Toast Argus, Kelfs X-mas Competition Winner

Last sunday I played this Argus deck together with a standard Andy list on Kelfecils christmasparty. It was a casual tournament with some strong players attending aswell (20 in total). Thanks to Kelfecil for organizing, it was fun times! Oh and thanks to the person who made the delicious brownie, it made my day way better!

People may think this looks like crap, it is crap :) The deck went 3-2 in Swiss and 1-0 in the top 3 cut. (up to quorum was legal)

So, this is a crappy deck. This is the first thing that will help you win; your opponents will think you play a crappy Argusdeck. The second thing is recklessness, if you like to be in control and play a game out slowly, this isn't the deck for you. You slam the most things on the table unprotected, going for the Toast every game. Most of the games one of two things happen:

• The runner will check everything you put down and will walk into all sorts of nastiness

• The runner will be to careful and you will eventualy get the Toast with the help of Zealous Judge or Dedicated Response Team.

Some of the cards explained:

The agendasuite is very common for Argus, False Lead helps killing, Profiteering helps getting a creditswing for HHN, so does Geothermal Fracking.

Contract Killer is here to help with Film Critic and Aaron, can also be used as advancable bait.

Dedicated Response Team is great if it stays unchecked (pretend to be sad so they think its a Psychic Field)

Prisec is really important, I would play 6 if it was allowed. Works together great with Dedicated Response Team and lands that important first or second tag.

Casting Call is there to either score an overadvanced Project Atlas or to bait the runner into taxxing themselves. Also has synergy with Dedicated Response Team

The ice is quite standard, I made the last minute change of +1 Response team +1 Lotus Field, -1 Jackson -1 Quandary. Because I like Dedicated Response Team that much and I thought Lotus Field would help against Sifr-decks.

Game 1 vs Bram with Jesminder

A very scary matchup for me, since tagging him would be very hard. I tried going for some early scores and eventually landed a tag with prisec to Toast him the turn after. Andy survived against Cybernetics Division.

2-0

Game 2 vs Nicolo with Damonfork

Nicolo is a very strong dutch player and he was playing the damonfork whizz, trashing everything I put down. I didn't find any Psychic Field to punish him, which was to bad. He kept trashing a lot of my stuff and I had the chance to tag him with HHN, leaving me 1 credit short of double-Toasting next turn. So I tried biding my time, I even placed down some Snares since he was running everything, but in the end it didn't matter. Andy won vs his Palana.

3-1

Game 3 vs Rene with Valencia

I had to mulligan a terrible hand and got 5 agendas after that. My mandatory draw was another agenda... I placed down 3 agendas with a steel face and hoped for the best. He checked two of them getting 3 points. Some turns later he went tag me with Obelus out, I still didn't find any ice so he was accessing everything for free. Very disappointing game. Atleast andy won vs his CTM.

4-2

Game 4 vs Mark with Hayley

He played a crazy deck with Vamadeva and Tech Taders, I donated some agendas, trying to find an opening to go for the toast. Eventually I played Contract Killer on some prisecs, advanced it once and played Hard-Hitting news. I didn't have any scorch and only 1 Atlastoken, so I needed the meatdamage from Contract Killer to toast him. He went full rambo afterwards and snagged two points of R&D, going to six. He ran the Contract Killer without any cards in hand last click, dying to Prisec. Andy won against his Garagarin.

6-2

Game 5 vs Gijs with Damonfork

Me and Gijs are both from the Enschede meta, it was fun playing eachother at the top table. Gijs doesn't like playing against my Argus deck, it's to unpredictable for him. I started out with just an Archer in hand, putting in on R&D. He pressured HQ hard, hitting Snare! on his first run (just his luck). Eventually I got myself a server with 3 Prisecs and no ice, I started scoring out false lead and profiteering. I was able to get two Archers rezzed on HQ and R&D, which helped a lot against his Faustbuild. This game took longer than the other, it was a bit of a grindfest. After some turns I found the oppurtunity to tag him with HHN, leaving him tagged in his turn after forfeiting False Lead. Made Toast the next turn. Andy had a timed draw vs his ETF(4-4)

7-2-1

After swiss we had a top 3 cut;

• Gijs
• Me
• Nicolo

I had to play Nicolo again for a place in the finals, and I could choose the side. Ofcourse I felt like having revenge with Argus for the first game against him, so Argus it was.

Against his Whizzard it was going to be a hard matchup, I saw some pieces in my hand which made me go all-in for the kill early. I started out by playing some assets out and feeding him some agendas, he got to 3 points very quickly and I was forced to continue going balls-deep on the toasting. He hit a Snare on my HQ, hitting two I've hard worse. This helped me a lot to go for the kill. One turn I went Casting Call an Project Atlas naked, credit, Stock Buy-Back. Hoping I did my calculations right and hoping he would go for it. He first ran my Judge to make sure he wouldn't be tagged, and then ran the Atlas (I think he had a Strike out) taking two tags, the next two clicks he cleared both tags, leaving himself on 6 credits. I was able to HHN him next turn after clicking for credits. He went for hail mary runs on R&D, finding his 6th point but not the winning agenda. I double Toasted him next turn.

Gijs had a very bad draw in the finals where I had to play him with Andromeda, got to 4 points quickly and managed to get 4 more off a legwork later. Boo.