CV Val (4th at Cleveland Regionals)

This deck was undefeated at Cleveland Regionals, bringing me to 1st in Swiss and 4th overall. It is the strongest runner deck I have played since rotation hit by a wide margin, and I credit this 100% to Zer0, which I predicted as the best card in Kitara cycle as well as one of the best cards period post-rotation. A lot of people are concerned about its synergy with Clan Vengeance; while that pairing is definitely powerful, any game where you draw Zer0 you feel favored. Having a way to accelerate your setup without compromising economy is incredible; Earthrise Hotel was always the weakest card in goodstuff Val lists, and Zer0 is such a phenomenal upgrade. The argument for/against CV is interesting, and I personally think it is worth utilizing given the trend towards glacier decks, where you want ways to pressure HQ without repeated investments. Still, it is a card that reduces the quality of the average opening hand and does nothing early game; I think there is real merit to cutting the CVs and just playing more great economy.

I personally prefer Find the Truth to Indexing for this deck since it can always be installed before firing Zer0 and because it fits the philosophy of applying tons of pressure on every server without investing that much. I had 2 Aumakua 1 Maxwell prior to this event and I was very happy with the swap; never needed Aumakua and didn't miss Datasucker either.

I have to play at least one bad card in my decks so I added The Archivist. We are at at a pretty incredible meta for this card; it hits ARES, QPM, GFI, Nisei, TFP, Philotic, EffCom, Elective, Oaktown, SSL, Degree Mill, HoK as popular agendas right now. The commonly played agendas that dodge it are Vitruvius, Beale, Atlas, Obokata, CST, Hostile, and Standoff. That is enough for me to consider it exciting, and I established some dominating positions over several games today thanks to having 2 link against News Hound/IP Block. It does a lot in the CtM matchup both when you are ahead or behind game. Should you play it over Mining Accident #3? Nope.

Of note, 7 of the 8 top decks at Cleveland were Zer0 Anarch decks.

Thanks to all my opponents for some phenomenal games; the tournament was great fun and I look forward to seeing everyone again at Worlds.