Top Decks and what to test against?

WALL OF TEXT WARNING
Decks that you are likely to see in a competitive environment:
The Fourth Ring:
Abomination Recursion (Variants)
Weak Structure Hex Control
Pay to Win
Tempo Hex Control (The David Hammond Special)
Job Heavy (Variants)

Law Dogs:
All in (Variants)
Dirty Dogs
Blessed Shootout Control
Blessed Setup

Morgan Cattle Company:
Dudes and Deeds (Variants)
Horses (Variants)
Pay to Win (Gadget)

Sloane:
Town Square Control (Variants)
Robbin’ Hexes
Tempo Hex Control
The 357’s

108:
Loose to Win (Variants)
Kung Fu
Dudes and Deeds (Variants)

Eagle Wardens:
Token based Shootout Control
Fortress Rush

Tier list of those decks: Note that this tier list is based on personal experience as well as general trends in various Metas. This is made for discussion purposes and is not meant as an attack on anyone personally. As it stands the higher it is in the tier list the more likely the deck will win if you have not tested against or at the least do not have a plan to deal with them. This list was made with cards up to the saddlebag Foul Play and may need adjusting once new cards are introduced.
S: Slightly or Largely above the Point of Balance. These decks are extremely powerful to the point where, outside of the addition of new cards will remain dominate in the current cardpool.

A: These decks make up a majority of the defined meta. Dictating the decks that currently benefit heavily from the current cardpool due to their themes being more fully explored and supported.
(4R)Weak Structure Hex Control :arrow_down:
(108)Loose To Win (Variants)
(108)Dudes and Deeds (Variants)
(4R)Tempo Hex Control (The David Hammond Special)
(SL)Town Square Control (Variants)

B: These decks are strong but are not always competitively viable. Generally these decks do not have the support from the current cardpool to be as consistent as the tiers above them, they can however be devastating in the hands of the right pilot.
(EW)Fortress Rush :new:
(4R)Pay to Win :arrow_down:
(MCC)Gadgets :arrow_up:
(MCC)Horses :arrow_up:
(LD)All In :arrow_down:
(LD)Dirty Dogs
(LD)Blessed Shootout Control :arrow_up:
(LD)Blessed Setup :new:
(SL)Robin Hexes
(SL)Tempo Hex Control
(4R)Abomination Recursion (Variants) :arrow_down:

C: Typically these decks are centered around themes that are currently under-supported in the current card pool. They can still win games and possibly even tournaments but they have great difficulty against many of the higher ranked decks.
(108)Kung Fu :arrow_down:
(EW)Token Based Shootout Control :arrow_down:
(4R/SL)The 357’s :arrow_down:
(4R/SL/LD)Job Heavy (Variants) :new:
(MCC) Dudes and Deeds (Variants)

Post Comments:
Downs:

(4r)Weak Structure hex control:
Don’t really have any actual data to make this change 100% accurate, however the amount of influence boosting cards in the game has grown significantly since the last season began. I imagine that this deck will still be the powerhouse it always has been but now there are some annoyances they have to deal with.

(4r) Pay to Win
Running a any deck that’s primary win condition is multiple shootouts is becoming a bit of a risky business. With so many powerful anti cheating cards and resolution cards not only being printed but seeing play the days of buying victory easily are at an end. I don’t think that the deck will move lower than this because its still incredibly efficient at what it does. Some of its matchups are just a tad worse than last season.

(LD) All in (variants)
Pretty much the same reasoning as Pay to Win. The Law Dogs ability to attack early is unrivaled thanks to the fairly exclusive bounty hunter and non trait based law dogs did get a few new toys to play with. However the Law Dogs continue to have some fragile economy issues, which results in a very powerful but not at all flexible strategy.

(4r) Abomination Recursion (variants)
While still a powerful deck, the rise in power of multiple control rush decks, as well as their natural influence problems and reliance on their opponents cheating have lowered the abominations a bit on the tier list. As time goes on I hope that we get to see more abominations with influence or ways or giving them influence in order to mitigate some of the archetypes problems. Because quite frankly its a blast.

