Astro Lock Hayley (BC Regionals 2nd Place)

Took this to the BC Regionals in Vancouver on 27/5/17 and it was great. I knew there would be a lot of HB Moonspam and this setup stands up very very well and is generally has a lot of good matchups. And most importantly, it's just super fun to play!

This is largely based on this list Joseki put up with just a few tweaks. Swapped Ubax for Astrolabe because 1) 5 to install Ubax and 5 to install Laguna Velasco District is rough when you're trying to get set up and 2) Astrolabe will draw you so many cards when facing a Moonspam deck. Just ... so many.

Turned one Kati Jones into a Symmetrical Visage, since rare indeed is the turn where you aren't drawing at least once. Finally, swapped Plascrete Carapace for New Angeles City Hall, which I think was the right call but see below.

Okay, for the event itself.

R1: vs Trung's SYNC

He got a ton of money early, I think 2x Sweeps and a Hedge in the first two turns. I didn't want to steal anything lest Midseasons and didn't want to run least HHN. Pretty fast he dropped something behind an ICE and advanced it was. I figured it BN and (spoilers!), it was, so I kept digging hoping to find NACH or that he was bluffing about having Boom and just wanted to nuke some of my resources. I did not find NACH, he did Boom so I was dead =(

R2: vs Jeremiah's Skorpios

Skorpios is a pretty crazy matchup for this since you have to think very carefully about what gets trashed when. Film Critics and SacCon means you don't really have to worry about Hunter-Seeking nuking something forever, but if they wipe your Rumour Mill, for example, it might just be gone forever. I saved using the really good events until they had already used their ID ability for that turn. All the Skorpios ICE is pretty porous with Faust (although Jeremiah did triple advance a Hortum, which was great, but also was a nice reminder that the CyCy is essential backup for Faust) so it's mostly just a matter of sitting back and waiting, and occasionally checking HQ/R&D when viable. I think Dean Lister + Chameleon got me past an Archer cheaply for the win.

R3: vs Jesse's Skorpios

Got to play Terminal7 cohost Jesse Turner on stream! I remember a lot more of our other game, but this was largely a repeat of the previous Skorpios match. Jesse was running Housekeeping though, which with Skorpios is so mean, and I had to be super deliberate about what to offer up as RFG sacrifices. Jesse was also packing Batty to make the program destruction stick forever, but between Rumor Mill (until he RFGed it w/ a Housekeeping counter), Council and SacCon I was safe enough to steal a win.

R4: vs Evan's ETF

Managed to get this far without facing Moonspam, but no more! I'd only played vs. Moonspam a couple times online and not at all in person, so I was hoping this list would be as strong against it as I was imagining. Turns out, it was! Against Moonspam, you really just need to keep your eyes on the prize and focus on getting setup. Once you have Film Critic, the ability to drop Clot and a couple of SacCons, you're basically good. Maybe facecheck some ICE first click as long as you can SMC our Chameleon or Faust to deal w/ Architect. I think the version Evan was running went all in on assets and didn't have any Caprice backup. Either way, you're in a good place against Moonspam though. I think he did managed to sneak one agenda out on the table and he might have Biotic-ed out another before I had Clot, but after that it was just a matter of sitting back and sniping with Deep Data Mining and Legwork until the agendas finally showed.

R5: ID vs. Peter

The tournament didn't have any real breaks and since everyone at the top 3 tables, including me and Peter, had 18 points, we felt comfortable taking an ID break for food. Peter goes into the top 8 as 4th seed, I go in at 6th.

Elim 3: vs Josh's ETF

Elim rd 1 and 2 I played Corp, winning the first and losing the second. Josh, Noah, Raj and maybe one or two other folks drove up from Seattle and they're all great players in that meta. But Hayley did her work against Moonspam. I got a lucky Successful Field Test early off of R&D and Astrolabe was feeding me so many cards, so I was able to get into Clot + Film Critic + Rumor Mill territory, and just waiting it out, poking here and there until the agendas showed themselves. Josh is a great player, it was a super fun game and he could have easily taken it.

Elim 4: vs. Noah's ETF

Another Seattleite! Either I didn't see the Caprice in Josh's deck or he wasn't packing one, but Noah one. I think he got flooded on a mulligan with agendas early and ended up putting one down naked, which I was lucky enough to check and snagged. From there, it was somewhat similar to the game with Josh, but Noah was also starved of any Enhanced Login Protocols, which saved me from needing to burn two clicks to SOT a Rumour Mill. Noah got to 4 points and after baiting me into his remote with an extra Jeeves, he went for putting a GFI in there when I was low on cards, but I was able to hoover up a ton of cards with Laguna and had the 10 necessary to install CyCy and get through a pair of 3.0 Fairchildren and an Eli and that was it. Great games from both representing Seattle, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy about making sure the top 3 folks were all from BC.

Elim 6: vs. Trung's SYNC

I was Corp in rd 5 and won, so I came out of the loser's bracket for a rematch against Trung. He opened by scoring a Breaking News, barf, so I had to find NACH early. Got Laguna setup and was drawing like mad. I put a single facedown card behind an ICE and I should have gone for it, since I had Film Critic up in case it was Data Raven + QPM, and I think at that point I had enough credits to deal with getting hit by HHN. But I had drawfest tunnel vision and didn't go for it. He indeed scored the cats. I drew 6 cards in one turn and 8 in the next. He got 24/7 and Boom right then, before I could find NACH which was, of course, literally the next card in my deck. Great games and very well played by Trung. Considering I lost to him four times on the day, I'd say he deserved 1st!

After all was said and done, probably the only thing I'd change is adding another NACH. Since you're usually running a bit poorer, especially while getting setup, HHN can be very bad. And in HB matchups, you can still install it for 1 and no click w/ Hayley and Aesop it the next turn. I'd probably just go up to 46 cards, but maybe one could cut a Councilman or SacCon for it. But considering you're going to be drawing so many cards, I think you're fine at 46.

But coming up from a dead loss in rd1 and crawling up out of the losers bracket for my best Regionals performance ever left me still feeling pretty darn pleased with myself. Thanks for the great games everyone and happy that the BC regionals went back to a local champ after some Yankees stole it last year.