Clown Control 2.0 - Winner - 13-players, Cracow, Poland

You Polish guys sure don't like spreadin' Rumors...

Thanks for the write-up!

Do you happen to know the decklists for the LD SF and Control Clowns Mirror you played in the cut?

What was the 4th deck in the top 4?

Grats on your result. Well played.

I'm currently at first place in octgn league with similar deck(8-1). Still there is no a serious contest for this style.

Decreasing clubs number is really smart, I should also go this way.

I have couple questions: what do you think about Rico in Jake slot? And Willa instead of Brute. Though it s more suitable to mine list, then yours. She does not synergies with TYWM. So probablly you can spend one more starting gr for brute.

I have also tested Jael. I discovered that I win without any shootouts more often and drop it. Do you find it useful enough?

Have you tested Phantom Fingers? I enjoy it as singleton. Yes it fails 9-hexes but it works as 5th BC in lot of games where opponent have +inf goods.

What is your thoughts on your current build in general? What are the weakest cards right now?

Oops, missed link. Sry

Read article, nice write-up. Questions are still there. Except one regarding Guile. Still could you describe how often did it fire? I still like clubs cheating punishment beacause it cannot be Pistol whiped, Unprepared or something else.

TWHIM helps to win lowballs and wreck opponent late game by removing dudes and deeds from deck. It is not there for winning shootouts.

@soulblight - LD deck: dtdb.co other Clowns is the same list as mine with some minor changes: -1 Jael's Guile, -1 Unprepared, -1 Soul Blast, +1 Puppet, +2 This'll Hurt in the Morning; 4th deck was a Desolation Row starting Jake, Travis, Barton, Angelica, Elliot. Structure was 3-4-7, splashing 2x No Turning Back and 2x Election Day Slaughter. The deck played 8 kill cards with 2 EDS, 4 Kidnaps and 2 Ambushes. The other stuff was fairly straightforward - all the best cards in the respective values. I'm sure you can figure them out (I don't have the exact decklist recorded). ;)

@Gozik - 1. Rico - I kinda like to start Jake in place of Brute against Landslide and Mirror. You can't do that with RIco (I still like Travis in both matchups), so I think I'd rather stay with Jake. In a meta without Clowns and Landslide (is there such a meta somewhere?) I could agree Rico is slightly better. 2. Willa - you already answered the question, but I think I'll try her anyway just to see how annoying it would be if I lose because I had to use her ability and couldn't follow up with Takin. 3. Jael's Guile - the card is insane. It's pretty much MVP every time you use it. I had many games where Jael just won the game all by itself and it has never failed me so far. It gives you an edge in the more difficult matchups (aggro decks that have 8+ kill actions). If they are stupid enough to cheat, they just conceded the game outright. If they show you a legal full house, there's a good chance you'll match that and save a guy with Arnold, or win with 4oak. I can't recall a situation where I completely whiffed just booting two dudes - at least one dude hit the dust (you have plenty of ways to sculpt a situation where everyone is booted). If they opt to not engage in the shootout - it's even better as it plays directly into your gameplan. Pistol Whip is super easy to dodge - it's very rare someone is untapped in the shootout (you mostly win lowball and have Unprepared + Soul Blast + Paralysis Mark). Unprepared is easy to dodge as well - you keep Jael on Popescus and Soul Blast and Blood Curse on Valeria to help the pull. Your opponent has a dilemma who to boot and they usually can't boot both. Against decks with like 4 Kindapings, I agree, you don't need it as you can just let go every aggro attempt and win without engaging in close combat. Against more aggresive decks, jael is exactly what you need. Even if you happen to dodge the aggro matchups, the hammer is cheap, non-unique and easy to cycle. I initially started with 2 copies, but the card was so good I upped the count to 3 and I think it's a correct number. 4. Haven't tried Phantom Fingers, but I'll try a single copy going forward. With the Ironman costume and more interesting goods that work well against Clowns, Phantom Fingers looks more and more appealing. 5. I know the theory behind using TWHIM in lowball, but it has never worked for me. It's a cute little interaction, but far too fiddly for my test. I found it irrelevant most of the time as you can comfortably win without it. And it also feels bad when you need to essentially cycle the card in lowball for a small upside. I also hate to play cards that are mostly good in lowballs (Consecration, Soul Cage, you name it) as you have no control over what your opponent flips and there are times when they just keep getting legal hands and you have essentially dead cards in your deck. I'd rather play something that is very high impact (Jael) that I can freely cycle and still use later if needed, than something that I need to sandbag in my hand and that has relatively low impact on the game. 6. My general thoughts are that the deck is ridiculously powerful. I think it wins 80-90% of games easily. Sometimes you get a subpar draw and get aggroed out, but this is rare. However, I still think there's room for improvement in the deck, for example I don't really like the dudes. I'd happily replace most of the dudes with some better options (if they print some cool ones that are good :P). I especially don't like Bobo and The Ghostly Gun and will probably test 3rd Steven and Steele Archer Exp in their place.

