Crutching the Message - 2nd Santa Clara SC

I don't have anything to say about this deck that hasn't been said before. I tend towards rush styles on corp side and this is a CTM build focused more on rush ice than is typical. I stole this list from @GoHawks. I got 2nd place with this deck, it only took two losses on the day, one in round 1 and one in the grand finals, so I can't complain.

I had planned to take my Friends ETF build to this SC but in practice during the week leading up to the SC I was playing this list and it just wins more so I decided on Friday night that I should just take it.

The tournament was a blast and I got to play against some excellent players and everyone was generally great and wonderful as usual. If you're in the south bay area definitely come by Game Scape Santa Clara on Thursdays and play with us and come to the monthly tournament.

Matchups: Round 1 - Played against @ctz's Whizzard list and had a rough start with a lot of agendas and not a ton of ice. He steals one off R&D and two out of hand easily. I score a breaking news off the table and ASI him but its not super impactful. I score a second breaking news with no benefit just to get it out of my hand. I finally think I have a scoring window to get an Astro out behind Tollbooth Resistor when he doesn't have a code gate breaker installed, Black Orchestra is in the bin but I calculate 12 cr to break tollbooth and think its safe. He stimhacks the remote and as exactly enough credits to get in and steal the Astro. Prob couldn't have pulled it back anyway GG.

Round 2 I play against @joseki's apex. There's at least 1 whiffed apocalypse in this game due to unfamiliarity with the deck and it doesn't feel like a clean win but I'll take it.

Round 3 Playing against my buddy Joe who's on stealth Smoke, he doesn't get temujin in his opening hand so its a rough start. Joe plays strike early and keeps the political assets at bay. Strike gets cleared so he switches gears, installs equivocation and just tries to see all my agendas before I do. He has to install Atman 5 to deal with tollbooth on R&D which leads to an interesting moment where he trashes sensie and I have my first opportunity to fire my ID ability all game but I can't because he and I both know there is an unrezzed resistor on R&D that's at strength 4 (he ate a HHN) and if i trace him he can break w/ the atman so I awkwardly decline to fire CTM. He gets to 6 but I manage to score out behind code gates as he never finds refractor.

Round 4 Matchup against Cory who is on Reavershop Haley. I have turn 2 ASI wiping a tech trader and aesops. The game is basically over at that point, as I score 2 points per turn off sansan for the next 3 turns and win.

Cut game 1 - runner

Cut game 2 Alexander on stealth smoke. I stuff 3 Temujins. It is a slow game but an easy win.

Cut game 3 Game is against Todd, last year's runner up, on Geist. I know he has 2x On the Lam in his deck and I'm worried about that. It is a really hard matchup that has a pretty awesome end. He installs the source so I can't use my sansan and has medium on 5 counters. I have 5 cards left in R&D. I know that one of them is a Beale I bottomed off sensie a couple turns ago. He runs and I'm able to get him to 2 credits, needing 3 to steal because of the source. I sensie draw and don't see the beale so I get worried its the bottom card and I just forgot how many turns ago it was that I bottomed the beale. I draw it on my mandatory and I have an astro token and a sansan so I score it off the sansan with the astro token and 2 advancements for the win.

Semi finals - Runner game

Grand finals Game vs @nobo715's reg whizz. This is a really tense game through the beginning but I mange to stick a sansan for a few turns and I get an astro a breaking news -> closed accounts play off right after he empties a temujin. My draws cool off and i cant draw an agenda to score of the second sansan which sticks for a turn or two. I eventually get some econ going and find EoI but can't find breaking news to swap GFI. I jackson 2 sansans in and Noah recognizes that I probably have some 'genders in hand and he runs hq twice sniping the 4 points he needs to win. Looking back i pitched an EoI early because I hadn't seen breaking news or GFI yet and I had other goodies, well those cards came real soon after and if i had saved the exchange instead of closed accounts it might have been a different game. Oh well!

good games all around A+ would tournament again

Thanks to Kendall for TO'ing and to Game Kastle Santa Clara for hositing!