Just get the Atlas counters | 8th, NANPC Boston

The deck went 3-0 in swiss, and 0-1 in the cut.

This is a tweaked version of my undefeated deck from Sovereign of Subways, see the general idea in my writeup here.

The gameplan:

1. Win the early game with unfair Weyland ice
2. Score Atlas, with a counter
3. Use the Atlas counter to pivot into the late-game victory when your numbers no long match up well against the Anarch/Shaper doomrig you’re sitting across from

Changes:

• -1 Envelopment, +1 Sandstone: The tax that Sandstone levies on a non-turbined Cleaver opens up key scoring windows, and Envelopment is a way worse rez turn 1 to protect Rashida, especially with the amount of Pinhole I was expecting.
• -1 Audacity, +1 Regolith Mining License: I have never played 2 Audacity in a game, and the deck has enough ways to get it to hand (tutor for Spin, Malapert, Atlas counter) that it didn't feel necessary. I'm still not a fan of Regolith in this list, but I wanted to try it out given Ysengrin/bblum like it. It feels too slow for the pace I like to play this deck at, I'll probably tweak this slot more for my next iteration.
• -1 Hafrún, -1 Magnet, +1 Manegarm, +1 Descent: In my testing, I was confident that reg Hoshiko and Physarum Arissana were going to be the strongest decks, and neither Hafrun nor Magnet were particularly effective in these matchups. Hilariously, Descent proved to be better at slowing down the Ari engine than Magnet, because pulling Descent back to hand at start of turn can prevent UAV/Environmental Testing looping by trashing the trojan. Hafrun just felt pointless against Ari, who could proactively Hush, reactively Physarum, or just recur the trashed programs. With Bankhar often active on the relevant server, Stavka on the outermost rarely provided a scoring window, and with Hosh decks on 2x Labor Rights and Ashen Epilogue, lockouts are out of the question. The Manegarm tax was better for both matchups.

Round 1: Win vs cranked (Hoshiko): Normal gameplan. Early Atlas counter to pull the Hostile for the last point.

Round 3: Win vs Eli (Sable): After losing 4 points by turn 2 to a Deep Dive and a single, I pivoted to turtling up and preventing further centrals accesses while building out a remote. I managed to draw in the only order that gave me an out, and managed to double-Seamless an SDS to trash Curupira. Eli had spent the deck's recursion already, so the lockout was straightforward.

Round 5: Win vs NotAgain (Hoshiko): I join the club of people who have flatlined with Tithe. After Bankhar-ing through Envelopment, NotAgain ran into an unrezzed ice while I had 1 credit.

Cut Round 2: Loss vs Whiteblade (Zahya): On stream!

Thanks to NotAgain, Ysengrin, Whiteblade, and everyone else who made this excellent tournament a reality!

Shoutout to my San Francisco Bay Area meta-mates Tak, Winston, and CTZ for all the help with testing!

When I was struggling to find my rhythm with the deck in testing, Tak and Winston reminded me to follow my own advice and "just get the Atlas counter". Wouldn't have made it to top cut without their help.