Ban Vitruvius (10th @ Worlds 2020)

This is the Asa I piloted to 10th place at Worlds 2020, going 4-1 in Swiss, developed by the Snarebears. I have to give a huge shoutout to NISEI for keeping the greatest game alive and cultivating an amazing community to support it.

For all the European shade in my other writeup, I realize the irony of bringing the same IDs Pinsel won with last year.

Deck History

The DNA of this deck is quite rich, and dates back to #boswash combolord @ysengrin and his tweaking of Reconstruction Contract combo Asa from the Black Lives Matter charity tournament through American Continentals. When he scrubbed me with a three-counter Vitruvius counter, I knew I needed to get a taste.

Snarebears tested a couple versions and abandoned it after NYC criminal legend @groenkaaf proved that 419 could beat it almost every time. It stayed on the shelf for a long while until I oracled a few games with The King, who was really excited about their own version of the deck with three Dedication Ceremony instead of two, and a only one Reconstruction Contract bolstered by two Tech Startup to find it. When I brought this idea to the group, it stuck. Getting the big Vitruvius was more consistent, and being able to score fast meant you had game even after an Apoc, something that Tablet couldn't really do.

The first of two big innovations came from @CritHitD20 reducing the agenda suite to 8, ignoring the alternate win con of Lakshmi in favor of pure gas. If you managed to score two of the baby agendas first in this matchup, the runner cannot win from accessing traditional agendas without Imp or Stargate for the Vacheron. That's more than enough time to combo out.

The second was what to do with the last influence. I decided that Daily Business Show improved my draws greatly, leading to earlier combos and less HQ density. One of the issues of the deck, especially without Lakshmi, is that your lightly ICEd HQ can becoming a breeding ground of agendas. Even as a 1x, DBS made my games a lot more consistent.

Early Game

By far the trickiest part for this deck, you should be trying to get a Cybernetics Court onto the table and building up your remotes for Fully Operational value, all while protecting centrals from Stargate and Diversion of Funds. Jeeves Model Bioroids and Daily Business Show can be good rezzes during a Doof, but more often you'll find that it's easier to money back up from 0 with Fully Op.

Mid Game

You should aim to fire off as many Violet Level Clearances and Rashidas as possible to find Reconstruction Contract, or simply Tech Startup to get it out. Since you have so much recursion and specifically Restore, it's okay if Recoco is in the bin.

Continue to draw and maintain a hand of 9 so you can accumulate all your combo pieces. The first score is ideally a 3-counter Vitruvius (RLC to Install Recoco and gain click > Dedi > Dedi > Install Vit) or if Jeeves is installed you can save a Dedi with (RLC to Install Recoco and gain click > Dedi > Archived > Dedi > Install Vit).

Against Anarchs, you may be able to gearcheck hard and get a Cyberdex or a single-counter Vit scored, which is still cool.

Late Game

The scoring pattern is almost always 2-pointer > 2-pointer > 3-pointer. Vacheron allows you to jam out with IAA if you have a decent remote (you probably won't), but most often you will be trying to recur your combo pieces and double Dedication to win. By late game, runners will have all the tools to access, so you may need to bluff a lot to buy yourself time.

Tournament Report

ROUND 1

Leela (@solemnstorm)

I was sad to be paired with fellow Boswasher @solemnstorm in round one, but encouraged to see Leela, who this deck tests well against. Some solid uncontested accesses got him off to a big lead, but once I was able to ICE up and slow down, I found the combo quickly. I got a three-counter Vitruvius and depleted a bunch of resources to score a Sandbox from hand. Even the purge could not stabilize my economy, and I was doofed pretty hard.

With Leela gaining steam, I had to exploit the weakness of Engolo against Drafter, something I was familiar with doing in testing against Whiteblade who incorrectly insisted we didn’t need MKUltra in our Freedom. But that’s neither here nor there.

Several runs through Drafter later, our economies were more evenly matched and he had given up on contesting board. That meant a couple Fully Opertionals made me stupid rich and able to triple ICE R&D. DBS all but ensured the safety of HQ…

An Inside Job missed the one safe Vacheron in hand, and I ventured to install it naked behind a couple ICE and found the right scoring window to Biotic and quad-advance with Jeeves to pull it out.

