thimbleRIGGED! (4-1, 4th @Bristol/SW Regionals)

Another day, another tournament where I played Ob and World Tree Ari again, is anyone really surprised? 😉

This list is very similar to Ebrey's NANPC-winning list (it seems we were both tinkering with tuno's ICC list and came to similar conclusions), though my EMEA list is also worth a read if you want more info on slot options

Tournament Report

The deck went 4-1 (plus an ID) on the day, ending up 3rd in Swiss and 4th in the Top Cut

• 3-0 in Swiss, beating 2 shapers (Rotage & Chris Dyer) and 1 Esâ (xccam)
• 1-1 in Top Cut, beating Padma (Hemraa) and losing to Ice-Destruction Hoshiko (Ollie)

Losing in the (single elim) cut, to time, from an SDS steal off R&D, hurts... but it was the only game I lost all day, so I don't think I have much to complain about, overall 😅

Slots

• Tranquility Home Grid — the card is pure gas if you can see it early, I've had wins on turn 6/7 where it refunds 2c on multiple Holo Man fast advances. Border Control, Stavka, and Mavirus all enable the +2c on runner turns, too, which turns the heat up to 11

• Thimblerig — oh how I've missed my old friend, Thimble... I love this card in Ob, and it was immensely useful in testing and on the day to shut down Bankhar, fix Tao nonsense, and basically act as an extra copy of Border Control on any server you like. Having this also enables us to toy with situational ice like Winchester, and less Afshar

• Enigma — speaking of "less Afshar", the 1x Enigma earned a slot mostly because it's more expensive for Unity to break and Shaper is cracked atm, but it's also better into Aumakua, Shibboleth & Cat's Cradle, and Thimblerig allows us to manoeuvre the Afshar to HQ if it ever has to be installed elsewhere

• Crisium Grid — another card that definitely earned its slot, without even being rezzed! This card is instrumental for turning off Trick Shots, Finalitys, Steve triggers, etc. etc., on top of a 5c tax for the Runner to trash

• Tucana — I talked more about this in my EMEA writeup, and had been testing without it mostly since ICC, but it's another upgrade you can install on Tranq, which is always good

• Wall to Wall — cutting H&M makes a lot of sense, as people have learnt that it's an "obvious must-trash" (thanks Andrej + Jeff!), but W2W is often worth fetching even if it's just a "draw 1" effect for a few turns to dig for pieces before being sold for a 0-coster. I still think 1-2 of these earn their slot(s) in this archetype

• Armed Asset Protection — the card looks like a meme, and certainly provoked some hilarious responses from my teammates when originally suggested, but AAP is just "better Hedge Fund" in a lot of situations, and the deck often runs low, so having an econ card you can play at 2c is exceptionally useful (I never drew it on the day, but Ams did play one against me in round 4 for +5c on a very similar list🤷)

Special Thanks

As always, a massive thanks goes to the TAI Breakers for being a great team to test and meme with, as well as Baa Ram Wu, sixtyten, & nicky3.0 for organising a kickass, sold-out event! (@TOs: more of this SSS thing, please!)

And, begrudgingly, congrats to EA Sports for claiming all 3 podium positions — gg, top cut RIGGED, had to stack the odds against me, smh 😜

SHAABR + remember my door is always open, come talk to me about Ob💜