[Classique 2023] Core Set Waltz

Deck Advice, courtesy of Nemamiah

What Your Deck Does

This is a very traditional Criminal deck, with loads of central pressure and disruption to punish the corp for being too aggressive. You have some sustainable long term economy with Tapwrm, Pad Tap and Rezeki, and Annicam will help you draw through your deck as you play your many events. Use Leela Patel’s ability to bounce ice on centrals and allow you to keep attacking, and Diversion of Funds and Embezzle to disrupt the corp’s plans.

Cards to Mulligan For

Rezeki, Pad Tap and other economy, Annicam or The Class Act

Tips and Tricks for the Matchup

First and foremost you’ll need to be mindful of the corp’s ice, much of which has nasty face checks. Hagen can trash Rezeki, Gatekeeper and Drafter can accelerate the corp’s gameplan, and Fairchild 3.0 can be a very unpleasant speed bump. Boomerang can negate this, but also remember that you can only use your ability to bounce unrezzed ice so you may want to not challenge R&D for single accesses when you could open it up for multi-access later. You will need to do what you can to disrupt the corp’s gameplan; where possible and practical you should challenge remotes to try to trash Rashida Jaheem and MCA Austerity Policy. In the mid game if your economy will allow you to you’ll also want to try to trash Jeeves Model Bioroids and Lakshmi Smartfabrics, both of which will make your game much harder if they stick on the board. Manage your money and tricks like Boomerang and Inside Job as much as possible to allow this, but don’t overextend to the extent that you can’t exploit a score or vulnerability if one crops up. If you sense that the corp is trying to score an agenda from the table use burst multi access and your identity ability to bounce it, if possible.

The corp will draw and hold a lot of cards, so in the mid to late game Legwork, The Turning Wheel and Sneakdoor Beta can all be high value options if you can time them right. The longer you can force the corp to try to stabilise and worry about centrals, the better your central access will be. Political Operative can be used to stop a Rashida Firing or to interrupt a score involving Jeeves Model Bioroids, but can’t stop the corp defending agendas with Lakshmi Smartfabrics unless it was already rezzed.