[NEO] Banarch (3-1, 2nd @ NeoBelfast GNK)

Anarchs are so unbelievably cracked lmfao

This deck is almost card for card the best Ashes Startup deck. I was wondering what, if anything, would be different and I quickly realised no. The only changes are 3 No Free Lunch because of the greater prevalence of Drago in Neo, and 3 Pinhole cuz it's the best card in the format.

We are pretty reg anarch for the most part. Run, make money, draw cards. We win the game by locking down the remote before pivoting to Stargating our opponent to death and winning. Chisel + Cookbook deals with Gold Farmer really nicely, Devil Charmer helps with the big stuff. Our icebreaking solutions are break it for cheap or kill it.

Round 1 vs Earth Station

This was a bit of a roll. My opponent mulliganned into a hand that didn't have fantastic econ so couldn't rez their ice. I bided my time, got my money up and found my Botulii and Chisels, and eventually had the remote locked down before pivoting to a win on centrals.

1-0

Round 2 vs Pravdivost

A clash of National champions, this was a really close affair that went to time. My opponent was able to get 5 points scored really aggressively and early, but I eventually managed to get the remote under wraps. I wasn't able to find a second Chisel though and needed to keep my last Simulchip for Clot. Time was called at 5-2 and I punted the fuck out of the last turn. I installed Gachapon with 8 cards left in RnD hoping to find the second Chisel, rather than installing SMC and using my 3 Paladin credits to just grab it and then go hard on HQ. There were 3 agendas in HQ, including a Bellona. I stole a 2 pointer, with 2 clicks left, and decided to take a line that would give me 2 accesses on HQ, rather than 1 access with Bellona money. Of course, I accessed the Bellona.

1-1

Round 3 vs Built to Last

This deck is very good at dealing with rush decks with Chisel Charm and Botulus, so this was a pretty good MU for me. I suspected Public Trail so made sure my money was good and that I had NFLs ready in case I got greedy. I played pretty careful, and made some targeted runs before eventually getting my lock established and closing it out.

2-1

Round 4 vs GameNet

I was expecting this to be glacier, but found a few 2 pointers early so figured this was trying to rush out. Unfortuntately for my opponent, I twigged pretty early on that this was a Ganked Ansel deck, so knowing that I was able to play around their remote jams, and ensured I wasn't running without access to Botulus or Chisel. Once I had my rig and enough money, I pivoted to Stargate and found the winning Bellona.

3-1

This event was super fun! I was pleasantly surprised by how fun the format feels. I was a bit of a doubter of the format but it ended up being really good to play. I have a few big problems with the format and the banlist. I think Pinhole is just too good and you are making your deck so much worse by not including 3 copies of it. Anarchs are absurdly rich and they can spend their influence on whatever it is they care about. Their ability to control the game is so strong, and they have access to the best wincon in the game (Stargate). I have some suggestions for what I'd do with the format's banlist, but I think it's a fun and has a lot of promise.

Thanks to Conor and the Belfast crew for having me! It was great travelling up for the first event up there and I hope to see your faces again, and look forward to seeing ye all at Nats in September!