Imping across the finish line - 1st at Aldershot Regional

Deck Thoughts

This deck is pretty similar to other Aesop Hayley lists floating around, so I'll just point out the main difference to other Aesop lists floating around.

• The Turning Wheel was a vital include in the list. For some reason other Aesops lists I've seen floating around have absolutely no multi-access. I might even recommend going up to 2 of these.
• Imp was pretty useful all day, giving me motivation to run a bit more aggressively, and keep getting those turning wheel counters. It won me a couple games by trashing agendas I was unable to steal, and was always solid Aesop food.
• I shouldn't have dropped the second Akamatsu Mem Chip. In the little testing I did in advance, I was using Gordian rather than Engolo, and the little bit less memory to work with made things pretty awkward, as I'd rarely have room to keep all the programs I wanted on the table, especially with how many utility cards I've included here.
• Pelangi is pretty good, and I used it a fair amount, primarily to paint the few big ice I encountered into barriers to break cheaply with Lady, could definitely be cut back down to 1 again though.
• Deus X did literally nothing all day. Definitely not worth the slot, especially with Feedback Filter already in the deck. If you expect to see big ice where using it with Pelangi would be useful, you'd probably be better off with something like Gebrselassie, or System Seizure to keep a breaker at strength.
• Diesel was there to add a little extra consistency for those weaker draws, but I only used them a few times on the day, so they can be cut.

On the Day

The Swiss

Round 1: vs Sam Bull on Gagarin

Sam was able to wedge me in an awkward position with Urban Renewals ticking down at the same time as landing a Hard Hitting News, and I miscounted clicks to get Misdirection out and clearing tags. Between the Urban Renewals ticking down, and the threat of High Profile Target, it was a tough situation too early in the game for me to easily recover from, leading to a win for Sam.

Round 2: vs Toby CD on Spark

As is some sort of tradition, I got paired against my brother; but for once I was the one to come out on top. Not only was Toby playing nonsense clown-car Spark, but he got pretty badly flooded, making for a relatively straightforward win.

Round 3: vs Sergio Marques on The Outfit

This game ended up being pretty tight, with Sergio getting to 6 points from a Sea-Source exchange, but Turning Wheel and Imp let me get a deep dig, getting another 2 pointer, and the last Hostile for the win.

Round 4: vs Tom McBride on Replicating Perfection

I let Tom score an early Obokata while I was getting set up and digging for breakers, for which I was just relieved that it wasn't a Nisei. I'd seen a Future Perfect in HQ, giving me a good target to aim for with my Imp while occasionally poking HQ for turning wheel counters and keeping my money up for when they'd go for the score.

I stopped them getting scoring a Nisei from the remote, winning the Psi-game for Batty, (the only psi-game I won all day), and I think I got the winning points out of R&D with Turning Wheel.

Round 5: ID into the cut, being paired against Peter Cox on Palana.

The Cut

Round 2: vs Ed Proctor on Spark

Ed's deck really blew my conceptions of Spark as an ID out of the water, as between rezzing super cheap adverts costing me enough credits to keep me running early due to the risk of HHN or Sea-Source, and Divert Power to derez those cheap ads to rez not one, but two Hydras on the remote, I was struggling for credits the entire game.

In the end it came down to time, with Ed on 4 points with a Kitty and an SSL, and me on 2 for a Global Food, I burned most of my resources getting into a remote with naught but a NGO in it, then drew the last card in my deck so I could survive the last ditch Stimhack into R&D to see four cards, with the last card being the 15 Minutes that they shuffled in earlier, which I Turntabled for their SSL for the win.

Grand Finals: vs Peter Cox on Palana

I admittedly played this game pretty sloppily, not making sure I had enough cards in hand to steal Obokatas, but the Imp bailed me out not once, but twice!

When I went into the bin to fetch the first one, I was greeted by the pleasant surprise of their also being a Nisei in there! It turned out Pete was massively flooded from the start, making for a rather anticlimactic end to the day.

Closing Thoughts

I also want to thank everyone who was at Aldershot for making it a great day, with special thanks to the Daves for being a great TO, and providing the wonderful "trophy", and to Sam Bull for being the only person to take any games off me all day.