LeeMaw, Supplier of Salt - 3rd Place Chicagoland Regional

The only thing saltier than my opponents were my Devil Dog fries

R1: Win vs Blue Sun (Will Brown's iteration, if you are aware of the man, the myth, the legend)

R2: Loss vs Blue Sun

R3: Win vs CtM

R4: Win vs Palana

Cut: Two losses versus that same Palana

If you managed to miss the first iteration of LeeMaw, go no further than the original decklist. Use the combination of Leela to bounce ICE and other cards you hate, Gang Sign and HQ Interface to make the prospect of scoring scary to the corp, and Maw to constantly mill combo cards, ICE, and get triggers off of Gang Sign accesses on the corp's turn. Aumakua is a preferred breaker, as it gets counters off of every Gang Sign access (if you don't steal or trash anything, of course). It's a rude deck, especially if you haven't seen this particular brand of hell before and are not sure of your outs.

Hilariously, the person I beat, and then lost twice to in the cut is BraveLilToaster, the progenitor of LeeMaw. Just my luck!

In this version, I decided that making a The Supplier build provided a constant forward momentum that was worth having a slightly slower earlygame. In this meta, there weren't many decks completely selling out to a jammy fast-advance, and Leela's ability plus Gang Signs tends to put the fear of god into them as well.

In an opening hand, you are looking primarily for a source of cards (either Earthrise Hotel or The Class Act) as well as either The Supplier or a Hostage to get him out ASAP. Hostage can also be used to get out both of your one-of connections, Beth Kilrain-Chang, which you want out after The Supplier and The Class Act, as well as Kati Jones, which can wait but doesn't hurt if there's an extra Hostage sitting around.

For influence and other meta-calls: Feedback Filter was preferred over Caldera due to the fact that Gang Signing into a Snare on the corp's turn usually meant the death of your Caldera. Hunting Grounds is a must, since IP Blocks are everywhere, tagging you unconditionally on encounter when your Aumakua is down. Rezeki supports the longer, grindier game that this deck tends to cause, and Beth Kilrain-Chang does the same without the cost to memory, Hostageable, and with even more upside when the corp inevitably stocks up on money as agendas pile in hand. No One Home also allow for some mistakes, making net damage from Snares, surprise Anansis, or tags from Hard-Hitting News hard to stick.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind while piloting this deck is the purpose of the deck isn't to sit back and let the corp sweat, although that is certainly appreciated. Once Maw and Aumakua is down, start getting those sweet, sweet Maw triggers by running once a turn and start winnowing the corp's options. Purging becomes a must to keep you out, hence the one ofs other breakers to get you back in. A particular weakness of this deck is the singleton breakers that require a run from Rip Deal to get back, so avoiding damage before getting breakers out of your hand while still running is a tough tightrope to walk.

My corporation was a rushy Acme that pulled its weight all day. This was my first tournament in Chicagoland where I made the cut, although graduate school makes tournament-quality practice and attendance at a premium. I was so grateful to be able to attend and have fun at this last tournament for @daine, the heart and soul of the Chicagoland meta, who volunteered to drive me to my first tournament in Chicago before I had even attended a single Friday Night Netrunner where I played a slightly modified version of the original LeeMaw. Thank you so much for introducing me to the amazing crew of Chicagoland Netrunner, @daine, and may your ventures in the south treat you as well as you treated everyone in Chicago.