Had been working on this Apex build consistently with a couple fellow deckbuilders , leading up to our SC, and almost scrapped it when word broke that Sovereign was arriving in time to be used. Knew that Apex would go from unwanted stepchild to flavour of the week. Glad I stuck with it anyway, as no one else showed up and I got to be my usual snowflakey self lol.
During my pre-Tournament jitters the night before, almost reverted to an earlier all-heap breaker build...then did some weird Baba Yaga thing with the central breakers. Came to my senses the next morning and kept the cards in. Wasn't sure how effective the deck would be without the usual 'element of surprise' my decks enjoy. My buddies had hammered it pretty good in testing, not sure what tech if any they would be packing.
RND 1 vs EphinAntz: Not a great start to the SC, as my Corp deck flatlines his Geist but then we grind out a weird draw when my pieces fail to arrive and his Harmony can't build a remote. Hunting Grounds is also effective against #Komainu...yay!
RND 2 vs Tracer: Toughest matchup of the SC as my Corp again puts pressure on and forces a concede, but Apex can't close the deal against his Argus and he scores the tying Agenda as we hit time! Heartbeat saves my bacon, again.
RND 3 vs Weasel: A good back-and-forth match between Apex and his NEXT Design, with a sneaky install-Chop Bot 3000-heap install of Paperclip for the winning agenda after he installs-ices-advances. My nasty Corp is starting to find its groove and picks up another flatline for the sweep. Prey finds some juicy targets!
RND 4 vs Swannigan: Great end to the SC with everything on the line, playing against my main testing cohort. Unfortunately my Corp gets a first turn flatline when he runs R&D, which rattles him a bit. We switch and his Gagarin does it's space ice thing with a #Priority Construction / Utopia Shard, but I draw into my Endless Hunger and snowball from there. Bad breaks for a great opponent, especially since he ran the table against me while we were cooking these up!
All in all, a lot of fun and really enjoyed the pacing of Apex. Thanks to Swannigan and EphinAntz for all the help, great experience and invaluable advice.