DC Regionals NEXT foodcoats

All credit goes to tzeentchling for his SoCal regional-winning deck. This deck swaps Scarcity of Resources for Enhanced Login Protocol but is otherwise identical. My mediocre performance should not be taken to reflect poorly on tzeentchling's hard work.

Notes from DC regionals

Finished middle of the pack overall (19/37). Runner went 4-1, corp went 1-4. Let's think about why.

Game 1 vs. Maw + Aeneas Null (Ben Hosp). Win 7-4.

He grabbed a few agendas from HQ running through NEXT Bronze with yog. I IA'ed a Corporate Sales Team behind an Ichi 1.0 and NEXT Bronze in a server with Marcus Batty. When he ran it, I rezzed ichi and used batty to take out his yog (he had already discarded the other one). After that point, I won by ramming agendas through (first was a never-advanced + biotic for vitruvius + counter, second was IAA for GFI).

Had it been the exact same deck, but with whizzard, it would have gone worse for me. I was able to leave econ assets out and uniced with relative impunity-- getting 1 credit from aeneas and a random HQ trash from maw was just not enough to make an impact on my tempo-- especially since I had a vitruvius counter and was generally putting agendas in the remote as soon as I drew them.

Game 2 vs. Siphon Whizz (Joshua Venecia). Lost by a lot.

I was pretty sure he was on siphon, so I used the single ICE in hand to protect HQ on turn 1. He scored 2 agendas off of R&D immediately. He had eater + siphon + sure gamble in his opening hand so I really never got to take off-- between trashing econ assets out of R&D and siphon-locking me, I was pretty well pooched.

Game 3 vs. Andy (Daniel...something). Lost 4-8.

Was able to keep HQ safe from siphon and ice all of my centrals fairly early on. This slowed down his econ while I built up, and I scored an ABT and CST. Was dry on agendas for a while, then IAA'ed GFI in a server that was fairly well locked down (at least one defensive upgrade, 3 beefy ice)-- at this point he had medium with 1 or 2 counters out. I crossed my fingers, but he hammered R&D and got the remaining points (also using his rebirth into Leela to bounce the GFI to hand).

Game 4 vs. Temujin Maw Whizz (Michael Dunnick). Lost from 6 (I think).

He temu'ed archives early and pounded it to get a big econ lead. I ICE'd it and started ramping up. I left R&D too weak and he was able to get medium up and pound it. That plus maw got him the points he needed.

Game 5 vs. Andy (Patrick McQuay). Lost from 5, I think?

About two turns prior to the end of the game, he had made an HQ run just hoping to clear out what he thought was a crisium grid (it was caprice), won the psi game, and stole an agenda. I used friends to reinforce my scoring remote, hoping to score out in the next turn or two. he started medium digging and used a legwork to hit the 2 agendas in my hand for the win (I only had 3 cards in hand).

What went wrong?

So, the lesson, really, is to recognize that R&D has no self-defense in traps, no self-protecting agendas, and is porous to runners with lots of econ and medium (since they trash through your many assets/upgrades). In every game except for the last one vs. patrick, I would have done well to pump the brakes a little, money up, and secure my centrals. Then, I could have relied on my defensive upgrades or biotic to get me over the hump.

Remember, the scoring plan is:

1. rush first agenda (3/2)
2. IAA + defend GFI
3. biotic last agenda