Argonauts - 1st Place York GNK

This deck went 3-0 at a GNK hosted at OG Games in York. The deck is heavily inspired by Seamus' Supermodernism deck. My runner deck tends to go a little slow, so I love how fast Argus plays out (you either win or lose fast, there is no late game at all).

The strategy is to score out an Oaktown or Geothermal turn 2 and continue to rush from there. You need to mulligan for one of these in order to beat the runner's clock.

This deck isn't a kill deck, but uses the threat of the kill to slow the runner down. I was previously running 2 Scarcity of Resources in place of Best Defense and Dedication Ceremony, but I tend to leave R&D open for most of the game so early game steals often wiped this roadblock for the runner's setup.

The deck runs a lot of singleton operations to tech against certain cards and match ups. I always try and score Atlas with a counter where possible, as you are then able to threaten hunter seeker after every steal, or find the last bit to the kill combo if the stars align.

Argus is not in a great place in the super competitive meta, but this local store tends to bring everything and anything, so I hoped Aaron and film critic wouldn't be too common. I saw one of each on the day which really helped secure the wins.

Some key cards

• Audacity This closes games when you are on 5 points and the runner is set up and you are remote locked. using at Atlas counter to find this or another Project Atlas and scoring out is huge.

• Best Defense This is mainly to kill a Sac Con before using Hunter Seeker on a program if I know it will slow the runner down a lot. It is also great for really hitting a runner's tempo on certain cards (Tech Writers and Algo Tradings stacked credits). I won't use it unless it will really hurt the runner, as a click and 2 credits is a tempo hit, even if a small one.

• Dedication Ceremony This helps save clicks on Oaktowns and can also be used on a Hortum if they are on AI only.

Game 1 Vs Andromeda

With a fast start and account siphon and Aaron Maron in faction, this is not a great match up for Argus. I was very lucky as they could not find the right breakers all game, letting me score out 2 Atlas' with counters. I was able to safely score out an Oaktown getting me to 6 points before using an Atlas counter to find Hostile Takeover to seal the win by turn 12~

Game 2 Vs Sunny

This was always going to be a tough match up for Sunny due to her typical slow set up speeds. Sunny actually drew into a lot of Earthrises, Daily Casts and Career Fairs early so their board state was coming along very fast.

I scored out an Atlas with a counter early behind a Vanilla and went broke doing so. I managed to recover my economy and drew into SEA Source and a Scorch. Sunny decided to check R&D and then went broke installing some an Underworld Contact and a Data Folding. With only 2 link at this point I was able to SEA Source and double Scorch with the Atlas counter to close it.

Game 3 - Vs Leela

Leela is a horrible matchup as I know I will be getting account siphoned within the first few turns as I can't afford to spend time double icing HQ before scoring out. Thank fully I had Oaktown in my opening hand so I was able to install it behind some ice and advance it once, leaving me at 6 credits. My gamble paid off, as Leela could not find Inside Job, so I was of course Account Siphoned down to 1 credit, which is all I need for Oaktown.

I built up my economy but I was Agenda starved (not a usual complaint for a corp) for a good 3 turns. I finally drew into a Posted Bounty (sigh), but with a single scorch in hand I decided to install and advance it once behind 2 ice. A very rich Leela installed Abagnale and Lustig before running at my scoring remote. I rezzed Chimera which Leela had no answer for. They were on 3 cards and had 1 click left. If they drew they would be safe, but Leela installed something else and I got the kill by forfeiting Posted Bounty and Scorching. They assumed they were safe as they had far more credits than me.

I was very lucky to see Aaron only once (and for MCA Informant be able to make swift work)

So despite wanting to fast advance with the threat of kill, I ended up blowing up 2 houses on the day. I think I need to find some space for CVS, but I have tried to keep assets and upgrades to a minimum to stop R&D being trashed and making Wizzard a blank ID, save for 2 Jacksons. I am also unsure if I want IPO or Beanstalk. The credit difference is nice, but during 2 games I found myself having to click for credits in order to play IPO, and having both MCA and IPO be terminals limits options.

Any thoughts or feedback is always welcome!