AmanOb (5th, Midlands Regional)

Utati suggested putting Amani in Facet and I went with it. She’s fired a couple of times in jnet casual games (bouncing lobi=fun) but never on paper, more testing needed I guess… tbh, she’s really expensive and competing with some v. high value 2 cost targets in Holo Man and Tucana so maybe you could try going more all in on the bounce plan, a la Amani Sports..

Anyway, took this to Midlands regional and (despite/because of never firing Amani) it went 3-0! First game went pretty much entirely to plan but definitely rode my luck in the other two. Kikai read me as being on MAD combo, but what had actually happened was a bad mull and a slow start.. He sat right back so as not to let me rez any ice but this allowed me to fix my hand and set up. Had the flurry of pressure that came once he realised his error come any earlier, I would have been toast.. and he still managed to be only one credit off getting into the winning remote. Last game was against Hello, a real nail biter of a matchup with girls, in which akiko’s pressure netted him 5 points early on, but I managed to shore up my defences and really tax out his breaking capabilities and chips (including having him hit an archer). Hello unfortunately made a bit of a misplay as I tried to push a 3/2, using Physarum to save revolver bullets on an archer, when it should have been saved for the afshar produced by the border control in front. It was then my turn to misplay my ice placement, allowing a big eru dig on a stacked rnd that mercifully remained agenda free, allowing me to score out next turn.

Also took this to French Nats, replacing Amani with Manegarm and Thimblerig. Did pretty good but got rolled by Swift Lat.