The Deck

This is basically just a slightly modified version of the CyCy Prepaid Kate made popular by Calimsha.

The Cards

I briefly tried a version with Yog.0 and Net-Ready Eyes, but didn't have sufficient time for testing to feel as comfortable as I do with the ZU.13 Key Master version, and I think it's better to play a list that I feel comfortable with over a list that might actually be better (don't know if it is anyhow) but I don't know. I didn't go double Cyber-Cypher because it has more problems with Blacklist due to the necessary recursion, and I'd rather just be safe.

I decided against playing Clot, as the PDX meta doesn't have a whole lot of fast advance any more. Most of the better players have moved on to RP, and Clot is just plain dead there. However, there was one player playing fast advance, but I never felt I needed clot to win. What I needed was to realize that R&D had 6 cards left in it, and 3 of them were agendas =P But I digress! Instead, I went up to 2x Stimhack, since it's great against RP, and used the spare influence to bring back Utopia Shard, which is something the Clot version often doesn't play. The shard is also great vs damage decks, and makes Legwork even better, if such a thing is possible.

The other big choice I made was to bring in Escher, from which the deck is named. I put it in over the third The Maker's Eye (also could have been another Indexing or an R&D Interface). There are a lot of positional ice in the meta right now, and RP relies on having their ice that you don't want to run into on the outside of their servers, so messing things up and putting them where you want them to be rather than here they want them to be is a great thing to be able to do. Hilariously, I never played it the entire tournament. Not that it wouldn't have been great, but my RP matches were all fairly short. The one I lost I wasn't able to make use of it due to my floundering for cash, and the 2 that I won I won very, very quickly, and had no need.

This lead to me running 2x Self-modifying Code instead of 3, so that I could fit in a second Same Old Thing. I'm running enough 1-of events that being able to fire off whichever I need given the circumstances is very important. Nothing sucks more than having to save your only one because you had to chuck your Levy AR Lab Access early in the game and you know you'll need it later.

Anyhow, that's a lot of words up there explaining minor choices on a solid, well established deck. As I said, it's Prepaid Kate. It's good.

Runner Tourney Breakdown

We had 33 players, which made for 6 rounds of swiss and a cut to the top 8, double elimination.

Swiss

In my opening match I played against no one at all. I used the bye card I had won previously in a store champ, and chilled talking with other bye users and the one dude who got the bye for being the odd player out of 33.

In the second match, I played against ancur.wikia.com creator Jakob Morris (aka @jakodraco). He was playing Butchershop, which I think PPVP Kate has a great matchup against. The real threat is if they get Traffic+ Scorch in hand and can somehow get a Breaking News behind a piece of ice that you don't have an answer for, which is rare because you're Shaper. Usually, out money-ing them isn't a problem, which is my normal gameplan. There was a very tense few turns, however, where I made a run that both scored an agenda and left me slightly poorer than the Butcher. He used the opportunity to Midseasons me, which I payed all my money into to only have 3 tags on me, realizing that he didn't have cash to be able to Scorch me this turn or the next turn, since he dropped to 0 credits to do so. The next few turns were him hitting me with traffic accidents each turn while I cleared tags and drew up, barely able to keep ahead of the damage coming at me. Eventually I was clear, and was able to find the winning agendas in R&D digs through Data Ravens with an Atman 4.

My second match, I played against another Butcher Shop player who I was simply able to stay ahead economically of for the entire game. There was a turn where he hit me with a Midseasons just to try and lower my credit pool in the hopes that he could recover faster than I could and threaten me again, but PPVP Kate has so much burst econ that it never worked out and I won.

