Brexit Val (20th at Euros)

Because it's a European Apocalypse...

It's Apoc Val. What's more, it's the Apoc Val list I published 2 weeks ago with precisely the changes I mentioned there and no other differences. But let's talk about it in a little more depth this time!

So, like @twisty_b, I used @Swiftie's Apoc Val shell, a 46-card 10-influence list called DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THESE CARDS, except that I changed fewer cards and will never apologise to Swiftie for anything. The change I made was cutting a Daily Casts to fit in five 1-influence cards.

The shell is straightforward Apoc Val: make money, find your breakers/DDoS, find an Apocalypse, and wait for an opportune moment. The follow up to the Apocalypse is either Wanton Destruction or another Apocalypse. I too thought the deck lacked central pressure but it turns out that's basically all you need - once you've ruined their gameplan it's enough to take single accesses or trash their hand.

Amped Up lets you recover from a Border Control, Crisium Grid, or other unavoidable way of wasting a run, but can also be used to super power a Wanton Destruction. Same Old Thing can be used in tandem with Amped Up if you have an Apoc in the bin but not in hand, or just to Stimhack a remote.

I'm sure Swiftie can provide deeper insights into the finer points and decisions in this shell.

My extremely spicy splash is 3 Deuces Wilds and 2 Career Fairs. The latter is just raw economic efficiency with a lot of great targets (and helps you avoid discarding down as much on massive draw digs), but the former is more interesting and considered. In essence, it's my tech for unfavorable matchups: it lets you go through a Data Raven and clear the tag or draw up to protect the Apoc against Jinteki and still make the three runs needed. Click compression in very, very precise and essential ways, that defaults to some money and cards in every other matchup. It never quite got to see those plays on the day but the reasoning is sound.

This deck went 4-3(ish) at the tournament, which combined with my corp also going 4-3 got me to 20th place on 8-6. A result I'm very pleased with! My matchups in order were:

1. Win against Blue Sun. Particularly noteworthy as my opponent was @Drago, AKA The Guy What Won The Tournament. You can find his list here. It was a hard fought game, with me having to go through 2 Crisium Grids to eventually land an Apocalypse. I can't remember the precise order of events, but I believe I stole an SSL while running for Apocalypse, played Amped Up, realised I was about to be Punitive'd, and ran HQ just in case I could find the winning agenda before I was flatlined; I stole a clutch Hostile Takeover for my victory/survival. A tense end to the first game!
2. Win against NEH. Another noteworthy game, as my opponent was @percomis, who ended the tournament in 4th place! You can find his list here. I Apoc'd him three times, it was great. But seriously, he did such an amazing job coming back from each Apoc, despite being a favoured matchup for me the win did not come easily.
3. Loss against CtM. I Apoc'd early and went tagme; he Psycho/Beale'd for the win. Oh, also he was @echo, so I definitely don't feel bad losing against him.
4. Win against RP. Despite the Bioethics and Hostile Infrastructures in his deck, it apparently wasn't meant to be a grindy slow deck; I just made it that way with Apocalypse and Hacktivist Meeting! Super close game, another clutch closer where I successfully stole a The Future Perfect in the bin last click with a whole bunch of net damage on the board ready to kill me next turn. I actually lost 2 Apocs through net damage, including one where I hit a Snare! in HQ and then a Fetal AI on R&D...
5. Loss against PE. I'm not the most experienced at Apoc Val, so I tunnel visioned on landing an Apoc instead of forgoing it and just using that 9 influence as 3 extra hit points. Didn't help that the very last card in my deck was my last Apoc... nor did it help that my opponent was Extremely Good, finishing 7th overall.
6. This round was a 241 against @extrac, but I lost as corp so no runner results. It would have been against Argus, on a list he's extremely comfortable and familiar with, and I did not feel good about that matchup at all.
7. Win against The Outfit. Landed an Apoc early and maintained a lockdown for the rest of the game, helped by stealing key 5/3s early.

Going 4-3 against such an absurdly strong schedule as this (3 of my opponents made the cut!) is frankly ridiculous, so I can't be disappointed with my performance at all. Good times.

And massive thanks and love to Austin, Akira, and Michał for putting on an incredible event and working so hard over both days, y'all are amazing <3