Keel Over [Top of Swiss @ CBI & 5th place overall]

Log Book Entry: Day 12. The Doctor has reappeared again. She keeps whispering in my ear. Telling me I don’t need those cards. Last time we tried to throw her overboard, I lost three good crew members. I’m afraid of what will happen if we allow this madness to continue…

I wasn't really prepared to play at CBI, and going into the tournament I figured I'd play something fun and not too serious, planning to win some lose some and have a good time. Running into a deck on Jnet which used MCA and Dr. Keeling to establish pressure on the runner reminded me of a Purple Keeling Tracker deck I'd made some time back.

The meta going into CBI seemed ripe with runners with strong board presences. Conversely, the threat of AGInfusion and Overseer Matrix Ob meant that Apoc was probably not going to be a popular choice.

Notably Snare Bears did not bring a single Apoc list to Fite Nite despite bringing 2 Anarchs. Ice was being broken too easily. Pinhole was everywhere. Thus, we needed something else to tax the runner…

Strategy:

Establish a hell remote via upgrades. Use said hell remote to protect Dr. Vientiane Keeling. Warroid Tracker punishes the runner even when they trash via Pinhole Threading. Use Restore to recur the good doctor when she is trashed. All the while load up the remote with defensive upgrades, triggering Tranquility Home Grid. A Keeling trash often presents a scoring window, during which we can go for one of the decks 5/3 agendas.

Performance:

On the day, the deck went 4-0 in swiss and 0-2 in the cut, but I will say I experienced quite a bit of luck in swiss, and made some major piloting errors in the cut, especially in my game against Janktivist where I managed to commit 3 blunders over the span of 2 turns (Not installing Magnet over the FC3 with Botulus, IAA an agendas instead of restoring Keeling that was just trashed, I think there was a third big mistake too). WP to all my opponents - MJP finding the right line of keeping installs as low as possible while contesting early Keelings proved too much for me to handle, likely also threatening the long-term viability of the deck.

But for now, sleeve up a deck that makes Endurance Keel Over and die.

Big thank you to @Kikai for reccommending a swap away from 1x Ontological to 2x Elivagar, a change that won me several games throughout the tournament. Also to the organisers, and to the whole of Unband, always, forever.