Unleash the Hydra (2nd at San Antonio Regional)

I am a self-confessed CTM addict. It's been my go-to tournament list come hell or high water since my very first Regional in 2018. Like many fans of yellow, I was overjoyed to kick the list back into high gear with the return of GFI (via justice for CBG). I could have simply run back the Magnum Opus build, but then discussions with my local meta led me down a spicier path.

Let's just run down the choices here.

Daily Quest: I was convinced that this card couldn't possibly work in CTM, but it turns out that pretty much any ice + MVT is good enough to protect it until it's time to jam in the remote. I was impressed! I might even go to two copies.

Lady Liberty: Initially, I cut all of my Calibrations for a single Lady Liberty to open up slots, but after a few games I realized that I liked how Liberty was working, but wanted a few more ways to FA an early ARES, so two more copies of Calibration went back in.

SIU: The meta demands either SIU or SEA Source to land a game-winning Exchange on Runners that don't go tagme. I like SIU because it's one more thing that the Runner might feel pressured to trash, doesn't get hit by Embezzle for Operations, and of course, it does not require a run.

Hydra: I cut Tollbooth for this monster, and I rezzed it twice on the day. The facecheck on this bad boy puts the Booth to shame, and I find that there are few games in which the increased rez cost is relevant.

Architect: Surprise! I dropped two Team Sponsorships to free up influence for this, because it's untrashable and has excellent subs for the gameplan.

I played against Leela, Gnat, Jesminder, and Val in the Swiss, losing to Leela and Val. 2-2 was a record, but fortunately I was carried by my Runner deck.

As always, all my gratitude to @shazzner for organizing (and finding us a great backup venue when we discovered we didn't actually have space reserved at the first venue), everyone who came out to play, and NISEI for providing sweet prize support for Regional season.