Sweet Berry Wine Me - 10th at Worlds 2018

Going to keep this one pretty short.

Basically, I was in the weeds, in the tank, in the shit looking for a Runner for Worlds 2018. I wanted to end the game playing my faves, green and yellow, but any Shaper list I took wasn’t consistent enough for my tastes. The last thing I was testing was a Freedom EStrike build with DJ Steve as a mid-to-late game pressure card. I figured there would be a ton of CTM, and it obliterated it.

Then, Mark Mottram posted up his UK Nats 419 on August 31st. It was a redux of the deck Dave Hoyland built, and that they piloted earlier in the year. It looked really fun, and I told myself earlier this summer that I would love to end the game by playing Apoc. Seeing its record in a pre-MWL 2.2 field gave me a ton of hope. I tried it for about 12 games on JNET, made some changes, and locked it up as my Worlds choice, submitting it as my list about 3-4 days before the deadline for submission. Well, it turned out to be much better than expected. Due to unfamiliarity, I forgot the ID ability for about 85% of my first game of the tourney v CTM, and prob. missed triggers throughout. Despite my misplays, it went 8-2 over the course of 9 rounds of Swiss and 2 games in the cut. The wins included 4 CTM, 2 Mti, 1 Outfit, and 1 Skorp (a nasty brew from Alex Borrill that was about 2-3 runs from locking me out). The losses were a slick Biotech in round 2 (was about 3 creds from not getting double Punitive’d after I stole an Obo to go to 6), and Noah Mckee on IG in the cut (turns out single access is bad v. 6 recursion cards).

I believe I Apoc’d around 8-12 times over the course of the tournament; I lost track. The deck feels soooooooo much like old aggro Crim that it’s ridic. Super fun to pilot. I was a bit worried about the CTM matchup, but went tagme every time and was able to finish them off before they could draw into their punishment (they never overdrew for fear of flooding). The Mtis were the second part of a 241 that we played out, but the Spear Fishing and 3rd Lister proved invaluable there. Plus, Sneakdoor really stretched them out.

My only changes going forward I would recommend would be to somehow fit a 3rd Embezzle in. That thing straight wins games, eliminating hate cards v. dex trying to punish you with Ops, or to eliminate backup ICE during the Apoc run. Also, probably would straight swap the Casts for Crowdfunding. Getting those back after the Apoc seem sicc af, as the kids say.

Major thanx to Dave Hoyland (@cerberus) and Mark Mottram (@cacoethesvictor). I have always been a big fan of both, having met the former at Worlds 2014, when he was the lone UK representative. Their deckbuilding style has always gone against the grain, especially that of the usually straight-forward UK meta. When I heard they weren’t coming to the final FFG Worlds, I was gutted. After looking at the deck, and getting tips from Mark about it, I noted to him that I would take it to rep him and Dave. Mark said it would be fun to see at the top tables. I was just glad to not disappoint, and to have a blast with it.