Dept. of Murder Hobos - 1st Newcastle Epitaph

Well done to Chris for running a fun & well attended (16 players) event in Newcastle. The prize support was great too, with a fun raffle at the end to distribute promos, including lots of hard to find promos from early in the AEG era. The games were well contested and thanks to all my opponents for playing in good spirits.

I put together a Dead Man's Hand deck for this event as I'd never managed to draw one in a tournament game. I was lucky enough to draw two during the event, one joker assisted and a second naturally. One of these was particularly welcome, as I was up against a good Den of Thieves deck from a different Chris and thanks to Rico Rodegain he knew I didn't have any Cheatin' punishment beyond my Pair of Six-Shooters. Several of the other players had much more entertaining and janky decks that are worth looking up on Dtdb, including a high placing The Sanatorium sidekick deck, a successful Eagle Wardens debating deck and even a Beyond the Veil deck that deliberately avoided Spirit Fortress in the name of some weird tricks with Chief Stephen Seven-Eagles. Splendid creativity from them and many others.

Can't compete with the rest of the playerbase for entertaining deck names, so apologies for the leaden guess at what DMH could stand for. I briefly considered "Dept of Municipal Homicide" but that doesn't really fit with using your superior influence to issue arrest warrants and kill people in the homes.

As ever in Doomtown I got lucky a few times. In one match I thought my booted "Thunder Boy" Nabbe was safe in Town Square as he had Willa Mae MacGowan to eject him to safety, only for both to be hit by Mark's Unprepared. I knew I had a joker coming, but hadn't counted back to confirm that I'd have a cheatin' 4 of a kind that bailed me out. Similarly, the final saw me adopt my normal macho "cheat through the pain" strategy in an early shootout only for Tom not to have seen any of his plentiful Cheatin' punishment (which he inevitably drew during Sundown, after which I was playing conservatively to protect my lead).

I prefer the greater reliability of playing 3/8/K, as that gives Point Blank, Shotgun and Sun in Yer Eyes which I find easier to use to remove opposing dudes, but it was fun trying out two different values. Outgunned was occasionally useful, but I find it harder to trigger than Point Blank, even with Hattie DeLorre's help. A solo Bounty Hunter can use it to inflict some damage with little risk, while he might not be able to trigger Outgunned.

I left out Pat's Perch by accident, I would ideally have dropped 1x Pair of Six-Shooters to fit it back in. The 8S should probably be a mix of Steven Wiles and Judge Harry Somerset, as Vasilis the Boar was just left over from an old Shotgun deck and Wiles helps cycle the 8S back in to the back.

Several other players had good advice on using Comin' Up Roses in a DMH deck if you're wanting to go full "serious business". Similarly, switching to leaving the Jacks of Diamond off value gives you a free choice of your third value and makes it easier to leave the Jacks of Diamonds in your decks as part of your draw structure.