Patchwork Ayla (5-2 @ Worlds 2018)

Patchwork is great, pass it on.

Ayla is the only ID I could find, outside MaxX, with enough consistency, given her NVRAM, and card draw, in the form of Laguna, to make Patchwork viable.

NVRAM and mulligan priorities are as follows:

1. Patchwork
2. Laguna
3. Modded (for early Patchwork and Engolo)
4. Engolo
5. Money

This deck includes a lot of one-ofs. That’s typically indicative of an inconsistent, non-competitive deck, but I think it works here given you’re drawing a lot with Laguna and there are multiples of the cards that matter. Given the composition, this deck does very well against: thousand cuts Jinteki (because of Levy and Laguna), asset spam (because of Paricia), Hard-Hitting News (because of Misdirection), Obokata punitive (because of Laguna), and heavy glacier (because of Engolo, Gebrselassie and Rebirth into Kit). I once tried to Rebirth into Akiko. 0/10 would not recommend.

I spent a lot of time fiddling with the influence, including: Clot, Legwork, and different numbers of Stimhack, Day Job, and Peace. The primary problem is 3 influence on Patchwork. To keep pace with fast corps, I used the remaining few influence pips on economy and multiaccess. The current spread feels right.

There are plenty of good Patchwork targets to keep your economy humming along. Once setup, you can run once a turn to keep pressure on the corp. A typical turn looks like:

1. Laguna draw
2. Patchwork something
3. Run
4. Draw or money

The deck’s primary weakness is against fast corps. It’s not uncommon for you to be setup by turn 3 or 4, given Ayla’s consistency, but if you’re already behind by a Niesi score it’s hard to recover.

As far as results from World’s, I went 5-2 with this deck. Lots of Mti and CtM, which, as I mentioned, can be a struggle. But ultimately I was very happy with its performance and, when it works, it feels great. Shout out to my last round of swiss: played a very nice guy from NYC on CtM. I was down 4-5, whiffed on a R&D deep dig, then swung over to the remote to nab a Beale but it required me to go tag-me. Next turn he played EoI for the win. If I had found 1 agenda in R&D, I would have advanced to day 2.

Overall I had an amazing time at World’s. Everyone I met was fantastic. 10/10 would do it again.