Hermes Headlock (1st in Swiss @ Toronto CO)

this was my attempt at some flavour of headlock reina using modern tools. about a year ago, i tried something similar with some ice destruction and pan-weave (as an ersatz lamprey) but couldn't quite make it work. this time, we're sapping their credits in a more indirect manner: make ice rezzes more expensive than is comfortable, trash the ice they do rez, bounce the ice they don't rez. we are controlling the pace of the game and the corp is forced to either let us in or overextend themselves. with carver, leech, and our crew, our breakers become relatively efficient/cheap and the ice becomes surprisingly easy to destroy (often without even breaking it a single time).

i referred to the deck as a "bad anarch deck" not because it was actually bad but because it just wasn't necessarily one of the good anarch decks. it doesn't really play as many of the good anarch cards. but its win rate on j-net was pretty good and it ended up winning 3 of its 4 games in swiss at a toronto CO where my corp deck was undefeated and i came 1st in swiss. it dropped its first game in the final round against @chouxflower's devastating PE. it then lost an otherwise-winnable game against The King's R+ when i could not find a breaker to save my life and i accessed dozens of cards without stealing a single agenda. finally dropped a second game in the cut against @PankoEscolar's PE, which was similarly devastating.

the deck certainly needs some work. it is 47 cards because i love all my children too much to cut them. its matchup against asset spam (which is about 50% of the field, if j-net is any indication) is quite bad since so many of your tools are useless against them (though i did win a game against asset spam epiphany in the CO). its biggest flaw—obvious to most, i assume—is the low amount of draw. i was aware of this issue but simply could not decide on how to fix it and was mitigating the weakness by controlling the pace of the game. having played 6 more games with it—and, crucially, the first games that weren't against j-net randos—i think i'd probably cut some money. laundries and a liberated, maybe? and then i'd either just play earthrise or find some combination of moshing and strike fund, since i'm already on steelskin. i'll work on it.

huge shoutout to Brandon, The King, who somehow won an AMT a mere few hours before showing up to this CO and simply winning it too. absolutely remarkable.

thanks for reading! let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!