Medium to Large Maxx - 1st Worlds 2021

This is the fairly large Maxx deck I took to 1st place at Worlds. Since I've spent the last 3 years playing Criminal, this was a fairly big departure.

When 419 was banned, I started testing Steve with only OK results, and was lured into testing Big Maxx by some Snarebears. The deck immediately agreed with me, which is unusual at the best of times, and very unusual for a deck that plays such terrible icebreakers. After playing some 30 or so games with it, every other runner felt too slow and the Maxx deck was doing really well, so I set about tuning it, eventually adding some 5 or so more cards, which was the opposite of what I intended.

I played around with the influence spread, with Rezekis and Pad taps and 1 Rebirth being set in stone. Deuces brings its usual great flexibility and provides a degree of counterplay against tags. Turning Wheel was a 2x for a while, but I find it more often icing on the cake as a closer rather than a crucial piece, since Maw provides pseudo multiaccess and Stargate can provide quick pressure against a Corp not defending centrals. Political Operative is a useful tech card at the moment and could be played as a 2 off. I tried Falsified for a while which is a good bet, but was taken out to make room for the Aeneas Informant package, originally suggested by me as a joke to @osclate. Aeneas is excellent against both CTM and Gagarin and synergistic with Maw and Slums, as you can use Slums while still triggering the other two. It's also decent against PD, providing a Zayla-lite ability on central accesses and recouping some credits on remote runs where you leave Tranquility Grid untouched. If your meta is a ton of rushy Weyland (Argus/Outfit) or yellow glacier, these should probably be Falsified + DJ Fenris or a second Political Operative.

Overall the archetype feels powerful and has no obvious bad matchups outside of maybe net damage grinder and some curveball decks specifically teching for you with Ark Lockdowns / Salems. The deck throws a ton of decisions at you, especially with what to bring back with Labor rights, and still often gives me the feeling I'm making a lot of errors. It was extremely fun to play though.

Over both days I went 7-4, beating 2 CTM, 3 PD, 1 Azmari and 1 Recoco Gagarin, and losing to Reality Plus, NWE Prison Gagarin and 2 PD. My biggest throw was forgetting about False lead against Gagarin and dying to Urban Renewal, in a game I felt I had mostly under control with 2 Aeneas down.

Big thanks to everyone involved in organising, running and streaming this Worlds - it was a ton of fun despite being a purely online event. I can't wait to see most of you in person next year!