Edinburgh 2017 Epitaph Winner 5-1

Thanks to Black Lion for holding a fun event that was well attended in a good venue (the Victoria Park Hotel) and splendidly hosted. We played round-robin for maximum Doomtown, so I'm confident I played all of the people below but this is not necessarily the order I played them in.

A tweaked version of a deck I played in Huddersfield last year. Switching to 3x Pedro was great for both increasing the throughput of cards (donkeys are free!) and for absorbing casualties. An extra Shotgun was helpful too, replacing Bowie Knife. Very vanilla but effective. The last few AEG era sets made a significant difference to the economy and spread of CP on deeds for this kind of deck. I was often able to get Judge Harry Somerset (Exp.1) in to play and I am considering moving him up to x2.

[Marking as 2016 OP, but obviously 2017 Epitaph, will correct if/when we get new buttons. Aiming to make a donation to dtdb this week, ideally today!]

G1 Mark, Fourth Ring

An impressive 4R shootout deck (finished 4-2?) using a variety of shootout tricks to win gunfights in an unconventional manner (I think its shootout structure was only on two values, which helps in lowball). The only deck to beat Steve's Kung-fu bandits all day without going to time.After the match we calculated that I would have fallen victim to the same shootout trick if Mark had only managed to draw a legal hand in a key early shootout. I made a rules mistake here that Mark generously allowed me to rewind and correct - it cost me a Bounty Hunter, but luckily I had another one in my hand and could use it to close out the game but I felt bad about it for the rest of the day. I need to pay more attention!

G2 David Avery, Den of Thieves job-aggro

I mercifully get a Point Blank in my opening hand, which is enough to dissuade Dave from early aggression as I could use Hattie DeLorre to drop Barton Everest to zero bullets and then effectively target my Point Blank him by booting Tommy Harden. I drew a Quickdraw Handgun around the second or third turn, making me safer from Dave's ability to scout my hand for cheatin' punishment. I was able to get Judge Harry Somerset (Exp.1) in to play reasonably early along with some Shotguns and keep the pressure on the Sloane gang throughout the game, chipping away at the opposing dudes. That said, Dave kept himself in the game for a long time by making money with his home and hiring more dudes. Dave consistently losing lowball due to Devil's Joker (Red) or high cheatin' hand ranks helped me get going.

G3 Steve, 108 Righteous Bandits (kung-fu/holster)

This was an absolute nightmare to face with another shootout deck and very effective, I lost to it in bloody fashion. We went in to one shootout with three dudes on each side (I had one or two sidekicks too) - everyone was aced by the end of the first shootout round! Sadly Steve had strangled my economy and had plenty of other dudes, while I had a lone Philip Swinford and couldn't come back from this. Earlier shootout had seen Steve wisely play around my attempts to inflict attrition with tied shootout/Point Blanking Bounty Hunters thanks to his plentiful bullet reduction.

In particular, I like An Accidental Reunion for reusable Cheatin' punishment with a brutal sting in the tail: you've got enough disposable dudes to just take the casualties and can risk Cheatin' yourself. The home's movement effect is good for getting the Legendary Holster back in to position/back to safety - I couldn't use my normal tricks to bait the Holster with a Bounty Hunter and hired scum before killing the Holster wearer with my proper dudes.

Kung-fu and Doomsday Supply supply is particularly nasty - you're never really safe from Shotguns, as a whole bunch can suddenly appear in the discard pile and be used to kill you. RIP Tommy Harden.

G4 Chris D, Morgan Regulators Science

Chris kept cheating in lowball but his deck then gave up on him in shootouts, giving him only cheatin' full houses/four of a kind which is tough against Law Dogs. In what is becoming a recurring theme across tournaments I got Hydro-Punchered and couldn't Point Blank someone when I wanted too. It is a really good gadget, good on its own and excellent when paired with Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton.

G5 Steph, Sloane Gang Hucksters

A turn two murder blender in classic Edinburgh style. Steph actually got all the pieces for his Dave "Slim" Gorman tricks to make dudes in to draws, but then had a fatigue induced brain drain and moved Angélica Espinosa in to the Townsquare to defend Allie Hensman from a Shotgun toting "Thunder Boy" Nabbe. A cheatin' opposing hand was enough for me to wipe out Dave "Slim" Gorman and I was able to keep the pressure up from here and snipe a couple more dudes for the win after playing deeds to force a gunfight.

G6 Chris, Oddities of Nature

I'm normally confident in wars of attrition due to Point Blank, Gunslinger tokens, Pedro and Willa Mae MacGowan. Got a brutal lesson in true attrition in a couple of early shootouts, losing sidekicks, tokens, Willa to various things and then Tommy Harden to an opposing Point Blank. I would have been in serious trouble at this point normally, but the lack of printed influence on Abominations helped keep my deeds intact, stopping Chris from getting CP and keeping my income intact. Chris finally got his own deeds/Fancy New Hats in play (a good inclusion on his part) but by then my strong economy had allowed me to rebuild. Multiple high bullet studs were able to sweep the town in a flurry of Shotgun blasts and Point Blanks before seizing enough deeds to win.