Price Club Andy - Gamers' Vault Store Championship

amavric 2315

I took this deck (alongside a Hasty CI) to a smaller Store Championship in Montréal, finishing 3rd after Swiss Rounds, and being knocked out of the lower bracket finals, finishing 3rd overall.

This deck is a modified version of my WrmFeeder deck that I was testing out, with the inclusion of more meta-cognizant cards.

The basis of this deck is The Supplier - alongside 23 other resources and pieces of hardware, there's a lot of credits to be saved going 'built to order'. As much as possible, ensure that there's something waiting on The Supplier at all times, just to maximize your savings. Remember, cards with beginning of turn triggers will not fire on the turn they are delivered, so you'll need to plan ahead.

Predicting the existence of asset heavy/prison decks, I threw in two copies of Scrubber and a single Salsette Slums. Both can be installed for free from your Supplier, and do an incredible amount of work. Controlling the Message, Friends in High Places, and Hostile Infrastructure are all very popular, so removing assets from the game is an indispensable effect.

I also tossed in a Councilman to pair with the Political Operative. I forgot how much control these two cards exert on corps, and enjoy playing with them immensely. They do a lot to help your match ups against Marcus Batty/Caprice based decks, and any sort of Accelerated Diagnostics combo decks (CI and Railgun variants), all while remaining universally relevant regardless of match up.

I dropped the HQ Interfaces, as they were clogging up early hands, and The Turning Wheel covers all of your multi access needs.

I dropped the Mimic for a Mongoose and Femme Fatale, as I wasn't finding myself struggling with stacked sentries. I also swapped the Passport for a Peregrine, which is something I would go back on. The Peregrine exists to help contest high-strength code gate remotes, as well as deal with Lotus Fields on remote servers. Neither of those situations arose, and paying five credits for a second decoder never was a smart play.

I sadly dropped the Tapwrms, and I'm not sure whether it was the right call. I decided it was too risky to double up on viruses (Tapwrm and Datasucker), as it gives the corporation too much of an incentive to purge. The Tapwrms would have been useful, and are a really good card to see in your opening hand.

By far the cards that did the most work over the entire tournament were The Turning Wheel, Sneakdoor Beta, and Rebirth. Being able to Sneakdoor in and access all of HQ, while getting bounces as Leela, is incredibly powerful.

There definitely is a lot of room to improve - opening hands with this deck can be outright clumsy. With only three copies of Sure Gamble as a 'play from hand' econ operation, it's really important you find your Supplier in those nine cards. I'd consider getting either Dirty Laundries or Career Fairs in here somehow, just to ease out those problems.

Round 1 // NEXT Batty EtF

With Councilman and Political Operative, even the double Batty server was not intimidating. Rebirthing into Leela, and accruing plenty Turning Wheel counters, even the super taxing NEXT Silvers couldn't stem the central pressure. Sneakdoor seals the deal. Win.

Round 2 // Prison RP

This game was surprisingly fun for a prison deck. Opening with a Kati Jones and a Scrubber, I was ready to contest assets out of the gate. Losing the second Scrubber to a one in five net damage was a bummer, but with the Salsette Slums online, I managed to remove all but one Bio-Ethics Association by mid game. With both Councilman and Political Operative on the table, the rezzing and trashing of assets became very tactical, and a refreshing puzzle for both sides of the table. Understanding their slipping board state, the corp began to rush agendas behind a single Chiyashi. Unable to play my Employee Strikes due to The News Now Hour, facechecking centrals became difficult, not allowing me enough time to contest the remote and draw up to survive Neural Emps. RP scores out to 7.

Round 3 // CI7

Early aggression yields no agendas. I draw furiously to find the pieces I need. Having the full combo in hand, the corp installs a naked Jackson Howard, knowing that if I run they'll fire the entire combo. I install a Salsette Slums and remove the Jackson from the game. The corp was not very pleased. At this point, I keep digging until I can put down my Councilman, Rebrith into Leela, and finally run HQ to get the Political Operative online. With Turning Wheel and Employee Strike, the corp is forced into attempting to score agendas behind a Quandary. Win.

Round 4 // Intentional Draw

Currently in second place, I was matched against the first place player. We decided to draw and get some rest.

Top Cut - Round 1 // Fast Advance NEXT EtF

I match up against the player I ID'd in the previous round. Things are not looking good, as by mid game the NEXT Silvers have 6 subroutines a piece. Being able to sporadically contest their scoring remote, the corp gets to 6 points through three separate SanSan City Grids. Six to zero, comfortably sitting on game point, the corp installs an agenda (with an upgrade) in the scoring remote, while also holding on to a Biotic Labour and another 3/2 agenda in HQ. I can't contest both. I finally draw into my Sneakdoor Beta, slap it on the table, and get two good runs on HQ. I snatch up the agenda in HQ, luckily bounce the installed agenda with my Rebirthed Leela (instead of the upgrade), and re run to steal the returned agenda as well. With the Sneakdoor and Turning Wheel, I close the game in the next two turns. One of the most exciting games I've played in a while. Win.

Top Cut - Round 2 // Tempo Controlling The Message

Starting with an early Scrubber, things are looking alright. I can't find either Aaron Marron, and the corp starts rushing agendas behind a Enigma. I was unable to pay 5 for my Yog.0 and contest the remote while still remaining out of Midseasons/Hard Hitting News range. I eventually go all in, and miss the game winning Breaking News in hand. Loss.

I then proceeded to lose a Hasty CI game in the lower bracket finals, and finished in 3rd place.

Overall, I'm super happy with how the deck played out, especially considering how little it was tested before the event. I think there's a lot of problems that need to be addressed, and am looking forward to ironing these kinks out, and hopefully returning to some top tables.

Hope this write-up was useful, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Happy Netrunning!

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