Man in black (SC winner)

Do you like to swim in money?? Do you like draw out the wazoo?? Do you like a ton of tech cards, but don’t want to play shaper?? Do you like to be a sore in the eyes of purists with 47 cards in the stack?? Well, then you probably already play Geist but otherwise start!!

I took Geist to a 15 player store Championship and the man in black went 4-1 along a flawless CI BR (Lauries list with the only changes being -1 excal +1 scarcity)... The deck is very very similar to Heinzels German Geist and all credit goes to him for the list.

I was expecting a lot of death from the local players and I knew some would be on Skorp as well. That is why I slotted an extra Turtle and Interdiction in the day before. More on that later... That is the interesting part!!

Heinzel already made a good write up about the cards, so I’ll only touch on the changes and some of my musings...

Cams: You want 6! I can’t stress this enough. You want to see them as much as possible. I don’t really understand the logic in taking any less.

Forger vs. Maxwell: You need a link to get Mr. Phones online and since hoppers are usually used for draw, these cards provide it. I was thinking about taking out Maxwell, but then I realized that is actually just 1 credit to cycle a card (on OCA) and turn on the call center... Atop he provides a bonkers bin in the right MUs. Forger is there to support the center as well and is quite good against yellow. Who would have thought??

Hamster vs. Femme: Hamster is cheaper, but money is usually not an issue later on. It also provides a really powerful ability when it comes to mythic ICE... Do I really need to sell you on this?? Also most sentries are low strength so you never have to boost...

Dean Lister and Turtle: It is good!! Like insanely good!! Especially for remote pressure... I actually very rarely had any counters on it as you do very surgical runs with Geist...

Caldera: Because PU sucks. With double Levy you might be able to do without, but it has saved my bacon a lot in testing!!

So onto the matches... Sorry if I forgot something or am remembering stuff wrong. It was a long day...

Round 1 vs Johan: He was on Tennin FA. Not really great for Geist. But the game went smooth and I get setup really quick. Cams did it’s things. Seriously have 6 of these!!

Round 2 vs Harald: He was on CI which is always exciting. At least some people think so... Turn 1 left an unprotected HQ and I saw a Helheim on my first run... So time to set up!! I got to 4 points before he popped a MCA and scored an elective upgrades... He started FAing out vitruviuses and then I knew the jig was up. I saw a GFI on top of rnd but due to a stupid misplay of installing a Phones in the same round I was left 1 click short of being able to install my Plane and Mad Dash for the win... Stupid me!! But in all fairness I was quite lucky with cams in that match and he deserved the win!!

Round 3 vs Rasmus: He was on Biotech. It became apparent that it was Urban Renewal in the second round or so. Well, between all of Geists cards he is pretty unkillable... It was a real grind and I had to trash 4 or 5 Urbans before securing the win. I had to run through double Kakugo with a Hokusai and 2 Knives counters to steal an Obokata and still ended my turn with 4 cards in hand. The draw is that strong in this deck!! Caldera helped a bit to be honest there...

Round 4 vs Marie: The dreaded Skorp!! This was late in the day and before lunch/dinner so my mind was mush... It was a stressful game rife with misplays from my side, but luckily she made a few as well... I must admit I was lucky to steal a Graft early which helped alleviate the pressure. I am NEVER going to watch the playback of the match as I will feel quite terrible about my plays here. So here are my musings about why Skorp is not that bad for Geist. Yea, you will never get to Levy so that is 6 Cams for you. But Skorp has to telegraph their scores. Opposed to Titan they can’t easily chain atlas to bluff the remote. Turtle and Lister gets you into the remote and with the extra Turtle slotted the day before you can do this twice!! Between Interdiction and PolOp Batty is sad... And Maxwell helps with the remote pressure!! It is not a great MU, but I would say it is at least 50/50.

First round in cut: Martin on Sync tag storm. He had only been playing for 3 months, so huge accomplishment on his side!! But between OTL, Forger and 4-5 link it didn’t stand a chance. Gave up the early game and then remote locked until Cams brought it home.

Second round in cut: Christian on Smoke against my CI. Turn 1 scarcity made Smoke sad and I ended up with double punitive after a GFI steal.

Final: Christian again, this time on Skorp. Played a lot better after getting a break and some food. Close match and he ended on 5 points before installing an Oaktown behind a triple advance Hortum (Plane got hunted down). Maxwell in hand so could derez it for the win!

Last thoughts: I was lucky not to face any spams or titans, but besides that I feel Geist has strong matchups along the board. He has the flex of shapers and the money of old crims. He has to sacrifice early game often to set up the late game lock. And he is sooo much fun to play!! I love cantrip decks and this is pretty close to the best one in the game at the moment. Just remember your triggers!! There are a lot of them...