Results

3-3 at EU/AFR 21 (14/76) with wins against NBN: Controlling the Message, AgInfusion: New Miracles for a New World and Jinteki: Restoring Humanity, and losses against Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home and Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design. <3 PSK

Tournament Afterthoughts

Going into the tournament I thought that Zahya Sadeghi: Versatile Smuggler would give me enough of an edge to make the FA Sports matchup at least playable - so I was pretty disappointed to get blown out by it twice.

In hindsight, FA Sports and Seamless PD are both matchups that I should really have practiced a lot more than I did, although there a couple of minor deck tweaks that I think might also help.

Individual match reports from EU/AFR 2021 are at the end of the write-up

Premise

Criminal has all the best cards, but tempo-positive agendas make the Corp credit pool less relevant, which devalues criminal's usual credit denial strategy. We play Zahya Sadeghi: Versatile Smuggler to allow us to put pressure on centrals early (without losing tempo). Locking R&D makes it difficult for the Corp to find agendas, and gives us time to set up.

Matchups

Criminal's worst matchup is Fast Advance Sports, which Zahya Sadeghi: Versatile Smuggler is better positioned against than other criminal identities, because our best line is to maximise accesses (without losing tempo).

The seamless PD matchup is tough, but winnable.

Jinteki glacier and CtM matchups are relatively straightforward.

Card Choices

I don't know that there is much to say here in terms of notable inclusions.

Jailbreak is a fantastic card in Zahya Sadeghi: Versatile Smuggler, and an automatic 3x. You love to see it early, and you love to see it late.

Notable Exclusions

Aumakua is a card that rewards bad accesses, which we don't have time for.

Diversion of Funds is a card that attacks the corps credit pool, which isn't as relevant as the runner's credit pool.

Alternatives

In testing The Turning Wheel was underwhelming, but, in hindsight, a 1 x might be correct. It would mean either dropping a Rezeki or swapping Paperclip for Corroder and dropping to 2 x Pennyshaver.

Similarly, in testing Political Operative was also not that impressive, but, in hindisght, 1 x may be correct. Probably cut 1 x Falsified Credentials.

Tapwrm would fit nicely of our game plan of slowing down the corp without attacking their credit pool, but Rezeki is just better. We could play both, but there is a lot of virus hate around, and it doesn't help with the FA sports matchup, so I don't know if anything is worth cutting.

Piloting

Decide if we want to play slow or fast, and then either mulligan for run based economy (if playing fast), or drip based economy (if playing slow).

We shouldn't be afraid to throw out an early boomerang to land a run event against R&D or HQ. It will be tempo positive for us, and it will give the Corp something to think about.

Jailbreak provides more value against R&D than HQ.

Mutual Favor is usually for Engolo, but if the game is not going fast then it's probably better to wait until there is only 1 x breaker left in the deck and use it to complete the rig.

We want to run often, but we should only run when it's tempo positive for us. This means some combination of Pennyshaver, Dirty Laundry, Bravado, Jailbreak and Zahya Sadeghi: Versatile Smuggler.

Match Report

R1: T22 WIN vs mr_monday on NBN: Controlling the Message

Always a fun matchup against CtM, where you have to balance your economy against the Corps board state. I'm forced to leave several MCA Austerity Policy ticking longer than I would like, but I have 2x Rezeki in play (which helps), and no agendas show up to be scored, so I'm able to wait it out until I'm in a comfortable position to trash. I'm able to simultaneously keep the Corp low on credits while building my own economy, until a Rashida Jaheem manages to sneak it's way through the scoring remote. At this point I have a lock on HQ, and on the remote, though, so there is nowhere for any agendas to hide, and I'm able to comfortably close the game.

R2: T10 LOSS vs mjp on Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home

What felt like a complete blow-out at the time could maybe be put down to me running the wrong centrals at the wrong time, and making the mistake of leaving Jeeves Model Bioroids on the board.

Regardless, I tunnel vision on gettings lots of accesses, but I don't see a lot of 3/2s (but do see a lot of 3/1s) and that makes me sad.

R3: T19 LOSS vs ChaosIsMe on Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design

I kept a lot of pressure on the remote and on R&D, which put the Corp in the weird position of not caring at all about HQ. The Corp scored GFI as the second agenda, which set them back economically, but agendas were buried deep enough in R&D that they could recover in time. Ultimately, I didn't prioritise finding Paperclip, and I didn't proactively move Boomerang, which eventually made the remote impenetrable.

R4: T9 LOSS vs wkz on Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home

I didn't pick up on an early Biotic + Megaprix score telegraphing that there was another megaprix in hand, which quickly put the Corp on 3 points. Again, I tunnel vision on getting accesses instead of trashing the board, and the combination of Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home and Tranquility Home Grid clickless draw/econ is enough to fuel a quick win for the Corp.

R5: T21 WIN vs emmel on AgInfusion: New Miracles for a New World

I take an early poke at HQ when the Corp doesn't have Anansi credits, but otherwise I don't give them any opportunity to rez any ICE on centrals until the late game. I lock the remote until it becomes uncontestable (stealing 4 points in the process), and wait for an unrezzed piece of ICE to be installed on the outside before hammering centrals. I quickly steal another 2 from HQ, but then Thimblerig (swapped for one of the anansi on the remote) makes locking R&D difficult. With only 7 cards left in R&D, the winning agenda in an unbreakable remote, and only 5 points left in centrals, I legwork HQ to see nothing, and boomerang the anansi on R&D to take a 1/6 on hitting the last Nisei.

R6: T8 WIN vs koga on Jinteki: Restoring Humanity

I wear my best sick rips t-shirt and rip 2 points of agendas off the top of R&D, another 2 points from the remote, and an obokata out of HQ. The next card I access is a Snare!. Better lucky than good.