Rock Lobster (Undefeated* @ US Nationals, Tied for 9th)

dodgepong 1796

This is essentially just an updated Lobstermodernism for Kampala Ascendent. Go read the deck description there for how to play the deck. The TL;DR is to rush while applying early pressure with HHN. Thanks to Travis Yeo (yeoda) and David Culemann (shmeguy) for this specific list.

The deck did not drop a single tournament game. I won 4 games with it in swiss, ID'd the last two rounds, and it won the only game I played with it in cut. 3 of those were HPT kills, and two were score-outs. One of those scores should have been a kill, but I missed lethal like a dummy -- ended up scoring out anyway. It beat 3 Clan Vengeance MaxXs, 1 Clan Vengeance Val, and a Pirate Geist.

I admit I was a bit worried that HPT wouldn't pull its weight over BOOM! as a finisher, but being cheaper to play helps a lot, as well as not being trashable. HPT -> Archive -> HPT is a real thing, as is HPT -> Consulting HPT. People can end their turn on 3 cards with 1 tag a surprising number of times, and those are times when 2x HPT can kill over BOOM!.

I might change the Vanillas to Ice Walls, just to mess with turtles, but the deck doesn't have a ton of ice anyway so it's tough to lock people out. The real winner is Surveyor, which is pretty dumb once you get 2-3 ice on a server. Your ice will look like an L -- most of it on a scoring remote, a token ice on HQ, an Archer or something on R&D, and vs Clan Vengeance matchups a Data Raven on Archives. Rez the Raven when they run archives after a CV hit, even if there aren't any agendas, because they'll usually bounce and then put a lot of energy into trying to get in again later, assuming there is an agenda in there.

The reason there is a * on Undefeated is because the Round 5 that I ID'd, we ended up playing out matches out anyway for fun, and their CV Quetzal ended up beating me. But I won the games that counted!

Also idk why Always Be Running puts me at 11th place, that is not how double elimination brackets work. 9 is a way better number than 11. :ran:

10 comments
26 Jun 2018 SneakdoorMelb

This looks absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to try it out.

26 Jun 2018 yeoda

Baller man. ATL meta represent! Great job on the day -- super impressive.

26 Jun 2018 MrBuggles

Wow, I’m really impressed that this deck stands up to CV decks! I was really enjoying Argus and was pretty sad when I thought pack 6 had ruined it, but clearly it hasn’t! What is different in your strategy when you play against the CV decks (of the regular Anarch kind, not the all-in on CV ones) as opposed to any other deck?

26 Jun 2018 MrBuggles

PS top deck name ?

26 Jun 2018 dodgepong

@MrBuggles If CV decks are running a lot, they'll lose to HHN. The better strategy, for them, I think, is to stay passive, rack up money from Liberated, and find CV/Zer0 to wipe combo pieces. In that case, it's important to recognize their shift in strategy so that you start prioritizing placing ice before they can wipe it, and rush out agendas to force runs they can't afford. If you have a 4-ice remote where 2 ice are Surveyors, you can feel pretty good about just waiting to topdeck agendas and jam them.

27 Jun 2018 MrBuggles

Excellent tips, thank you!

27 Jun 2018 ChairmanHiro

Was strength of schedule the only thing that determined your place? Or was that also counting your runner?

28 Jun 2018 dodgepong

@ChairmanHiro I'm not sure I understand the question. I placed 7th in Swiss based on prestige gained from all games (both sides) that I played in Swiss, with ties broken by SoS, and then in cut I won (corp), then lost (runner), then lost (runner), which put me in a 4-way tie for 9th (three other people were eliminated at the same stage as me). I don't know how ABR decides on ordering places 9-12, but assigning an order to final placement like that is not standard procedure for double elimination tournaments.

29 Jun 2018 MrBuggles

One final question - are there any cards from R&R you think would improve the deck? The only one that stands out to me is Too Big To Fail, and even then I don’t know what I would cut for it, if anything.

29 Jun 2018 dodgepong

Not off the top of my head. The Weyland and tagging cards in R&R push toward a different strategy than the one this is going for.