Store championship season is coming to a close. Well, at least for me, as this upcoming weekend will be the last one I will be attending this season. At any rate, this past weekend there was another store championship down in Pueblo. So I spent my time actually testing my decks for this one. How did that turn out? As usual, I will go over the decks first, and then get into how they did.
Return to the Nexus - 46 cards
Identity: Kate "Mac" McCaffrey
Programs
Battering Ram - 2
Garrote - 2 (6 influence)
Gordian Blade - 2
Magnum Opus - 2
Self-modifying Code - 3
Hardware
Akamatsu Mem Chip - 2
Dyson Mem Chip - 3
Rabbit Hole - 2
Security Nexus - 3 (9 influence)
Resources
Access to Globalsec - 3
Earthrise Hotel - 3
Same Old Thing - 3
Underworld Contact - 3
Events
Diesel - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 2
Modded - 2
Sure Gamble - 3
The Maker's Eye - 3
So, I really wanted to try out Nexus Kate. Ideally, Security Nexus allows me to deal with troublesome pieces of large ice, by either bypassing them or making them fail to go off. Breaker suite is efficient, but expensive and takes up a lot of space, which is why I have Akamatsu chips as well as Dyson chips. Rabbit Hole and Access to Globalsec add some cheap link strength. Earthrise Hotel and Diesel are the main drawing engines, and SMC grants some program tutoring. Underworld Contact for some drip economy with Sure Gamble and Magnum Opus for burst, plus Modded helps offset the cost of Garrote and Security Nexus. The Maker's Eye for some multi-access, and 2 copies of LARLA for recursion. Should be solid enough. And yes, I don't have the obvious Vamp in, because I would have to remove either a copy of Nexus or a copy of Garrote, both of which could be trouble.
I Will Lie to You - 59 cards
Identity: Jinteki Biotech - Life Imagined
Agendas (24 points)
Braintrust - 3
Chronos Project - 2
Clone Retirement - 2
Corporate Sales Team - 3
Fetal AI - 3
Philotic Entanglement - 1
Ice
Ice Wall - 3 (3 influence)
Komainu - 1
Lotus Field - 3
Pup - 3
Tollbooth - 3 (6 influence)
Wall of Static - 2
Assets
Jackson Howard - 3 (3 influence)
Project Junebug - 3
Shock! - 3
Snare! - 3
Thomas Haas - 3 (3 influence)
Upgrades
Cyberdex Virus Suite - 1
Operations
Celebrity Gift - 3
Cerebral Static - 2
Hedge Fund - 3
Mushin No Shin - 3
Trick of Light - 3
I really would like for Jinteki Biotech to be a good identity, so I tried coming up with a deck build that could make good use of any of the three potential identities it could be. Braintrust is a standard 3 for 2 agenda. Chronos Project could disrupt any runner dependent on recurring their discard pile, or possibly for stopping the breakers that can be installed from the discard pile (Paperclip, Black Orchestra, and MKUltra.) Clone Retirement can be used to score that final point or to remove bad publicity, in case that comes up. Corporate Sales Team adds some drip economy. Fetal AI is in solely to work as both a trap and an agenda. Philotic is mostly there to be a 3 for 2, but could inflict some damage.
Ice is kind of weak, but the idea of the deck is not necessarily to keep the runner out, but to allow them in at the right time. Ice Wall and Wall of Static provide some cheap EtR, plus Ice Wall can be advanced and used with Trick of Light. Lotus Field kind of works as a counter to Şifr, which just came out. Tollbooth should be taxing, but again, the previously mentioned console has kind of disrupted that. Komainu could be potentially devastating, and combined with The Brewery, could land a kill. Pup is cheap and should tax the runner slightly, either in cards or credits. I was considering using Cobra in place of Pup, but was not sure I'd have enough money to consistently rez it.
Jackson is in to provide some card draw and recursion if I'm not using The Tank. Junebug is a decent target for Mushin no Shin, and can be used as a token bank for Trick of Light. Shock! and Snare! are both good traps, plus Shock! can be dumped into Archives to stop runs on that server. Thomas Haas adds some burst economy, but I'm thinking it may need to be removed, as my plan of utilizing it with Mushin no Shin is not good, since Mushin forbids it being rezzed until the next corp turn, so if the runner calls that bluff, I lose the potential.
