Engolo Scammer - 7th at Nisei Worlds, 6th at CoL

RotomAppliance 3155

This is the 419 list I took to Worlds, and basically the same as the list I took to CoL. It went 4-1 at CoL and 7-0 at Worlds.

I agonised long and hard over which restricted card to retain, and in most of the run up to Worlds thought I'd likely retain Corporate Grant, which plays so well into the general plan of slowing the Corp down and avoids problems with Scarcity. In testing the deck felt a little slow, and myself and some of the other 419 players decided to cut a few tech cards and add in more goodstuff. The deck previously played No one home and Citadel in the Gagarin meta, but with that threat gone it seemed unecessary to play both. I also cut the Same Old Thing I previously had in the list to add Earthrise Hotel. I decided to try an Engolo version in CoL and see how it felt, and it performed well enough that I took it to the main event. I basically swapped the 3 Corporate Grants for 3 econ cards, and the deck felt very smooth, though it was partly good luck in facing zero Scarcity all day. Engolo provides a better matchup against rushy Weyland lists out of Argus and the Outfit, and makes it harder for Jinteki to cheese out agendas against you with Excalibur, though this did happen to me in the only game I lost, where I foolishly overwrote my Turtle to install my full rig. My CoL list had one copy of Government Investigations (!) mainly to have a counter-current and improve the odds against Batty in my most feared matchup, but Wilfy talked me out of such nonsense.

The deck did not have the same matchup more than once in the main event, beating NEH, Argus, The Outfit, Blue Sun, ASA, Biotech and RP. In general it's a pretty rounded deck and flexible enough that it can tech against different things depending on your meta - No one home, Miss Bones, Inside Job and Hernando Cortez were all cards that I tested. The only real matchup I dislike is Blue Sun, especially if playing Batty, which can roll you on a good draw while still posing problems on an average one. I included Amina so that I had a semi backup for any single breaker that was lost, but if that's considered unecessary than any of the tech cards above, or another economy card work fine too.

Thanks to Nisei for a well run tournament!

5 comments
7 Oct 2019 swan

I know what I'm playing on Saturday now :D

8 Oct 2019 NtscapeNavigator

Did I not also talk you out of Govt. Investigations?

9 Oct 2019 vesper

Seven. Zero. Whoa. Well done and thank you for coming all the way to Rotterdam!

13 Oct 2019 Longi

Hey, congrats on amazing criminal result. I also came to conclusion that Engolo is best restricted option for 419 but dropped this ID one day before worlds entirely anyway. I wanted to ask how much valuable were the silver bullets (Citadel Sanctuary, Caldera and Hunting Grounds)

15 Oct 2019 RotomAppliance

Citadel: Useful deterrent in one game, saved my bacon in another against the Outfit. Also helped against Acme in CoL.

Hunting Grounds: Don't remember it much, so probably didn't come into play a lot. Relevant against the same Acme deck in CoL, can't remember whether my Weyland opponents rezzed Data Ravens or not.

Caldera: Think it was only relevant in first round of the cut, against Biotech.