Dumpster Diver (19th American Continentals 4-2)

It was difficult not to play Shaper. But Geist, the Blue Shaper, not only allows me to play like a Shaper, but win at the same time! This Geist variant doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room in slots or influence outside the basic core. From the Geist this is derived from, notable changes include;

-2 Ghabali

-1 Paperclip

-1 Gamble

+1 Imp

+1 The Back

+1 Hostage

+1 Falsified

+1 Corroder

I geared a little harder for ping decks than I needed to, it turned out. The extra copy of The Back did not feel good. Paperclip would have come in handy a few times. But, Imp allowed me to clear pesky ice and dangerous operations before they could see play, and in testing cleared many Obo’s and City Work’s while poor, to avoid the following Punitive. Swapping a Gamble for Falsified felt really good. When Geist isn’t filthy rich, he’s dirt poor and not in Gamble range. The double Hostage is still up for debate. I think the more guaranteed setup speed of the Traders is worth the slot (get those Cams paying off!)

Match 1: Loss Ran early against Jemison and died to HHN/Boom. Got over-excited at an empty RD.

Match 2: Win ACME was moving along with annoying ice. Geist pressure slowed them down. They jammed a 5/3 when I was pretty low on creds, but they underestimated my rig. I was able to snipe the Bellona after getting Code Replicated onto a Data Ward. Boomerangs, Hooks, and an expensive Corroder break left me with 6 creds to steal for the win

Match 3: Win I learned from my first match and didn’t sweat when Outfit rushed to 6 points. As an Outfit player, I know that last point can be a struggle. They were completely locked on credits and cards for the rest of the game while I sat on 4 bad pub, Amina, Stargate, and Imp. Eventually found my seven points.

Match 4: Win Forced those early ice rezzes against AgInfusion where I needed them. Kept them slow, focused on centrals. We were both on five points when they install what I correctly assumed to be Philotic. Spycam showed me the win on RD, though. With the remote locked down with EtR bs everywhere, I mathed the three runs I would have to make into RD through an Anansi and Tithonium, without letting the first two Anansi subs ever fire, and the first two Tithonium subs firing only once. Credit perfect steal, letting 4 damage from Anansi hit me, and two program trashes from Tithonium wipe me away. Epic Geisting, including using The Back to shuffle only three boomerangs in to be able to Masterwork install and Prognostic install.

Match 5: Loss (2 for 1) Again I went too hard, this time against RP. Got on 4 points, but was overwhelmed with Virals, Prana, and Bio-Ethics.

Match 6: Win (2 for 1) Very slow game against Palana. They were on infinite credits. Stargate/Imp 6 points and a preemptive to steal out of Punitive range. Locked out of game winning agenda on remote by big ice, Border Control, and Embolus. I had two runs on HQ and an Imp trash to find an agenda in hand, since I knew the top of RD from last turn’s Stargate. Lucksacked the win on the first HQ run.

Missed the cut by SoS. Still had a blast!