52 Card Pick-Up (OtG 3rd in Swiss / 7th overall)

As a former Geist player, I think Esa has been the most interesting runner to me since he rotated. I was never a big fan of “reg ass” runners & I love triggers. Esa fits the bill & I’ve been playing multiple versions since she was released.

The version I settled on for Off the Grid was one with a goal of maximizing disruption without being too aggressive running. I expected a lot of RH decks (I was correct) & I was praying for many Sports decks (there was 1).
I was originally at 50 cards but when #BANTUNO played 51 it gave me inspiration to go to 52 & add the Time Bombs. Moshing, Raindrops, Nuka, the ID ability & Stoneship really help you put the gas on & draw was never a problem.

Either way, my version of the deck plays like this:

• Goal is to do value Core/Sabotage while you are building up your handsize. I tend to play almost all 3 Running Hots in every game. Install the Marrow’s & Hippocampic’s before they get trashed.

• The best card in the deck is obviously Chastushka, so try to play that as many times as possible. Labor it back, use Buffer Drive if they have an open HQ. For extra pressure, I also like to time it so I can get a Time Bomb to fire when you’re ready to Chastushka 1-2x. Most corps can deal with incremental sabotage, but it’s REALLY hard to deal with 11-13 in a turn.

• I chose Matryoshka over the Laamb/Begemont/Botulus build because I don’t want to have to juggle what gets pinged & you really only need to break 1-3 pieces of ice at worst & you have Bankhar (& your face). This deck does DIE to Hammer, but you can always just do your thing and yolo through it if you are close to winning or losing. Hammer doesn’t say End the Run.

My Games:

• Beat an Ephiphany where I was able to play Running Hot & 2 Chastushkas on an open HQ by turn 2. Controlled the board & got some good sabotages before a Finality & then checking Archives ftw.

• Beat a Punitive RH by sitting back and just taking core, putting as much in archives as possible. I let them score the first Regenesis before playing Finality to steal a Fujii & then Bankharing through an Anansi with 7 cards in hand to steal the final 4 points. This was a matchup & line I had practiced a lot leading up to the tournament.

• (We ID'd but played it out) Beat a Kill NEH by just letting them do whatever they wanted and keeping my handsize/money up. Eventually was able to run archives and steal 4 before winning off a Finality.

In the Cut:

Lost 2 games to the same kill NEH, which I think I was heavily favored in.

• First game, I didn’t draw a single copy of Marrow or any Stoneships, where I would have certainly been unkillable if I could have gotten my handsize to 8 (I got it to 5). Felt pretty unlucky, but Jesse V played great & scored a credit perfect Reaper into click 3x for credits EotL after I checked archives and turned on big Oppo.

• Second loss was also well played by my opponent, but I definitely messed up. I got my handsize immediately to 8 with Steelskins in hand & was able to land all 3 Chatushka’s. He AAA a card on the board which I assumed was a Checkist. My math was bad & I thought I was still safe from a Reeducation score for a turn or two. If I run the card & take 4 tags, I was still set up to survive since he had already burned a Reaper. Most damage that could have been done would have been 9, but again I had 8 cards including 2 Steelskins. It was in fact the Reeducation & he killed me with 6 cards left in R&D. GG.

Thanks again to Orbital Tangent & all my opponents! See you at OtG next year.

You can see my corp deck HERE.