Embrace Chaos (4th @ Northern CA District Championship)

I've been testing Orca in my Esâ deck for a while and this is the final version that I'm proud of. This deck gives you the ability to sweep through the board while doing tons of sabotage.

Specific cards:

Spark of Inspiration: The card that'll accelerate your early set up and put pressure on the corp. It takes up 3 influence which is a lot but does a really good job at finding your breakers.

Joy Ride: This card was supposed to be the second spark. But 2 sparks will hurt your late game since you installed all your breakers, and you'll always draw some of your breakers before the first spark. So Joy Ride, I'd say an underestimated card, fits the spot perfectly. In comparison, Earthrise costs 4 credits and takes 3 turns to give you 6 cards (you can charge it though), while Joy Ride only costs 2 (can interact with Ghosttongue as well as Mystic) and gives you 5 cards right away, oh and gives you an R&D access. Because almost every player ices up HQ instead of R&D against Esâ, you can guarantee to play this for minor cost (Mostly with support from Bankhar).

Orca: Charges up your Earthrise and Hippocampic while still being a solid killer that can break Archer, Anansi, Saisentan and many sentries extremely efficiently. If you draw it early you can dump it in your bin and hope for a Retrieval Run or Labor Rights+Spark of Inspiration. Otherwise just use your other breakers and Bankhar to yolo through servers. And oh hey Orca doesn't say "you cannot install this program from hand"! You can just pay 10, install it, and use it. In fact I installed it from hand in a game (although it didn't win me that game, but it at least gave me a chance to win).

Finality: You can definitely cut this card from this deck, but it gives you a chance to win under any circumstances. It tells you not to give up and may give your opponent a surprise.

Light the Fire! and Stoneship Chart Room: You probably won't use these cards in most of the time, but if you do it'll save your life (Stoneship just saved me from a Reeducation combo and let me win).

Mechanics:

Charge: Well if your opponent is on fast advance or something like PD, Orca and Hippocampic doesn't really do anything. You'll see yourself losing before your rig is set up. BUT if your opponent is scoring out slowly, there comes the advantage of being able to charge up your cards. You can run each turn, break a sentry and charge up your Earthrise and Hippocampic and keep doing core damage to yourself. So it's basically a clickless 2 draw or a free handsize each turn. This is incredible value.

Breakers: Apparently Begemot and Orca just sweeps through all barriers and sentries, leaving Buzzsaw, the big problem in this deck. You know, anarchs are having a hard time breaking code gates and a Tollbooth or Valentão (if they're rich) can lock you out from a server easily. Even worse if they put it on HQ, taxing your Chastushka runs every time. In this case you might just want to give up on one or two server and find a nice chance to run. Luckily most popular code gates is under 4 strength so it's not a big deal in a game.

Some considerations are cutting Light the Fire! and/or Finality, cutting maybe a Sure Gamble and/or 2 Mystics, just to speed up so you don't get rushed out. But it's hard to give up all the sweet econ boost and the tech cards that'll probably help you in a difficult situation.

At last I want to thank to every opponent. Truly amazing games with you guys! Thanks for everyone who lent me card sleeves, tokens, and playmats which allowed me to join this amazing tournament.