MaxXdirection - 3rd Place Can Nats (5-1, 1st in Swiss)

This is a MaxX list I had been working on since MWL 3.4 dropped and we lost the ability to Engolo/Spooned the corp endlessly. The game plan is pretty simple as your standard Patchwork MaxX, money up, use Patchwork every turn to threaten any mid to late game scoring. While they bolster their remote, you pivot to Hippoing the R&D ice and Stargating them into oblivion, with ice being the primary target. Levy, rinse, repeat.

This deck absolutely runs over most fair corps with endless D4v1d recursion, can grind with thousand cuts decks and is able to keep asset spam in check. During testing I found the issue matchups happened to be Argus and CtM as those corps are able to tax your clicks so much more than your credits with having to clear tags and only having a limited window in which to do that. A lot of the time I'd find that I'd be able to remote lock an Argus deck, but would have to take a number of tags which was impossible for a standard Anarch deck to clear. The morning of the tournament it hit me, Misdirection is what Shapers use to shore up that matchup, so why couldn't MaxX? We are already running 3 Clone Chips and 3 Inject so it's easy to find it.

This particular build is designed with a more asset heavy meta in mind. If your meta is more glaciery, cut a Hacktivist for a 2nd Stimhack. Another flex slot is the PolOp, I’ve found it to be quite medium. Rebirth might just be better in that slot, but it depends on the meta. The main weakness of the deck is usually the deck itself. If it's unable to find a Patchwork early, or if it draws its programs and bins its economy the deck can seriously stumble.

The day's matchups:

1. IceColdJazz on PE - This game was a grind, but I got lucky and was able to draw into a Wanton twice and bin enough agendas with Stargate and Wanton to win the game after Levying twice. This is a matchup in which patchwork usually doesn't matter, but even though you have 3 passes through your deck, they can still grind you out.

2. CtM - I think this was more or less Spags' US Nats list. I kept an opener with Hacktivist and Inject and rode it to a fairly easy victory as my opponent kept a hand with a bunch of assets and the kill package and couldn't clear Hacktivist, meanwhile I was able to money up and that was all she wrote.

3. ID

4. ID - although Whiteblade111 and I played out this matchup for fun and I would go onto lose that game

5. Political Dealings IG - I got down paired and had to play it out, Hacktivist, Hippo and Stargate locked up the game fairly quickly, although the Corp was a top decked Medical Research Grant away from potentially winning the game.

6. 6 Agenda Azmari - Played a very tough game against thike. He was able to open with a turn 1 Scarcity, I wound up drawing through a third of my deck on the first turn before I found a Hacktivist to turn it off. This list is far more reliant on resource economy than some Patchwork lists so turning off Scarcity was priority 1. He was able to rush out an early agenda while I spent a few turns moneying up. His list was playing a full Econ Warfare/HHN/Boom!/Psycho package so running too early could prove to be very costly. I wound up Hippoing his R&D Slot Machine with D4v1d and going ham with Stargate for a few turns, while he HHN'd me a few times, which I was able to clear with the Misdirection. I was able to get to 6 points when he finally got a scoring window. He psyched himself out from installing the winning agenda 2 times while I desperately dug for my singleton Stimhack. Finally he IAAd for the third time and a Stimhack stole the winning Degree Mill.

7. Titan Kill - In the losers bracket. I was able to money up and go ham on R&D with Star Gate, nabbing 2 Atlases and an Oaktown. The corp was able to almost play themselves out from a dire spot by making a what turned out to be a 3 Border Control remote with an advanced GFI. Didn't matter in the end as I was able to nab an agenda with Star Gate.

8. Argus Rush - A rematch of the ID round against Whiteblade111. I mulliganed a pretty bad opener into an even worse opener. Fortunately for me I was able to draw into a Patchwork/Daily Casts to finish off turn 1. Unfortunately for me, I only saw 1 more Daily Casts after this. My Misdirection came pretty late and after a few Wanton hits and an ill advised Archives run seeing that he was down to 1 CV/1HPT left, had to end the turn on 3 tags while I levied. He had CV in hand and that was all she wrote. Overall I'd say this matchup is normally pretty even. However, against @Whiteblade111, the match up is definitely tough as he is a great pilot with the list, as was shown in the Grand Final.

Overall this deck plays like a cross between Anarch and Shaper. It can be aggressive in certain matchups and it can be controlling in others. It has tools to deal with a wide variety of threats and can pose several threats of its own. Congrats to @Sokka for winning it all, thanks to the Edmonton crew for hosting a great nats, and thanks to @Dragoonkin for providing a great stream set up.