My third match I played @bluebird503, whom I widely regard as the best player in our meta, and more than expected to lose to. He was playing RP, and frankly I feel like I, as a player, suck at the match up. The fact that he's a brilliant player just seals the deal. However, I have gotten lucky and have accumulated quite a few datasucker tokens, and have a parasite in the trash. I don't have a clone chip, so he's not too worried. I finally find one and install it, and decide to run R&D, where I'm pretty sure he has a Tollbooth, based on a Celeb gift from earlier. Knowing I can trash the Booth with the Parasite, he opts not to rez, knowing he'll just purge next turn and that will be the end of it. I find a Future Perfect, and correctly guess "1" on the Psi game, figuring he'll think I want to bet 0, knowing I can come back, and thinking he probably doesn't want to spend more money than he has to. I opt to come back into R&D for a single access, and find an NAPD waiting for me. I take it, bringing me to 5. Suddenly, I feel like I might be able to win. Next turn he purges, predictably. He only has a Pup in front of HQ right now, and I'd like both some sucker counters (plus, think he had another Future Perfect in hand from the Celeb Gift? Maybe?). He pulls a Bako back to his hand to make his hand size 6, so I'm guessing there must at least be an NAPD in there somewhere. I roll the dice, and magically pick the Nisei out of HQ. It was the most bullshit RP win in the history of the world given how ahead he was (he was super ahead too).

For the fifth round, I head up to the top table to face @nobodyhasthis, another strait brilliant player. His decks are unique, and he pilots them like a carefree, confident genius. I'm 7-1 at this point, taking a loss on my corp deck early on, but he's 8-0, undefeated with both decks. He, as well, is playing Butcher Shop. It was god-damned everywhere. Fortunately, my strategy of "get money, make runs" stood the test of time, and I emerged victoriously, giving him his first loss. I don't remember much about the game other than I was just able to stay ahead on money and get down an early Utopia, making the kill harder as well.

Since I ended up splitting with @nobodyhasthis, I dropped a table to face @ossa, another strong player (clearly doing well, considering he was at table 2 in the last round of swiss). He was also playing RP, and after I said how much I sucked at playing vs RP, jokingly suggested that he'd put down a Pup and I could just run through it 3 times for the damage to make life easy. I declined, and we played. And lord, he got very, very far ahead. He got a good nisei off, and later scored a second before I even had points. I got him to use one counter on a Maker's Eye run, but declined to use the second counter on the follow-up Same Old Maker's Eye, where I found a Future Perfect, again winning the Psi game guessing 1. At some point before the end, I found another FP and won the Psi game on 2, bringing me to 6. However, he still has a Nisei counter, and eventually found the winning agenda. I considered blowing Utopia at the end of my previous turn, knowing that he had drawn his entire last turn looking for the last agenda to score and didn't have a Jackson out, but thought I'd wait til the next turn, just in case I hit an agenda but he found a Jackson; that way it would be a surprise and I could move CyCy to Crick and just run through it. Instead, he installed the agenda he indeed found, and won. Lesson learned!

Top 8

I came in as 6th seed, having lost both games to @ossa. This paired me up against a player by the name of Arron, who I play with regularly, and is another consistently excellent player (he later went on to get 3rd!). He was the higher seed, and opted to play his corp deck, and was also playing NEH! So much NEH! WHAT THE FUCK, MAN. Anyhow, it was a fairly long game, considering it was NEH. There were Guttenbergs all over RND, so I just assumed he was Butchershop. Arron had a secret, though. Arron was just strait up Fast Advance. However, I thought, with the Guttenbergs in the deck, he probably had some meat damage stored away somewhere, and was constantly trying to make sure I had credits to survive the inevitable Midseason's... but I was wrong, and played too carefully. On the turn before the last, I had 2 credits, but could Maker's Eye into R&D for free, thanks to PPVP. Thanks to Atman, Datasuckers and Lady, the entire 4-ice server would cost me just 2 credits to get in, so long as I floated the tags from the Guttenbergs. However, I (wrongly) wanted to make sure I had money for NAPD, so I money'd up and passed. He topdecked the winning agenda and FA'd it out. The reason it was wrong to wait on the Maker's Eye was that I didn't realize that R&D only had 6 cards in it, and there were still 2 Astros, and NAPD, and a Beale unaccounted for. SHIT. So I threw that game. I took some time in between rounds to eat a bit and get more water in the hopes that it would make me more alert.

