US Cambridge Regionals - 1st Place (Undefeated)

1st Place Corp @ US Cambridge Regionals on 2018/06/30 at Pandemonium Books & Games

This Regional had 23 players, four rounds of Swiss, followed by double-elim top 8.

Runner deck: Reina

Deck Choices

This is a card-for-card copy of Skorporate Town. Please see that deck for BlueHg's excellent writeup on the card choices.

Deck Considerations

Corporate Town was a dud on the day and when I drew it I always wanted something else. It's spicy, but you're unlikely to hit a loaded Clan Vengeance, and a deep remote is better utilized for the wincon of rushing agendas. I'd recommend swapping it for a second Audacity, or a Best Defense to snipe SacCons, SMCs, or Street Peddlers.

Why Skorp?

Runners taste delicious.

Skorp was a meta call to counter Runners using Zer0 (and, by extension, Patchwork) who hope their conspiracy breakers will land safely in the heap. Six of the top eight Runners were : 3 Vals, MaxX, Freedom, Reina.

Employee Strike is an inconvenience, but if you're rushing out agendas like this deck is geared for it won't stay active long.

Strategy

Rush agendas, launch Hunter Seekers, and keep Skorp'ing. In true Weyland fashion, sacrifice Rashida Jaheem for the greater good or to bait a run through Archer.

Matchups

Swiss

R1. Pirate Geist

Geist didn't find a Tech Trader until late, which I quickly hit with Hunter Seeker. Double-Ice Wall on R&D burned a Kongamato and mocked their Grappling Hook, and Rashida baited at least one run through Archer.

This game went to time and we finished, IIRC, 6-5 AP in Skorp's favor. My opponent graciously conceded to benefit both our SoS.

R2. Stealth Kit with Laamb

Had a crazy single-turn four-agenda loss from R&D on turn 2 or 3: both Standoffs, a Hostile Takeover, and a 2-pointer (Oaktown?) while I rushed another agenda.

Kit also won the pivotal Marcus Batty psi game that would have RFG'd their only Laamb and locked them out.

I eventually scored a two-token Project Atlas, and later converted that into the game-winning Hostile and Audacity-Atlas combo.

R3. Zer0 MaxX

MaxX rocked a few conspiracy breakers straight out of the game, and rebirthed into Omar pretty early (turn 5?). They managed to nab 5 AP (Atlas + SSL Endorsement), but it cost them their Paperclip via HS.

I stabilized with double-ICE on all centrals, and the Runner knew there was an unrezzed Tithonium lurking.

Game-winning turn was IAA Oaktown Renovation in a four-ICE server while we were both on 5 points. Their click-4 Stimhack met a surprise Archer, which they broke via MKUltra and one Datasucker token, before faceplanting Ice Wall's ETR. They graciously conceded.

R4. Freedom

ID. But we'll meet again in the ...

Top 8

R1. Freedom

Maxwell James is a powerful card. Turn 1 I jammed a Rashida, Batty, Hortum remote. It backfired. They also trashed Batty #2 on their click-1 HQ run.

They saw Archer off R&D and knew it was lurking when I started ICE'ing centrals. The game lulls for a few turns as we build board state before I jam agendas to close out the game.

R3. CV/Zer0 MaxX

Luck was not with this MaxX. Their punk rock lifestyle rocked two Levy AR Access Lab straight out of the game. Rashida baited a run through Archer, and their Hacktivist Meeting+CV combo -- which shut down Batty -- only trashed non-agendas.

Game winning turn, against a not-quite-full CV, was to mandatory draw, silently pause, install Project Atlas, silently pause, Audacity, advance.