1st Place Antwerp Regionals: Deal with the Spam

When I first saw this identity, I was only able to think about one thing: ASSET SPAM. Even though my beloved prison got nerfed so hard that it became literally unplayable, we still have a secondary win condition out of Jinteki … Political Dealings.

So the plan is simple: Spam assets, get your engine rolling and FA your agendas with Political Dealings in combination with DBS, Moon and Rashida. What’s so nice about your ID, is that you spam a ton of assets and your opponent has to respect that all of these servers are theoretically ICE’d. The tempo of this ID and the threat of nasty ICE feels similar to what RP could do back in the days. Just remember this is all theoretical, and everybody will just estrike you into the ground.

Choices

• Some people play real 3-pointers in this deck, but I’m not a fan of that. Also Viral Weaponization is just an insane tempo-swing, so I refuse to cut it for something else. This card screwed over a lot of my opponents.

• More assets means more Turtleback creds, more Moon-tokens and it becomes harder to find those naked agendas. That’s why I rate MHC higher than Hedge. I’ve tried Diversified in this slot, but it’s just overkill.

• Genotyping: Last minute include against runners who focus on destroying one specific piece of your engine. The idea is alright imo, but I didn’t really need it.

• A couple of big ICE for the late game. Makes it easier to stop central runs or even to just score out behind a Chiyashi if the runner keeps trashing your stuff and forgets to develop his board state.

• Shouldn’t have cut the Swordsman!!!

• With Komainu and Tour Guide you have some ICE that stay relevant against a loaded aumakua.

Round 1: SC Bye

Round 2: Pieter with 419

I have a good start and quickly develop a decent boardstate. Pieter lands a nice Embezzle and steals an early agenda. IIRC it’s turn 3 or 4 and he has 0 creds and just a turtle and Earthrise installed and decides to run my naked R&D second click, Steal, Click 3 run again, Steal, Click 4 run again, Steal. UGGHH

Round 3: Gereon with Khumaloo

Not the MU I wanted to see but let’s try this. He gets an early datasucker and estrike, but I can sneak an early Medical BT to counter this. The asset train leaves station and I quickly score all 3 Medical BT, without losing too much tempo. Game is over pretty quickly, can’t complain about my draw.

Round 4: The OneakaNeo with Maxx

I think it’s like 1 year ago, when he played his first tournament and had to play against my prison deck (Spoiler alert: He lost that game). So he laughs when he sees me spamming the same cards like last time. Since he’s not playing estrike (but Levy) it’s almost impossible for him to do anything against the deck. His Hacktivist is only mildly annoying and I can just score out. Style points for landing a Viral Weaponization after a double inject turn. One of the juiciest hands I ever trashed.

Round 5: SmokeElmo with 419

Contrary to his brother round 2, he can’t find 3 consecutive agendas on top of R&D. But he is checking my remotes and eventually reaches 6 points. Since he doesn’t have the econ to contest the board, he tries centrals but he can’t break a Chiyashi or a Tour Guide and doesn’t have the money for the Nexus trace, so I score out next turn.

Upper bracket finale: Django with Valencia

Against Val you need a good start, but that’s not what I get. I think that I open with 2 agendas a DBS and 3 ICE against a double estrike. I can’t defend my board and can’t pay for a Mining accident. Even without a board I come close by just scoring naked agendas, but eventually he steals a risky naked braintrust.

Finale Part 2: Django with Valencia

This time my start is better with a Turtlebacks vs no estrike. He does play a Liberated turn 1, but I rez my Malia as a response. This was a game changing tempo-swing. I quickly develop a board, while he struggles to deal with the Malia. Eventually he destroys my Malia but I quickly recur it with Team Sponsorship to cancel the Liberated (with 8 creds) again and even a Full Daily casts a bit later. I get a good lead on him by constantly interrupting his resource econ and landing 2 Viral Weaponizations and FA out for the win. Malia singlehandedly won me that game.