Fun is a zero sum game (2nd Portland Regionals)

I have played a lot of econ denial 419, and with MWL 3.3 hitting both Corporate "Grant" and its best friend Crowdfunding, I was seriously concerned that the current version of the deck wouldn't have the draw, the money, the installs, or the sheer steam to remain competitive. Being a Seattlite, having no idea what to expect from the Portland meta, and after having a mini-identity crisis about whether I should play Rezeki/Laamb/Surfer Wu instead (possibly the best runner deck with a great matchup spread right now IMO), I decided to stick to my guns and play my pet project that I'd had countless hours of practice in. It went 3-1 on the day, beating Blue Sun, PE, and IG, and losing to that same PE piloted by Bailey, who ended up winning the tournament.

Sticking to what I know turned out to undeniably be the correct choice, dropping its only game due to a stupid gut reaction on my part. Bailey as PE installed a new card in a remote and I pointed at 419 on pure autopilot, despite up to this point deliberately not triggering my ID on cards installed in servers to avoid Psychic Field - turns out this one was a Psychic Field, I lost the psi game and then died to Sting!. A dumb mistake, but I won the runback later in the cut. This deck served me extremely well and surprisingly it was only my corp and that fateful expose that let me down.

This is an econ denial deck that drags the corp to poverty and keeps them there, all the while applying pressure and gaining accesses. If piloted well, it is not at all uncommon to have the corp in a position where they are repeatedly saying "mandatory, take 3 credits, your turn". I have drained corps at nearly 30 credits to 0 in only two turns; make no mistake, this deck is mean. A brief description of some of the less common card choices:

Caldera - Absolutely crucial in the current meta, do not cut this.

Rezeki - At worst, they exist as net zero cost programs to sacrifice to SDS Drone Deployment; at best, they generate dozens of credits since games often go long due to how much the corp is slowed down.

Embezzle - Was mostly included for Titan, Argus, and Gagarin, but I didn't face any Weyland on the day. I wouldn't cut it without a compelling reason though, as it's still useful in other matchups.

Hunting Grounds - I dropped a Turning Wheel for this as I was worried about IP Block, Data Loop, and Data Raven. I encountered none of those on the day of and would much rather have had a second Turning Wheel.

Mining Accident - Makes the corp poor, helps against asset spam, allows for cheaper repeat pressure on centrals, combos with Caldera to stuff net damage during runs.

Miss Bones - A meta call. I was worried a lot about IG and Gagarin (and did end up facing an IG in the cut) but ultimately this was not too useful.

I had an amazing time at the event! It was run very smoothly and my opponents were nothing short of wonderful. Shout-outs to the Seattle Thursday crew for helping me practice, especially Chris, Justin, and Tyler, without whom I'd never have made it this far.