Not Strictly Made Of Stone (2nd Turin Regional)

The deck name makes mostly no sense except for the fact that I am not able to install Aesop without starting to hum the Sublime song. After adding a D4v1d this seemed perfect...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txpPXkSvX_I

Down here at the pawn shop What has been sold, not strictly made of stone Just remember it's flesh and bone

I was mostly playing Leela and Rube Goldberg before new MWL announcement, so I had to find a new suitable option starting from scratch before the Turin Regional without any feedback from other mwl 3.3 tournaments. Not having the slightest idea about what I was going to find as a meta I dusted off something that I built some time ago and I knew pretty well (I think I'm an awful deckbuilder and I know that I'm not good at guessing the meta so I was not feeling too comfortable before the tournament, but still...). Nothing too fancy and I'm sure the good players will be able to find a lot of suboptimal choices but that's what I came up with.

Brief tournament report:

R1 - Koga w/ Jinja Next I get into the remote early a few times thanks to usual Shaper tricks (and D4 help) getting to 5 points. While he creates a huge remote and scores some points, I’m able to set up and close the game with Khusyuk. First round sweep though was far from being the last meeting with Koga and this deck…

R2 - Atien w/ Pirate Sportsmetal Fearing a Spombo Wombo deck I was very conservative in the early game, probably far too conservative as she scored 6 points (3 Vitruvius, 2 of them with 1 token) before I could trash all the assets (with Paricias’ help) and apply pressure. I stopped what could have been the final fast advance sequence with Clot and then I was able to close the game with Khusyuk and Legwork before she could try to switch to the remote game.

R3 - EdoBram We were both 4 - 0 so we IDed. We still played but we could only finish one game (I corped) due to it going very (very) long.

R4 - Sid ID again. Worst case scenario for him was to get to the tiebreaker round. Unluckily for Sid this happened, and he lost a very tense game not getting to the cut. Being a veteran KOS teammate, I was really sorry for him not beeing able to top4.

TOP4, Round 2 (Winners Final) - Koga w/ Jinja Next (again) He had a pretty good start with Jinja, VLC and a Rashida firing. He started to score from the remote early, I got into it to get an SSL, then he exploited the scoring window scoring again. I whiffed a 6 cards Khusyuk while he gets to 6 with an unadvanced Vitruvius. Not having the 2 missing Khusyk available I was forced to play the remote game of unadvanced cards fearing another Vitruvius but I spent lots of money only to find a Rashida and then a Whampoa (I’ll get to know too late that he was playing only 1 Vitruvius). He installs and double advance, say “Pass”. Time called. I’m too low on credits to get inside the 7/8 Ice remote again for the 3rd straight time so I had to go with R&D. I get 3 more points there getting to 6 too but couldn’t close the game so he scored out. If time was called 3 seconds earlier, I would have won having a higher seed but I guess it wouldn’t have been deserved at all. I run the wrong install twice and I didn’t keep Koga honest checking archives earlier (an SSL was there for some turns before being Whampoad back to the deck). Well done Paolo!

TOP4, Round 4 (Final Game 1) - Koga w/ Jinja Next (again and again) 3 starting Ice (with ID ability) but no Jinja in the first turns. After a VLC I Legwork but find nothing but ICE. I check Archives this time but nothing there too. We start playing the remote game while I try to set up. He gets some points (a CST), I get an SSL, he gets more points and all the money of the world from the agendas. I Khusyuk for 5 cards but find nothing. With him at 6 he installs and double advance. I have tons of credits, Engolo down, Na'Not'k in hand but still no SMC nor CC to get Gauss and I know there are probably 2 Eli in the remote (one is rezzed) so I Proco 2 times but still nothing. Not being able to draw more (I wouldn't had the click to install) I try the remote but I bounce against the expected 2nd Barrier (after the game he showed me that it was 5 Barriers out of 7 ICE), then I go for R&D with last click to find a Vitruvius but that's all. Congratulations to @Koga for the win!

In the end the results were not great, I won half the games I played with the deck, but I feel like the two losses were winnable games I couldn't close because of my mistakes (and maybe a little bit of variance effect). One of them was surely not to dig desperately enough earlier in the last game, assuming that one among the 3 CC and the other 2 SMC would have come up before it was too late at a "normal draw/setup rhythm". Talking about the deck this would still be my choice if I could go back and I wouldn't change too much except for trying to lean towards a little more consistent built (with 45 cards and 3 Diesels, probably cutting some silver bullets) and maybe testing some different breakers choices (breaking single Architect with Na'Not'k is a pain).

Thanks a lot to Jolly Joker Turin for guesting us, to @Darta for offering his wonderful house to me and others for the weekend, to the whole field of runners (Jessica, Luca, Ardu, Francesco, Elisa, Claudio, Kai, Daniele, Stefano, Rebu, Paolo, Edo, Darta, Sid and Joke) for spending 2 days of lunches, dinners, drinks (and Netrunner) together, to Aurbits for the additional pizes. It was really fun, I hope to see you all again soon!