Drumbeat MWL 3.3 (2-2 Cambridge Regionals 2019)

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever." - 1984

With this deck, force the Runner to march to the rhythm of this face-stamping; if they don't run, make a massive money lead and score out, pressing your advantage with SDS Drone Deployment and over-advanced Project Atlas. If they do run, teach them a lesson with Punitive Counterstrike, Wake Up Call, spiky ice, and finally Mwanza-Snare!-Sapper shenanigans.

This is the deck I brought to the Cambridge Regionals. It went 2-2, bringing me to 16th place out of 24, which was good enough for me! I had an over 60% win rate on Jinteki leading up to the tournament, and it's a lot of fun to play. Seeing players' faces when they realize it's a Mwanza deck is great.

Games went as follows:

Game #1 (win), vs. Freedom: Had a decent start. Runner Hippo'd through HQ and ran a bunch, stealing SDS and SSL. I used an Atlas counter to find Punitive Counterstrike, and squeaked by the trace with a couple of credits.

Game #2 (loss), vs. Val: In this matchup I couldn't find the agendas fast enough. I thought they were running 2 of each conspiracy breaker so only snagged two Black Orchestras on an early Ark Lockdown. Val ran smart, got all set up with money and a pretty huge Turning Wheel, and there was nowhere to hide at that point.

Game #3 (loss) vs. Stealth Jesminder: I didn't ice up HQ first turn, and Jesminder managed to Hot Pursuit x2, and Dirty Laundry HQ turn 1. The economy lead let her get set up before I could get scoring, and the ice suite was not enough to stop her (Switchblade Pelangi combo was very strong). Film Critic canceled Punitive and kept me from getting my SSL credits.

Game #4 (win) vs. Los: Runner was running pretty standard good-stuff Criminal. The deck worked as planned and they ran into Mwanza on R&D, and hit a Snare! and Sapper with just Amina installed. After that I managed to run away with scoring out.

Strategies: I usually throw the big taxing ice on the remote, and use wimpier stuff on centrals. Money up early then just score out. Sapper can sometimes be used to ice up, especially to score early (Sapper in front of Border Control is pretty good) but can just as often sit in hand. Keeping the Sappers in the deck to be hit during a Mwanza run is the real plan--mulligan if there are any in hand, except in extreme circumstances. After a Mwanza run, you can use Punitive or Wake Up Call to punish the Runner even further. Wake Up Call can be used even when the Runner trashes Snare! or Sapper, and it can do a lot of work breaking expensive hardware or annoying resources (trash. the. film. critic.).

Changes: I think the agenda suite might need some refining; I like the Atlases and they have won me quite a few games online searching for Punitives, but scoring 7 points can be awkward. The deck might be strictly better with no Atlases, and including Consulting Visit instead, to find Punitive, Wake Up Call, or even Too Big to Fail. In addition, Increased Drop Rates is a cute card, especially for poisoning Archives, but it's a little inconsistent and doesn't do as much work as I would hope. I think Roughneck Repair Squad does fine removing bad pub on its own between scoring. Also, Preemptive Action is just a little too slow in this rushy sort of archetype, so I would drop that for another Tithonium, Border Control, or even an Afshar to make your defenses more consistent. Preemptive seems good in theory to throw Snares and Sappers back into R&D, but really one nasty Mwanza is all you need to pull ahead and stay ahead. I would try:

-2 Atlas

+1 Hostile Takeover

+1 SSL

-2 Increased Drop Rates

+1 Snare!

+1 Consulting Visit

-1 Preemptive Action

+1 Tithonium

Try that or other combinations and let me know how it works!