A Knock at the Door (2nd, 5th Stevenage SC)

Second and fifth at a 22-person Store Championship (five rounds of Swiss, no cut).

Both @callmedutch and I went 4-1 with this rush Titan with a side of kill. My version had Bailiff over Vanilla which didn't earn me a single credit all day, but justifies the deck name. His version had SSL instead of GFI because he decided that 17 influence was just unfair and wanted to give his opponents a fighting chance. Or he forgot to swap them out. One of the two.

Game plan: we were expecting lots of Valencias, so we decided to go fast, rush behind gearchecks, and force them to find their breakers. If they can, fair enough. If not, chain Atlas into Atlas into Atlas into Hostile, with minor variations allowing for agenda theft and the mood of R&D. If they go poor running, land tags on them and see if you can blow them up. Quickest win was a Boom kill in turn three.

On the kill package: I was testing a pure rush version with three Biotics, but Rufus convinced me that the deck needed Hard-Hitting News to punish overstretched runners. It's usually worth landing even when they can get out of Boom range, since it'll cost them much more tempo than you, and that's often all you need.

Both our losses were to eventual winner @massisi on Find the Truth Val, who found his breakers, found clutch Gbahalis, and — in the de facto final — found the Boom in my hand after going tag me. Congratulations and well played to him, thanks to everybody at Stevenage for a great day, and happy birthday @callmedutch!