RvdH’s Harley Quinn Argus (9-1 @ Worlds)

RvdH83 686

Let's not talk about my runner games. I was on goodstuff 419 and did pretty poorly with it, even though the deck was quite decent. Too many mistakes. Apologies to those who picked me in their Betrunner-team. ;)

My corp games on the other hand went way better, as usual. This deck went 6-1 in swiss losing only to Wilfy who just outplayed me. The next day it went 3-0 in a Standard side tournament. Argus is still my favourite corporation to play competitively. It is fast and can still win even when you're way behind.

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After being on roughly the same list for over a year, I dropped the Oaktown Renovation and went to a single Armed Intimidation. While the Oaktown-money is great early game, the agenda is just plain awkward later. Yes, I know you should have won by then, but it happens often enough that you haven't. Armed is less awkward and you can close the game by installing it without advancing and Audacitying it out next turn. And earlier in the game just scoring it without any clicks left is pretty good, as well. The runner loses 5 cards or has to clear two tags, either of which is just tempo.

I did switch back from 2 IPO, 1 Too Big to Fail to the opposite to get just a little more money.

So I saw Slowriffs-deck with 3 Armed Intimidation from Belgian nats and figured it was worth a shot. I do think running 3 Hostile Takeovers is correct, so I went with 1 Food and 3 Hostiles over 3 Oaktown. The 3 Hostiles meant I could stay with Archer over Surveyor. Those Archers did save me in one game, so I'm pretty happy with that choice.

The IP Blocks are also a copy from Slowriffs as I expected an increase in AI breakers with Laamb banned and Engolo restricted. I didn't get to fire the encounter ability of IP Block once, and didn't see that many AI breakers at all, so I'm not sure this is right. Maybe adding an Excalibur instead might be worth it, but I'm not sure what to cut and I'm already not too happy with running only 2 Mausolus. I feel there may be some improvements in the ice suite.

Overall, it was another fantastic well-organised weekend! I had some really tense and fun games over the three days. Also a shoutout to the Enschede-meta. And a big congrats to Magnetar and Wet Toastie for making top 16.

3 comments
8 Oct 2019 Tolaasin

Did you have a plan for Apoc decks? I faced them all day and it was so hard ...

8 Oct 2019 RvdH83

Yeah, agreed, it is a hard matchup, especially if they can pressure you early game. I think I feared Stargate and Apocalypse most.

I almost lost to an Omar who apocalypsed me twice, but having multiple Armed Intimidation got me the win behind a remote of just two Archers, since the runner expected only one Armed and he was low on cards.

Against an Alice I double iced archives turn 1, the last one being a Raven, just to ensure the runner always had a tag when they would end their turn and I never got apocalypsed in that game.

Prisecs on centrals may also be a correct play, except for R&D if you suspect Stargate.

9 Oct 2019 RvdH83

Coming back to this, I think Stargate, Apocalypse and credit denial are the main paths to win as a runner. Of course there is also Khusyuk, but that's just too unreliable in my opinion.

I was considering Crisium Grid or Hokusai Grid as an include to deal with Stargate. I also considered a single Breached Dome to deal with Apocalypse and/or Alice. But yeah, cutting things is hard.

On a more general level I was a bit surprised by the banning of Laamb and restriction of Engolo in MWL 3.4 as I feel corps were already in a better position than runners before that. And that was pretty much confirmed by all the "corp splits" that hit the tables at Worlds.