turn and protecting the Town Square you should be able to outlast Spirit Fortress, but you can also attack. The key is Scoop Hound. You absolutely must not attack without Scoop Hound, which will prevent them from bringing in Spirits or sending you home booted. You also have Shotguns to knock out other bad spirits or their smaller dudes. Ideally, you want to attack when you have a sufficient force and once you've won lowball (or have Pearly's Palace out) so that you can make the first shootout play and use the Scoop Hound. In addition, you have two more weapons at your disposal: Hot Lead Flyin' and Legendary Holster. Even just the threat of the LH will mess with your opponent, and if they're not expecting HLF it can be a huge surprise factor.

:: Against Deedslide :: In many respects, you treat this like you do Spirit Fortress. Start Fred + Angelica instead of Barton + Jacqueline and keep running the job. Eventually set up Angelica + Scoop Hound in town square and take over their deeds while providing extra protection everywhere. You likely should not play your own deeds save The Extra Bet or Pearly's Palace.

:: Against Clown Control :: The big danger is Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo and Paralysis Mark for sure. Allie becomes the draw for a lot of their ire right off the bat, though, so you can still keep pulling off the job and rescuing her immediately. You should likely grift with Rico even if you don't replace your dudes so you can get information about their hand. Peacemaker is huge in this matchup. Don't let them take over town square. Build up slowly and surely and you can prevail. Try not to engage unless you have HLF and SIYE if you can afford to wait. Bluetick, Asakichi, and Angelica provide some extra protection against their anti-movement cards.

:: Against Aggressive Shooter Decks :: You can mostly forget about Outlaw Masks and infinite influence here. Just rock it with your weapons and keep building up CP. You've got plenty of cards to combat them on all levels. Just don't engage until you are built up or until you have to. Depending on your starting hand and what you see with Rico, you might even choose to switch Jacqueline with Angelica and still leave Barton around.

Unfortunately, you do not have Kidnappin' in this deck -- it just didn't fit. Albeit, you could likely replace the HLFs with Kidnappin' and still be fine.

In the aforementioned tournament, it won four games: (1) Morgan Stables/Gadgets - Despite having an HLF canceled from Slight Malfunction, it prevailed through a really tough shootout. (2) Spirit Fortress - Saw Beyond the Veil and changed up the starting dudes. Lots of CP hit the board, but not Nicodemus until the end. I ultimately won on the tie breaker since the game went to time. (3) Den of Thieves Milt Clemons Money Engine - This player was using Hunter Protections to grab CP and then moving bounties around with Makaio to Milt to gain GR. My economy and CP generation, though, was up to the challenge and ultimately outpaced him, forcing him to come after me against my ridiculous stud count at that point. (4) Abram's Crusaders with Tlaloc's and Miracles - An unfortunate start that ultimately caused me to lose Allie looked bad for me, but an HLF knocked out half his dudes the first turn. I eventually caught him cheating, Bottom Dealt him, and destroyed his board.

Overall, this deck can likely be tweaked but has consistently performed with strength. It's weakness really is shotguns, but hopefully you'll know you are facing 3s after Rico and a lowball hand so you can, in theory, play around them. Your suggestions are much appreciated!