Engolo Val 21.10 (6-14, 49th / 87th / 118th Worlds 2021)

Kikai 1683

Results

6-14 across a team of 3, finishing 49th, 87th and 118th.

Tournament Afterthoughts

We went into worlds with a list that we were confident could destroy Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design and anything glacier, but that would be destroyed by pretty much everything else. The worlds meta (particularly on day 1A) proved to be much more diverse, and that can only be a good thing (although not for our results!)

Some individual match reports from the tournament are at the end of the write-up


Premise

ICE Destruction is an answer to both Anoetic Void and Kakugo, two of the biggest Corp threats in the 21.10 meta.

PAD Tap and Mining Accident synergise with ICE destruction by further damaging the Corp economy.

Stargate also synergises with ICE destruction, and works as an enabler for Mad Dash.

Matchups

Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design - 75%

Do nothing but draw and setup for the first 7 turns. Running centrals is a trap. By turn 8 we want drip economy, breakers, and ICE destruction, so that we can start destroying the remote. Once the remote is destroyed, the match is pretty much over.

There are going to be games where both Engolo are in the bottom 10 cards of our deck, and the Corp quickly finds their code gates, agendas, and seamless launches. We are going to lose thos games, but that's okay. We are going to win all of the others.

NBN: Controlling the Message - 50%

Without Liberated Account, we don't have many ways of quickly building up a float of cash to protect ourselves from Hard-Hitting News.

We don't want to install Engolo, because it could be bounced with Amani Senai, which makes breaking into remotes difficult.

The Turning Wheel is our most valuable card, and taking any (safe) opportunity to load it up with counters is probably worthwhile. When we inevitably go tag-me, we can use those counters to either win, or to find (and trash) BOOM!

Azmari EdTech: Shaping the Future - 50%

We need to land Mining Accident, so this matchup can be very dependent on whether or not the Corp sees any run punishment early.

Pālanā Foods: Sustainable Growth - 90%

Our most favoured matchup. Consider most cards as nothing more than hit points, and trash every Kakugo in sight.

Gagarin Deep Space: Expanding the Horizon - 10%

Without any tag tech, and without any click based economy cards, there are very few lines here to win. Use bad publicity to keep checking the board for False Lead and Spin Doctor. Stargate and Mad Dash are our best chance of securing a win.


Card Choices

Frantic Coding is extremely valuable in the Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design matchup when we need to find breakers ASAP. Just remember that we also need to find ICE destruction and drip economy, and Frantic Coding doesn't help with either of those. It's much less useful in other matchups, except in very rare occasions when we need to find Stargate immediately (because of some fast advance threat, or similar).

Trickster Taka was swapped for Fencer Fueno when we decided that CtM was the corp to beat.

Notable Exclusions

Liberated Account is too slow for the Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design matchup, and was dropped in favour of other clickless economy cards. This exclusion leaves us clicking for credits in the CtM matchup, and at a significant disadvantage in the Gagarin matchup..

Alternatives

Overclock is our negotiable slot. We play 2x because it is the most broadly useful, but the following alternatives could be considered.

A 3rd Keiko and would improve the Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design matchup (where the challenge is how quickly we can get setup), but would weaken the NBN: Controlling the Message matchup.

A 3rd Spooned would improve the Pālanā Foods: Sustainable Growth and Azmari EdTech: Shaping the Future glacier matchups, but would weaken the NBN: Controlling the Message matchup.

A 2nd Mad Dash would improve the 6-agenda Azmari EdTech: Shaping the Future and Jinteki: Restoring Humanity matchups, but would weaken all other matchups.

Botulus would do work against NBN: Controlling the Message, but in testing was underwhelming against Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design - where it quickly creates MU issues.

On paper, Mayfly seemed like a more broadly useful alternative to Frantic Coding, in practice it was much less useful in the PD matchup, and not particularly useful in most other matchups either.

