Fiery Hounds (3rd at both DC & Philly Regionals)

Went 3-1 in Swiss and 1-1 in the cut (in DC)

Update from Philly regionals: went 3-0 in Swiss and 3-0 in the cut. I didn't take detailed notes, though, so the write-up below is about DC)

My only changes to the standard Fiery Informant were trading the Turnpikes for News Hounds and adding two Targeted Marketing (removed 1 MCA Informant and 1 Data Raven). News Hound is more taxing for most breakers, and it sometimes has a hard end-the-run, which is useful if they go tag-me. Targeted Marketing can help with Siphon spam, or at least slow them down.

Round 1: Patrick on Andy. Almost lost this one because I couldn't find a Boom! The winning agenda was actually on the table for a couple turns, but I managed to top-deck the Archived Memories before he checked it.

Round 2: Dane on Leela (Dane got 2nd place overall in this tournament, and we repeated this matchup in the cut). This was one of those NBN games where the cards just came in the right order. Recovered from a turn one Siphon and was able to HHN twice (using up his Aaron counters), and then 24/7 Boom. I think this was my shortest game of the day... which is funny, since our rematch in the cut was my only game that went to time!

Round 3: Dan "Code Marvelous" on Smoke. This was my only loss in Swiss. I knew this was a bad matchup for me since he runs 2 NACH and 2 Film Critic. I mulliganned into a hand with no ice, so he had Temujin credits forever. This game wasn't even close! Dan was my first opponent in the cut, and I got to choose the matchup, so that was an easy decision...

Round 4: Matthew on Whizzard. He went tag-me turn one with Account Siphon and kept me down for a bit with siphon spam, but it was over when I drew Closed Accounts, HHN when he started to clear tags, and then Boom for the win.

Round 5: ID vs. Alan.

Game 2 in the cut: Kevin on Whizzard. He also went tag-me turn one with Account Siphon, but with better results. I think I was siphoned a total of 9 times (3 siphons, 3 deja vu, 3 Same Old Thing). I was able to recover when his recursion was gone and Boom him twice through a 7-card Obelus hand. This was a tough one, though, because the Plascrete in his deck was left in his box accidentally. I think he would have won if he'd had it! Plus, technically, his deck was illegal so it was a DQ.

Game 4 in the cut: Rematch with Dane on Leela. This was the game loss that knocked me out of the tournament, and it was especially tough since I thought I had a good matchup vs. Leela! But Dane played expertly, always staying out of HHN range. I was able to MCA his Aaron, but I never drew my second 2/1 agenda to be able to 24/7 Boom. This game ended up going to time, but I think he would have won anyway. I made a couple critical mistakes, like dumping an agenda in Archives, forgetting that it would fire his Leela ability and let him take the QPM that was safe behind a Data Raven.

I enjoyed the day so much! All of my opponents were great players, and the community was so encouraging. I love Netrunner!