(108) Kung Fu
Somewhat of an unfair placement the main reason that Kung Fu has moved down is there isn’t a great deal of reasons to run this deck outside of desire. Since most kung fu decks/cards are shootout based there is a direct competition between this deck and loose to win and currently the options for Kung Fu are not as strong.

(4r/SL) 357’s
Shotgun based decks are in an odd place. There is certainly a shift towards higher values in the game with many of the most popular decks being trait heavy, as well as the Kung Fu mechanic which can mean the difference in some cases. That being said there are quite a few starting posse dudes that are very weak to Shotguns (Rev. Perry, Jake, Phil, Lots of Sloane, some of 4r etc.). I feel like putting them down here is probably a safe bet until we get some more value reduction or bullet buffing in these values.

(EW) Token Based Shootout Control
Essentially there just isn’t enough support for this deck yet. Someone once said that EW embody all of the strengths and weaknesses of Morgan and Law Dogs combined and I think that’s a fitting description. They require a lot of money and a lot of setup time in order to get the ball rolling. I do think however that if that time and money are obtained the deck is quite a tough shell to crack but until they are able to get the ball rolling either faster or cheaper this seems like a good place for them.

UP:
(MCC) Gadgets
I’m sure anyone who is a Gadget fan would agree, gadgets have had it rough. From the beginning of the games life it seemed like they were always one step behind. Today however we have a few more toys for the gadgeteers which seems to have boosted them up a notch. While I think there is still a great deal of growth to be had for the archetype, they are improving slowly but surely and we will see how they do this season.

(MCC) Horses
The new MCC home essentially popped the deck up the tier list as soon as I opened the pack. The new horse decks, either gadget or non gadget, have tons of new and interesting combos that abuse the home ability. The decks ability to control its positioning in and out of fights don’t make it an easy deck to pilot, but do make it fairly unique in the way that it approaches the game as well as how your opponents will have to handle it.

(LD) Blessed Shootout Control
A few more blessed a few more blessings a few more melee weapons and a bit of fine tuning from the community have really pushed this deck up a notch. While I wouldn’t say that anything has dramatically changed what the deck can do it is much more consistent where it wants to be.

New:
(4r/SL) All in:
Not a new deck archetype per say but the amount of these job heavy decks being played out of sanatorium and den of thieves has been on the rise since those new homes arrival. While it seems the testing for these decks is still in its infancy the “all in” general concepts have proven to be quite powerful outside of Law Dogs and we will see if the same can be said for other factions.

(EW) Fortress Rush:
The new hotness is by no means a bad deck and with more testing the deck will most likely be further fine tuned. That being said the deck much like the bunkhouse decks before it just suffers a little too much from its lack of flexibility. The decks inability to really control the board outside of the “Fortress” gives the opponent every opportunity to dig for any answers that they might have for your win condition. With the large amount of discussion about the deck, including many players theorizing on strategies and cards that can help improve the matchup against it, we will see how much of an impact this deck has on the upcoming season.

(LD) Blessed Setup
Not the most talked about new deck in the competitive meta but a powerful one none the less. This Fiery Rhetoric based blessed deck allows the blessed player to do what blessed does best and rewards them for doing so. While the deck has slightly more setup time than a standard blessed deck it greatly improves a number of matchups for the faction, including its dudes and deeds and hex control matchups. The ability to generate 4+ control points a turn unopposed is nothing to sneeze at. Do to Fiery Rhetoric’s fairly negative reception when the card came out I feel like the deck will be under represented this season but it will take some people by surprise.

Overall I feel like the current cycle has been great for the games competitive balance. Improving many of the under supported archetypes without just creating a power swap with the top tiers. I look forward to the continuation of the cycle as well as the beginning of the tournament season.

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