Minnesota Magnum Maxx (US Nationals, 2nd Place)

ramus 309

I took this deck and regular scumbag Sync to Nationals expecting to just have a good time, but I somehow ended up at 2nd place. This deck won all 5 games (with one timed win) in swiss, and dropped only one game in the cut.

@thebigboy made a good deck, and I just took it and made a few changes. I was able to get a lot of very favorable matchups through the tournament, such as facing three ETFs with none of them being moonspam.

Changes: -1 Inject -1 Wanton +1 Keyhole +1 Plascrete

Keyhole because I wanted a little bit more for the Skorp matchup, and Plascrete because I've had a terrible time playing against boom decks. Cutting Wanton is the wrong call, but fortunately I was able to get into HQ for the final agenda points as I needed in my matchups.

R1 vs Titan

Opus, Vamp, Keyhole. Done.

R2 vs ETF

Opus, Vamp, Keyhole. Done.

R3 vs Skorp

Since we only had 10-15 minutes left, I went straight to keyholing. I dumped 3 points into archives and that's all I needed for a timed win.

R4 vs ETF

A long game with probably 15 keyhole hits but not enough for the win. I was going mad trying to find another agenda and eventually found one. Of course, the agendas had been piling up in HQ but I never ended up going there.

R5 vs Sync

A rather intense matchup. I did the standard fare, and got the Plascrete down around the time there was a BN and another agenda scored. Eventually he got a 24/7, CA, HHN combo up to stick me with 6 tags, but I stayed outside of Observe and Destroy range while getting rid of all tags. He eventually decided to boom me through the plascrete to try and kill my remaining recursion, but it missed the last card. That was my cue to play LARLA and find my plascrete again. However, I had to dig through the entire deck. The last few turns involved him getting a Boom with AM, me SOT'ing an Inject for some click-compressed draws. That finally found the Plascrete, and I just suppressed the corp for the rest of the game with Vamps until there were no more cards left.

R6 ID

With this, I ended up at the 6th seed after swiss.

Game 1 vs @checkthebox with Sol

The regular course ended up with only 2 AP on my side. I kept looking for more agendas with keyhole and got essentially nothing. Some time later, I figured I'd have to get into HQ and spooned an Archangel to enable accesses. One hit got me an agenda, so I decided to do a Mad Dash into HQ again, and, surprise, there was another (of three) agendas.

Game 2 vs @podoboyz99 was a very narrow win with corp.

Game 3 vs @joseki with CI

My start was fairly slow, trying to get Keyhole and Eater down. Eventually I checked HQ thinking I had to trash a Crisium and learned Panic Button is a card, and Reuse came down after that. After a few more turns with some keyholes doing very little, we ended up at the final turn. My last turn involved 3 lines-- SOT could put out RM, a vamp, or a blind mad dash into archives. The last line would've won me it but I considered it too reckless, so I did a vamp instead. Naturally, CI doesn't need any credits to win.

Game 4 vs @checkthebox was a wild rematch with corp but I ran away with the win.

Game 5 vs @tzeentchling with ETF

Game started off with lots of moneying up on both sides, and I thought the game had run away from me with a FC3 on HQ (and a Crisium behind it). However, I was able to apply enough pressure by forcing rezzes and eventually getting the agendas I needed with Keyhole. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/149555473?t=1h52m51s

Game 6 vs @bluebird503 was a very tense win with corp.

Game 7 vs @joseki with CI

The rematch, which I was more prepared for, although I'll admit that I didn't have the foresight to pick Keyhole over Opus if it had came up. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/149555473?t=3h30m45s

Game 8 vs @joseki as corp. Some cold ones with a NACH means I had no chance.

Shotouts to the Seattle crew, particularly @checkthebox, @podoboyz99, and @grogboxer for making the cut, and congratulations to @joseki for winning it all.

1 comments
6 Jun 2017 moistloaf

Thanks for the VOD links and grats on your finish. Did the home turf proud