There’s only one person that would play 7-pt CI and I’m certain they won’t be bringing it.
Went with Gagarin and Whizzard.
Gagarin was @CJFM’s Hidden Temple list, -3 Turtlebacks -1 Root, +1 Snare! +1 Blacklist +1 Interns +1 Contract Killer.
Whizzard was the exact list posted.
19-player tournament. First round play against Leela+Argus. Desperado+SecTest+Masanori makes my Gagarin groan and have to turtle up instead of going horizontal like I’d prefer. Get stabilized, but he got the winning access off R&D. Argus was a matchup I hadn’t played against. I did have Plascrete out quickly, and WyldCakes was doing work making sure I had cards for days, but he kept using Casting Call behind a Data Raven to make sure I’d end up with tags if I went through… I feel I could’ve done it once, but ultimately he got his points before I got to 7.
Next round, Leela+Cybernetics. This one’s not on Masanori, and having played it last round, I rush out super aggressive, throwing Atlas naked and got a couple through, along with a Public Support. Killed a Kati with Contract Killer, then got a Corporate Town to kill the SecTest and now he can’t get into any Ice’d server and doesn’t make money fast enough to keep my assets under control. Long game, though, as I kept having to throw assets to burn money and get them back with Museum. Burned his ice to the ground in the Runner-side game, but didn’t have enough time to find the agendas to win it; Tie.
Third round was Kit running Panchatantra and Net Chip + Torch + Magnum. I was worried about Opus giving him enough econ to keep up, but pressured his econ with must-trash assets and he eventually fell behind and I forced too many uses of Deus Ex/Sharpshooter for him to get in. R&D was kind to me and didn’t give up too many points. I feel like he was running Cybernetics but I can’t remember exactly. I feel like I kept his money low and defused traps pretty effectively, before shredding R&D ice and winning there. Not terribly memorable…
Fourth round was Whizzard+PE. I think he was on Dumble as well. He knew his high-priority trash targets (Museum and DBS, btw.) and kept my assets… well they weren’t running wild. I did get a Corp Town behind ICE and trashed Wyldside before he blew it up. (I noticed he had one Wyldside already in discard…) Won here because he failed to count my agenda points. A Public Support was on one counter and I IAA’d an Oaktown in my scoring server at the same time. I was on 4 points… He thought I was on 3, so started prepping R&D for a Medium lock. My turn, won through advancement and Support. Achievement Unlocked: Won a game with 3 Public Support in Score Area. The PE deck was a PE deck. He was slightly flooded, I feel, and I definitely refused to play his games. Nothing terribly memorable, his R&D coughed up 7 points without him able to score anything. (I did come close once to being Ronin’d but it was on the last turn when I got the win.)
Cut to Top 4! Weird… Top 4? Ah well, less time I guess. As a side note, I wasn’t the only player at 11 points. Two players going into round 4 had 10 points, and if it had been a sweep, both of us 11pointers would’ve made it. Instead they split, and I had stronger SoS, so I made the cut and he didn’t. Weird Tournament Structure strikes again! (I seriously need to get around to trying out a ‘play one game for your match’ style of tournament to see if it feels any better…)
First game against a Pitchfork Hayley with my Gagarin. Turn 2 installed a Contract Killer; he installs an Aesop without Hayley trigger… So on my turn I blow it up. He has money problems for a while until he finds a replacement. I rush out some points to get to 4 pretty quickly. I have a Hadrian’s in my scoring server and he has a decent chunk of change (12 credits or so?) along with an SMC out. I have Oaktown and GFI, so I decide to start taxing his SMC abilities. IA the Oaktown and install Blacklist for the eventual Clone Chip… He runs and SMC’s in a David. Alright, that works… IAA the GFI, pass back… He Scavenges his David and I groan inwardly (and outwardly, later!) he gets that agenda and I can’t recover, suffering the first non-Criminal loss of the day on Gagarin.
