Angel of Coyombo (1st place store champ, Montreal)

Congratulations! I wondered when we'ed see a deck like this take something down, I've been playing something similar, but a bit more toolboxy with planned assault and kati. I'd post it if I knew how.

How did it go?

It went well. I went 6-2 in yesterday's store championship in Montreal, losing twice to NEH. One played Cyberdex Virus Suites, and the other played advanceable and non-advanceable traps. I managed to beat that second one in the double elim finals, and my other wins were against another NEH, two HB:ETFs, a Blue Sun, and a Foundry.

Would you change something after the tournament? Nice deck by the way!

I don't think so; I was pretty happy with everything. I never used Feedback Filter during the tournament as I never played against Jinteki, but I imagine it would be useful so I don't think I would remove it. Duggar's really hurts vs PE.

What's your gameplan with this deck? I like it, but it is difficult for me to envision a regular playthrough, with Duggars and whatnot.

General strategy:

1. Figure out if your opponent is playing a fast-advance strategy or not. Mulligan for Duggar's if they're playing fast-advance; keep a hand with money otherwise.

2. If they're playing against fast-advance, your strategy is to get Duggar's out as fast as possible, then use it to dig for your combo, which is 1 Progenitor, 1 Hivemind (installed on the Progenitor), 1 Virus Breeding Ground, and 1 of either Progenitor (to install Chakana on), or Virus Breeding Ground. The idea is to have Hivemind at 3 counters so that all your Chakanas are active, and you can move counters from Virus Breeding Ground onto Hivemind to reset the combo after they purge. You're resistant to purges.

3. Play Blackmail on their remotes to steal agendas, so they can't score from remotes. Once you have the combo out, they won't be able to score from hand either, and you will have them locked down.

4. When using Duggar's, discard extraneous combo pieces (e.g. the 2nd and 3rd Hivemind), cards that aren't relevant in the matchup (e.g. Feedback Filter vs fast-advance), and, if you still need to discard, cards that might not be needed yet (e.g. Medium, Parasite). You can always get stuff back later with Déjà Vu and Clone Chip.

5. Against non-fast-advance, your strategy is still to get out the combo, but you don't necessarily want to Duggar's, as it throws out a lot of cards. Draw with Inject, I've Had Worse (if you aren't anticipating any damage), or just clicks. There's usually no big rush here.

6. After you get the combo out, you can surprise your opponent by using Clone Chip to get out a Chakana when they think they can score.

7. After the combo is out, play Chakanas and Mediums, as well as Darwin if you like. Your goal now is to make one or two big Medium runs.

8. For the big game-winning Medium run, just load up Hivemind with a few counters from Virus Breeding Ground, then run R&D. It's easiest if you have a Blackmail to spare, but otherwise you can run if you have a Darwin out, and ideally a few Clone Chips out as well as at least 1 Parasite in your heap. This helps you get rid of any taxing ice (and Swordsman). You can get rid of larger ice with either 2 Parasites, or just reducing the strength with 1 Parasite and breaking the ice with Darwin.

9. If you have Clone Chips left over, you can use them just before R&D access to get out more Mediums.

10. The Feedback Filter helps a lot in the Jinteki: Personal Evolution matchup. Don't use Duggar's; just draw until you get Feedback Filter, and click for money for use with Feedback Filter so you don't get milled to death.

11. ???

12. Profit.