Boomer Mulch (1st, New Years Showdown)

This is the deck I brought to the New Years Showdown, where I was fortunate enough to take first place against a bunch of talented players.

This obviously takes inspiration from many of the other Mulch decks that have come before it, so I am not sure if I have too much to add to the discussion around the archetype. After testing out a few of the different variations of the deck, I realized that this doesn’t need multiaccess. So, there’s no Conduit and no WAKE Implant; instead, there’s Boomerang. In my experience, Conduit and WAKE Implant were either winmore or win-from-very-far-behind cards. The former doesn’t matter, and with the Boomerangs I can usually avoid being in the latter state.

When this is firing on all cylinders, it’s basically a losscon deck. I don’t need to race against the Corp, I just need to apply continual pressure and get set up until they can't do anything without Loup's say-so. In order to apply continual pressure, I need to have ways to always get into servers. So, after a purge or a rezzed Magnet stopping my Botulus, I can simply throw down a Boomerang, crack through the server, trash something with Imp and power up Audrey. At which point, I’m back to being able to get in anywhere.

The second Cookbook is probably also worth mentioning. In a lot of lists this is a 1-of, and Cookbook certainly started as a 1-of in this list too. 1-ofs are usually for extra value when they are in your deck, but 2-ofs become part of your plan, and I wanted Cookbook to be a part of the regular plan. Getting one down gives you an extra Imp trash; makes Fermenter much more profitable much more quickly, which is helpful; allows your Botulus to break through multi-sub on install; and makes your Audrey able to break through just about anything on install. Also, you can usually save yourself a lot of grief with being able to install a one-counter Audrey or two-counter Botulus instantly with Simulchip. And derezz shenanigans with Simulchip/Tranquilizer at the end of your opponent’s turn can save you in matchups where a ton of big ICE gets rezzed.

If I had to do it again, I might try 3x Moshing in place of 3x Gachapon. If I go in that direction, though, I would probably also want a third Labor Rights. Gachapon is great, but sometimes you just need cash and an array of new cards to really kick things off, and Moshing can help with that a bit more sometimes.

This deck is definitely the product of building off Mulch decks that came before coupled with SnareBear theorycrafting, practice, and refinement. Nothing I've said here and no important deck choices here came from me alone. The discussions around Boomerang, multi-access, Tranquilizer, Moshing v. Gachapon came from the heads of the Bears, collectively, with me probably inputting the least. I think I might have arrived at the Num independently...but I didn’t install it all tournament.

This deck went 2-1 in Swiss and 2-1 in the cut, which I’m pretty happy with.

Thanks so much to maninthemoon for organizing an excellent event, as well as aksu for streaming, and all of those who helped judge, coordinate, and provided prize support for the event. We appreciate you!

published by AlwaysBeRunning.net