[Startup] Miasmic Rug Sales (1st @ UK Nats Startup)

So - I end up losing my 2-for-1 in the UK nationals main event, and I'm left wondering what to do on Sunday: Classique? Tag back in as a judge? Play board games and go home? Enter dreadmaaw, who mentions he's got his teaching Startup decks on him - taking a look at entry I figure I'd like Liberated Account in full-art more than Pelangi, so Startup it was!

The deck was 46 cards, so I did a quick rejig with some judge proxies - Pharos out, a second Marilyn, Public Trail and Retribution plus a third Daily Business Show in - and I was set! (These were possibly cruel cards to make the judge write out right before main event top cut began.) Otherwise, the deck is entirely dreadmaaw's, so he gets design credit.

(The other teaching deck turned out to be Steve Mk. V, so that was a bit of a blast from the past for me!)

There's not anything massively complex about the deck in terms of strategy - it's playing very fairly and isn't trying to combo you out or kill you. Mestnichestvo and Vladisibirsk City Grid happen to be very good cards when you can advance them both clicklessly and for free. Money comes from Marilyns and the occasional Regolith; DBS keeps HQ clean and helps stop any big R&D digs from ruining the plan.

Project Beale is kind of a very soft reverse GFI - with Vlad Grid / the ID ability / Seamless Launch in some combination, it's surprisingly practical to score it as a 5/3, which is great for the scoring pattern. Otherwise, scoring four agendas to win does hurt a little, but they have to steal four agendas, too.

You may notice there are no cards from The Automata Initiative in the deck. This was definitely a deliberate tactical choice and totally not because these decks were both built before the set came out. The worst Oppo is the one in your mind...

One loss on the day to JON4LD playing Esa, which ended up pretty close run but the last agenda got snagged out of HQ before I could get the full lockdown. Not a bad run, I think!

(The deck name is me keeping my word to a friend regarding a particularly silly passage from a Brandon Sanderson novel.)