Better in Kate - Worlds 2016

My changes between the version I played in the Icebreaker the previous day and the main event were substantially larger than my Corp deck, which I may have actually not tweaked at all.

Gameplan: set up a rig then Rebirth into Rielle “Kit” Peddler: Transhuman.

The deck name is a reference to a community joke that any Shaper deck list is better if you play Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker because her ability is so strong. By the time Worlds came around, I was all in on Houdini+Lockpick+Net Mercur, had recently cut Cloak, and wanted nothing more than for Ele "Smoke" Scovak: Cynosure of the Net to already be legal. The night before the tournament, after the Icebreaker, I realized that if I really wanted to take advantage of Houdini (especially with finally remembering it kept strength) by playing Rielle "Kit" Peddler: Transhuman, but also really wanted Mac's discount, why not stick in a copy of Rebirth and do both? Unfortunately, though I'd packed a copy of Rebirth, I hadn't remembered to pack any extra IDs, so I bought a copy of Creation & Control in the morning.

It was my first day playing Rebirth so unfortunately lost ground multiple times both to making plans while forgetting I didn't have the Mac discount any more, as well as post-Rebirth forgetting to take advantage of the Kit ability.

1-5 in Swiss

• Loss v NBN: Controlling the Message
  • I was too aggressive early and took 5 tags to controlled news, took forever to build back and set up, losing my only fracter to Ark Lockdown, so they scored out behind barriers while I desperately and fruitlessly dug for my Rebirth to start turning them into code gates. Fun fact: this game was the only game of the day that I actually needed to break a barrier, no more got rezzed against me for the whole event.
• Loss v Jinteki: Replicating Perfection
  • Slow start, played all 3 Diesel in two turns, digging through almost half my deck before finding any programs. After turning into Kit and placing things where I wanted, since it was my first time ever resolving a Rebirth, I promptly forgot about my ability and when I blanked their ID to run the scoring remote, I needlessly pulled my killer for the sentry>code gate>code gate server, which put me on 0 credits, allowing them to win the psi game to give them time to score out safely.
• Win v SYNC: Everything, Everywhere
  • A couple tag-related errors in my favor in this round for a change, but likely not enough to make a huge impact on the game. On 6 points, I planned to try for an agenda in HQ and then check facedowns afterward. I managed to snag the winning agenda from hand, but the Corp confirmed that if I hadn't, I would have won in Archives.
• Loss v NBN: Controlling the Message
  • Really long slog of a game before they scored out (but got my only score win of the week as Corp this round)
• Loss v Blue Sun: Powering the Future
  • I took a calculated risk and ran a Renovation that was obvious Midseason bait, and put down a Plascrete. But then I made a horribly miscalculated mistake and when the first rocket came for me, instead of pitching cards and drawing back up to stay safe from the second, I cleared my Plascrete and therefore died to the second one.
• Loss v ???
  • I wish I had taken a picture of the final board state, not least because I'd then know what Corp I faced. From my notes, it was one of the most fun games all week, and an amazing journey getting to the eventual loss. I'm sure that the fun was helped by the fact that my opponent was very vocally appreciative of the jankiness of my brew, exclaiming in delight every few turns with variations on "well, that just happened!" and "WHAT IS GOING ON?!" In addition to the joy from these interactions, I was elated that I ended up snagging an agenda off of the back of my perhaps ill-advised decision when adjusting my influence from the previous day to run a split current set. Thanks to a turn 1 EStrike, my opponent naturally assumed it was safe to overdraw and pitch an agenda into the bin without preemptively shuffling it back, so I played the kitten and stole it.