Zen Garden (top eight champs, 3rd in swiss)

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
2-Server Sun (Kansas City Regionals 2nd)
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Axlotl 2681

48 man Store Champs at Mead Hall (Minnesota). 4-1 in swiss, 3rd in standings before top cut. Tenma/Blue Sun.

I played Blue Sun Mushin/Off the Grid at worlds in 2014, just missing top cut. After a few more releases I had to retire the deck as other decks gained power. Now it’s back, baby. Mushin/OTG enables a Vanity Project score in 6 clicks for only 3 credits (assuming the OTG survives to be bounced). Assassin is phenomenal tax in here, and Foods thin the agenda density nicely, without the risk of Vanity and a 5/3 being game. Even if they find the Vanity, they still need 2 out of your remaining 7 agendas.

Here is this decks game plan: 1. Ice HQ. Hive is phenomenal. So is Excalibur, if you aren’t expecting Faust. 2. Dig for cards. 3. Ideally, get a Crisium Grid installed on HQ. 4. Score an Atlas with counters. If possible, through a Mushin/OTG play, otherwise through a traditional remote. You’ll need 1-3 counters depending on confidence and cards in hand. 5. Pop counters for all the needed pieces to Mushin No Shin a Vanity Project into play, and Off the Grid it. Next turn pay 3 and finish it up. 6. Congratulations! You’re at 6 points already! And there are only 11 points left in the deck! 7. If you have an Atlas counter left, pull the 2/1 for game. If it gets Clotted, reinstall the OTG to protect it for a turn. Otherwise, wall up and dig for an Atlas or the 2/1.

Back up scoring plan is Atlas-Atlas-Food, as a triple counter Atlas easily sets up a Food score. Mulligan for econ. Watch out for Sneakdoor Beta.

Tournament Report: Round 1: Win 7-3. Leela. Leela pulls an early 3 points, including the 2/1, but I stabilize. Leela’s Security Testing and Bank Job end up with no viable targets, so Leela’s econ flounders. I move for an Atlas with a single advance on an OTG, leaving me with about 7 credits to protect it between ice and a Crisium. Leela Employee Strikes me, but can’t challenge the Grid, so I score the Atlas and clear the Strike, and hope the OTG survives another turn. Leela responds with another Strike. I drop an Atlas on the OTG. Leela can’t stop it, and I score the Atlas up to 4 points and clear the Strike. Soon after, Sneakdoor comes down, and I have to spend a lot of turns recovering econ and walling up HQ and Archives, but I Mushin/OTG a Food for game, with a Crisium on HQ and an Excalibur on archives.

Round 2: Win 7-2. Noise. His econ isn’t firing very well. I score an Atlas with 2 counters, and pull the Mushin and Vanity Project to go with the OTG in my hand. I score the Vanity. I later top deck the 2/1 and win.

Round 3: Lose 2-7. Ken Tenma. I, somehow, get flooded. 3 Agendas in hand. I have an Atlas scored with counters, and Tenma hasn’t dug too deep into his deck yet, so I go for the Vanity Project/Mushin/OTG play. I have Tollbooth and Assassin installed, and either stops him cold after the first encounter, but I can only rez one. The only card that’s a threat is Inside Job, but I can feel the noose tightening, so I go for it. If this works, I have 1 extra Atlas counter for the 2/1. It’s a good opportunity. He’s got the Inside Job, so he pulls off the play and wins that turn, pulling two agendas from my hand on the runs for game.

Round 4: Win 7-4. Jesminder. I win this game entirely off the backs of two early Assassins, rezzing, bouncing, and reinstalling in another place. First Assassin eats Magnum. Second time the replayed Assassin eats Gordian. Then Lady dies to the second Assassin. The net damage ate a lot of important cards also.

Round 5: Win 5-2 (timed). Sunny. Sunny starts setting up trickle econ, RDIs, and breakers. I score a Atlas with a counter and a second Atlas without counters. Time is called. Sunny hits RnD for 4 cards, I pull the Vanity with Atlas. Sunny scores 2 points. Sunny can only run HQ once, hits nothing out of 6 cards. I score the 2/1 on the last turn, because why not.

