Crescentus Reina - 1st place Cloud Cap (14 players, 4 rounds

Because everyone's playing RP and there's no better way of grabbing a Future Perfect or an agenda off an Ash/Caprice remote by vamping and then going for the grab.

Excellent questions.

1) I compare Vamp to AS primarily because it is a huge swing in credits. Remember when you'd feel like you were in a good spot as corp, you'd lay down and advance an agenda in your scoring server and then you'd see the AS coming, not have enough credits to rez ICE or maybe now the runner has enough to beat the ASH trace or get into the server? That's the same feeling with Vamp. Runners are increasingly rich; MO, Kati, Day Job...on and on with the ability to outpace the corp making money. Vamp A) secures the runner in a superior credit position B) Allows them, on their turn, to pretty much get in wherever they want C) places the corp in an incredibly difficult situation, as getting back from 0 credits is difficult, barring a Melange or Beanstalk D) the synergy in this deck when you land a Vamp, then next turn, after the corp takes 3, to clone chip out a lamprey, run HQ 3 times, then hit R&D is fantastic.

2)Speaking of Lampreys, to address your second question; I didn't ever install 3. I did have 2 on the board for 2 turns at one point, draining my opponent of 8 credits and 3 clicks total, whereas the lampreys cost me 1c each, plus the card, plus the clicks. However, each time, I got accesses into HQ for information (which let me know, in one case, that my opponent was running Scorch Making News) which was invaluable.

Deck looks as unfun to play against as advertised!

One question: What is your solution to a Swordsman?

Excellent question! I didn't see any Swordsman in play but it is a real threat. I feel like the deck has several solutions. 1) There are multiple copies of Eater 2) I have Knight as a backup breaker 3)I have Clone Chip to get them back. Swordsman is really only surprising once. After that, I feel like you can effectively play around it.

That would be great, except Knight is also an AI breaker. That is why Parasite is seen in a lot of these decktypes. It can kill Swordsman in a couple of turns; and destroys cheap, annoying ICE that can prevent a lock, like Pop-up Window.

It sounds like you didn't need it though, and that is a meta call. Congrats on the win! I love playing this deck archetype.

Ah, touche'. Perhaps I will keep one Parasite in there after all!

Seems like a Parasite or two would go a long way (especially if scrubber was a dud), to help you mitigate those lean ICE that tax the runner more than the corp right out the gate (Caduceus, Pop Up, Pup, etc.)

Gonna try this deck out, but with Parasites over cutlery. I don't think Lucky Find is great, at least not a full set. Maybe 2.