Takeshi's Castle 2.0 (3rd Reading SC)

I won a Store Championship with a variation of this deck at the weekend. It's an incredible deck and it feels so good to be back playing Criminal. I highly recommend it.

@rojazu Have loved playing your deck for a while. Mine is more geared for a Jinteki/Prison meta. Some thoughts...

I have gone to 46 cards and added +1 Aaron Marrón, +1 Hostage. This allows me to fetch either Aaron or John depending on the matchup or draw. I run 2 Daily Casts, but the Hostage make more sense with Kati Jones. Maybe go 2x Hostage and 1x Aaron, John, and Kati?

I ditched Paperclip for Corroder and put in a Feedback Filter (-1 Account Siphon). This is really the only way to survive PU and IG Jinteki decks right now... If I could figure out how to slip in Salsette Slums...

Where possible i always think its better to be modifying ones play style to counter specific decks rather than slotting the direct counter. Marron should in theory improve the jinteki prison matchups (which already are no worse than 50:50 for andy if played correctly). You have good cards to lean on like masonori, strike and sec testing for these matchups already.

integrating marron is a question im trying to figure out. At this stage im in the camp of ditching the castle/taps in favour of marron/casts. So that would be 2 marron, 1 kati, 1 mas; swapping out 1 marron for a hostage seems fine too.

Seems a shame not to play Rebirth. Isn't it almost auto include for Andy? Is the influence just too tight?

@shango rebirth isnt that great in criminal as your realistic targets are leela and iain, iain is okay but the deck is filthy rich so its not like we need late game money (and ideally we are ahead anyway). leela doesnt have a link and thats a big deal, and her ability again is less impactful as the game goes on. I will be testing it when Cambridge comes out to see if he's any good but for now its quite far down on the list of 1 influence spice cards that are worth a slot in the deck

@rojazu Took this exact list for a SC champ yesterday at Gold Coast, Australia so thank you. Ended up beating Blue Sun, AoT in swiss rounds (1 bye, 1 ID) and 3 IG decks in the top cut, one for the win. Agree that you have to adjust playstyle depending on the matchup and understanding win conditions.

Datasucker was MVP on the day.

the deck has changed a bit post marron (no castle/taps, instead casts/marron) however the influence remains the same. the datasucker is in the flex influence slot still but always face competition from the wheel primarily. a wistful glance is always made towards the critic, however andy wants aggressive, not defensive cards i think.

@xdfubar well done for win. i personally have an absymal record vs IG, which I think is a problem with my own playstyle and approach to that matchup rather than any fault of the deck - do you have any tips for that matchup? were you facing 49 or 54?

@rojazu Thanks mate. It was IG49 I think. Didn't see any museums. I think early and consistent central accesses are paramount, especially if you can trash out the bio ethics and other key cards before the corp sees them. This means you don't have to gamble to naked unrezzed remotes as much if that makes sense. If they friends back the bio ethics and so forth, then you know exactly what they're bringing back, I usually hold on the estrike for a turn where I can estrike, run, run, run to make it worthwhile, before they clear with a current of their own. I'm also not afraid to just clear out archives, as long as there's nothing in hand I'm worried about losing. Medium/Datasucker are big players in this matchup. I found myself special ordering for mongoose and passport early. Hope that makes sense. And just heaps of practice matches!