Yoghurt Shop (5th @ Bromley Regional)

So... What makes a person buy frozen yoghurt? When the runner is tagged to hell and back, don't butcher them like in a butcher shop! Sell them yoghurt! Just... Keep... Selling... Yoghurt...

This is a pet deck of mine which I've been working on for the last half a year or so and decided to bring to the last UK regional as a janky last hurrah. Little did I expect that it would carry me 4-1 in the swiss to a top 8 finish.

The basic plan is to rush, wasting the runner's clicks with your ID ability, and back it up with the threat of Economic Warfare - Hard-Hitting News. However, you'll notice there is no kill in the deck: tags are instead punished by Self-Growth Programs and Market Forces. They empty the runner's account which turns on your ID ability again, reactivate your gearcheck ice, and make your taxing ice impenetrable (Endless EULA, Tollbooth, Archangel). The plan for scoring the last two points is to play the never advance game with endless campaigns and taxing ice.

The first important aspect of the deck is what happens when the runner is slapped with Econ Warfare - HHN. They have two options:

• Laboriously clear tags. If they do this, they will be broke for an extended period of time, turning on your ID ability, and giving you a huge scoring window (taxing ice locks out the runner and you're likely to have a window to bounce their breakers anyway!)
• Float the tags, in which case your tag punishment takes all their money anyway. Market Forces doesn't have a downside if the runner is either tagged to hell or lightly tagged but broke.

The other important aspect of the deck is the agenda suite. Getting to five agenda points is a big deal. As I wrote earlier, the plan for the late game is to play the never advance game, but for that you need to be at five points. In order to do so, sometimes you have to take a little risk with your Beales and score them as 3-pointers: it's worth it though!

Round 1 vs Maxx: They decided to trash some campaigns before they were completely ready and got Econ Warfare - HHN'd. They never recovered after. Maxx is usually quite tricky — the ID ability lets them find breakers quickly and their large number of Stimhacks means your remote is quite often unsafe.

Round 2 vs Maxx: Game played to plan, with quite a few lucky Maxx mills — all their Liberated Accounts and Clan Vengeances.

Round 3 vs Circus Hayley: Hayley is a pain. Rush early and be punished by pirate, and don't rush enough and be punished by Shaper shenanigans. As soon as I found out it was circus Hayley, it was time to rush to five points before they could set up. From then on it was never advance to victory.

Round 4 vs Apocalypse 419: The Apocalypse caught me off guard, but they had to go low in order to do so. This left them at the mercy of Econ Warfare - HHN and my ID ability. Spark can play a low econ game well due to the ID ability and this game showcased it well, giving me time to build a remote to score behind even after a second Apocalypse.

Round 5 vs Apocalypse 419: Well, a lot of Apocalypse that day apparently. We again reached the post-apocalyptic world and were both poor, but time on the round was called and I took a timed loss. In fairness, the game did look like it was starting to tilt towards my opponent — they were poor, but I hadn't found enough ice quickly enough.

In the cut vs Valencia: One of the worst matchups for the deck, but thankfully Mining Accident is no longer in vogue. On the other hand, when you draw a starting hand of four agendas, and then draw another four for your next four draws, what can you do?

In the cut vs Smoke: Very standard game against a Shaper. Rush and then never-advance. Amani Senai did incredible work and was well worth protecting, triggering three times and bouncing a Paperclip twice and a loaded Turning Wheel once. On the third Indexing, they actually found two agendas, enough for the win, but Amani Senai bouncing the Paperclip during a Dirty Laundry run for the first of the two sealed off R&D for the rest of the turn.

Some favourite moments:

• Malia Z0L0K4 on a Liberated Account or Daily Casts after they fall to zero credits. ?
• Every time I open a game with "Install Vanilla; install Corporate Sales Team; advance."
• Opponent on one credit and runs into a Pop-up Window on R&D which I rez, ending the run. Whoops! A few turns later, they run on one credit into the rezzed Pop-up Window, so I rez a Marilyn Campaign in another server. ?
• Install two new remotes and rez one of them (a PAD Campaign). When they don't run the other assuming it's another advertisement you're saving to rez at the end of their turn, you instead reveal it's a Beale you sneaked by them. This is a line of play that's available more often then you'd think.

I hope you enjoyed this surprising appearance of Spark for the UK's last regional! For the runner side, KEN TENMA(!!!) see here: Moira's Delivery Service