Passive-Aggressive Des Row

Just a silly deck that, when it works, works surprisingly well. The surprise factor does play into it a lot though. I played it at one OP tournament, going 3-0 in swiss and losing in a final match to someone I had already defeated...

The deck is at base a passive, dudes and deeds type deck, except that it's primary method for getting control points is to turn your dudes into them by getting them 4 bounty. I call it a passive-aggressive deck because your primary method for getting that bounty is feigning Kidnappin's (ie using Kidnappin' with no intention to win). A secondary method of making your dudes control points is by dropping Nicodemus Whateley once your opponent has spread out and can't really oppose you.

The main way you want to get into a fight with this deck is to play Kidnappin' against someone at a private location, sending all your dudes including Ramiro Mendoza holding a Quickdraw Handgun, and with No Funny Stuff in your hand to prevent shootout actions. Then generally you only stay for the first round of the shootout, hopefully only losing dudes that you can recycle with Horace Manse and/or Hired Guns. Willa Mae MacGowan is there for if you get into big trouble but is only one time use, so you have to be careful. I also try to always be on the lookout for situations to Kidnap dudes by themselves, even if they don't oppose you still get a bounty on every dude you send.

Your bane is actions that are on goods or dudes themselves. Things like Shotgun, Legendary Holster, or Soul Blast can really wreck you if they don't play down below 2 cards in their hand. I really don't know much else to do about it though, just try and maneuver around those dudes.

The draw structure is obviously very weak, but the idea is that your opponent won't really be able to use any shootout actions and you will have 10+ dudes in any fight giving you generally 5+ stud and 7+ draw... and you should be able to throw together at least a legal full house when you see 17+ cards.

Rico Rodegain is mostly used to see your opponents hand so you know whether you can run the Desolation Row job on turn 1. Generally you can because Ramiro Mendoza looks scary and your opponent doesn't know what you are doing yet, so they don't oppose. I've often been able to run the job unopposed the first couple turns which really gets your economy going, but more important than the economy is making safe decisions of when to get into shootouts. Never over stretch, that will for sure lose you the game.

The big winning plays here all involve Sloane (Exp.1). Use a Kidnappin' to get everyone wanted and home booted, then drop Sloane and either play another Kidnappin' or drop Nicodemus Whateley to suddenly have a lot more control.

As I said to start though, this is really just a silly deck. It's fun to play, but pretty boring to play against, so use this idea sparingly if you want your opponents to have fun.