Efficient Moons (Toronto 2nd after Swiss, 7th place)

lukesim3 468

alt text

Estelle Moon is a good card, but I always feel like jerk when I play conventional asset spam, so I opted for a list based (and by based, I mean almost card for card) on @JackMade's Violet Moons deck.

The only change I made was swapping an Ultraviolet Clearance for a Domestic Sleepers. Because the deck has very little late game, I wanted a way to win if the agendas didn't come out in the right order. It's also good Clot bait once you have Ark Lockdown in hand.

The deck is fast, and a lot of fun to play -- especially if you get an EffCom scored and can do things like purge twice and still score an agenda. I also like how resilient it can be against Siphon/Vamp decks because you can score the GFI from hand with zero credits.

Here's how the day broke down:

Round 1 vs. Inversificator Kit (2-0)

My opponent gets an early Magnum Opus, and uses it to contest any assets I put down. I actually get very agenda flooded, but my opponent ignores HQ in favour of running R&D every turn with Inversificator and an RDI. He doesn't seem to have Clot, so I just fast advance out for the win.

Round 2 vs. Valencia (4-0)

He's playing Blackmail, En Passant Val with Maw, Nerve Agent, Imp and Medium. Fortunately, it takes him a long time to find the first Blackmail, and he's too busy drawing to contest assets. Having played a similar deck during SC season, I know the key is to purge aggressively to limit the value of Blackmail runs. Fortunately, purging isn't too hard when you've got Jeeves, and Friends helps get back any ice that gets trashed. I eventually get to six points with a Domestic Sleepers scored. He Medium digs as hard as he can on his last turn, but only sees one agenda.

Round 3. vs. Siphon Whiz (5-1)

This was one heck of a game vs. @d1en (you can watch it here around the 4h:15 mark). I find all 3 Architects early and slam two on HQ. He runs through them relentlessly in the early game to get accesses or land a Siphon. Fortunately, Estelle keeps the cards and credits coming, and I'm able to score the winning GFI from hand the turn after getting Apocalypse'd.

Round 4

ID

Top cut Round 1

Right back in the trenches vs. @d1en, who played fantastic on the day and eventually took home the trophy. Because I won the previous game, I opt to Corp vs. his Siphon Whiz. I once again get an Architect on HQ first turn, but he immediately injects into a Siphon and a Black Orchestra, meaning the Turing I put on R&D is useless. He installs Eater and lands a first turn Siphon. I can't stop the credit denial, so I figure my line of play is to draw the Lockdown, get rid of the Orchestra, and then stabilize without the threat of Keyhole. It takes too long to show up, and even though I get 4 points out the door, he Rebirths into Omar and plucks the winning agenda from my flooded hand.

Top cut Round 2

I play my runner deck against a Potential Unleashed prison, and proceed to misplay my way out of the cut.

---

The deck isn't as good as Moonspam, but it's more fun, more fair and still pretty solid. I might change one of the Eli 1.0's for another Vanilla, as stopping accesses/Siphons in the early game is more important than taxing the runner late.

I didn't play any run-based Criminals or lock Shapers during the tournament, so it's hard to say exactly where the deck sits in the field. You can definitely purge your way through Clot in a lot of games, and the Crim matchup really depends on how fast they set up.

Anyway, pretty happy with my performance on the day. Kudos to Dien for taking the tourney on home turf, and thanks to everyone who worked to make the event possible.

0 comments