Pravd-'on't Touch My Vlad (Or I Will Kill You) [STARTUP]

Took this to 2nd place at the Austin Startup GNK. 2-1 on the day and this particular version is 7-2 on Jnet and a slightly older one is 28-5.

Tourney Report

Game 1 was against a Hoshiko that missed a top agenda. Scored 2 Bellona early and then set up a FA situation with Trick of Light. They stole a few from R&D after getting their Taka online and running Gold Farmer with no credits and The Twinning out. They miscounted accesses and I top decked an agenda for the win.

Game 2 was against a Sable that just never got set up enough to contest the remote or make consistent access to centrals. By the time they were ready to go, I had scored a Bellona and Remastered and FA'd a Beale for the win.

Game 3 was a close game against the winning Lat deck. Hey, did y'all know The Boat is a good card? I had a decent setup but played a bit reckless early. I carelessly let an agenda get stole and lost some econ. Didn't draw the suite of ice I needed to effectively tax out the boat until too late. Scored a Bellona and Project Beale, then went looking for an FA scoring window but they had Clot in the trash with a Simulchip. Mavirus, alas, was already in the trash. I almost got them with a 3-adv Urtica Cipher (they also thought they died), but they had drawn up looking for tools and had just enough to survive. Alas! (Srsly tho, Boat is big dumb in Starup more 3 sub ice please please please 😭)

Card Choices

Basic plan is to FA using Vladisibirsk City Grid and Trick of Light. The number of times I've won by FA a Bellona with both is a fun number!

I've overloaded this deck with econ. I noticed that money early = win very fast. Not money early = longer game = losing. This deck can be very taxing very fast, if you have the money for it. I do think I overcompensated just a little, tho.

Good combo: Put down an Urtica with your Vlad. Murder them if they check (or at least gain tempo). Game point? Put down an Urtica that they have to check and maybe kill them along the way!

The switch from 3 to 2 Urtica was made earlier this week and I used the influence for Akhet for the extra advanceable ice. I would go back and swap an Akhet for another Tollbooth and a Daily Quest for the 3rd Urtica. An extra Urtica would have been helpful in my loss.

You also might want more than 1 Mavirus. This deck folds real fast to Clot and I was really counting on people not realizing that Clot is a really good card right now. The winning deck did not make that mistake. Swap out an Akhet for a different ice for the influence. Maybe grab a Hansei Review or Engram Flush with the extra pip. Also helps kill with Urtica Cipher in the same server. In fact.... NOW THAT I MENTION IT..........