CAUTION: Beverage is DANGEROUSLY Hot (1st @ OTG 2024)

This is my latest iteration of the oversized upgrade Ob (aka Venti Matcha Latte or just Venti) I took to worlds last year. For those new to the deck, what it does is play a Mutually Assured Destruction, trashing at least 6 rezzed cards, usually upgrades stacked in a remote. This leaves the runner with not enough clicks to clear 5 tags, and thus they will die on your next turn to 2 End of the Lines. Aside from setting up the combo, both by building a remote and tutoring combo pieces, the rest of the gameplan is denying the runner as many central accesses as possible. I go in a bit more detail in my original writeup, but feel free to hmu here with any questions.

Venti went undefeated on the weekend, finishing 6-0. In bringing it, I made a meta call (nerd move) that there wouldn't be much hoshiko, which proved correct. I did beat 1 of the 2 hoshikos in swiss, but it was an exception-that-proves-the-rule situation. Despite having to read the vast majority of my cards, Joe Schupp almost won with a single Maw trigger that knocked the second End of the Line out of my hand after my MAD turn. I had pivots too, but Joe didn't let me get to threat 3 by denying my offer of an SDS in archives. The time was running out, and there wasn't an obvious way to get rid of the SDS or protect myself from Maw. (Very very very) Luckily for me, I top-decked the 1 in 40 third EotL to win on my next turn.

For all my talk about how only hoshiko beats this, thinking about how my games actually played out, half of them were butt-clenchers where the runner had decent odds to win on their last turn had they taken different lines. So, perhaps I was too hasty with my words, and this deck is fair and balanced and nobody needs to think about it further. Bringing Hoshiko to tournaments just to counter this would be a poor decision, really. Or slotting cards like No One Home, what a waste of influence.

Big thanks to all my opponents for some amazing games, especially DiskElemental for a barn burner Lat vs RH game in Round 5. Thanks NotAgain for beating my ass with PD on Friday, it made me sit up in my gamer chair (and pray that I don't have to face PD in the main event). Thanks TAI breakers for being such a supportive, hilarious, and busted team. TAIB Gang!

In the summer of 2022, I traveled to OTG for what was my first in-person standard tournament. I was nervous as hell, and I didn't know anyone there personally. Somehow, I made the cut, and although I embarrassed myself by forgetting about a million triggers against rongydoge, making it there gave me the confidence that I could actually get good. I also met Sokka and the King- turns out they were real people- and they became great testing partners and friends down the line. Coming back to OTG this time around to win it was a special feeling. The completion of what I set out to do with my 8 ice mirrormorph deck those two years ago.

Anyone thinking of dipping their toes into irl tournaments, highly recommend it. It is legitimately so much better than playing on jnet. Huge thanks to Josh for keeping this event running and putting in as much work as you do to make it amazing, and thanks Whiteblade for doing so much to expand in-person play opportunities this year.

Also, it has come to my attention that this title only makes me 1/3rd of a US national champion. I will see what I can do next month to remedy this.