Celebrity Gift and Hedge fund provide more burst economy. Cerebral Static can hurt most runner, or can be used just to clear the runner's current. Mushin is there to speed up scoring of agendas or to set up traps. Trick of Light gives some fast advance possibilities to score either 3 for 2 or 4 for 2 agendas.
So that's the ideas. Time to see how well they paid off.
Round 1: vs. Alexis
Kate vs. Blue Sun: 6 - 5 L (flatline)
Biotech (The Greenhouse) vs. Kate: 4 - 8 L
Not a very promising start. First game, it took me some time to get my rig setup, and in that time, my opponent was able to score a Hostile Takeover and 2 copies of Project Atlas. However, once setup, I was able to snag 2 copies of Oaktown Renovation and a Global Food Initiative. Unfortunately, that GFI allowed her to run a Midseason Replacements on me, which resulted in me taking 24 tags (I had a link strength of 8 at the time, so she boosted the trace to 32.) Sadly, I was not able to find another agenda in time before she used a Consulting Visit to kill me with a BOOM! Second game, my opponent got Şifr and a 0 strength Atman early, negating the ice I had up. I was unable to land any of my traps and was unable to really do much due to R&D being locked down.
Round 2: vs. Jefferson
Kate vs. Potential Unleashed: 8 - 6 W
Biotech (The Tank) vs. Valencia Estevez: 1 - 5 W (flatline)
Kind of interesting playing against Jefferson again. Once again, it took me time to get setup. He was able to score 2 copies of House of Knives in that time, making future runs dangerous. However, once setup, I was able to steal his Philotic and 2 copies of Fetal AI. He then used An Offer You Can't Refuse, which I gave to him, since the alternative would have been a lot of net damage. He also scored out a copy of The Future Perfect since I was worried it was a Junebug. But after that, I pulled a Braintrust off of his deck. Second game, I used my mulligan and was lucky enough to pull a Clone Retirement, which I then scored. However, that move left me so vulnerable that he pulled 5 points of agendas off of my deck. I think it was on turn 3 that I drew a Project Junebug, so I used that turn to Mushin no Shin the Junebug and advanced it once. He was only able to draw until he had 7 cards before he ran it, which he did because he thought it could have given him the game. Unfortunately for him, that was not enough to soak up all the damage.
At this point was the break for lunch. I was feeling a bit up from my win in the second round, but it would still be an uphill battle to get into the cut to top 4.
Round 3: vs. Aaron W.
Kate vs. NEXT Design: 4 - 7 L
Biotech (The Greenhouse) vs. Kate: 6 - 8 L
Another rematch, and unfortunately, with the same results as the last time I faced Aaron. Once again, he was able to install 3 pieces of ice with NEXT's ability, and I couldn't setup fast enough against his rush strategy. I was able to take a Project Vitruvius and a GFI off of the deck, but he was still too fast for me. Second game I was able to sneak a Chronos Project through with Mushin. I also used Mushin on a Junebug, but when that trap failed, I used Trick of Light on it to score out a Braintrust. I was able to score a Clone Retirement and did 2 damage when I scored my Philotic, as he had two 2 point agendas. Unfortunately, a gave up a Fetal after that and couldn't pull any more of my agendas. I lost when he used The Maker's Eye, in spite of my using Jackson Howard.
Round 4: vs. Tim
Biotech (The Brewery) vs. Andromeda: 1 - 8 L
Kate vs. Personal Evolution: 1 - 7 L
So at this point, I was pretty on tilt going into the last round. I went with The Tank in the first game since I pulled a Snare! in my opening hand, and though I might be able to get a kill. Unfortunately, he got out On the Lam, which negated the damage from Snare! He then installed an HQ Interface, which could have killed him, as I had 2 Fetal AI in my had at that time. Unfortunately, he took a Fetal and a Corporate Sales Team instead. Second game was frustrating. I spent too much time setting up & didn't bother checking things, which allowed him to score out.
And that was it. Out of the 16 people who showed up, I placed 14th with that performance. However, I didn't leave entirely empty handed, as I received a prize for being the best of shapers who weren't in the top 4. But considering that there were only 5 shapers, and I think 3 of them were in the top 4, (as you can see in my stats, I played 2 of them,) that's not much of an accomplishment. It's especially frustrating considering I put more time and effort into testing these decks than most other deck I've brought to tournaments. Still, I did what I could with what I had, and it just wasn't in the cards. Well, there's one more store championship I'll be attending, so we'll see how that turns out.
Until next time, oppose the takeover of the government.
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