1st at French Nationals: Led astray and shot

Huge shout out and thanks to @metamatik for organising the whole tournament. It was a blast for me to be back in France to meet up with the French community.

I had packed a few corp decks for French Nats and was very much undecided on what to play. I had the False Lead, MCA Austerity Policy, Hard-Hitting News, BOOM! MirrorMorph: Endless Iteration, an Argus Security: Protection Guaranteed and an Asa Group: Security Through Vigilance with me. I hadn't practised this iteration of the MirrorMorph and had only limited practice with the Combo Asa, so I decided to play Argus at midnight and did some deck building with @tradon and @oggbonaian. @tradon told me to find slots for False Leads and, oh boy, was that a good decision, thank you!

The deck is fun to play, probably not so much to play against. I think the HHN + False Lead interaction is just a tad too strong. Possible deck changes: running Boom! instead of High-Profile Target, as non-Misdirection decks often end up on two tags after forfeiting a False Lead.

Rounds rundown:

R1 versus Grtll on Pinsel-Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord (win)

He was slow setting up, I did the Argus stuff and eventually killed him. Well played!

R2 versus Tradon on Apocalypse Alice Merchant: Clan Agitator (loss)

Tradon moneyed up and correctly called me out when I was on 4 points with a single-advanced Global Food Initiative installed and Audacity in hand. I couldn't stop the Apocalypse and it went downhill from there for me. Well played!

R3 versus @oggbonaian on Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist (win)

I can't remember what happened in this game, either Nicolas conceded or I shot him with High-Profile Target. I guess there's some form of justice in us killing each other with the False Lead + HHN combo. GG!

R4 vs le panda on Hoshiko Shiro: Untold Protagonist (win)

le panda managed to money up quite well with a mix of drip and burst econ. Meanwhile I scored a False Lead and tried to money up myself. He eventually had to run through my remote where he got two tags on second click. I forfeited False Lead and killed him next turn with High-Profile Target. Well played!

R5 vs (thrice French Champion) Ganelon on Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord (win)

Ganelon put on a lot of pressure and kept me broke or low on credits for a while. Eventually I managed to double High-Profile Target him after forfeiting a False Lead. Well played!

I ranked 2nd in Swiss, behind Ganelon, who decided to drop from the top three cut. I rolled corp for the finals against le panda.

Finals against le panda:

I was really glad I rolled corp, as I think that match-up was in my favour. I had a bad start, though, but managed to sneak out a False Lead. From there I built my board and scored a few agendas behind an Archer. I was on 6 points by then, drew into Fast Track, tutored a Hostile Takeover and installed Data Ravens in front of HQ and R&D. He didn't find any agendas on his turn and I scored the Hostile for 7 points. (The only game I scored out on that day). Well played!

Thanks again to @metamatik for organising this great and fun event and providing such amazing prize support for the main tournament + the jank event on Sunday. Also huge thanks to the French community, can't wait to come back soon. :) Honorable mentions: @b3ar who plays a lot of Argus back home, and @tradon for the great tips on building the deck. @tradon, @r4v3er, @oggbonaian, @pommes who are great fun to be around.

Safety first!

Luke