Putting 108 Flushes Together-1st OCTGN League/1st WI Sheriff

I didn't post this after the Madison Sheriff event because 1) I was going to use it during the OCTGN league and 2) there were only 4 people who made it out.

This is the OCTGN version that got 1st place (the sheriff event list is very similar). Mplain borrowed a list of mine for a recent tournament, and the differences are very minor so the main reason I will post this is to show the differences between this list and my original one, show videos of how this deck plays, and give some additional advice on how to play with and against it.

The biggest change is the addition of a Jacksons Strike and a Sophie Lacoste. OCTGN games can go longer than normal tournament games, so Sophie is a great way to both keep yourself alive (especially against slide/fortress type decks) and more importantly: spend any extra money. Remember you don't have to be at a public location for her to spend excess cash - she can do it directly from home, you just don't get the influence benefit.

Sunday Best ended up being a great addition. It basically equates to +1 income per turn or more, which is what this deck really needs. 2 or 3 additional income a turn, and it's basically game over for the opponent (which is also why Jacksons Strike is there). Once Xui Yin Chen or Mario Crane (and especially both) hit the table, it's very much an uphill battle for the opponent, regardless of whether you have any Putting The Pieces Together. The removal of 1 ambush for the Sunday Best lowered odds of cheating and kept intact the overall draw structure, thanks to Comin' Up Roses.

For normal 50 min tournament play, I would change:

-1 Sophie -1 Jacksons Strike -1 Reserves -1 This'll Hurt

+1 Hired Guns +1 Doomsday Supply +1 Coachwhip +1 Yan Li's Tailoring

These changes make cheating slightly more likely, but greatly speed up shootout-readiness. The +1 Hired Guns allows for yet another chance to get Henry Moran, so that can help to mitigate the additional, small increase in cheating odds.

How to play with/against this deck:

Here are the 6 games that really show well how the deck works. (3 games from the semi-finals vs Khudzlins 108 WD Rabbit Fu, and 3 from the finals vs mplains Oddities)

Game 1 & 2 vs Khudzlin

Game 3

Game 1 vs mplain

Game 2

Game 3

(mplain and I both slightly tweaked our decks for the finals, so you'll notice more bottom dealin's and no muggings, which I was regretting at more than one point - along with one or two other minor changes)

Thanks to swider for staying up for long games and late nights to record these.

My original posting explains things well, and now that I've played the deck a billion more times over the past months I've seen some common mistakes in judging this deck. The single most common mistake is thinking that, since this is a Putting The Pieces Together deck, it is weak without at least one or two of those cards on my home. That is simply not the case - you'll notice out of those 6 games, in one I was able to get 2 PTPTs and another I was able to get 3, but they didn't last too long before being hit by an All Or Nothing (that game was won at the end with zero help from the PTPTs). All the other games had either zero or at most one PTPT.

At it's core this is a flush/straight flush deck that heavily punishes cheating while almost always remaining legal. If your opponent cheats, it's an almost guaranteed win for you - while every single cheating card they draw will be dead cards in hand or in play 99% of the time. This means if the opponent really knows how to play against this deck well, they will either have to get a legal rank 7 or better to reliably have a chance to beat you, and even then they could be facing off against a straight flush in which case there is nothing they can do, short of a legal 5 of a kind, to beat you.

Only one game have I ever played where I didn't have a powerful cheatin' res ready within the first 2-3 turns - game 3 of the finals vs mplain. Somehow, despite 8+ cheatin res and plenty of card cycling I didn't see any for almost an entire hour. That is extremely rare, but by that point mplain was probably so terrified of cheating that the shootouts we got into within that first hour he still remained legal for all of them, even though I have no doubts he could have gone with a cheatin 5 of a kind at some point.

That's all without any PTPTs. Add in those, or a The Gambler's Gun , and it quickly becomes an insurmountable hill for them. They cheat, they lose. They don't cheat, and they can't get a high enough rank to win. How do you beat that? Well, the answer is things like Legendary Holster, Point Blank, or other shootout/resolution kill cards. That's why we have muggings, pistol whips, and SIYE in this deck. This deck will almost always win lowball against those decks, so it's not difficult to find ways to deal with that weakness.

This deck likes to take its time and build up the economy and PTPTs, but is entirely capable of handling early aggression without them. Either you'll be drawing dudes, deeds, and a goods or two to play or you'll be drawing a hand of shootout/cheatin res clubs. With the former you'll be extending your influence and thinning out the deck for the eventual shootout, and the other will allow immediate aggression.

The draw structure isn't great, so unless you have plenty of non-clubs on the board, it's best to wait until you have a CUR to engage. CUR, especially early on, should not be considered a cheatin' res. Those are for making your flush/straight flushes. If they happen to cheat? Great, but you can't count on that. If they do, it is usually preferred to use any other cheatin' res, while keeping the CUR as a backup in case you can't make that flush/straight flush. If it's the only cheatin res you have, obviously use it, but its primary purpose early on is for its regular resolution because even drawing 7 or 8 cards, there are times when you will not make your flush and the CUR will be the difference between a rank 1 and a rank 6. You should also be counting the number of non-clubs left in the deck at any given moment, and judge your shootout readiness by those odds.

I've said it before, but this is the best deck I've ever made and likely ever will make. I have made several new decks, and will continue to brew new ones, but I feel they will always come up short compared to the versatility, complexity, and sheer inevitability of this one. That doesn't mean I won't play them and have fun, but this will always be my #1 baby!