Smoke v2 -- 1st Place Tallinn GNK tournament

v01d 129

published by AlwaysBeRunning.net

1 comments
7 Apr 2019 v01d

This deck went 3-1 in our GNK event:

  • First round bye because, after arriving one hour early, it is obviously nice to wait some more time.
  • second round vs Azmari EdTech: Shaping the Future. Very taxing ICE, had to install both Cloaks as Trickster Taka was the second to last card in the deck. The game went on for 50 minutes with the corp on 6 points and a SSL Endorsement being reviewed by film critic. I tried with two Khusyuk, seeing 4-5 cards each, but nothing to do (the fact that they played all 5/3 agendas didn't help I guess). Run on HQ a few times, mostly to build up tokens ans saw the same Punitive Counterstrike over and over again, although agendas were all there, apparently. Eventually the scoring remote was not safe anymore, I cleared all the Echo Chambers and snatched the final agenda after spending some 20 credits breaking all that horrible yellow ICE. Pelangi helped, I think riding the rainbow got me one agenda.
  • Third match vs PE, the modern version of 1000 cuts. This was painful, I got up to 6 points, the only Khusyuk that was not discarder in the net damage rain showed me 5 cards which, of course, were all disgusting. With the corp about to win, one card left in hand, 0 in the stack and Kakugos protecting all important servers I did the honorable thing and run on HQ hoping to snatch an agenda. It was a Snare!.
  • last match vs AgInfusion: New Miracles for a New World with Border Controls, Sand Storm and Excalibur. Got an early SSL Endorsement and I think I managed to land a Khusyuk for 4-5 cards but saw nothing once again. Later in the game I snatched another SSL Endorsement and the corp scored one too (HQ was a bit flooded I guess). They went for the Nisei MK II play in a remote with Excalibur, Border Control and Sand Storm. It took some Pelangi overwriting and recursion but I managed to get in on the 3rd run for the win.

As for the deck, I think it is a pretty standard smoke list in the downfall era. I prefer Khusyuk over The Maker's Eye because it helps avoiding traps and mitigates the net damage on multiple access vs Jinteki. The Turning Wheel is mostly for HQ multi-access and has a good synergism with Paragon and Net Mercur farming. Misdirection was useless in this tournament and a Takobi would have been a better choice for the slot, but our meta is very unpredictable. Kati Jones was the key in the match vs Azmari EdTech: Shaping the Future, Beth Kilrain-Chang wouldn't have helped as much. Thanks to Pietro for suggesting to drop one Trickster Taka in favor of Peace in Our Time and Kati Jones, it was an excellent suggestion.