3rd Place German Nationals: Tempo Val

This is the runner deck that I played during the German Nationals (94 players). It went 4-1 in swiss and 3-0 in the cut. Losing to sportsmetal rush and winning against Palana, MTI, 2xArgus, Door to Door Making News, SEA Source Azmari and Sportsmetal Combo. FYI this tournament was played with the new MWL, but without the Maxwell errata.

Val has become my reliable runner choice since the loss of Dyper, and it still has a great matchup against basically all corp decks. Zero gave the deck a huge boost, even without the stupid clanarch combo, so I tried to replicate the Tempo of Zero. Without tempo, you give up scoring windows, get in HHN range or you are unable to contest assets. It’s all about tempo.

Deuces Wild: The MVP of the deck! I tried to replicate the tempo of Zero, and there are not a lot of cards that can do that. Getting a cred and 2 cards is always worth it and you’re always happy to draw a Deuces. Alternative draw options like Earthrise Hotel were considered, but they were too slow/expensive. Secondly Deuces is just incredibly versatile. Having Deuces against CTM makes clearing those tags way easier. Clearing a tag with Deuces and getting credits is exactly like a Career Fair for tags. Also it has a lot of edge case scenarios where it’s just amazing (for example: drawing + making a run in 1 click against Obokata). In the top 6 there was a clutch play where I used Deuces to check a remote against RVDH’s crazy Argus. Knowing that he had an unrezzed judge that I couldn’t contest and that the remote could be a Prisec, it should have been too dangerous to check. Luckily Deuces allowed me to clear the tag that I got, before he had a Paid ability window to rez the Judge.

Build script: 4th Deuces, but without the versatility. Still worth it in my opinion. It could also be a Maxwell (before errata) or a random Ghabali.

Slums: In testing (and during KOS) this slot was filled by Councilman. Councilman had great results, again due to its versatility. But during KOS I played 3 times against CTM. Even though I won all those games (since the deck already has a lot of answers), I still felt the need to improve that matchup some more. In the early game Estrike and Deuces are enough, but in the mid- to late game having access to Slums is a great way to counter multiple ARES. Sadly I didn’t face a single CTM. I think both Councilman and Slums are a fine choice, and maybe an argument can be made for Citadel as well, since it’s great against both CTM and kill.

Falsified: I still don’t understand why nobody splashes Falsified. Playing a sure gamble while getting information about assets/upgrades is the definition of Tempo. Oh and don’t forget how useful it is to not waste 20 credits because of an NGO.

Datasucker: I normally play Ice Carver, but I had the slots and the MU to support Datasucker. It’s slightly better against high strength ICE like Anansi, Surveyor, DNA tracker,…