Ooops. It ate formatting for some reason. There you go again in more readable version:

@soulblight - LD deck: dtdb.co other Clowns is the same list as mine with some minor changes: -1 Jael's Guile, -1 Unprepared, -1 Soul Blast, +1 Puppet, +2 This'll Hurt in the Morning; 4th deck was a Desolation Row starting Jake, Travis, Barton, Angelica, Elliot. Structure was 3-4-7, splashing 2x No Turning Back and 2x Election Day Slaughter. The deck played 8 kill cards with 2 EDS, 4 Kidnaps and 2 Ambushes. The other stuff was fairly straightforward - all the best cards in the respective values. I'm sure you can figure them out (I don't have the exact decklist recorded). ;)

@Gozik - 1. Rico - I kinda like to start Jake in place of Brute against Landslide and Mirror. You can't do that with RIco (I still like Travis in both matchups), so I think I'd rather stay with Jake. In a meta without Clowns and Landslide (is there such a meta somewhere?) I could agree Rico is slightly better. 2. Willa - you already answered the question, but I think I'll try her anyway just to see how annoying it would be if I lose because I had to use her ability and couldn't follow up with Takin. 3. Jael's Guile - the card is insane. It's pretty much MVP every time you use it. I had many games where Jael just won the game all by itself and it has never failed me so far. It gives you an edge in the more difficult matchups (aggro decks that have 8+ kill actions). If they are stupid enough to cheat, they just conceded the game outright. If they show you a legal full house, there's a good chance you'll match that and save a guy with Arnold, or win with 4oak. I can't recall a situation where I completely whiffed just booting two dudes - at least one dude hit the dust (you have plenty of ways to sculpt a situation where everyone is booted). If they opt to not engage in the shootout - it's even better as it plays directly into your gameplan. Pistol Whip is super easy to dodge - it's very rare someone is untapped in the shootout (you mostly win lowball and have Unprepared + Soul Blast + Paralysis Mark). Unprepared is easy to dodge as well - you keep Jael on Popescus and Soul Blast and Blood Curse on Valeria to help the pull. Your opponent has a dilemma who to boot and they usually can't boot both. Against decks with like 4 Kindapings, I agree, you don't need it as you can just let go every aggro attempt and win without engaging in close combat. Against more aggresive decks, jael is exactly what you need. Even if you happen to dodge the aggro matchups, the hammer is cheap, non-unique and easy to cycle. I initially started with 2 copies, but the card was so good I upped the count to 3 and I think it's a correct number. 4. Haven't tried Phantom Fingers, but I'll try a single copy going forward. With the Ironman costume and more interesting goods that work well against Clowns, Phantom Fingers looks more and more appealing. 5. I know the theory behind using TWHIM in lowball, but it has never worked for me. It's a cute little interaction, but far too fiddly for my test. I found it irrelevant most of the time as you can comfortably win without it. And it also feels bad when you need to essentially cycle the card in lowball for a small upside. I also hate to play cards that are mostly good in lowballs (Consecration, Soul Cage, you name it) as you have no control over what your opponent flips and there are times when they just keep getting legal hands and you have essentially dead cards in your deck. I'd rather play something that is very high impact (Jael) that I can freely cycle and still use later if needed, than something that I need to sandbag in my hand and that has relatively low impact on the game. 6. My general thoughts are that the deck is ridiculously powerful. I think it wins 80-90% of games easily. Sometimes you get a subpar draw and get aggroed out, but this is rare. However, I still think there's room for improvement in the deck, for example I don't really like the dudes. I'd happily replace most of the dudes with some better options (if they print some cool ones that are good :P). I especially don't like Bobo and The Ghostly Gun and will probably test 3rd Steven and Steele Archer Exp in their place.

Thanks for answers. I have not enough games in really agressive meta so my vision on perfect build is slightly differ (and I believe my winrate higher:) deck just broken). Still we have really similar ideas about deck, will try some of your choices.

If you intersed in my current build - it is here: dtdb.co

Is Takin' Ya With Me good here specifically because of Arnold McCadish, or do you just consider it a great card in any deck?

How do you anticipate Mugging affecting this deck overall?

Mugging in not much worser for this then any other targetting job. It is decent option for opponent but not really games hard counter. Yesterday had some games vs muggings and multple fancy hats and theethkickers from slingin stores, still win them all.

@InvertedGuard- Takin is good not because of Arnold, but because of the general idea behind the deck. Your main win condition is to reduce your opponent's influence and every chance where you can trade your cheap dude (Travis, Brute, Bobo, Steven...) for even a single point of opponent's influence is invaluable. Note there is a really high dude count and very good economy in the deck, so it is almost always correct to trade your cheap dude for basically any dude of your opponent. Yo can easily replenish, they ca't. It is also rather easy to find juicy targets as you can clear a path for your cannon fodder with Paralysis Marks.

I've tried Jael's Guile with Michael "The Badger" Dodge in a 108 Blessed deck. His ability to boots an opposing dude and can drop their bullets, so it's potentially a good combo but I've not managed it in play yet. Combining it with Paralysis Marks is just evil :)

Mark of Pestilence is even eviler!

I've build a clown deck focusing on shootouts with Pestilence and Guile, but don't like it. This build is much better.

What's the problem with it?

Lets see. You have to find Jail, find pestilence, mark, initiate shootout, have your dude with mark and guile unbooted and avoid unprepared pistol whip etc, make pull for pestilence, force opponent to cheat, avoid bad resolutions like Rabbits or Willa. What can posdibly go wrong?