Scorchio! 5th/6th Exeter Store Champs

A fairly standard convience shop style Haarps deck with 24/7 and all the burny death cards. Finished 4th overall after Swiss and 5th 6th after the top 8 cut (lost both my runner games, sad times).

It did incredibly well on the day only dropping one game somewhat unfortunately (3/4 of the 2pters were scored in succession off R&D) while unsurprisingly, every win was a flatline.

First off, let's get the common objection out of the way - this deck can deal with plascrete and film critic, it just takes longer (and Haarps gives you that time).

In my first game of the top 8, I had to 24/7 to trigger BN just so I could trash film critic to enable the midseasons play later - totally worth it. I then had to burn through plascrete and recycle the scorches before they could levy it back in. In another game, triple scorch was the way. In another game I had to deal with a dorm computer of all things!

The only thing that really stops this deck is double plascrete which most people aren't running and most people wouldn't see in time anyway. This deck goes very fast.

So typical tactics first in case you aren't sure. If you have a Breaking News and there's no threat of clot ruining it, score it. The only exception to this rule is if you have a scorchy hand in which case it might be worth installing, icing and advancing for an early win. If clot is a threat, time to wait till you have either 2 BN and install both or just install 3 agendas and hope they miss it.

With a BN scored, the runner knows they are on a clock. They have to stop you scoring another agenda which is unlikely with Haarps and still have to avoid midseasons or running in to kitty cats with tags. Equally, every news team they take as a -1 point gives you another turn in which to burn their house down.

Don't underestimate the security of dumping agendas in archives, especially with a Data Raven there. While I wouldn't want 2 pters there especially, there's a huge risk to the runner in hitting kitty cats with a tag, hitting more tags with TGTBT or hitting multiple news teams. Usually just for 1 agenda point. This frees up your hand to hold all the combo pieces for scorchy death which is absolutely vital. It also frees your Jacksons up to recycle meat damage cards rather than agendas which is hugely important.

You have a few tricks with the Astro if you get one scored beyond chaining them. Can be very useful with BN for a cheeky scorch win or even better with a shattered remains on the table (advancing it after they commit to access) but scoring out in this deck is unlikely. Normally that would be a problem but 24/7 means that you don't have to threaten to score out and you don't have to out econ the runner.

Obviously this isn't legal for post MWL but in truth I don't think it takes that much of a hit. Dropping the Astros hurts (dropping a scorch would hurt much more), but replacing them with beales and replacing the shattered and something else with a Psychographics or two could open up scoring potential. Or you could just run exploda and bank on the midseasons. It's worth mentioning that out of about 5 games that I played with this deck in the tournament (and a couple of casual games in between), I didn't use an astro counter once. Normally I sacrificed an astro to trigger BN for the win :p

It's a great deck, and is incredibly stressful to play against, no one wanted to play against it in the cut and I think that speaks volumes!