Tap Water Steve (2nd at SOCR 5)

CritHitd20 7269

Named for how spicy it is. Went 5-0 in swiss and 1-2 in the cut.

Criminal will be good in Cache Refresh after pack 6 drops, but currently Shaper is still leagues above the other factions. This deck leans on how powerful the neutral economy in Creation and Control is, and offers a minimalistic run plan through Aumakua/Lister and the powerful combination of Falsified/Mad Dash. The popular direction for corps in CR right now are 6 agenda Azmari, 7 agenda Jinteki, and Hunter Seeker Skorpios, and this has great game against all of that with the exception of Aginfusion, as a lot of your tools are invalidated by their chunky ICE and redirect ability, plus Future Perfect is obnoxious.

I chose Criminal because I had played Shaper and Anarch in the last two CR events I participated in and wanted to see what Criminal had to offer. I was unable to find anything exciting that was also competitive and so I panicked into this. Proco into burst economy is always safe and Steve's ability fits in well with that plan. It was a good meta read but I wouldn't say it is strong enough to justify in your own CR event. I suspect the best runner deck in CR right now is the concept this deck offers in Shaper splashing for Aumakua Falsified and Maxwell; you get SMC to contest rush, much stronger breakers, and have spare influence for some powerful disruption tools that I was not allowed to use.

Atman is your failsafe for glacier decks; using it at 5 is very valuable for fighting ICE you can't repeatedly beat like Tollbooth, Anansi, and Tithonium.

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