Grape Juice FM (1st Store Champs, Edmonton Alberta)

Based off @sanjay great list that took him to Colorado Regional near-fame, I tweaked this for a bit of my style and the new Free Mars breakers. Before I go elsewhere let me make this clear: Maven. Is. A. Beast. Yes, 2c per routine isn't 'effecient', but what makes up for that is it's almost always 5+ Str to start with, so never needing to pump makes up for that in spades. In a deck that makes money faster than Mopus.

Key tweeks from Sanjays list include the obvious breakers, Na'Not'K and Maven. The removal of Test Runs for Dhegdeers. This only make Maven better and I never really struggled for set up time in any game. I think his original had PoliOp that I cut, along with the Femme gone left me room for 2 EmpStrikes which was key. I saw 2 CI and a Skorp in my rounds, and each time EmpStrikes were crucial to winning.

Clot + 2 SacCons + Councilman absolutely wrecked a CI combo deck. He tried to 'go off' and fell flat.

Overall, 3 wins and 2 losses with this one. One of those losses was a play I could have had back and probably won. That was on my misreading a situation, but those happen.

Very happy with Snitch + AR decks. I used to play one often about a 18 months ago before it had all this support. I'm so glad it's back again.

Congrats on the placement! The new breakers open up great opportunities for this archetype.

This looks rad.

Nice to see the Councilman tech actually works. I think I first put Councilman in the deck hoping it would help slow down CI but I'd never actually tried it.

How did the Careful Plannings do?

One of those misplays I spoke about was a situation that Careful Planning would have been clutch for. 2 Iced server, a GFI with 2 advanced on it and I knew I could break one of the two ice on the server but not both. Perfect set up right? So what do I do click one? Snitch+Daredevil run R+D out of habit. Damn stupid priority events. Aside from that, I never saw an opportunity to use them and will probably cut them for something else. Not sure what.

Between ``@FreqKing`'s 2nd place regionals finish and my 2nd place regionals finish, it's nice to see Au Revoir Ayla actually win something.

I think what put it over the edge from a 'nice but slightly too slow' style deck is the NVRAM. The new breakers only help it along, but you had already got the core together. Granted, Fast Advance isn't nearly as ubiquitous as it used to be which is why I retired my early attempts at it.

Snitches get riches! (Oh why didn't I use that name for the deck damnit. My pun game is week and I am ashamed.)

Still not sold on Careful Planning, is ice that cannot be broken for 6c (3c to play, 3c you could earn making a run) common enough to warrant two deck slots? What was the ice you could not get through during the tournament?

The deck indeed got stronger thanks to Ayla and new breakers. Currently testing a version with -2 Careful Planning, -1 Rebirth, -1 Levy (by the time I get to the end of my deck, I want to spend all clicks running anyway), + 1 Maven (to take some pressure off my tutoring), +1 Femme Fatale (to have a solution for Chiyashi and some other problem ice), +1 Plascrete (because SYNC rushing BN into Boom kills you through Fan Site/Artist Colony if you only have NACH).

What do you do with Clot when you draw it? The deck has no way to install it at paid ability speed from hand or discard.

In my experience, Careful Planning was useful before you had a breaker down (making cost prohibitive to install and break) or when there was a two deep server and you know you can break the outer ice. Also sometimes useful to keep upgrades like Ash 2X3ZB9CY or Caprice Nisei unrezzed. I found it provided value as a surprise since so few people play it. But I agree, likely not worth the deck slots. I've taken it out of my builds as well. Brahman was also useful against early rush, although that was before Maven was released.

Well, Clot can be installed using Artist Colony. Keep it in with SacCon. I also have been running 2 Clone Chips, but Employee Strike might be the better use of influence.

Plascrete could work too. I usually just run another NACH. If it's down early (and you mulligan and dig hard for it in the SYNC match) you should be fine. I just find it to have wider applicability than plascrete. Plascrete is a fine choice depending on your local meta.

Keep fighting the good fight!

Yeah, @hsialeI agree it's not worth the slot. I'm not sure what else to run there, Plascrete is certainly an idea but not one my meta is super in need of. Careful Planning is intended as the stopgap shaper 'inside job' and Caprice/Ash buster. In practice...meh. Like I mentioned above there was a situation where I knew I could break any one ice, but not two on a remote that held a 2 advanced GFI. That was the dream moment (that I flubbed) for Careful Planning. Alas however, not worth it.

As for drawing clot, the usual happens. Sometimes it doesn't matter because it's not a FA matchup. Sometimes you hard install it and let it sit with SacCons until the corp gives you 3+ turns to continue setting up, in which time you're probably through your deck and ready to Levy anyways, so install a new program of any kind and recycle it. I never found a situation where I went 'damn, hard installing clot lost me the game'. In fact it won me a game after it sat on the table for 10+ turns and a CI player kinda forgot about it...but I wouldn't rely on your opponent making that kind of mistake too often.

Other ideas for those 2 Careful Planning slots are 1 more Councilman. He's very versatile. Daily Casts aren't bad either. Cash is a bit tight waiting for the Snitch+AR situation to settle down. The 'cats' would smooth out an early game. Maybe? I dunno. I'm sure there are better options. Chiyashi is solved by Snowball. Yes it's expensive, but meh...this is a deck that gets rich VERY quick, and only ends up running servers for 'real' when it's big dig time anyways. The trash thing is also pretty negligible once you're set up.

Nice work! As the two Careful Planning slots are concerned - I would totally go for Mad Dash / "Freedom Through Equality" in order to maximize the value of The Turning Wheel glory runs. Will try it out!

Yeah @Odolthat's a good idea. Building up TW counters then making that one glory run with Mad Dash and FTE in play is a good, solid ender. Good idea.