DJ Baby Grandpa (2nd, Milwaukee SC)

So it turns out Omar isn't just a good rebirth target. He's, like, just good in general. I won most of my games by being hyper aggressive, taking every single access I could, and not letting my opponents build up their board state.

Omar went 4-2 and carried me to second place at the Board Game Barrister SC on Feb 3rd. The meta was yellow and orange all the way down. What is this, Worlds 2016??

The Cards

The biggest player of the day was probably DDoS, which I was able to install off of a peddler once and install/pop on a first click another time. Most of the rest of the cool stuff in here didn't show up early enough to be relevant. I'm considering Earthrise Hotel for more draw, but I'm not sure what to cut. I'd also like to go up to 3x Turtle for maximum early aggression, as I only drew one once and didn't install it.

Bhagat is pretty great as an in-faction substitute for HQI. He's been really awesome every time I've seen him. Would love 2.

Symmetrical Visage is pretty nice way to keep yourself above water credit wise. It's easy to get on a peddler and make 5-7 credits over the course of the game.

I had Scrubber for fear of the Gagarin matchup, but it didn't do much. It's less good against CtM because you often try to trash everything in one turn to minimize the CtM/ARES triggers. I might swap this for Slums.

The Games

Round 1: Jason's Asa Group

My early impressions of Asa are that it encourages you to build super remotes at the expense of lightly-defended centrals. I was able to single-access my way to victory by running naked centrals with a turn 1 Turning Wheel and seeing four cards off of R&D on a DDoS power turn. [Win | 2-0]

Round 2: Andrew's Making News

I play a dangerous game of getting some early accesses while building up some money. He Consulting Visits for Door to Door, so his Aryabhata has to go. I slam down DDoS, run his hand to find an aryabhata, trash it, and then trash his installed aryabhata (which i later found otu was a Macrophage that would have wrecked me when arya was rezzed), and thankfully I find an Employee Strike to clear the D2D. His R&D gives me 5 points, but then I fall prey to a Hard-Hitting news. I decide to float the tags and just run everywhere I can for a few turns until I find the winning agenda. [Win| 3-1]

Round 3: Daine's AgInfusion

Aginfusion is a hungry hungry hippo for credits, and Omar can punish it a bit by running a lot to keep it poor. He rezzes a Chiyashi on the remote, leaving his centrals pretty undefended for awhile, letting me steal some points. I have a Pol Op early that trashes a fully-charged MCAAP, and a timely Employee Strike prevents me from worrying about hitting that Chiyashi again anytime soon. I believe I single-accessed my way to victory at this point. [Win | 4-2]

Round 4: Kevin's CtM

Kevin and I play each other at the FLGS, and you never like seeing meta-mates in the last round of swiss. If one of us sweeps, he's very likely to make the cut. There's a fair bit of back-and-forth as I balance taking out assets with building up my econ. The game was close, but I faceplant an Architect on an Omar, which lets him install the 3rd card on R&D in the remote. It wasn't the top card, so clearly that's not an agenda, so I use Omar to check HQ. He's at 5 points, so I have to check the remote in case it's the last Beale, but unfortunately it's a QPM that I score for him, putting him at 6. That top card on R&D? 15 minutes. Kevin dabs, as he is want to do. [Loss | 5-3]

Miraculously I make the cut (thanks to the SoS gained from Jason's win at the bottom tables), and I face off with the undefeated Jerry for...

Cut Round 1: Jerry's CtM

This one is hazy, but I think Jerry rushes out an AR-ES, leaving his centrals wide open. IIRC he was drawing up for the first several turns but not really installing much, so between regular runs and Omar's ability I snipe most of my points from HQ. [Win]

I corp against Andrew in the cut, and his Maxx beats me again to send me to the loser's bracket for the semifinals against Jerry's Val. I'm able to beat him there, which send me to the climactic conclusion of the day...

Cut Round 4: Andrew's Making News

I won my first game against Andrew in swiss by running a lot early and ultimately floating tags. I check the top card of R&D, install Liberated and took 4 creds off of it. He has an HHN in hand, though. Instead of clearing down to 1 tag, I clear off the Liberated and clear a tag, leaving me at 3 tags. Turn 3 boom dead. Totally reminds me of the climactic fight at the end of Equilibrium where two rivals leap into what will surely be a hard-fought battle, only for one of them to cleave the other in two immediately. [Loss]

Big thanks to Jason for organizing. I had an amazing time making it into my first cut ever and getting to second place. :-D