This game is thimble-rigged! - (6th at Aldershot Regionals)

Quarg 273

This is a relatively standard version of Asger's Thimble-Mimble list.

The swaps I'd made were the Code Replicators for a Preemptive and a Swordsman, and swapping the Attitude Adjustment for Lateral Growth, as I'm not a fan of shuffling away the agendas that I need to be scoring.

I never even rezzed the Swordsman on the day, as I encountered basically no-one relying on AI breakers, so I'd probably swap it for a defensive upgrade, maybe even back to Code Replicator, or Batty; maybe even drop the Lateral Growth with it for a pair of Crisium Grids, to defend against the likes of Indexing and Apocalypse.


On the day, this deck didn't drop a single game in swiss, despite some tough competition, but proceeded to lose both games in the cut.

However, the last of those games, against PaulG's Apocalypse Val, I'd just about managed to scrape together everything I needed to score the last winning agenda, but I proceeded to make not one, not even two, but three different mistakes, which all could have stopped me losing the game had I done the correct thing.

For anyone who cares, here is the full sequence of events that occurred:


I knew he was on Apoc already, I'd played him in swiss, and he'd already Apoc'ed me this game earlier (though I'll also note that had I payed attention, I could have boosted a Surveyor trace to stop it, but that's another matter...)

So, I've got the winning agenda in the remote, behind an unrezzed EULA, Envelope, and Thimblerig, with a Surveyor and Anansi in hand, an unrezzed ice on R&D that was too pricy to be worth rezzing, and a Nisei with a counter.

They run HQ, R&D, then archives, where I fire the Nisei token, as chances were that they had the third and final Apocalypse in hand, then proceed to run the remote, and this is where I make the first mistake...

Had I simply rezzed the Envelope and Thimblerig on the remote, it would have been enough to keep them out, leaving me with exactly the credits I need, but I was tunnel visioned on stopping them with the Surveyor in my hand... After foolishly letting them past the envelope, I spot the CVs with counters, and in a bit of a panic, I rez the Thimblerig, which doesn't stop them on it's own, and just costs me credits.

They forget to use their CVs, and I drop the surveyor with the ID, and it stops them getting in, but thanks to the thimblerig rez, leaving me a credit short of scoring the agenda.

I start my turn, and mistake number two; I should have swapped the thimblerig with the unrezzed ice on R&D; on it's own, it wouldn't cost them enough to deny Apocalypse, but it would later prevent them hammering R&D...

I use an NGO to get back up to 8 credits on my turn, and they again start running to threaten Apoc, I drop the Anansi with the ID, it fires and I see two agendas on R&D with it, and here is mistake 3: I draw a card with Anansi, rather than leaving R&D as it is, then the net damage clears their entire hand, and it turns out they didn't even have the last Apoc in hand anyway, they CV me, and nab the agenda that was binned by it, putting them on 4 points.

So, they pass the turn again, and I click for credits, and for a second time, I forget to move the thimblerig!

And here, they do the one thing they could still do, they run my unprotected R&D, getting both the agendas from R&D, closing the game.


All in all, it was a great day, regardless of silly mis-plays!

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