THE TU(ca)NO (11th @EMEA 2024)

(I put this writeup off for too long, so now it's mostly just an appreciation post lol)

It's me, I'm back, Mr. Proudly 1-Dimensional playing his favourite Corp (shoutout to another legendary Metropole clip😘)

Preamble

This was the Ob that I took to EMEA 2024, finishing 12th in Swiss / 11th in Top Cut.

It's full of tech choices that do have some merit, but ultimately make it worse than tuno's EMEA-winning list. (My reaction to seeing its list on the morning of the Top Cut was "damn, I wish I was playing this!" — so go play that version instead!)

Tech Slots

• Tucana — Archer is cool and all, but a lot of my testing losses happened when I couldn't find a Border Control to reinforce it, which Tucana helps you fetch
  • This did almost nothing at EMEA, sadly, mostly getting trashed out of R&D or HQ, but it has some cool lines:

1. Scoring an Eminent Domain on a Tucana with The Powers That Be rezzed is "score agenda, install 3", which is a hell of a drug 👀
2. There's also situations where you only have a 3c ice rezzed while scoring Azef Protocol, making Tucana the ideal Ob target to install and rez, replacing that ice with something better

• ZATO City Grid — this presents a way to guarantee the final score, which can sometimes be a problem for the deck

  • This also wasn't really relevant in any of my EMEA games — it's dead vs. Arissana but can be a good include if Esâ/Kit popularity spikes

• Slash and Burn Agriculture & Hortum — remnants of tuno's previous lists, just play Audacity/third Azef and the second Ice Wall instead

Tournament Report

I lost off R&D multiple times, and don't think I did the deck justice, but was mostly carried by my runner deck (World Tree Ari is busto, who knew?)

It will hold a special place in my heart for producing this moment on stream against xiaat, though 😎

Special Thanks

This was my first major Top Cut, and I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of wonderful people who helped me get there:

• The organisers, judges, support staff, my opponents, and everyone else at EMEA — it was an incredible event, and wouldn't be possible without y'all!
• The TAI Breakers crew — TAIB has become a family to me, and I'm not sure where I'd be without you... your support, encouragement, and assistance are all next-level 🥲🫶
• @wowarlok — who graciously conceded a R3 game after I made a game-losing blunder (see their writeup for the full story)— playing for a timed win felt bad, but rushing to prevent that led to this moment and such overwhelming guilt... but "carrying the torch" for you gave me the resolve to reach Top Cut 💪 (and now xiaat is carrying it for both of us at ICC😅)
• @AugustusCaesar — who bought me (and others) food during the final rounds of Swiss to keep us going, what a champ move!
• @HalfHusky — for helping me grind meatspace games leading up to the event to prep for DSS
• @jan tuno & @cableCarnage — for jamming the deck on jnet casuals so much that I could spectate and absorb some of the sauce (and realise that my tech ideas weren't totally awful!)
• The EA Sports crew — the rivalry may be real, but there was so much love for me making Top Cut, hellla heart-warming, but you're still going down next time😉

As always, SHAABR homies 💜