I’ve run into a few decks that abuse Mario and, aside from the starting posse, have no dudes / deeds. They are guaranteed at least a flush every shootout. Beating that by 3 or more ranks is fairly intimidating.
Should I just auto-include certain cards in my deck to play against Mario flush decks? How do you all beat them? I don’t want to whine too much but playing against Sloane Mario is really frustrating.
Really depends on what you’re playing.
Control - Spells. Keep Mario out of the game or irrelevent with things like Shadow Walk, Paralysis Mark, and Phantasm,
Landslide - Just ignore him and outpace. They can’t catch up or stop you without deeds of their own.
Shooting Decks - Here’s probably the most difficult match-up. You absolutely need to be able to force him to cheat while remaining legal yourself AND beating a flush. Bullet reduction, lots of studs, and baiting out their shootout actions. It’s not easy but it’s definitely possible.
Thanks for the advice. I generally like playing shootout decks but my opponent never cheated so I couldn’t punish them. I think I might change things up and try a dudes and deeds strategy.
It’s a really easy deck to beat once you know how. I personally don’t rate the deck at all, it was a shock deck when it came out for a couple of weeks, but it’s only mid-tier at best in the current environment
Things you need to know about your average “Super-Mario” deck:
Firstly: It is only ever going to flush, period. (This may occasionally be a straight flush, but it’s pretty rare). This means you can be fairly certain that it’s only ever going to be rank 6 in pretty much every single shootout.
Secondly: The deck is 47/48 action cards. It has no deeds, it has no dudes.
Thirdly: It only starts < ~5 influence.
Each of these points is crucial to your understanding of how to beat it.
Firstly: As long as you can rank 7 (Full House) or better, you will never (barring it’s straight flush lucky hands) lose a casualty to it.
Secondly: There are no replacement guys in the deck, ignore Mario. He cannot be everywhere at once. Take out the other dudes and they have nobody to replace them with. An unkillable Mario is useless if he’s the only guy on the table.
There are also NO DEEDS IN THEIR DECK. Super Mario needs YOU to play deeds or accept call outs and lose to actually win the game. Only play deeds that give you less control than your OWN influence, even if by some miracle the Mario deck can take them from you, THEY ARE THE ONLY CONTROL POINTS IT CAN GET
Thirdly: Go Slide…ish. Abuse the low starting influence and play the hide and play deeds game. If you get caught in a shootout, as long as you’re decently stacked and can get a Full House, let him survive, and then just go home. What’s he going to do.
Action-Sloane / Super Mario, whatever you want to call it is actually a good deck to test your resolve and willpower against. Stop accepting it’s call outs and go home after every round and it’ll find it near impossible to beat you.
The most important thing I teach new players translates really well into beating this deck. “It’s OK to refuse a shootout” and you should. Wait for Mario to over extend somewhere and be booted out and then go after all of his other dudes.
I think it’s really important to note here that they do run a lot of things like Cheatin’ Varmit and It’s Not What You Know so they can surprise you by dropping your hand rank, especially if you’re cheating.
This is true, but they need cash… cash they can’t get by losing lowball and paying for Mario’s upkeep every turn just from the Outfit.
I would however add - whatever the hell you do NEVER CHEAT AGAINST IT.
It will be running pretty much every cheating res under the sun.
Boot Mario, then he can’t call you out.
Also simply move passed him if he’s camping ts, he can come and call out your 1 dude… So what!
If he plays allie, go kill it.
Awesome, that’s really good advice everyone. My opponant did play Allie but never brought her to a shootout. I will have to add some Kidnappins or something to get rid of her.
Hey guys, the original Super Mario decklist could use some love, it’s just a few likes away from being in dtdb’s Hall of Fame 
What bullet reduction and draw conversion do (Helloooooo Sun in Your Eyes) is force Mario to top-deck, e.g. if Mario can use stud bonues to draw 8-9 cards, he can always get that legal flush. If he top-decks 5 cards then he’s hard pressed to be able to discard any cards that make the hand Cheatin’ - Cheatin’ CANCELS Mario’s invulnerability - and makes it easy to beat him by 3+ ranks. Also, YOU can pay to use hand reduction abilities - OUTSHOOT THAT BOY!
The others offer sound advice, but a stacked shooter plus resolution plays can in fact outshoot Mario and bid him good riddance.
Not to take anything away from what has already been said. Many good points on outmaneuvering and out controlling.
The ‘Super Mario’ deck you speak of is very powerful in some ways. Because it is so hard for many decks to stop, it usually wins against them. Super Mario definitely has its weaknesses. I’ll simply list some cards that are extremely effective against him, and you can get some ideas for your decks.
Cards that boot, send home booted, or move him.
Xiong “Wendy” Cheng, Soulblast, Pistol Whip, Run Em’ Down, Swinford Finds trouble, Ridden Down, Diable en Boite, Puppet, Paralysis Mark, Phantasm, Leonardo “Leon” Cavallo, Oddities of Nature (if you get unbooted abiniation to the town square first.)
Cards that drop Influence, bullets, or make mario a draw.
Rumors, Bloodcurse, Sun in your eyes. Faster on the draw, Incubation (after he’s been sent home booted), Tail between your legs,
Cards that affect hand rank.
Hex Slingin, Cheatin Varmint, It’s who you know, Ace in the hole (inderectly)
Cards that cause a casualty (seperate from 'take your lumps phase), or ace.
Legendary Holster, Shotgun (tricky, but there are value reducers), Takin you with me, Hot lead flyin, Point blank, Judge Harry Somerset (combine with send home booted cards, and you should succeed at the job)
Also important is that the opponent will only have so many actions to play a turn, so starting 2 or 3 separate shoot outs with him can leave him weaker.
This will not work. Mario’s trait protects him from being chosen as a casualty in all cases, be that simply a difference in hand ranks, Takin’ Ya With Me, or Hot Lead Flyin’.
Point blank?
Point Blank is the ultimate trump card for Mario 
Plus Flame-Thrower if necessary, of course 
Too soon, mplain. Too soon…