Morgan Regulators - 2nd Place OCTGN Epitaph League

Pretty proud of my horses who I took to a 22-5 overall record in the tournament. Morgan horses have always been a favorite of mine ever since starting Lane Healey in my original core set deck, and with the current environment they have some powerful tools and synergies to make everything click.

• Dudes

Maggie Harris: The most important piece of the horse engine. I usually keep her well out of the action until late game. It would be nice alongside Henry Moran to increase the odds of early game horses in the discard, but as it stands with 8 in the deck there's a decent chance I end up with at least one horse somewhere turn one.

Diego Linares: The perfect mad scientist for this deck. Allows me to run the lower values at 6 and 7 and still be able to invent Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton. Other than that he doesn't do much. Keep him home and safe.

Irving Patterson: The old reliable. Not much to say about the classic. Turn one he usually jumps on the job with Maggie Harris to gain an extra ghost rock. Once I build up influence elsewhere in the mid to late game, he becomes a bit more expendable and I usually throw him in shootouts with a Pedro.

Chuan "Jen" Qí: The main muscle, and a no-brainer with Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton. Hydro-Puncher is icing on the cake (you can indeed attach both to a dude). She can get up to 6 Stud(!) and 3 Influence for only a 3/1 cost, which is incredibly efficient.

Nathan Shane: My personal MVP of the deck. I'm convinced he's one of the most underrated dudes in Doomtown. Even without any goods on him, he can be valuable at sniping a card from your opponent's hand. But once you put some gadgets on him his utility is unbelievable. Being able to see your opponent's entire hand and get rid of their best action card or cheatin' resolution is what makes this deck brutal in shootouts. It also essentially gives you free reign to cheat (or know when you shouldn't), and with a tight draw structure + Calling The Cavalry you won't be losing many shootouts. Once he's geared up and in the town square, the entire game revolves around him. Most of the time he's the perfect target for the outfit ability after using his ability in a shootout.

• Actions

Calling The Cavalry: Another no-brainer in a horse deck. I'm actually a bit surprised though, after around 30 games with the deck this is actually one of the least important cards from what I've seen. Most of the time it's just overkill. If you're making smart decisions and positioning yourself well in shootouts you're probably already in a favorable position. It's also limited to just the first round of the shootout, which was relevant in the games I played. I would say this card is valuable to the deck but not a must-have, especially at 4 copies. A 1 or 2 of surprise might be more appropriate here.

Run 'Em Down!: One of the most important cards in the deck, I wish I could run 8 of them. Once you get your dudes set up with their horses, most people will want to avoid shootouts, especially with a 5 stud Nathan Shane parked in the town square when you won lowball and have some cheatin' resolutions in hand. This card gives you an absurd amount of mobility options and is invaluable against dudes hiding out at home. Move a mounted posse in, get rid of the dude, use the Regulators outfit to retake the town square. The essence of this deck.

This'll Hurt in the Mornin': This is usually the nail in the coffin late game. A shootout with Calling The Cavalry and Nathan Shane taking away the opponent's cheatin' resolution leaves them desperate and willing to take bigger risks to cheat. This is here to punish them and close out the game. I never use this during lowball unless I have multiple in hand.

Flight of the Lepus: Probably the weakest card in the deck. This slot started out as Outgunned to work with Calling The Cavalry and boost hand ranks even further, but I found that most of the time my dudes weren't in a position to be able to boot to use it. Nathan Shane is my shooter a lot of the time and needs to boot for his ability, so I had to drop it. Lepus is just here for more cheatin' resolutions, which I always want to have in hand. Mid to late game, pretty much the only way for my opponent to outrank my high studs + Calling The Cavalry is to cheat, so I want to have as many resolutions as I can.

• Other Cards

Secured Stockyard: This is a bit random but I always liked this card and needed another cheap control point deed. It will fail the check to a Calling The Cavalry (which has happened, of course). Another ranch for Cattle Market and "Dead" Billy Jones, and works with #L.

Hydro-Puncher: Mostly here because it's a cheap +2 bullets for my studs, but as an added bonus it synergizes with Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton and can be useful against spells.

Pedro: Basically Irving Patterson in the form of a horse - cheap, reliable, and the low-value ability doesn't hurt too often. Love this guy.

Yagn's Mechanical Skeleton: Best card in the game? This deck wouldn't exist without Yagn's. Some may say it's too strong but I think certain archetypes need to have foundational cards to build off of. The thing I love about this card and this deck in general is that it's clearly powerful but it doesn't run itself. It promotes synergy and complimentary deck construction which I think is a good thing for this game.

• Overall Thoughts

At first I was running a lot of different cards for each value, but eventually opted for a more efficient, consistent deck given all of the synergies it has. Thus, the actions and hearts are all x4 and the 16/14/14 structure makes it a potent shooter. This deck aims to be very aggressive, and with only 10 deeds the win condition is usually either taking your opponents deeds or wiping them out with a big late game shootout. It can also accrue large amounts of influence if it needs to and you need to play the long game. The economy is just average, I would say. Most of your money is going towards setting up your gadgets and maybe dropping a small deed or two for a control point. I rarely ever get out the big expensive dudes, but they're there if I need them.

I love this deck, and it's everything I want out of a Doomtown experience. It's powerful and efficient but also thematic and fun to play. The synergies are evident but it still needs a good amount of strategy and decision-making to win with. I love decks that promote interaction and the Regulators are chock full of it. This deck performs well against most decks, especially those that try and shoot it out with you. The only real difficulties I ran into consisted of two things: Phantom Fingers and (as my 2nd place finish attests to) Deedslide.

I had a great time participating in the Epitaph tournament and I want to say thank you to all those involved in running it and participating in it, and congrats to jayjester the champ. This was my first Doomtown tournament and I hope to partake in more in the future.