Honest Scammer - 3rd at Euros

RotomAppliance 3274

This is the reg crim deck I've been tuning for a few months. Codemarvellous took it for a spin and has already provided a detailed writeup, so I won't go on about every single card, but I'll make a few observations.

I previously played Nexus 419 extensively, and believe it to be equally good, but this gave me the chance to play something fresh, and possibly a little more rounded. I don't think it has any obvious bad matchups, and the Downfall cards largely solved two of Crims traditional problems: bad breakers and bad card draw. I experimented with Reg 419 that didn't play Turtle, which saves slots and avoids issues with IP block, but found myself playing backup breakers to achieve consistency in finding them, and to avoid just falling over against Rigshooter. Turtle provides heavy pressure early on, giving you plenty of time to setup your full rig, if it's even needed (often not).

Engolo is a great decoder that is worth every one of the 4 pips of influence. It can somewhat fill in for Turtle in games where you can't find one, and allows you a lot of freedom to prod and poke around, as well as land DoF. Deuces is still in the deck for the synergy with Turtle and to discover what the critical HQ ice is as soon as possible. Stimhack is a good card that pairs well with Falsified and can occasionally catch people off guard, as it is more common in both other major runner factions. Rezeki was originally put in experimentally as one of those cards you expect to cut, but has actually been very solid. I was initially using Zamba as the console to give enough MU for Rezeki, but it turns out you almost never need to install every breaker, so Paragon is better. Rezeki also comes in handy as a sacrificial program to steal SDS Hunters - this actually happened in the cut, and in a non-trivial number of testing games.

Hunting Grounds is the only other notable pip of influence, helping against Data Raven and the often splashed IP Block and Slot Machine. It also hits a few rarer cards - thanks to Lara & Guy for reminding me last night that Brainstorm is turned off by it.

I played 3 Daily Casts / 2 Pad Tap because I couldn't find the third Pad Tap. I'd recommend slotting the third one if you're not bad enough to lose cards, though ultimately I don't think it made much difference. I also tested with Dirty Laundry in the econ slots, which has merit with MTI gone, but in the end decided to maximise Corporate Grant triggers as far as possible.

The deck was only beaten once, by Tom's Argus in round 5, but overall it fared very well against Weyland, beating 4 Argus and one very mean Outfit deck. Other games involved beating ASA, beating Sports and a timed draw against Biotech in round 1, where I couldn't find the points from R&D in time. I think this archetype is in a very good place, and is perhaps better at avoiding the slow/uneven draws you occasionally get with the Nexus deck.

Thanks to everyone who played and made this an excellent tournament, as well as the organisers who made it happen. Congrats to Aaryn on winning the entire thing.

9 comments
2 Jun 2019 Longi

Hey, congrats on the 3rd place. I am the ASA guy you beat and I really liked your deck as I played similar one. If you were to cut one card for 3rd PAD tap, which would it be?

2 Jun 2019 RotomAppliance

Nice meeting you Longi! I'd cut the 3rd Daily Casts for it.

3 Jun 2019 NtscapeNavigator

Scam!

12 Jun 2019 Cliquil

So what you're saying is we need 2 Brainstorms....?

12 Jun 2019 Glitterpocalypse

Was I drunk when this conversation happened? Either was congrats on the result!

15 Jun 2019 RotomAppliance

I believe you were quite sober. We were waiting for Aki in the playing hall before we left.

22 Jun 2019 NtscapeNavigator

huh?

9 Aug 2019 ClosDeLaRoche

What's the replacement for Crowdfunding in MWL 3.3?

Seeing as how Crowdfunding gave us econ and draw, 1 Earthrise, 1 Pad Tap, and 1 Career Fair seems solid.

9 Aug 2019 ClosDeLaRoche

Also, would Kati Jones be worth an include?