Our New Years Revolver was a success!
We ended up going with Spinning Barrel (random) match-ups, visited 6 pubs, cafes, and noodle houses, with our 6 decks each, all in 6 hours to bring in the New Year:
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Round One @ Eureka! (https://eurekarestaurantgroup.com/locations/berkeley/) @ 6pm
Drinks: "Sunny Daze" vs "Shallow Grave Porter"
Decks: "...And hell followed with Him..." Morgan Regulators vs 108 Righteous Bandits "Public Trust"
(https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3132/-and-hell-followed-with-him-revolver-1-) vs (link)
Jon Longstride took to the townsquare (a stud) and proceeded to bully Tom's quick succession of deeds. When Forster Cooke purchased a Shotgun, I became weary with both Irving Patterson and Vida Azul - the latter Tom was able to maneuver into a shootout and trade for Xiaodan Li (at Hustings) tricking me with Siege of the Orphanage to do so, but also trapping himself there in the process. I countered by immediately playing Nathan Shane to initiate a second shootout, revenging myself for the loss of Vida. With the board set and Tom's influence low (And me with 2 Stone CP!), he came out to fight. Winning my first lowball that day, we both had the same tactic in mind, but as the Winner I was able to Pistol Whip the dude who he was going to use to Pistol Whip my dude, sealing his fate.
jordan 1 - madpip 0
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Round Two @ Jupiter Brewhouse (http://www.jupiterbeer.com) @ 7pm
Drinks: Both of us guzzled their 20 ounce "Hazy Hef"
Decks: "Probe" Fort 51 vs Mogan Cattle Co. "Easy Cowboy"
(https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3133/probe-revolver-2-) vs (link)
Tom quickly layed three deeds, and as I hadn't drawn any gadgets, sent a plucky Quincy Washburne to occupy Blake Ranch in an effort to slow his early economic dominance. Tom smartly responded with sending Jarret Blake and Henry Moran on a Curse of Failure job, and was it not for a miracle of science - I top-decked a legal Full House to Tom's cheatin' Full House which I punished with It's Not What you Know - would have made this a very difficult match indeed. Tom replaced his fallen cowboys, and there was another skirmish or two, but as the board flooded with greater Blue chips than Red chips, eventually got pinned at key locations (like 1st Baptist Church and Pharmacy) with me at the dude advantage, so I ran a Technological Exhibition on the Townsquare (which he couldn't defend without giving up a 2-CP deed) and plopped POST-A-TRON into play sporting the defining CP.
jordan 2 - madpip 0
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Round Three @ Victory Point Cafe (https://www.victorypointcafe.com) @ 8pm
Drinks: "Gilman Nectarine Saison" vs "Blindwood Dry Hop Cider"
Decks: "Tunnels!" The Sanatorium vs Protection Racket "Johnny Kill Good"
(https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3134/tunnels-revolver-3-) vs (https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3074/johnny-kill-good-top-8-tombstone-2019-)
Tom got an early surge of money stepping all over my unprotected deeds while I slowly built up all kinds of Hexy nastiness on my dudes. I began to harry him with Phantasm and Blood Curse to prevent him from racking up CPs using his home (I think he managed two) when Puppet hit the table and the real shenanigans began. Big Nose Kate started working for the Sanitarium and calling out her former gangmates, but was eventually put down by Marion Seville who had had enough turncoat. I think a second dude repeated that fate (the details begin to become a little hazy by this point). Tom puts me in check a couple times, but I Hex my way out of it, and started in with the booting tech of Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo and Paralysis Mark to lock down the board to a win.
jordan 3 - madpip 0
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Round Four @ Bangkok Noodle House (http://www.bangkoknoodles.com/BKK_Noodles/Home.html) @ 9pm
Drinks: Two bottled Heinekens
Food: Ginger Fish Plate vs Beef Stew Noodles
Decks: "Wild at Heart" The Spiritual Society vs Full Moon Britherhood "Mason Adler Stone DMH"
(https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3135/wild-at-heart-revolver-4-) vs (link)
My luck began to change as I cockily leapt the indomitable Mariel Lewis into shootouts pumped up having been to Charlie's Place. Unfortunately, Tom countered with Stakes Just Rose and La Quema - not to mention Grit manipulation in Black Owl and Rosenbaum's Golem - to keep Mason Adler in the fight with more bullets than I had poker draw - and continued to lay down DMH after DMH, burying my dudes in Boot Hill through the Sidekick protection my deck tried to employ. I changed tack, and tried to offer up one sacrificial dude each turn to keep Mason booted at home to leverage Tom's incredibly low Influence total using Rumors to almost sneak a victory from defeat. Tom snubbed this last ditch attempt with a well-timed Steven Wiles to double his influence, and proceeded to throw my remaining dudes into the veritable blender that was his deck's structure.
jordan 3 - madpip 1
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Round Five @ Triple Rock Brewery (http://triplerock.com) @ 10pm
Drinks: Hefeweizen Triple Dry vs Pomegranate Cider
Decks: "Snatch and Slide" 108 Righteous Bandits vs Law Dogs "Blessed Dogs"
(https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3136/snatch-and-slide-revolver-5-) vs (link)
Um. I can't even remember how it happened - it was so fast. My deck is supposed to set up This is a Holdup! and then escape using the home ability but that never happened. Instead, before I knew it, all of my dudes had bounty and Hattie DeLorre hit the table, making quick work of Jim Hexter. Oh yeah! I tried to slip over to Maza Gang Hideout, which I presumed would be hard to defend, to get my combos going, but got cut down. I think we both cheated and played Ricochet. Tom kept relentless pressure on my dudes, and stomped on my deeds. The dudes I hired to replace those fallen met similar fates. Tom rolled through me for a win.
jordan 3 - madpip 2
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Round Six @ Bobby G's Pizzeria (https://bobbygspizzeria.com) @ 11pm
Drinks: Three Flowers IPA vs Marzen Pilsner
Food: Pepperoni Pizza
Decks: "Concealed Carry" Protection Racket vs Eagle Wardens "Tuwikaa's Stiff Drink"
(https://dtdb.co/en/decklist/3138/concealed-carry-revolver-6-) vs (link)
Our final matchup of the night. Will Tom perform the comeback to tie for the Bossiest Berkeley Boy of 2019? This deck was Tom's first "X factor" deck in awhile; he built it the day before. And it took me off guard. I would walk to Townsquare to interrupt his card draw with, say, Travis Moone toting a Winchester Model 1873, only for Tom to use Nathaniel Tuwikaa's ability to call me out, nullifying my guns, refuse, only to watch him take a Good Stiff Drink to reload, or, to receive similar treatment from Richard Faulkner and ...It's Who You Know. I refused all of these callouts, and Tom got cycling cards, playing deeds, and stepping on mine. After a round or two of this, I finally broke through the "Word Blockade" with a lucky draw, and started building up my own economy. Then the Kidnappin's started to flow into my hand, and I was able to not only revert shooutout poker back to bullets, but also to drag his dudes around the board using job posse mechanics. Nathaniel dropped and with it Tom's hope for redemption.
jordan 4 - madpip 2
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Overall, I had a blast, as this challenge not only forces you to make six decks, but also to play them, perhaps varying tactics from game to game, against an opponent doing the same. I would definitely be down to play me some more Revolver in the future - perhaps at an upcoming Round Up!
Also, with the release of Joker Pack, and this deep into the game's run through, and with the database (http://dtdb.co) active, there is no longer a legitimate excuse not to be able to put together one deck of each faction to participate.
Until next year!
Cheers.
