Opus MaxX (2nd @ Berlin Double Play)

I played this deck at the Double Play Tournament in Berlin, it went 3-2 in Swiss (where one defeat was a game loss in a pretty good game state), taking me to the first place. Since we played a three person cut, I didn't play this deck in the cut.

The only change to the previous iteration is a swap from Feedback Filter to Caldera, because I feared PU decks might slot in Wake Up Call to deal with the Filter and Film Critic. I didn't need it in any game, so I can't comment on its effects, but it's probably an okay change.

Game 1 versus Emil (Lime) on Rewiring CI: The first game of the day and a pretty bad matchup. I had a good start and found a Femme for the Mother Goddess on HQ. I delayed him a couple of turns by nabbing a Brain Rewiring, a Show of Force and trashing a Contract Killer, but it was too little to stop him, so my brain got fried around Turn 7 or 8.

Game 2 versus Mario on Kill Gagarin: At first I didn't know what Mario was up to. Only after the game did I remember, that we talked about his deck at the SC in Hamburg. It is Gagarin with Hard-Hitting News, Boom, KP Lynn and Dedicated Response Team. I had a good start, getting an Opus out and a Hacktivist meeting going. On his next turn, he removed the Meeting with Paywall Implenmentation, so I ran R&D, saw another Paywall Implementation and decided to ignore his spamming (since I can't keep pace with it without Hacktivist online) and just go for Centrals. The MVP was definitely Maw, which trashed multiple kill cards (Consulting Visit and Boom) from HQ. Later on, I dropped low on money, so Mario Hard-Hitting Newsed me. I decided to go for it and won on R&D. What seemed very close to me, wasn't in fact, since I trashed his whole kill package with Maw, as he told me afterwards.

Game 3 versus Oliver on Stinson CI: This game was extremely tense. I tried to pressure him early on, forcing him to rez Ice and slowing him down. I mainly focused on locking down his Remote, trashing two MCA Austerity Policies with two counters on them. In the end, the Remote was too taxing for me to get in regularly, so I went for his R&D since there were only a few cards left in it. When he scored an Elective Upgrade, going to five points, with one card left in R&D, everything came down to the card there. Fortunately, it was a Reversed Account which I could trash to mill him out.

Game 4 versus Odol on Underway Skorpios: This was the one deck I heard a little about between rounds and I definitely did not want to face. Odol had what seemed like a pretty good opening, making some money and putting Ice on R&D. His problem was that I called the bluff, Rebirthed into Kim on Turn 1 and hammered HQ to steal 3 points. The next turn, he drew frantically, but couldn't find another Ice, so I went for HQ again, stealing another 3 points. On his turn, he finally found an Ice. I facechcked it and it turned out to be an Ice Wall, so I drew for my Paperclip, which I found. Next turn Click 1 install Clippy, Click 2 run HQ and steal another 2 points for the game. Not much to say about this game, Odol just got terribly flooded.

Game 5 versus Vaclav (Watzlav) on Rewiring CI: This game went better than the one against Emil. I frantically coded an early Turtle and Rebirthed into Omar, also I had a Turning Wheel, which is pretty much optimal in the short time Rewiring gives you. I attacked his HQ with my Omar runs, forced some Ice rezzes, pumped up the Turning Wheel and when I had the feeling he could kill me next round (which he confirmed after the game), I accessed five cards out of HQ and grabbed two Agendas, which closed out the game. Although everything went very well, it was still dicey, as I needed 2/5 Agendas on my last access.

Game 6 versus Alex (ff0x) on Stinson CI: I don't remember much from this game - and it was very short. I stole an early Sales Team, got a nice setup with Maw, Bhagat, Opus and Turtle, but then I ran R&D, triggered Maw and flipped the card. For a second I was thinking about whether I should trash the Violet Level Clearance or leave it there to gain another Aumakua token. Then I got a bad feeling since I couldn't remember running HQ and realised what I did. At that point I just conceded.

The deck performed well again and I think it is great fun to play. Of course it does have some bad matchups, but I think there are lines in every game and no matchup is completely hopeless.