SMG (Self-Modifying Girls) - Top 8 Midlands Regionals 2024

This is a slightly modified version of harmonbee's Girls deck, and as she's done a wonderful writeup, I'll just be going over some of the changes I made.

Changes

No Burner

I was rather ruthless in not going above 45 cards. This did lead to sacrificing a few tools, but Cupellation is recurable HQ pressure, and I was using some other tech against kill. These together meant I felt comfortable cutting Burner.

2x LilyPAD -> 2x T400 Memory Diamond

I'm not quite confident enough on the decks economy to spend 4c on MU early on, and staying at 45 cards means I don't need the extra draw so much. T400 also messes with a lot of kill plans. After seeing the number of kill corps at Bristol regionals, being able to hold 6 cards in hand felt very useful, and this saved me in the one dedicated kill matchup I did play.

2x Coalescence -> 2x Self-modifying Code

I'm a little less willing to Muse for a breaker early in a game than perhaps I should be, but still very much want to apply early pressure. I also think that recurring the same Coalescence with Muse works close enough to having 3 Coalescence. Spare SMCs still work as expendable programs in the late game, so the main trade off is a slightly reduced number of economy cards for the ability to reliably contest a remote turn 1, which suits my playstyle a lot.

The Games

Round 1 - Win vs Thunderbolt (AceEmpress)

Stegodon is scored quickly. I steal an early 2 points from letting Drafter fire on R&D, pulling the only card in Archives back (Hedge Fund), but fae still looks to be struggling for economy until an NGO baits me through the Ablative on the remote. I've managed to pop two Environmental Testing, so my economy is holding up well.

A second Stegodon is scored, and I correctly guess a Týr I spotted in R&D gets installed there, but it was drawn just before an Architect Deployment Test was scored, and fae decide the best install was an Ikawah in the remote, which has to be revealed. Fae later informed me that fae saw two agendas on top of R&D, and was worried a Trick Shot or won psi game would win the game for me. I manage to get into the remote and steal, getting to 5 points, and while Archives is unprotected for Eru, I find the winning agenda from an unprotected HQ poke.

Round 3 - Win vs Thule (Mezzie)

A decent start finds me 3 points in R&D without any core damage, and I trash a Regolith of the table to keep Mezzie poor, but I end my turn on 2 cards in hand. Gaslight is rezzed, and Riot Suppression is added to HQ, but then Mezzie realises that her End of the Line is missing. A judge search finds it in her last opponent's deck, but by this point it's too late to get it with the Gaslight, so there isn't a kill line that turn. I start playing very cautiously, getting a T400 down to hold six cards, and moneying up.

Mezzie seems a bit rattled from having missed a card, and Gaslights for End of the Line on a turn without a kill line. I use Cupellation to see if I can grab it out of HQ, but don't see it, instead spotting Hypoxia and Oppo (I later settle for getting a Hypoxia and Distributed Tracing with Cupellation / Simulchip). After this I only start poking again when I have credits and clicks to dodge Thule's core damage and clear tags next turn, but an unprotected MCA feels like a must trash. If memory serves, I lose 3 clicks to Riot Suppression, pay 8c into a Public Trail, then take 2 tags from Oppo, as Mezzie's economy is low. I clear a tag, and Mezzie scores the Orbital Superiority that has been sitting behind the only ice on the table, but doesn't have the credits to kill me with EotL.

I spend a few turns recovering as more remotes are created, but decide to leave the 3rd MCA behind ice and just poke R&D for agendas. I find the winning Ikawah the turn before Mezzie was planning to score two agendas off the table, which would have taken her to 6 points.

Round 5 - Loss vs Ob (Sauc3)

I started the game by poking R&D where the ice doesn't get rezzed (I correctly guess it's an Archer), and I snag an Eminent Domain before a few remotes are set up. I facecheck a Border Control to put pressure on, and having taken Sauc3 to 2c, thought scoring an agenda wasn't on the cards. It turned out a Svyatogor got him enough to rez Tucana and score Azef, getting another ice on R&D, though we later realise that the 2 meat damage was forgotten.

HQ is open with just 2 cards, so I poke there and find an SDS, trashing my Propeller, but this opens a scoring window. I Pinhole the Tucana, but can't stop an Eminent from being scored and putting an Archer on the remote. We both set up for a few turns, and Sauc3 tutors a Hollow Man into the remote, installing what I later learn is an SDS. I realise that the Border Control can grab a code gate, something I'd need to use Simulchip into Physaram to get past, but get greedy and misplay, putting Physaram on Archer instead of Ika to save 6c. I had those 6c, so this lost me the game.

The SDS is scored, and I can't recover in time to stop the next agenda winning Saus3 the round.

Cut Game 1 - Loss vs PD (Cobalt)

This was my first time making it to the cut, so I was interested to see how I reacted. I was certainly tense, and did slip up a few times, but still had a lot of fun. Most notably, I forgot to discard at the end of a turn, and as a result randomly lost Eru. This made closing out the game a fair bit harder. Cobalt was very understanding and encouraging throughout, and gave me plenty of time to think things through.

I found that their PD deck was too fast to set up against, especially after all the YDL were played early, so I used the sort of playstyle I'd gotten used to with ., : ,'; and started letting Drafter recur economy cards and clicking through Bran to dig into R&D. This got me to 4 points, but the remote became near impenetrable and they were quick to catch up in agendas. To make matters worse, two of the four remaining agendas were Ikawah, which I couldn't steal spending all my clicks on Bran, and it was likely that Cobalt had drawn Big Deal.

The only hope I could see was to breach HQ to try and find the Big Deal (I was a credit short to steal Ikawah). There were 12 cards there after Midnight 3 and Gatekeeper draws (shuffling a 2 pointer into R&D), but a dice roll finds the Big Deal, and Cupellation grabs it for 1c. This buys me a turn as Cobalt has to manually start advancing an [Ikawah}(21010). I manage to get into R&D one last time, but don't see any agendas.