Store Championship season is upon us once again, and this year Colorado is holding eight of them. The first of these was this past weekend at Chaos, Games and More in Pueblo. Despite the beginnings of a significant snowstorm throughout the state, I chose to attend to try out two of the decks I've been tinkering with over the past two weeks.
Gotta Go Fast 1.0 - 49 cards
Identity: Ken "Express" Tenma
Programs
Alias - 1
Breach - 1
Corroder - 1 (2 influence)
Femme Fatale - 2
Gordian Blade - 1 (3 influence)
Passport - 1
Hardware
Doppelgänger - 3
Public Terminal - 3
Resources
Always Be Running - 2 (6 influence)
Bank Job - 2
Dr. Lovegood - 1 (1 influence)
John Masanori - 3
Same Old Thing - 3
Security Testing - 1
Events
Account Siphon - 2
Dirty Laundry - 3
Early Bird - 3
Fisk Investment Seminar - 3
Hostage -3
Inside Job -2
Legwork -3
Special Order - 2
Stimhack - 1 (1 influence)
The Maker's Eye - 2 (4 influence)
This deck is all about running hard and fast. Always Be Running is part of the key. While it forces you to run or play a run event on the first click, Ken wants to play out a run event. Plus, the ability to break a subroutine for two clicks allows you to get through ice that might otherwise keep you out early- or mid-game. For this reason, the deck is loaded with run events. Account Siphon for economy against a corp that hasn't defended HQ too well. Dirty Laundry because that's always good, especially for Ken. Early Bird gives a run and a click, which helps with ABR. Fisk Investment Seminar is tricky, because if ABR is already in play, you'll need to turn it off to play this event, but it still gives decent card draw, and refills the corporation's HQ if they're running light on cards to access. Hostage let's you search for the two connections in the deck: John Masanori and Dr. Lovegood. Grab whichever one is more beneficial when you need it and install. Inside Job for obvious reasons. Legwork lets you put more pressure on HQ. Special Order to grab whichever icebreaker you need at the time. Stimhack lets you make a big run, usually on a scoring server. The Maker's Eye for digging through R&D. Same Old Thing lets you reuse any of these events, but you'll probably be using the run events. For hardware, you're using the Doppelgänger for extra runs and click compression. Public Terminal pays for your run events, which means the one credit you get for playing the first run event each turn can go to that run instead of repaying the cost. Resources are pretty critical too. Bank Job gives some burst economy. Security Testing can give you two credits if the corporation keeps a server open. John Masanori is your main draw engine. Dr. Lovegood fills an interesting role. He can shut off whatever card you don't need at the time. If the corp is only keeping up the centrals, you can shut off Security Testing when you need to get in. If you can't get in or aren't sure if you can, you can shut off ABR or John Masanori to mitigate the effects. For icebreakers, you have the central-only suite plus two Femme Fatale for bypassing key ice, as well as a Corroder and a Gordian Blade to get into scoring servers.
This deck does have some flaws, though. With no recursion, losing any icebreaker or Dr. Lovegood can hit pretty hard. Also, there's no real way to mitigate kill decks, so you'll have to be careful not to get caught. Plus, there's not a really steady stream of economy, so if you run out of funds, you can get locked down pretty hard.
Haas' Destructive Tendencies - 49 cards
Identity: Haas-Biorid - Engineering the Future
Agendas - 21 points
Accelerated Beta Test - 3
Global Food Initiative - 3 (3 influence)
Project Vitruvius - 3
Ice
Eli 1.0 - 3 (-3 max influence)
Janus 1.0 - 1
Mother Goddess - 1
NEXT Bronze - 3
NEXT Gold - 3
NEXT Silver - 3
Tollbooth - 3 (6 influence)
Assets
Adonis Campaign - 3
Director Haas - 2
Executive Boot Camp - 3 (3 influence)
Upgrades
Ash 2X3ZB9CY - 3
Oaktown Grid - 3
Self-destruct - 3
Operations
Green Level Clearance - 3
Hedge Fund - 3
A bit of a nonstandard rush deck. Your main combo is Director Haas, Ash, and Oaktown Grid. Haas gives you the extra click to push out your 3/2 agendas, Ash keeps her from being trashed, and Oaktown makes Ash more expensive to trash. Slap a Self-destruct onto the server as a last resort option, or possibly to kill the runner. Both Accelerated Beta Test and Project Vitruvius are there mostly to be rushed out, but feel free to overadvance Vitruvius for counters if you need to. Global Food Initiative means you may need only 3 agendas to win, while the runner will need to take 4, although Haas can count for two of them. Ice suite is all of the NEXT ice, which are all great. Bronze becomes more expensive for most decoders as the game goes on. Silver also becomes more expensive for most fracters, but watch out for people using Morning Star or GS Sherman M3, as they'll tear right through it. Gold can become more damaging as the game goes on, and its 4 strength puts it just above a Mimic without any Datasucker tokens. Mother Goddess is the tenth piece of NEXT ice, so don't feel bad about rezzing it if the runner can get through it. Eli is in for additional taxing, either through clicks or credits. Janus makes for a nice surprise, potentially flatlining the runner or just keeping them out of a critical server. Tollbooth rounds out the taxing ice, as it'll cost at least 3 credits just to interact with it, unless they manage to bypass it. For assets, in addition to the Director, you have Adonis Campaign for some burst economy, as well as Executive Boot Camp, which lets you bring your NEXT ice online cheaper, letting you build up their effects faster. Plus, the boot camp lets you search for Adonis or the Director when you need them. Your only operations are Green Level Clearance and Hedge Fund, but they give you a small bit of burst economy. Your primary economy is going to be from installing cards, plus some clicking for credits, but you should still have more than enough money to get the job done.
