I took the list I played at the GNK the week before, made the cut down to 45 cards (took out a Hopper and took it to the CO. Despite only winning one game I thought the deck was solid and all the games I lost were pretty close.
Round 1: CobraBubbles on PD
One of those games where I just drew exactly what I wanted when I needed it. The corp struggled for early money which allowed me to stick some PAD Taps and build my own money. I cleared out the remote after the first score and then managed to keep them unable to rebuild whilst I hunted the remaining agendas from centrals.
Round 2: Swiftie on Palana
Despite having not actually played them much I was aware of the Aldershot metas reputation and I knew that this wasn’t going to be a “friendly” Palana deck. I tried to balance a cautious approach with keeping some pressure on (clicking for credits over playing cards, only taking singles accesses, etc) and I managed to get myself to 5 points, but on the couple of occasions I took a gamble on not running, Swiftie then proceeded to score a 3/2 with a Shipment. So at 6-5 down, minutes left on the round, and only one card left in hand, I’m pretty much locked out of HQ (Anansi, Kakugo, Ganked), I’m looking at one last Turning Wheel dive on R&D (Chiyashi, Envelope, something) and taking credits to do so, only for the corp to gleefully trash 18 credits worth of ice to install his last Anemone there. Game over.
Round 3: Tom B on CtM
As is always the case when I’m not sure which flavour of CtM to expect, I get a rude surprise when it reveals the Arya Amani combo as I’m about to steal a Bellona. I got Newsed, but had just about enough money to clear my tags, and luckily Tom seemed to struggle to find any econ throughout the game (I think we saw only one Marilyn throughout) and whilst he scored some points I at least had time to rebuild my board and clear some of his. He got to 4 points, time was called, he scored a 15 Minutes, and then charged an open R&D in the hope of finding anything and ripped a Beale to tie. Phew.
Round 4: Algebraic on Argus.
My favourite game of the day, the corp rushes to 4 points whilst I struggle to find any means of getting past ice. I discard a Clot and then immediately kick myself as they proceed to score back to back Takeovers. And then, as I hit the motherload of Simulchip, breakers and DooFs I’m suddenly able to control the game and stop them from doing anything. I pull myself to 6 points and as time is once called on the round (there seems to be a theme here) and I know that a win would put me in the top 4, I hammer R&D in search of the win, and hit a Snare with only two cards in hand. RIP.
Great tournament, would play again. Thanks for organising Extrac!