Hoshiko

We could play the same list in Hoshiko Shiro: Untold Protagonist, dropping 3 x Mining Accident, 1 x Frantic Coding, and 2 x Overclock, and including 1 x DreamNet.

The Hoshiko list would set up quicker, and provide earlier pressure to the Corp - but it would also have a weaker mid-late game.


Piloting

The most important thing is to focus on destroying the remote, and not get distracted by taking random central accesses (until the remote is compromised).


Match Report

R1: T12 LOSS vs ChrisFerg on Malia CtM

Used Overclock to trash CBG early, but got hit by HHN. Floated tags (because I saw the tag punishment was vegan) and locked R&D. Unfortunately, spin doctor broke the lock and ChrisFerg was able to Psychographics a Beale, and then EOI an ARES ftw.

A rebirth into Kim and aggressively running HQ to trash tag punishment may have been better than the Hoshiko rebirth that I chose. Difficult to say.

R2: T21 WIN vs wowarlok on Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design

Val draw is (mostly) kind - I keep a hand with sure gamble + earthrise, and my first two gachapon see paperclip and engolo. Keiko doesn't show up until the last 10 cards, which makes me nervous about running a triple ICEd remote, but fortunately there are only 3 agendas in the top half of the Corp deck (and 2 of them are GFI), so I have loads of time to find Keiko, and then melt the remote.

Mining Accident, The Turning Wheel and rebirth into Omar Keung: Conspiracy Theorist close the game.

R3: T17 WIN vs gegenzeit on Pālanā Foods: Sustainable Growth

gegenzeit scores a Project Yagi-Uda with Shipment from Tennin on T2, and I tilt and immediately install Gachapon which hits nothing, but does lose me 3 HP. A Bacterial Programming is then pushed behind 2 x Data Loop - 1 of which I trashed with Hippo. On the plus side, the Corp is now broke, and has 3 bad publicity, so I can happily run every single turn to prevent Shipment from Tennin. When a rashida is installed in the remote, I spooned the other Data Loop, and the remote is no more. Omar Keung: Conspiracy Theorist helps keep piling the pressure on centrals, finding me a Project Yagi-Uda and a Longevity Serum Once all centrals are protected, I run archives and find 3 x Obokata Protocol in the bin.

R4: T15 LOSS vs MrBuggles on Murder Gagarin

Gagarin has a strong start with a protected CBG and a wall-to-wall. My start is, unsurprisingly, a lot slower. We don't have a lot of time for the game (20/25 minutes), and I don't know my lines, so I make an early misplay and dirty laundry into mining accident in the hope that they haven't found HHN. With an uncontested CBG on the board this was very silly - and I immediately got hit with an econ warfare into HHN. I limp along to get a few single accesses of centrals, which in the end manage to net me a whopping 1 point before I flatline.

In hindsight, I think the line here is to build up a boardstate, and only run in the mid game to challenge urban renewal remotes, and try and win the late game with a combination of stargate and mad dash.

R5: T12 LOSS vs Django84 on Murder Gagarin I use overclock to challenge Rashida + Overseer Matrix T1, but Django quickly finds multiple CBG, as well as sneaking out a False Lead off the table.

I set up for a stargate + mad dash play, but feel compelled to steal an SDS out of the remote. Django lands HHN and pops false lead when I clear 2 tags. I have 5 cards in hand and 2 of them are I've Had Worse, so I'm feeling pretty safe. Django consluting visits for BOOM!.

R6: T18 LOSS vs testrunning on Tiltrope Azmari Usually game plan - build up drip econ, ice destruction and breakers, while the Corp scores out the first few agendas. Then lock/destroy the remote. I let a GFI be scored off the table, for fear of HHN. In retrospect, the threat was actually Public Trail into EOI. Later in the game the Corp uses this same move to push the winning Bellona (which I wrongly read as NGO, but would have won them the game in either case).

R7: Txx WIN/LOSS vs XXX on XXX

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