Again, this deck is not without flaws. I've left Jackson Howard out for influence reasons, which makes the deck susceptible to milling. It's also somewhat light on ice, so ice destruction will hit you pretty hard, especially with no way to get any ice back. Plus, Clot stops your primary win mechanic, unless you manage to put up a scoring server in addition to your server for protecting Haas.
So, with those out of the way, on to the tournament. Interestingly, this was the last tournament before the Most Wanted List went into effect. However, both of these deck lists are compliant with those restrictions, so they can be used in future tournaments. This tournament had 14 players, sporting some interesting deck choices. All runner factions except Apex were present, and Jinteki was the only corporation not represented.
Round 1: vs. Marty
Ken "Express" Tenma vs. Near-Earth Hub: 6-7 L
Engineering the Future vs. Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: 5-8 L
This was probably the worst game for me, as I had played these exact two games against Marty before the tournament. I won't say that he altered his decks specifically to counter me, as diversifying your strategy to deal with more cases is generally good. I was able to hit pretty hard against his corp in the first game, snagging up several agendas. But it didn't help that I picked up 15 Minutes twice; once in the early-game and once in the mid-game, and both times it got shuffled back into the deck. The main downfall was allowing Architect to fire off multiple times, especially before I attempted a Maker's Eye run. I suppose playing more cautiously in that regard might have been prudent. Second game was another close one. Gave up a few agendas mid game, but got Haas out and shielded, which had the downside of no runs being made against it, since my strategy was known by my opponent. As such, I did see Clot come up, keeping me from rushing out some agendas. Did managed to score a GFI, and was about to get another agenda out, but ended up one turn too late. Still, a good pair of close games.
Round 2: vs. Kate
Ken "Express" Tenma vs. Spark Agency: 5-8 L
Engineering the Future vs. Sunny Lebeua: 8-2 W
Another pair of interesting games. Between numerous advertisements and trashing cards, I was kept poor as my runner, which kept me from running as hard as I would have liked. Still managed to snag a few agendas. Second game was much more interesting from my perspective. Ended up starting with only one piece of ice, so turn two I left an Accelerated Beta Test installed in the open. Turn three I scored and fired it, which let me install 2 Tollbooth and a NEXT Bronze on a remote server. I utilized that server to score a Vitruvius with a counter on it, and then later got another ABT, which yielded the third Tollbooth and a NEXT Silver. Even though that ended up dumping another Vitruvius into Archives, I was able to get it back with the counter and then score it out, having converted that massive sever into one for Haas. The only agenda I gave up was actually another Director Haas, which was taken off of R&D. I could have prevented that, because I was confident what it was based on my opponent's reaction (she found it on a multiaccess, but didn't have enough credits to trash it the first time, so the turn after that she built up credits and ran,) but I was fairly ahead by that point, so I felt like playing as though I had no idea what it was.
Round 3: vs. Eden
Ken "Express" Tenma vs. Engineering the Future: 8-4 W
Engineering the Future vs. Adam: 4-4 W (flatline)
I don't remember a great deal about these two games, as my notes are pretty sparse. I do remember that I made a few poor choices when playing run events, leading into losing some multiaccess and getting a Stimhack run stymied by an Ash. Still, I did manage to pull ahead and win. Second game was close. We both managed to get two agendas and I had Haas up and running. So I set up a small scoring server and tried to push through a GFI to win. He went for it, so I rezzed all the ice on it, draining his credits. Then i fired the Self-destruct, mostly to keep him from getting the GFI. However, since he was only holding 2 cards, it ended up securing the game for me.
Round 4: vs. Luke
Ken "Express" Tenma vs. Spark Agency: 8-6 W
Engineering the Future vs. Hayley Kaplan: 5-8 L
Coming into this round, in order to have a shot at the top 4, I needed to sweep my opponent. Clearly, that didn't happen. First game was really close. This time, I was able to keep my money up against him, and I swiped out a few agendas, keeping him from pulling off a 24/7 News Cycle and Scorched Earth combo I knew was in his hand thanks to Legwork. He managed to pull ahead and started digging through his deck for the one card he needed to win. Unfortunately, his 15 Minutes was at the very bottom of his deck, which gave me enough time to pick up the agendas I needed to win. Second game was fast, because there were only 20 minutes left in the round. Once again, I believe I managed to get a massive server off of ABT early on. I then got a GFI scored out and had installed the last one I needed. Time was called on his turn, so if he didn't get anything, I would win. Unfortunately, he was able to pull one off the top of R&D, which I couldn't really do anything about, thanks to his installation of programs that let would have let him deal with the NEXT Gold I had on that server. Still, once again, a pair of good games.
So that did it. Out of 14 players, I managed to place 8th, securing a deckbox. I look forward to playing against these people in the store championships yet to come in this state. Many thanks to Chaos, Games and More for hosting the event and to Brian for running it.
Until next time, check your directives.
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