Grape Juice: 15th place at DC Regionals (3/2)

I piloted this deck to 15th place out of 37 at DC regionals. The deck went 3-2. 15th is really good for me and I'm pretty overjoyed. I won some acrylic credit tokens which will be absolutely insufficient to represent how many credits this deck makes.

It also went 3-0 at a tiny GNK side event we played while the top 8 players played in the cut. I won some acrylic power counters which will be absolutely insufficient to represent how many power counters this deck makes.

I'm publishing the list for three reasons:

• It is a blast to play and I think you might enjoy it
• Unlike my Tennin list, which also went 3-2, I think this list actually underperformed. It's a solid deck, has a few nigh impossible to lose matchups, and I think has play against everything. I think you could pick up this deck and do well at a tournament, and I really hope someone does.
• I am extremely grateful to @FreqKing for publishing their Bios Au Revoir deck. It was 100% the inspiration for this deck, and if this deck can pay it forward and tickle your brain cells, I'd be very happy.

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Firstly, a brief rundown of my tournament:

Round 1: Loss vs Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions The board got to a weird place where the corp had 5 agendas scored (Philotic Entanglement, 3x House of Knives) and had 3x Bio-Ethics Association on the table. I had Beth Kilrain-Chang, Feedback Filter, and three Au Revoir. What this meant is I could click for 15 credits a turn and prevent all net damage with Feedback Filter for 9, putting me up 6 credits every turn. I was on 5 points. I should have just continued doing that until I had a ludicrous amount of money, but instead I waltzed into HQ, ate a Snare!, and ended up with more net damage than I could handle.

Round 2: Win vs Battle of Wits (Engineering the Future/ Mushin No Shin) Was able to get set up and periodically sweep the hand and do deep R&D digs when needed so I didn't have to engage in Mushin games as much. Was able to prevent 2 brain damage with Feedback Filter which was helpful. It helped that I was playing against my friend so I knew what to expect

Round 3: Loss vs Titan Fast Advance: I blundered pretty significantly in two ways this game. I neglected to install a Clot vs. what ended up being the first scored Atlas (I thought it was a Hostile Takeover). More significantly, I somehow allowed both the ICE on HQ and R&D to get rezzed, meaning I couldn't get rich charging up The Turning Wheel. My opponent played very well to force me to make bad decisions.

Round 4: Win vs. SYNC: It is close to impossible for this deck to lose to Sync. Hit me up if you need pointers.

Round 5: Win vs. Skorpios Defense Systems: Persuasive Power: Getting rich turns off Hatchet Job. Sacrificial Construct and Film Critic help vs. Hunter Seeker. Cheating through servers with Rebirth + Gordian Blade, Femme Fatale, Atman before you put your fracter at risk is a nice trick. They were able to rush to 6 but I was able to get all three Hostile Takeovers to end their chances of victory.

In the GNK, I also was able to beat Skorpios again, Blue Sun, and Gagarin. The ability to click for 3 every turn is really good against corps trying to out money you, just as you'd expect.

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How to play this deck:

You have a busted endgame which is really hard to beat. Your goal is to set up as fast as possible while preventing the corp from scoring 7 points or killing you. Ayla helps a lot. Fan Site helps a lot because the corp needs to either accelerate your plan or slow down themselves. Test Run + Femme Fatale is a neat trick that helps a little against a corp trying to rush out behind one ice.

When making NVRAM choices, you most want to see Au Revoir, Fan Site, Snitch, Test Run, Self-modifying Code, and Artist Colony, The Turning Wheel and any specific silver bullets you want for the matchup. You don't want put Clot or your breakers on NVRAM, because those are a lot better when you install them at paid ability speed with SMC or Artist Colony. Sure Gamble is disappointing to put on NVRAM but it's not bad there, as clicking to draw it and clicking to play it will still accelerate your setup speed.

If you can install one CyberSolutions Mem Chip, you are usually good on for the rest of the game. Once you install two granting hardware, you are definitely okay. Sometimes you need to trade a Fan Site for one.

Getting lots of money is nice, but if you aren't being rushed, finding a Turning Wheel before you start checking everything is a good idea.

Rebirth guide. Rebirth into:

• Kit against almost everyone.
• Jess vs. Sync so you can make them even more despondent.
• The Professor if there is no way you can lose and you want to taunt your opponent.
• Nasir if there is no way you can lose and you want to find one.

Do not rebirth into Kate for any reason. Only rebirth into Hayley if the ability to install stuff from your hand at paid ability speed becomes important (maybe vs. fast advance?). Neither Kate or Hayley's additional efficiency is worth passing up on being Kit.

Once you are clicking for three and a power counter every click, you should be able to figure out how to win. Use massive stacks of credits + breakers to waltz into any scoring remote. Trade in 8 counters and look at all five cards in HQ. Trade in a million counters and look at all the cards in R&D.

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Edits to the deck going forward:

I didn't have time to test out Inversificator before the tournament, but I have now. It's an easy upgrade over Gordian Blade. Gives you more flexibility to run HQ and R&D without letting them get a bunch of rezzed ICE there, turning off Snitch + Turning Wheel. It can get through lots of servers all on its own.

Levy AR Lab Access, Feedback Filter, Councilman, Film Critic, New Angeles City Hall, Political Operative, Sacrificial Construct, and Clot are 11 cards and 3 influence worth of flex slots that you are welcome to change to suit your meta. The most cutable cards in my opinion are Political Operative, Councilman, and Levy.

Levy is mainly there to cycle all your silver bullets back into your deck.

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Like I said above, I would be really happy if you wanted to take this deck to a tournament. If you want to do that, and you'd like to talk about matchups and tweaks more, let me know!

Thanks again to @FreqKing for putting me on Bios+Au Revoir, thank you to everyone who popularized other Bios lists so my opponents were playing around Apocalypse, and thank you to the entire Ghost Branch meta for being such great pals.

P.S. The deck is called Grape Juice because Au Revoir has wine in it and I think Ayla is Muslim. Happy Ramadan if you observe it, and, on a more or less unrelated note, Happy Loving Day, which is today.