Same As The Old Boss (old IG49) - 2-1 Cambridge GNK Winner

Look, I know: who the fuck brings IG to a GNK? Several people were going full try-hard for Nationals practice, so I thought I'd join in. In my defense, we had Hydra AgInf, Despy Whizz, and Moons there too. Sorry.

So is this better than Moony versions? Dunno, I'm playing it because I'm familiar with it. I like that it can either grind or combo kill depending on your draw or opponent, although it's much worse at the combo kill now Sensie is unaffordable. I also like that you're sort of Siphon-proof by virtue of sitting on 2 to 4 credits the whole game. Cons: being poor can be awkward too. You can't afford Kakugo or hard rezzing Hostiles, or to reasonably play Voter Intimidation to kill Slums, Aaron, Film Critic, etc, and you realistically need Breaker Bay before you can rez Hostile, which is very clunky.

Why no Breached Dome? #slotsm8, but you could cut any of Scarcity, Hiro, Yagura, Psychic Field for them. Those are very much flex slots. Scarcity because Employee Strike ruins your day and I wanted a fourth current to clear it. Plus it's pretty obnoxious early. Hiro could be 0, 1 or 2; I usually hold him early to see if I can cheese the combo, then leave him chilling in archives until you Friends him back when he's safe. Yagura to increase the odds of managing the ideal draw, draw, ice archives opening. Also great if you can bottom an agenda with it. One of Psychic Field is probably bad, but it gives you an out against runners who are checking everything, and if they see one they maybe play around there being more? I dunno, it's probably bad.

Agenda suite: I don't like House of Knives here, your slots are too valuable to run 10 agendas (he says after extolling the virtues of a cheeky singleton Psychic Field...). I can see the 7 agenda suite to make it really hard to find enough agenda points to win. I like 3 Fetals because you can use them to punish runners checking everything and it makes centrals a bit spikier.

I went 3-1 at Hockley regionals with basically the same list, with the sole loss being to the world champion, so I think the deck is alright but disfavoured against most of the top meta decks. But it's extremely punishing on mistakes and/or unfamiliarity with how to beat it, so there's that.

Q: how do you beat Whizzard with Slums?

A: you don't.

Tournament report:

Game 1: Win vs Hayley

Ridiculous no skill win. Opening hand was Jackson, Hiro, Ronin, Dedication Ceremony, Shock. Mandatory draw Crick. Install Jackson, draw (Bioethics, something else), ice archives, discard Shock. Install Hiro, Ronin, Bioethics. Win turn 3 due to almost perfect draw and a favourable matchup. Damn I'm good.

Game 2: Loss vs Despy Whizz

tl;dr he got Slums out by turn 3ish.

I feel this match is unfavoured but winnable, but you need to pray you draw well and they don't get an early Slums. I did not draw well and he got an early Slums.

My opponent played this fantastically and kept me behind the whole game. I tried to set up a desperation Psychic Field/Genetics Pavilion on the same turn play but it didn't happen, and the whole time he was keeping my board clear and poking HQ for points. Completely schooled, took a while but wasn't ever close.

Game 3: Win vs Counter Surveillance MaxX

Wasn't sure what kind of MaxX this was going to be, but the turn 1 Account Siphon mill vindicated my decision to sit on 5 credits with a Hostile installed and an open HQ. Ducked the first Siphon and settled in for the grind. The window for an early combo kill disappeared when I couldn't find Dedication Ceremony, but the threat was there on the board the whole time (I think I missed two kill opportunities later to being a credit short each time. Damn I'm good?).

He got to five points off centrals, which was a bit squeaky bum time, but my board was getting untouchable. By the time there were 3 Hostiles, 2 Bioethics and a Genetics Pavilion up there were maybe 17 cards left in R&D, and he went for the win with a 10 card Counter Surveillance dig. There was a Future Perfect and Obokata left in R&D and he had four cards in hand, so I used two Jacksons to shuffle in both Shocks in Archives and four bullshit cards. He hit two Shocks before the now unstealable Obokata as the eighth card. Better lucky than good. Ronin kill next turn.