Free Gagarin

mcg 1061

It's Free

I'm going on holiday in less than 12 hours and I haven't packed (or slept) yet, so publishing decks here definitely shouldn't be my priority. But the people (one person on Slack) have demanded (briefly mentioned one of the cards in this list, completely out of context) to see it, so who am I argue?

Following the success of last year's Lady Gaga-rin, giving Team Believe It or Not This Planned Almost Worked Once its name no less, I continued to look for ways to 'prove' that Gagarin can be a fun ID to face sometimes. It was difficult to judge based on the bewildered faces of my opponents, but I think they were happy tears. Reading cards is always fun, right?

The idea of this deck to earn as many credits as possible for friendly japes like HHN and Punitive, while assembling a ridiculous rig as cheaply as possible. There was some debate about the 'cheapest' way to rez an IUSE and a Mumba Temple (I think it's the same either way), but once you've got the next one rolling you're in for a pretty sweet time. Three Mumba Temples lets you rez The Root FOR FREE. That's a six credit saving, unbelievable. With IUSEs in play, rezzing Dedicated Technician Team and Khondi Plaza actually gains you credits. As does Levy University, which you can then use to tutor some ridiculous ice, before installing it FOR FREE, and, assuming the runner doesn't trash all your stuff, rez FOR FREE. Then when you get an agenda in there, guess how much it is to advance stuff with The Root credits? That's right! And once you score that one off, ridiculous TeamSpo, that would have been better as pretty much any other card, let's you recur stuff FOR FREE too. No wonder I'm not sleeping, this deck is just too exciting.

On the day it went 3-2, with wins over very sensible decks like 419, Freedom and Leela. It only just lost to a second Freedom, which is obviously not a great match up, with a surprise rez of an unbreakable Next Diamond (four influence well spent) during a Stimhack run, but alas Russell had three cards in hand to just avoid death. And then its luck ran out completely against Smoke who annoyingly didn't care how big my ice was.

The takeaway for next year is obviously that I need more Brain Damage in the deck, and not to play against Smoke as much.

But regardless, another fantastic team tournament. Can't wait to see what's possible next year. Make Gagarin Fun Again!

2 comments
18 Oct 2019 Cliquil

"friendly japes" No. But you have a Levy University so I'll give you a point.

18 Oct 2019 Tolaasin

Can confirm that being bemused by so many cards that it does three times brain damage is an excellent strategy.