24th at Worlds - 18 too few card Maxx

24th at Worlds – 17 too few cards Maxx Every round: “Wait how many cards is that?”

So… I wasn’t entirely trying to be silly here. I had long believed that Apoc was going to be an important card at Worlds, and I don’t think I was wrong there. I also believed that corps were going to go fast and have key events. I therefore would have loved to have played Apox Maxx that I played at Euros last year to good effect (good enough for me anyway, top 60 is a delight as far as I am concerned and don’t let anyone tell you differently) .

There was just a one big problem though; those dastardly Nisei types had put Paperclip on the restricted list. Were they wrong to do so? I don’t think so but it was still problematic. It was my very first experience of being hit with by an MWL, typically MWLs have completely ignored my decks for some strange reason.

So I did dutifully try and be a good player and play with corroder and Levy but it was awkward. I was constantly trying to keep an eye on corroders and Levy whilst still keeping an eye on the game. That’s when I started to wonder. What if you played Maxx… without putting cards back in the deck

And that lead to various iterations with 99 cards because of course it did, but over time I actually started to become convinced that there was something here and I’m reasonably happy that I’ve proven I was on to something.

And the number you come up with if you say "OK in an ideal Maxx game I want to Levy once and not quite draw the whole deck" is somewhere between 77 and 85 . And I landed on 81 after cutting Dirty Laundry

As with every apoc deck you have to neatly balance yourself so you are in a position to money & draw up if necessary, to pressure the remote if necessary, or fire the Apoc if the timing is right. Some cards do double duty but I think most of them fit into that slot. Run Amok is wildly powerful in this deck and DDOS is just as much there to pressure the remote if the corp tries to rush out while you don't have necessary breakers or attack cards.

As the day got closer I found that my most important match up was the Weyland with meat damage one so I found room for the Networking and Sports Hopper; both of these did excellent work on the day.

On the day it beat 1 Argus (though this was very close to a loss), 1 Azmari, 1 IG (though only on the narrowest of victories and a prayer to the Gods of Jank and wild plays), 1 Blue Sun (dream start though), 1 Palana, 1 SportsMetal,

Lost to 1 Azmari (rused into wasting attacks on an NGO then got well rushed out on 5/3s), 1 Palana (well played Beckett, awesome Thimblerig placement) & 1 Argus (though I missed the winning combo 3 times with HQ runs on an Imp)

I should move on from this but boy…. This deck is a fun and wild ride.

P,S, I have been asked how I shuffled this. The main answer is "with practice" but also I used a technique called "The Leicester shuffle"

So with the Leicester shuffle you take half of your deck and give it to your opponent

Which gives you

Less to shuffle