ROUND 2

Leela (@MiguelHernandez)

This game was wild. It played out like a typical Asa game, I had strong draw and got a huge Vitruvius on cue. However. Leela pulled some real sus moves like Fisk Investment Seminar and Labor Rights, so I knew this was going for mill. I jammed as hard as I could, but the end of Leela's deck approached rapidly.

On the penultimate turn of the game, Leela had 4 credits for her final click, which is when it dawned on me that she was digging for The Black File. Realizing she was short, she smartly ran an empty remote with Amina to break an old Gatekeeper and hopefully make me too poor to combo.

Of course, I had three RLC in hand, so I moneyed up and comboed out.

ROUND 3

Hoshiko (@is44ru)

I think I played this matchup pretty well. The Apoc threat was abundantly clear and I think the first one happened by turn three. Twice I used Archived Memories to pull a post-apoc agenda and twice I was able to sneak by a naked Vitruvius.

Even after the third apoc I still had a fighting chance. I saw the combo within my grasp as Hoshiko had only one turn to wait for Vacheron to tick her to victory. I ended up in exactly the same position as @solemnstorm was in in my first round Freedom game against him. I Was able to double Dedication a Recoco, but lacked the final click to install Vacheron.

This was my only loss on Day 1.

ROUND 4

Lat (@ElusiveSchemer)

Despite a poor start, I got a Violet Level Clearance off turn 2 which trashed some important pieces. I did immediately find a Court and Archived Memories for VLC again, this time keeping my hand.

Ika on my HQ Drafter provided more central pressure than I was used to from Shaper. The game eventually slowed down and I got the big VItruvius off. I was even able to get a second off, but the walls started to close in as I ran out of cards in my deck.

What's worse, Lat had a soft R&D lock with RDI, and I couldn't find my final 5/3, so I had to get creative: I fully operationaled to find the last agenda, Bioticed to get back to 3 clicks. Archived Memroy the Recoco gaining the Jeeves click, RLCed the Recoco for a click, then Dedied twice and installed to win out. Wild stuff.

ROUND 5

Hayley (@tvaduva)

My final match of the day was somehow more intense. I managed a big Vitruvius pretty early, getting a little greedy even and leaving a Vacheron on the board for later.

"Later" was an Apocalypse the following turn.

I did get it back with an Vitruvius counter. Without much ICE and with Hayley ratcheting up her econ with Aesops for the facedowns, I starting jamming. I got two Vacherons stolen out of my new tiny remote. The second cost them a Stimhack, but it also brought out the long awaited Clot.

It was time to get sneaky, so I jammed a Jeeves, which could help me combo later. They bought the bait and ran it but could not afford to trash. I took the opportunity to purge with the downside of my hand flooding, so I literally dumped the third Vitruvius in the garbage. This is when I noticed I had two cards in R&D.

Meanwhile, their two Vacherons are ticking down and they snipe a Sandbox from hand and the Vitruvius from archives. Sweating like a pig, I made a credit and click perfect combo thanks to Jeeves (Restore > Dedi > Dedi > Install).

ROUND 6

Leela (@Sokka234) ID

ROUND 7

Geist (@ADumbBrick) ID

CUT ROUND 2

Valencia (@Bridgeman)

There's not too much to say about this game. My opponent got a terrible draw and could not contest remotes, so I comboed out pretty efficiently.

Thanks

There are a lot of people to thank and credit for my performance this year. First of all, testing with @CritHitD20, @groenkaaf, @kysra, @osclate, @rongydoge, @skry, @thebigunit3000, and especially @whiteblade111 helped develop my skills and optimize our lists. It was a rollercoaster ride of finding decks, falling in love with them, and then hating them and throwing them away.

Thanks to #boswash and #nyc for the tremendous support you gave throughout the tournament. I'm sad that we haven't felt like a cohesive meta throughout quarantine, and I look forward to eventually hanging out and jamming games and beers at Uncommons and making more big drives up and down the coast.

And once again thanks NISEI for keeping this game alive through every imaginable obstacle! Worlds is over but I'm already hype for [[REDACTED]].