Loser’s Bracket we’d both Corp’d before, so randomly I’m against his MaxX. That’s alright, it’s why I have a Blacklist! And MaxX reeeeally can’t keep up with my asset spamming. I get a pretty early lead, 4-0… He recovers a bit and scores off R&D, making a serious effort to make my Blacklist go away and stay gone. Museum just keeps putting it back, though. I find a GFI and IAA behind a pair of Spiderwebs while he starts turn on 0 money and only 5 cards. He can get in, but it’ll burn his whole hand and turn to do it. He makes a critical error and is left with no money to actually get in (Can’t remember exactly the sequence, I think he drew instead of taking a credit.) I win on the AAA GFI to 7 points.
Finals! I pull out Whizzard and he pulls out NEH. What type he is exactly is answered with his second click: First turn install, Rez Turtlebacks, Install, Install. I knew I would need more econ than card draw, so I’d mulliganed to try and find some, but no luck… Centrals are kind and cough up two Astros in the first two turns (Medium helped there.) He finally puts out an ICE to stop my R&D lock and I facecheck naked; hitting the Assassin that hits the only card in my hand that I care about: Daily Casts. So now I switch to asset management mode. Having played Turtles NEH before, I find and trash the DBS’es and Sansans… I leave the PAD and Turtlebacks, since he already has money for days. Can’t stop that, but money alone doesn’t make that deck win… (No inf for Biotics) Then he Breaking News’s with a pair of Team Sponsorship out to recur a DBS and Sansan, and I feel the beginning of the end. My econ is still hiding, though Wyldside’s helpfully appeared without a Chronotype if I wanted to lose even more… So I just slowly trash DBS and Sansan until he finds his third Astro and FA’s it with a Sansan, now he’s at 5 points and I ignore the sansans, trashing DBS’s madly to try and keep him from finding his agenda before I can recover. No such luck, he gets it.
Congrats to him, and yay I took 2nd! Last time I took 3rd. 
I definitely feel my Whizzard play could’ve been better. I felt very good about Gagarin, especially actually beating a Desperado Crim with it, which is a matchup I generally just assume I’ll lose.
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Nice to read about the outcome of your deck choices, hope you were happy enough with it overall. I’m surprised at the popularity of museum temple turtleback NEH, wiz and desp sec test crims in our meta kinda just crushed it and it hasn’t really been back xD although hitting an assassin is def pretty painful if it gets to fire 
anyway grats on second place
Lol and after that write up I realize I was there(NEH/pitchfork top 4) ! You forgot about your first round after the cut, when you Dumbleforked foodcoats pretty good and won by 1 credit at the end of the game.
Glad Dumblefork worked for you, there really aren’t too many great counters beyond “win fast” and even that won’t always work. I didn’t actually have any museums in the deck, and your religious trashing of my dbses was definitely a great call, 4th to 2nd was a great play out.
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Blackguard.
Oh no, I chimed in too late.
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Oh wow, yeah I forgot about that round.
I knew he would be bringing that deck; he’s been playing it for a while at the store beforehand… It’s the main reason I went with Dumble, because it’s the only deck I’ve found that can actually challenge Foodcoats on the credit pool, while melting their ICE down… Final turn was sweet though.
Start turn: He’s IAA’d an agenda while at 4 points. I’m at 6, so it doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s an agenda I win. He has a facedown upgrade and a BBG in the server as well. All his ice is rezzed: Turing behind Viper behind Wall of Static. I have a David with 1 counter, a David in heap, 4 credits, a clone chip, Faust and six cards in hand after Wyldside/Pancakes. One of my six cards is a Knifed. I also have a Datasucker with one counter. First click: Knifed the remote. Bring WoS down to 2 with Sucker, break with Faust. Pump and Break the ETR sub on Viper, lose a click. David through the Turing, he rezzes Ash. I thank god, and immediately fail the trace and then kill Ash with whizzard money. Third click I run again, Pump and Break ETR sub on Viper, lose a click. Clone Chip back the David to break Turing, access for game. Hella close game and I just barely got it because it was Ash and not Caprice.
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