Wormwood (2nd @ April amt)

It's big. It's green. It's also... back?!?

Metropole Grid got people to look at World Tree again, and RWR gave the archetype he created a massive shot in the arm. Muse and Coalescence are immense for the deck: Coalescence is an econ program that can get used up and then trashed to World Tree to find something else, and Muse can recur it and leave you with two fodder programs. Additionally, Muse becomes copies 7-9 of World Tree, which allows for greedier deck sizes: even though we play 68 cards, there is a 52% chance to have a tree or tutor in the opening hand before mulligans. The icing on the cake? Both of these programs, in many situations, can be installed with Arissana and immediately trashed to World Tree on that same run.

With all this new gas, World Tree is once again a World Beater- I was hesitant to claim this based on a 2-1 AMT performance, winning a lot of games on jnet, and it simply feeling really good, but now that cableCarnage is playing a similar list in the fite club final I'm sending it. However, with the many tutor and recursion lines, the deck is extremely difficult to pilot. I will try to explain how here, although I cannot claim to be an expert yet either.

Priorities

First Priority: Get the Tree

Mulligan for either World Tree, SMC, or Muse. Typically, with a Muse hand, you use Muse to tutor for SMC and then use that to find World Tree so the World Tree isn't stuck on the Muse and taking up an extra MU. That play costs 10 credits, so I wouldn't keep a Muse hand unless it has some other burst credit gain like Gamble, Creative, Telework, or Overclock.

1) If you have the World Tree, just install it, something you want to trash, then run an unprotected central.

2) If you have SMC, install something you want to trash, then run an unprotected central. Install SMC with Arissana, and crack it to get World Tree before you click the 'successful run' button.

3) If you have Muse, run an unprotected central. Install Muse with Arissana, use that to tutor for SMC, crack the SMC to get World Tree, then use World Tree to trash the Muse before Arissana would otherwise trash it to get something, likely a Coalescence because this line is the most expensive one.

Second Priority: Trigger the Tree

As for tutor targets, search for the Lilypad early, trashing a Simulchip or Airblade to find it. This allows you to start chaining Muses and Coalescences for draw and still have MU to begin installing breakers. Trashing a Coalescence you installed with Arissana to get a Muse that pulls Coalescence out of the bin feels fantastic.

The corp likely will try to ice all their centrals within the first few turns. Luckily, there is Physarum Entangler to deal with that: it cannot get you through barriers, however it does let you facecheck liberally because code gates and sentries are the ice that hurt you. Once you find a non-barrier, install an Entangler on that ice with Ari (or if you're feeling saucy, install a Muse with Ari to get an Entangler from your deck or heap), and then you're in and can start triggering World Tree to find your actual breakers. Due to the existence of Entangler, the first breaker you tutor should usually be Cleaver. MU is a big constraint on what you can do every turn, try to dig for your MU cards and every so often use World Tree to trash another Airblade or Simulchip for a Cyberdelia.

As far as resources, if you have Muses hosting Coalescence lying around, usually Aesop's Pawnshop is a good tutor target. Trashing Coalescences for 3 keeps the engine rolling smoothly. If you need money but don't have anything you want to trash lying around, tutor for Daily Casts. If you need more draw, tutor for Earthrise. UAV is good but usually the last tutor target, if you haven't yet drawn it naturally, since it offers slower money than Aesop's and we like using our Ari trigger to put down fodder programs to trash to Tree rather than install trojans.

Third Priority: Stop the corp from winning the game

Like it has always been, this is a control deck at heart. To deal with rush, just try to get your breakers set up fast, maybe a turbine, and get Conduit out so they have to worry about R&D and slow down. Against assets, suppress them with Ms. Bones and Paricia. Against glacier decks, set up a disgusting double Turbine doomrig with 2 Cyberdelias. In any case, eventually you will have a bunch of buckaroos and probably win through the power of remote lock and Conduit.

Results and changes

On the day, I went 2-0 in swiss and 0-1 in the cut.

I misplayed on turn 2 in the final vs Jai's Ag. The line to get my World Tree was either (1) overclock archives, put down muse with arissana, find smc, find world tree or (2) spend a click to install muse, finding SMC, and then overclock HQ, leaving up my Ari ability to install entangler if Jai rezzed. What I did was spend a click to install entangler on HQ, and then overclock HQ. Jai found the line of trashing the facedown Anansi to boop me into Tatu-Bola, which trashed the entangler I put down while forcing me to either not use my overclock credits or use them to get Tree at the expense of my Muse. From then on, I was two installed cards down, and Jai had all centrals iced the next turn. It was really hard to crack those centrals without tanking a bunch of net damage, so I barely got any more Tree triggers, and Jai was able to score out.

Going forward, I would add an Ika, maybe cutting a Kyuban for it. Having an Anansi solution besides cursed entanglers seems like a must, and Ika synergizes well with Muse. Additionally, I'd cut an Entangler for 3 Flip Switches. Often I had program heavy draws that didn't have access to much fodder hardware to search for more MU with, and Flip Switch has many other applications besides being fodder. Lastly, I'd pad out the deck with a bit more burst econ, with Dirty Laundry, Trick Shot, Rejig (becomes another Gamble if you have Coalescence), and Spec Work all being cards worth considering.

Shoutouts

Huge thanks to MulganDragon, I'd definitely not be playing this deck if it wasn't for him, his deck building, and him arguing with me about lines over many discord calls. Shoutout to TAI breakers. Damn, we're doing well so far this season. Wonder what else we can do...

And shoutout to trees. They're pretty cool.

PS- I know wormwood isn't a tree and that physarum entangler isn't even a worm. Why would I let reality ruin my decklist name?