By Hook Or By Crook (Tied for 9th @ US Nationals)

Credit for this deck really goes to Pinsel, who has been playing something like this on Jnet for a while. I like Pirate Geist a lot better than Pirate Hayley because Aumakua is better than all of Hayley's permanent breakers.

This deck was also a bit of a throwback for me, reminding me a lot of my Angry Geist deck from back in the day. I thought it was appropriate given it was the last Nationals.

Diversion of Funds is a good card. It doesn't pay out as much, sure but draining them of 5 credits is a big deal. The main thing to worry about in this deck is to make sure you don't tunnel-vision on doofing them as much as possible. Save at least one SOT for Levy.

At the last minute I traded 1 Kongamato for a Turning Wheel, and I think that was a good choice. Konga is the worst breaker of the pirate set, and Aumakua fills in the gaps nicely.

I wanted to find ways to get rid of the Sure Gambles, because they are not great after the first run of the deck. They are nice vs. Scarcity if you can't clear it, but after that they are pretty useless. My compromise was to trade one Gamble for an Embezzle, which was super great. In one memorable game, I hit Biased Reporting and Preemptive Action vs. an Azmari, and in another case I hit 2 Hedge Funds out of Skorpios. Even getting only one hit on a run is worth it, IMO. I was happy to have it on the day.

Anyway, the deck is vaguely a denial deck when it can be, and has reasonable game against Surveyor and Mti due to being able to break anything. It was definitely my weaker deck on the day (2-2 in swiss and 0-2 in cut) but it was fun to play. The 2nd place finisher was playing a similar-ish Geist so I don't feel bad about the pick, I probably just played poorly.