Biotic Labor Conspiracy - 1st Place Emerald Tavern SC

This is pretty similar to the list that I won with Asgard a couple of weeks ago. I've been told that the write up I did last time was inadequate, so I'll try to do better this time. Since the basic premise is pretty straight forward (early game pressure from directives, easy to play economy to keep Safety First going, building to a crushing late game with Data Folding and Multithreader), I'll use this space to talk about a couple of things people always bring up about the deck.

Choice of Directives

Almost always take Find the Truth, Neutralize All Threats and Safety First. Without the first two you don't have multi-access, and the last one should be a free draw almost every turn (who doesn't want that?). Exceptions: Titan and CI if you know its brain rewiring in advance. You need ABR vs. Titan to prevent the first turn Priority Construction Install Atlas play and the Rewiring CI Ice suite folds super hard to ABR. Drop Safety First in both cases, as the game will probably be too short to get a lot of mileage out of it.

Unicorn

When I originally built this list, it actually had Inversificator as a restricted card. Inversificator powered by Multithreaders allows some rediculous plays, like using DNA Trackers to move Chiyashi to archives and similar, but its 6 install cost is a pretty big liability vs. CI, so I decided to tech in that direction with Employee Strike instead.

Reg. Breakers

At the Asgard SC I didn't install Gordian and Na'Not'Tok (I played against nothing but CI, where this deck leans heavily on Strike and NAT and ignores most of its other cards), so I was already considering making a change. But the thing that really convinced me was a jnet game vs. AgInfusion where I saw a Obokata Protocol on top of R&D with two cards in hand click one, went to draw up and steal and drew Gordian Blade, so I had to let it go. 1x breakers you can't get back are a huge liability in a meta where you might need to take 4 net damage on any given turn, so conspiracy it is.

Crypsis

This is the first thing everyone asks about when they look at the list. Why Crypsis? The answer is sometimes you just need to get into a server. Turtle might not have counters (and I think Lister is pretty anti-synergistic with safety first), Overmind runs out of tokens and Mammon has to be down when the turn begins. Install Crypsis, place token, place token, Stimhack will get you there almost every time, and will probably get you there again next turn if you need it to.

Multi-Access

But DoomRat, where is TopHat/Turning Wheel/Equivocation/Other weird R&D pressure people like in Adam? My goal is usually to never run R&D unless there's an agenda on top. Let that DNA Tracker/FC3 sit there unrezzed until you need to deal with it. Instead, set up a soft lock where you hit HQ hard to clean it out of agendas, then see their mandatory draw with FtT and any subsequent draws with corporate defector. Nothings better than the look on your opponents face when they draw click one and show you a Obokata Protocol they have no idea what to do with. Obviously less effective vs. CI, but playing strike then running HQ a bunch is pretty strong in that match-up anyway.

Wrapping Up

Thanks to Emerald Tavern for hosting a great tournament. Having a coffee shop in the store is pretty handy, as I'm not sure I make through the tournament without a couple of lattes (one of which came with the entry fee). Also thanks to the Austin players for not being to upset about the out-of-towner coming in and snagging their one SC this year (not sure what gives with this, its one of the biggest Texas metas). It was a blast, hope to see all you guys again soon.