Brainstorm Foodcoats (4-1 Arizona Regionals)

This started out as your standard Foodcoats build, but when the Liberated Mind got released, I had a small freak-out over Brainstorm. Finally, HB gets an in-faction Faust-hate card that is also devastating to face-check without a proper breaker. Moreover, with the prevalence of D4ViD and Faust, I felt that the two Assassins I was running at the time weren't doing as much as I'd hoped, so I quickly swapped them out for two Brainstorms. I took them to the Arizona Regionals and Brainstorm worked beyond my wildest dreams (unfortunately, my runner didn't work nearly as well and kept me from placing higher than I did). Here's how it went:

Round 1: Leela Patel

It was a fairly standard Leela deck, and so I played the standard Foodcoats; Ice HQ, score agendas whenever possible, and above all, KEEP YOUR ECONOMY SAFE. It was close, but after he Sneakdoored he didn't have enough money to steal the NAPD waiting in my hand, and I scored an ABT next turn for the win.

Round 2: Nasir Meidan

I know, I was just as surprised to see Nasir being played at a tournament, and even more surprised to see how well he was being played. The guy didn't have a sentry breaker out and decided to face-check R&D with six cards in hand. Cue Brainstorm. Flatlined at the end of the turn.

Round 3: MaxX

This was the round I'd been dreaming of. His only breaker was Faust, and when he ran into the Brainstorm he was forced to trash the two Parasites he had waiting in hand. Never really recovered and, with two Brainstorms protecting R&D and HQ and a double-Turing scoring Remote, there was nothing he could do to stop my agendas from being churned out.

Round 4: Nexus Kate

This was the round I lost. Not much to say about it; agenda flood, no econ, and not enough ice to stop the Security Nexus from getting past everything. Nothing else to say.

Round 5: MaxX

Another MaxX deck, but playing with the standard Anarch breakers of Yog, Mimic, and Corroder. Foodcoats did as Foodcoats is built to do, and I handily won.

So there you have it. Crisium Grid never really did much for me in the tournament, and seeing how well Brainstorm worked, I replaced the Crisium with a single Corporate Troubleshooter for that little extra surprise. Anyone running Mimic will get quite a shock when they run into it, as this deck tends to make quite a lot of money.

One thing I would like to change is to squeeze in a spot for a second Archived Memories. I found myself needing recursion more than I thought I would, and I don't really like over-advancing a Vitruvius in order to get what I need. Other than that, this deck works like (and pardon the pun) a well-oiled machine.