Little Engine that Couldn't - 1st place Louisiana Regional

For 6 weeks prior to the LA regional I had been fine tuning a Jinteki: Biotech deck that was crushing all my opponents. I was super excited to try and win a regional with my pet deck. Alas, Net Ready Eyes busted onto the scene and did a real number on it. The day before the LA regional I decided that despite never playing any type of scorch deck before that bringing a butchershop deck would be a good idea. Thankfully my last minute change was rewarded as the meta was ripe for the killing.

I went 4-1 in swiss and 3-0 in elimination. Out of the 7 wins, I scored out twice and flat-lined the runner 5 times. The only game I lost was to Leela. She did her Leela thing and snowballed her way to a victory fairly early. I beat Exile/Kate/Gabe/Maxx/Gabe/Leela/Whizzard.

There isn't too much to say about this deck other than the inclusion of Snare!, the third traffic accident, and Little Engine. I chose Snare! over Reclamation Order because in my experience, if someone is playing really safe against the kill (digging for plascretes, digging for I've Had Worse, moneying up real hard, etc.) you can just score out while they do all that instead of trying to scorch them over and over. Snare! is great to have in hand whilst trying to score out as the runner will often go after your HQ with multi-access once you start doing your FA astro thing. The Snare! can be a tempo hit for them. Yes it costs you 4 credits to fire but since you aren't trying to kill them at that point you don't have a need for lots of money. It also netted me 1 flatline in swiss when the runner hit RND with 2 cards in hand. People general don't anticipate Snare! in this deck.

The third Traffic Accident (which I have since dropped for an Eli) was there to make sure I could get the kill combo for Anarchs (One TA, then scorch if you miss IHW).

So now let's talk about the thing that you've all been waiting for. LITTLE MUTHA FKN ENGINE. Was this thing clutch for me all day? Did it do some serious work? Why the hell did I put this thing in my deck?

Well the answers are: No. No. I have no idea.

It had exactly one use and that was installing it early to score out an Astro behind. That worked well in one game but considering it was a one of, it was overall just an awful, no good, crummy card that I wished was something else every time I drew it. After the tournament I immediately changed it to Tollbooth.

You can see my runner deck here: http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/22673/defense-is-the-best-offense-1st-place-louisiana-regional