Top cut: Lose 2-7. Chaos Theory. Maker’s finds 2 Foods. I score an Atlas with 3 counters (Mushin/Grid), and immediately follow it up with the Vanity play. He has an ok credit pool, but not enough for an Atman, so I feel pretty good with Excalibur on HQ. Unfortunately, he plays a Faust, so he’s just barely able to get in, clear the grid, go back, then take the Vanity on click 4.

6 comments
8 Feb 2016 DarlingSensei

Congrats on the win! I also played OTG Blue Sun for a lot of last season and it was fun. The issue I ran into was that once you scored one agenda and cleaned out the rest from HQ, a smart opponent would lock you out of R&D. If you over commit to R&D, they clean out HQ of crisiums and OTG's. Did you feel that as you played? A few quick ones if you don't mind: -How do you play the launch campaigns? (1 ice, no ice, OTG, etc.) -Which agendas are worst to lose? -How was the wendigo?

8 Feb 2016 Axlotl

Atlas counters prevent RnD locking by pulling agendas, the low agenda count makes an RnD win slow usually. Once the Vanity is scored you don't need to commit as much to HQ and can defend RnD more. This is why I really like the Vanity/Hostile score plan, as its one less Mushin/Gridded agenda.

I defend Launch Campaigns with an ice in early game. Once econ is where I need it to be, I'll keep dropping Launch Campaigns into the server if they haven't bothered running it, otherwise, if they had I probably pulled the ice back at some point. In that case I'll start dropping Launchs bare or just dumping them. Sometimes I'll dump one bare turn 1 and bounce it right away if they don't clear it to make a quick 2 credits. Never used Off the Grid on one.

The one game I saw Wendigo and it was good, it never actually got ran. Wendigo is decent in here, not the greatest, but I need to pad the code gate count a little, and its pretty taxing for 2 credits sometimes. A Wendigo/Meru Mati HQ can be a very cheap effective way to push the first OTG score. I never found myself in a situation where I needed ice and regretted the Wendigo, so I'll be keeping it for now. I was playing 15 ice earlier, without Wendigo, but I feel with 17 it deserves a slot.

Vanity is the obvious agenda that it hurts to lose. the 2/1 is quicker than Atlas to win after Vanity, but Atlas isn't that hard to score either, so it isn't a huge loss. Global Food is the one you are most ok with them pulling.

8 Feb 2016 Axlotl

I like having RnD taxing enough to stop constant runs, but not so taxing that they never run. Every credit burned running RnD is a credit not available for HQ. Often, you WANT them to hit RnD a bit.

15 Feb 2016 internet_potato

Thank you for posting this, it's a lot of fun.

I dropped one Launch Campaign for another Excalibur, which I am always happy to see. I might try to fit in a second Hostile Takeover for the 7th point (after Project Atlas and Vanity Project), it stings when the single one gets picked off of R&D in the early game and makes it a lot harder to close the game.

I might also try to fit in a Cyberdex Virus Suite because I am super-scared of getting destroyed by Medium digs, and it's pretty stressful until I've got HQ pretty locked down and the vanity project scored (or at least in hand).

15 Feb 2016 Axlotl

I did play CVS for a little bit in the past. Its also nice to stop archives runs for sucker counters without having to dedicate ice. CVS/Power Shutdown were the two cards I had tested on and off before the tournament. The third Launch Campaigns wasn't to important, I just decided to go all in on the game plan, and cut any tricks out. My 3 flex slots from testing became two more ice and the 3rd Launch. 15 ice was definitely to thin.

21 Feb 2016 Axlotl

Played in another store champs, in Wausau, Wisconsin. 3-2 in swiss, 7th place. 18 people.

Brutal field at the tournament, a lot of high caliber players. Spags, Andries, Schupp, etc. Lost to Whizzard and Maxx. Need to shore up the Anarch match more, but its not terrible as is.

Went -1 Spiderweb, -1 Launch Campaign, +1 interns, +1 Elizabeth Mills