Game 1 of the loser's bracket was against @ossa again! And, again, I had to run against his RP. Yay. And this time, it was under the camera, so all onlookers on Twitch could know my shame. Yay. Anyhow, he Celeb Gifts for his first two clicks, showing me 0 agendas, an interns, 2 Mental Health clinics, a Lotus Field, and something I can't remember, but a non-ice. He then installs what can literally only be the lotus field in front of R&D. I decide to see if he'll rez the ice, so I take a run at it. He declines to rez, since he's only running 8 agendas and most of them self-protect, and I top-deck the Hades Shard. Well that feels good. I money up and pass. He does some stuff, but still no ice on HQ. I, however, have a plan. I drop a CyCy on R&D, and go in for an Indexing run. I throw a Nisei MK II on top, and think about the rest of the cards. There's a Tollbooth in there, and since I have the option of both Scavenging my CyCy as well as dropping at Atman, opt to leave it near the top. I go in again, nabbing the MK II and bringing me to 5. He draws several cards, and installs what I'm pretty sure is the tollbooth on HQ. Over the next few turns, we both get some money, and he gets more Ice out, but Archives is still open, and there's still the unrezed 'Booth on HQ. I find a Datasucker, install on 3, and hit Archives on 4, knowing that sucker counter gets me by the booth with CyCy or Atman 4 (which hasn't been played, but I believe is in the heap, waiting to be clone chipped). He Celeb Gifts, and shows me 5 cards, with a Future Perfect in there. Now I said I hate playing against RP. And I have a legwork in hand, and a way to get in. Ill-advised run - activate! It was almost 100% the wrong call. He had no points, and I had a lot of time to win. But I hate RP, boys. The first card I access is the FP. I have something like 10 credits right now, so spending 2 seems like a really bad idea on an agenda I don't actually need, so I hope he thinks the same and spend the 2 credits. He spends 2 credits. I win on the worst legwork the world has ever known.

The second round of the loser's bracket was against a dude I didn't recognize. He's playing (drumroll...) Butchershop. As we start the game, I decide to be friendly and engage him in some banter. Where you from? Oh, San Fransisco? Did you attend the regionals there? You did? Oh, how'd you do? ...Oh, you won. So this is @nobo715, winner of an 89-person regionals. Shit. Okay. I get money, some breaker, a clone chip, Astrolabe, a PPVP... and he installs and double advances a naked agenda. In my experience, this means he's going to try and kill me with a breaking news next turn. My usual line of play is to just run the thing; if he has Midseasons and the meat damage, I'm dead, but if he doesn't have the Midseasons and only the meat damage, I'm fine (similarly if he can just tag me but not kill me yet). I'm only a bit behind on money, so I go for it. ... It's a Shattered Remains! I love it! I used to play 1 in Butchershop as well. He opts to kill my PPVP and the Astrolabe (I agreed with the decision). Next turn he IAAs another naked thing. Crap! Well, again, I see no choice, so I run it. ...It's a Beale? CRAP. I'm pretty sure he's used Beale to lure me into a trap to bury me in tags. I get some cash to make his trace worse and pass. ... Nothing happens? Shit, his hand must SUCK. So I make some runs, get more points, and eventually I'm at 5 points and he's able to get an ice on RND. I figure this is a great time to save some money on a breaker install with my SMC, so I stimhack into the unrezzed ice on 1 credit. I spend 5 on Lady (2 from SMC, 3 on Lady because Kate), and opt to make the run successful, since he's broke too. I see NAPD, and steal it with my last 4 Stimhack dollars, winning the round.

My last round I lost on Corp vs @jakodraco again, but it was very, very close, and super damned fun.

Overall, it was an amazing tourney. I love PPVP Kate and all the flexibility it gives you while still pumping fistloads of cash in your face. If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and if you skipped down to here because, seriously, that's a lot of god damned text, than it's good to see you and thanks for stopping by =)