Madison, WI Nisei Regional 0-3, First Place

I was given this runner list as a suggestion for the Madison regional. It works well when it is setup, producing many credits from Rogue Trading -> Citadel Sanctuary -> Power Tap. It takes care of the newly unrestricted mythic ICE suite with Security Nexus.

Round 1 was vs @ajar on The Outfit. I got set up relatively nicely with all my breakers and econ minus Citadel/Nexus. However, he scored quickly, and I tried applying early pressure where I could as a response. Late in the game it was 6-4 in Raja's favor. I had played immaculately, but all three Citadel remained at the bottom of my deck. All my R&D accesses when I was on 4 points produced nothing. Chalk this loss up to bad RNG.

Round 2 was vs @cranked on Argus. I don't remember many of the details of this game, as Andrew's non-stop card shuffling proved irritating. Whenever he installed a card, he immediately accounted for my 419 trigger, and he finished every turn in under ten seconds. Despite the efficiency, playing vs this type of "MtG" player wasn't fun. He had an arrogant attitude throughout the entire match. Apparently, he was also responsible for hosting the event. There was not even one judge on the floor, as he selfishly decided to play (pushing the player count odd!), and the tournament started thirty minutes past start time. Not impressed. (@spags mentioned one or two misplays I had made at the end of the game, but I don't substantiate troll comments.)

The first game of grand finals was vs @orbital_tangent on The Outfit. He drew the stone cold nuts. Turn 2 City Works Project with Dedication Ceremony behind ETR ICE. Turn 4 SDS Drone Deployment behind more ICE. I need to pay 8 credits (eight!) to install my best ICE breaker, requiring some time to set up. To top it all off, he drew one of his two Hostile Takeovers immediately after getting to 6 AP. He only runs TWO of the best Weyland agenda in the game! What a chump. He told me it was the first grand final he had been in. It showed.

Despite not producing the results I had sought, I still won the regional against all odds. Swaner crumbled vs my corp, the mark of a first-timer under immense pressure. I look forward to future tournaments, and I hope they produce more worthy challengers.