Best Steve at UK Nationals 2022 (45th, 2-5)

This is the deck I tinkered with and ended up bringing to UK Nationals. As a poor student with too many hobbies, I didn't have a huge amount of time to grind games. But, as long as I played something that looked like a sensible criminal decklist that I knew how to play, it'd probably do well, right?

(Spoiler alert: It did not do well)

DECK MOTIVATION

I like playing criminal. Specifically, I like criminals that can put the pressure on early and mess with the Corp's gameplan via severe lack of funds as much as possible.

Following worlds, the big criminal deck was Tagme Zahya. I've played it a little bit with Whiteblade's list, and I did enjoy playing it. What worried me was the fact it got totally dunked on by R+ Prison. And, given there was a lot of Sports at worlds, and that's the deck Zahya preys upon, I figured we'd see a lot more R+ prison at Nationals due to Rock Paper Scissors logic. Turns out, I was right.

The other option was 419. Now, 419's ability is very good and fits my playstyle. However, what I wanted was something that was good against yellow decks, and I thought the additional econ that steve brought to the table would help with that. Really, Sable was likely the correct call here as it means my ID isn't totally blank if they put an Endless EULA on HQ, but Steve gives me my money cards back and that feels gooood.

CARD CHOICES This is pretty basic for a Twinning crim deck, so I won't go into detail too much. I'll just outline some of the key choices I made:

Creative Commission: I was originally playing Rigging Up to be able to get my amina down for less and saving clicks. However, then I realised that I could play 3 copies of Creative Commission for the 2 copies of Rigging Up I had, and I could then more easily do the Steve thing of giving my opponent 2 of the same card with Sure Gamble.

Pennyshaver vs Virtuoso: In the limited testing I could do with the deck I was playing Virtuoso. It comboes with Docklands Pass and The Twinning, and is good for getting into HQ when they try to block Steve. However, I found that I was a little lighter on money than I would've liked to be, so I swapped to Pennyshaver last minute. I feel like this meant the end deck was lacking in the central pressure it wants lategame and was pretty rich when I wasn't beefing it into R+ Prison, so maybe Virtuoso is good actually.

Docklands Pass: Cutting Virtuoso for Pennyshaver, I wanted more multiaccess to pressure centrals, so I included 2 copies rather than 1. However, I forgot the part where the corp immediately ices HQ against Steve, so it didn't end up doing much. I could've maybe cut the Deuces for a second copy of The Twinning and Dirty Laundries, but that's not what I did.

2 Cezve 1 Aumakua: This is another last minute change to the deck. The main issue with this deck is, with Pennyshaver as its only source of MU, if you have Aumakua you only have 1 MU for Cezve. I'm gonna admit, I have no clue how to utilise Aumakua, but I feel like a lot of decks are too wise to it for it to be super impactful. Meanwhile, I found that it was very difficult to find my Twinning and one of my Cezves. I could potentially just run 3 Cezve anyway as I'm unlikely to get my full rig by the end of the game, but the prospect of dead cards puts me off from doing that.

THE MATCHES

Round 1 - Win vs Ob: This was an excellent example of Steve doing Steve things. My opponent immediately iced HQ, I exposed it, saw Envelopment, and proceded to keep them off of 5 credits for most of the rest of the game. Getting a couple lucky snipes off of centrals combined with being rich enough to get through the remote through Manegarm and Formicary got me to 7 points fairly quickly.

Round 2 - Loss vs R+: As much as I talked game in the motivation about how I wanted to beat R+ prison, really I was woefully unprepared for the matchup. That, combined with the fact that sweeping Round 1 put me on Table #4, was a perfect recipe for a game where I totally beefed it. I thought I could install Cezve and be safe on 8 credits. I was wrong. I thought "I removed my tags, I can career fair out a Daily Casts and be totally fine." I was wrong. It took them a few turns, but the BOOM! was inevitable.

Round 3 - Win vs Asa: Once again, my opponent immediately iced HQ against Steve. This time, I exposed it and saw Ansel. The different ice mattered not against my willingness to force them to rez everything else and leave a clear path open to snipe the agendas from HQ.

Round 4 - Loss vs Azmari: Here, I think my problems can be described as threefold: 1) If you see a cryptocrash off of Falsified putting you on 7 credits, the big brain solution is not to install Amina. They'll just not score the cryptocrash. 2) Installing Amina the first time was a mistake. Installing Amina the second time was fine. Installing Amina the third time was crippling. 3) When tagged, don't install expensive resources. Like, say, Earthrise Hotel. Also running after getting HHN'd is bad, but that result is mainly due to Murphy so it doesn't get a number.

Round 5 - Loss vs Azmari: I was currently 4-4. If I was 100% competitive tournament minded, I would've 241'd here. However, I'd played my opponent before at Worlds 2021, so I was like "they'll probably not accept it and if they do it's still unlikely that I'll make it, so I'll just start 241'ing after I sweep this game." An Endless EULA on HQ and 2 on the remote later, and them effortlessly jamming 4 2-pointers with the help of Remastered Edition resulted in a corp split that made me wish I had at least offered it.

Round 6 - Loss vs Pravdivost: I'm gonna be honest, this was round 6 of the 7 round tournament, I don't remember much of it. From what I remember I had a hard time finding the Amina that would break the Mestnichestvo and they just rushed out, but at this point, with the cut out of reach and my brain beginning cease its functions for the day, I can't say with confidence what happened.

Round 7 - Loss vs Sportsmetal: This one I do remember, because it was kinda ridiculous. First, we start the game. Turn 1 I facecheck a Fairchild 3.0 with nothing installed. I'm on 5 credits, and I've forgotten whether I need to pay the 2 or not. Call a judge over. They tell us we haven't started time yet and to shuffle up and go again. sigh.

The actual game itself was mainly me hammering centrals and finding nothing for my troubles and my opponent ripping agendas off of R&D and putting them directly in the remote before I could find my Amina to break Magnet.

Eventually, my opponent gets to 6 points, but has 0 credits. I see the Audacity in hand. They install in the Tranquility Home Grid server and protecting it to go back down to 0. I still don't have my Amina, and I'm worried thats an Élivágar Bifurcation that they're going to Audacity. I have a Mutual Favor and a Paperclip in the bin; the most consistent way I can find my Amina is giving my opponent those 2 off Steve, then I can charge the remote and take away the gamepoint.

So, I run HQ, give them the choice. They give me Mutual Favour. I use it to slam my Amina and run the remote, breaking the Magnet.

Then they rez the Spin Doctor.

It's ok, they're still at 0 credits, I'm not going to trash the Tranquility because if they install another thing they probably win anyway. I just gotta leave them clicking for credits next turn and then pressure HQ like crazy.

Then they install on the Tranquility, gain 2 credits, Audacity out the agenda they just drew for the win.

Sadness resolves.

Honestly, a huge thank you to Null Signal for running the tournament, it was an awesome experience that's probably going to be my highlight for this year.

Thank you to Patriot games for hosting the event, it was a great venue (with gender neutral bathrooms!!!!!!!) and all the staff and judges at the event were so lovely.

Thank you to all the players; the opponents who I played against so gracious in victory and defeat (mainly victory), my friends who came with me and were a very good social anxiety anchor, and the people who let me sit with them and chatted to me in the time in between games who I hadn't met before but were still very kind to me.

And thank you to you, the reader, for sitting through my long ramblings about a tournament decklist that didn't do very well and isn't great but was still very fun to write about nonetheless.

See y'all next year!