Latchwork - Mox Ballard SC '19 Top 8

Latchwork!

This placed 7th overall at Mox Ballard's SC on 3/31/2019.

I can't take credit for the deck idea at all, the deck was originally an idea from @CodeMarvelous where Jesminder had Patchwork, but @Daine took it and found that the deck seemed to get more value with Lat.

The idea is based around some simple key concepts:

1. Mulligan for Patchwork. Always.
2. The Lat trigger seems silly, but if you've got Patchwork out, it's actually very easy to either go down or go up in cards. If you are on click 4 and notice you have the same cards as the corp with nothing to do, take a credit, get a card. Feels good! The deck kind of zooms a bit with this, if you're setting up well. It's also kind of a fun challenge and clickless draw (or ending your turn with up to 6 cards!) will usually feel real good.
3. The goal is deep digs on R&D with Khusyuk. Khusyuk works to reveal X number of cards that have the same printed card cost. When you're fully rigged up, a lot of the cards cost 4 credits and thus you can easily hit the target of revealing 6 cards on R&D.
4. The Artist gives you slight value be reducing program + hardware installation by one, but the true synergy is Patchwork, which lets you install your big big programs for a total of 1 credit. This is incredible value town.
5. The genius comes from the HQI installs, which will either make corps ice HQ more than R&D if they see those first, OR if you hit an early Khusyuk they might defend R&D much harder.

Pelangi and Lady saves your bacon very often and very early. SMC-ing for Pelangi is honestly not a bad idea if you find a lady early. having a 3 str barrier breaker and THEN potentially a 3-str whatever breaker is amazing. I faced up against Acme and (aside from Data Ward) laughed in the face of Universal Connectivity fee every time.

The most important thing is to mulligan for Patchwork. I've had several games where you are able to rig up and get going without it, but you will be far less rich and far less able to make surgical, high impact strikes.

@Daine's deck originally had 2x Levy AR Lab Access and 2x Peace In Our Time and, while I do like these cards, in a situation where the corp is trying to out-rush you (which is all the time these days, especially against Big Rig Shaper), PioT can possibly end up being a liability more than a boost. Instead I opted for Employee Strike and Diesel. If you don't see Patchwork soon, Diesel gets you there. If you feel like it, you could swap the Earthrise Hotels out for the PioTs again for maximum setup time.

I've felt really down on runners lately and haven't felt a playstyle that was interesting to me. This deck is a fantastic efficiency and also optimization puzzle! You have a big expensive rig but you can get it out fast, for cheap and you can puzzle over the fun ways to solve breaking into servers.

Good luck and happy running!