Fite Club FINAL - Hermes/Imp Lat+ (Rw/oR)

With thanks to @AxWill and @Aksu for putting on an end of season team tournament unlike anything that I have ever experienced before. It took over my life for the 3 months or so that it ran, and I was exhausted by the end. I can only imagine what it was like for you 💙.

Respect to all of our opponents for making every round a nerve wracking adventure: QtM, Psi Game, Virginia Biotech, NWE and, of course The Standard Banlist Team.

Much love to my Unband 🍌 team mates. We really gave them a show.

Post worlds-2023, EA sports🥇 started developing a Deep Dive Lat list. I went down the Hermes route, while other (more sensible) players stuck with Pantograph + Fermenter. Eventually, by the very end of the season, I realised that, by abandoning deep dive altogether, we could instead focus on pressuring HQ with Imp and DJ Steve (see my Lat list from Fite Club R2 against Psi Game). This gives us a much better game against Ob and PD, meant that we could comfortably play Environmental Testing, and overall just felt much more slick and less brittle.

Rebellion without Rehearsal gives us some incredible new shaper tools in the form of Burner, Trick Shot and Cataloguer. These are all very easy to slot in any shaper list, but these are also cards that synergise exceptionally well with Hermes.

The new cards (mostly) play themselves, although getting a Lat trigger with burner can be a bit awkward. If you want a piloting showcase then check out R2 of the Fite Club Finals stream.

Card Choices

2 x K2CP Turbine

In order not to overstretch Self-modifying Code, we either need to play a duplicate breaker (e.g. Ika or 2 x Propeller instead of 1 x Cleaver) or we need to play a 4th SMC (such as Compile + Simulchip). Or we can play 2 x K2CP Turbine. @Sokka234 is a big advocate of the 2nd Turbine, and I think I agree.

Compile

With the 2nd Turbine in the deck, we don't need to play Compile, but it has great synergy with Environmental Testing, and it accelerates us towards our doom rig, so I think it's still good. If the meta slows down, and you are looking for a cut, this is probably the 45th card.

Environmental Testing

It's fine--stop worrying about it. But do be patient with your program installs.

Imp

We might not need this any more, now that we have Burner. We could use the influence for a third Hermes (the games where we don't see Hermes before the first score are the games that we lose), but then we would need to replace it with another Simulchip target--otherwise the Environmental Testing econ engine will fall apart. Pelangi is worth considering.

Also, if we drop Imp, then we might need to include a different answer to deal with assets (e.g. Paricia).

Clot

Play it if you want, but, personally, I'm not a fan.

I didn't win that finals game against @LostGeek on Fast Advance Ob--I didn't find Hermes fast enough, or burner at all--but it was very close. I think I missed an opportunity to poke HQ, once, but other than that I was happy with how I played. GG and WP.

See you all at next years fite club tournament!