Timmy Val - Top 16 US Nationals

Zolend 193

The only Valencia/Regular Anarch to make the cut!

All credit to Timmy Wong @tmoiynmwg for this one. I've been playing Valencia for months and wanted to bring her to Nationals. After seeing his Pasadena regional winning list, I knew it was the deck I wanted to run.

What I think is really brilliant about his design is how he condensed the breaker suite into fewer copies of similar breakers but a more versatile package overall. This is especially important in Valencia because you don't want to be digging for the perfect combination of breakers that happen to be on the bottom of your 50 card deck.

Similarly, instead of dedicating deck space to Plascrete and I've Had Worse, he slots Imp and Utopia -- cards that Valencia usually doesn't have space for. Again, these cards are always useful no matter the match up and give you an interesting angle of attack against Butcher and Midseasons decks which were my opponents in 4/7 rounds of Swiss.

I dropped only one game in Swiss due to not finding Medium/Imp/Econ fast enough against a butcher shop that was smart enough to switch gears to scoring when it realized how much econ this deck packs.

My only change from Timmy's list is -1 Cyber Feeder +1 Blackmail because I like seeing Blackmail early and I'm not overly fond of Feeder.

12 comments
5 Aug 2015 ekayohlee

how/when did you tend to use Femme during your games at Nationals?

5 Aug 2015 Zolend

@ekayohlee It's for problem ice, usually only used with Clone Chip + Stimhack or Peddler + Stimhack. I used it once to guarantee access to HQ for butchershop imps to combo pieces. I also used it for Gutenberg/Data Raven and as a more flexible Mimic at times.

13 Aug 2015 Abstract

@Zolend I've been playing this deck (with the same blackmail change) and really liking it. Have you had problems with FA? That's been my biggest challenge, as blackmail often doesn't help much and it takes some setup time. Imp/Utopia Shard has been best for disrupting the play, curious what you've found that works.

20 Aug 2015 chill84

Hey Zolend, what is the RP matchup like? Is it worth trying to run film critics?

20 Aug 2015 Zolend

@chill84Hey Chill! The RP match up favors Valencia already, I think. I haven't tested how useful Film Critic is outside of Kate (where it is bonkers) but I don't think Val needs it for RP alone.

I've played a lot very good RP players with Val and unless you have a very awkward set up and they have a very good one, it's usually not too hard to pull a win.

Film Critic might be worth the include for Butchershop but Imp and good play already make that match up decent. It also remains to be seen how Data & Destiny will change that deck, it seems likely that Midseasons will be less prominent soon.

20 Aug 2015 chill84

I hope so, I have trouble striking a balance between pressure and econ against butcher, which was what prompted me to consider FC. I guess the correct answer is to play tighter and to be okay letting them get an astro online.

20 Aug 2015 Zolend

That said -Utopia Shard +Film Critic would be an easy swap for testing!

20 Aug 2015 Zolend

@Chill84

My general strategy against Butcher is to build up econ and draw while checking remotes with Imp. Imp every agenda you see and never run in a situation where you might steal an agenda without an imp counter or a big money lead. If you can afford it, also try to shutdown Sansan.

In the mid game play around Breaking News and play patiently. There should be a tipping point where you can do one of three things: (1 Steal Agendas with a money lead. (2 Imp/Utopia their hand of kill pieces which lets you steal agendas for a time. (3 Know of enough Agendas on the board/archives to start hammering with medium to finish the game out in a turn.

3 happens more than you'd think because it's so hard to keep kill pieces and agendas in hand. They start to pile up if they can't sneak an Astro or score off Sansan. Combined with your imping, you can often snag 5-7 points in a turn. This is even easier to win off of if you snag early agenda(s) off a money lead or a correct read on them not having Midseasons yet. This deck has a lot of money to allow such things, especially if you Stimhack a liberated or somesuch nonsense.

The only time I lost against Butcher was when I drew 3/4th of my Deck and didn't see Medium, Imp or Utopia. This was also because they were good enough to switch gears to fast advancing off a Sansan right as I got the money lead. If you want to win more against Butcher try -1 Blackmail -1 Utopia, +Imp +Film Critic. That should give you plays against it reliably enough in the early game.

20 Aug 2015 Zolend

@Chill84

My general strategy against Butcher is to build up econ and draw while checking remotes with Imp. Imp every agenda you see and never run in a situation where you might steal an agenda without an imp counter or a big money lead. If you can afford it, also try to shutdown Sansan.

In the mid game play around Breaking News and play patiently. There should be a tipping point where you can do one of three things: (1 Steal Agendas with a money lead. (2 Imp/Utopia their hand of kill pieces which lets you steal agendas for a time. (3 Know of enough Agendas on the board/archives to start hammering with medium to finish the game out in a turn.

3 happens more than you'd think because it's so hard to keep kill pieces and agendas in hand. They start to pile up if they can't sneak an Astro or score off Sansan. Combined with your imping, you can often snag 5-7 points in a turn. This is even easier to win off of if you snag early agenda(s) off a money lead or a correct read on them not having Midseasons yet. This deck has a lot of money to allow such things, especially if you Stimhack a liberated or somesuch nonsense. The only time I lost against Butcher was when I drew 3/4th of my Deck and didn't see Medium, Imp or Utopia. This was also because they were good enough to switch gears to fast advancing off a Sansan right as I got the money lead. If you want to win more against Butcher try -1 Blackmail -1 Utopia, +Imp +Film Critic. That should give you plays against it reliably enough in the early game.

20 Aug 2015 Zolend

@Chill84

My general strategy against Butcher is to build up econ and draw while checking remotes with Imp. Imp every agenda you see and never run in a situation where you might steal an agenda without an imp counter or a big money lead. If you can afford it, also try to shutdown Sansan.

In the mid game play around Breaking News and play patiently. There should be a tipping point where you can do one of three things:

•1 Steal Agendas with a money lead. •2 Imp/Utopia their hand of kill pieces which lets you steal agendas for a time. •3 Know of enough Agendas on the board/archives to start hammering with medium to finish the game out in a turn.

The third option happens more than you'd think because it's so hard for Butcher to keep kill pieces and agendas in hand. They start to pile up if the corp can't sneak an Astro or score off Sansan. Combined with your imping, you can often snag 5-7 points in a turn.

This is even easier to win off of if you snag early agenda(s) off a money lead or a correct read on them not having Midseasons yet. This deck has a lot of money to allow such things, especially if you Stimhack a liberated or somesuch nonsense.

The only time I lost against Butcher was when I drew 3/4th of my Deck and didn't see Medium, Imp or Utopia. This was also because he was a good enough player to switch gears to fast advancing off a Sansan right as I got the money lead.

If you want to win more against Butcher try -1 Blackmail -1 Utopia, +Imp +Film Critic. That should give you plays against it reliably enough in the early game.

20 Aug 2015 ekayohlee

do you think the 2 D4V1D's are necessary? considering dropping one for a third Imp, since i've been doing okay playing a single D4V1D in my anarchs lately.

20 Aug 2015 Zolend

`@ekayohlee' I think two D4V1D is the right number for Whizzard and Val without tutors. In glacier match ups I recur D4V1D a lot and having two stressed clone chips less and makes clone chipping one less awkward mid run.

I'd drop a Blackmail before D4V1D for a 3rd Imp personally.