Okay, here's my deck and some thoughts on Worlds.
3x ASL F1 Government Exorcist
2x AAD F41 Repo Man
2x CS F7 Undercover Security
2x ATS F81 Unorthodox Psychologist
3x ATS F82 Endless Interrogation
3x CS F16 Shotgun Blast
3x CS F19 Small Price to Pay
2x CS F18 Torch the Joint!
3x ASL F2 Interrogation Center
2x AMM F9 Giant Albino Penguin, Antarctic Monstrosity
3x AJK F110 Magah Bird
3x CS F87 Performance Artist
2x CS F82 •Victoria Glasser, The Society Hostess
2x ASK F69 Victoria's Protege
3x CS F96 Agoraphobia
3x CS F99 Blind Submission
3x CS F100 Power Drain
3x AAD F51 •Infernal Obsession
3x AMD F30 •The Seventy Steps, Of Light Slumber
The two things I was meta-ing against was neutral characters (dogs and descendants) and the Guardian Pillar version of the Steps. I have horrible memory, so I'll try to sum up my 4 rounds proceeding the top 4. I am also horrible with names, so I have omitted the ones I don't remember in favor of not mangling them.
Round #1 = This was an interesting match form me. My opponent was playing a Polar deck. I outrushed him in game 1 with the usual Steps madness. Game two, I had solid board control and was shocked by a card I had never even read before: Hypothermia. With zero cards in hand he wiped my board clean and proceeded to win. That was cool. We started game three but I did not get to complete my second turn when time was called and we ended in a draw.
Round #2 and or 3
Okay, my memory is failing me. In rounds two and three I played either The Professors mono Miskatonic rush or Paul's friend (Jeff I think?) running the exact same deck as Paul. I believe I beat both of them in 2 games, but I could be completely wrong on that. I did win both matches, that's all I really know.
The Professor was running his students up against a brick wall from the start.
I respect his decision to not play steps and he had a pretty solid Misk deck
running. If the Steps deck had been fixed prior to Worlds I would suspect that
his deck would have done quite well.
Jeff's deck was an exact copy of Paul's. Agency/Hastur but without Steps.
Interrogation Center was the pride of the tournament and we were both
running it. I was surprised to find that he was running it with Descendants and
Rats. I may have won this in two or we may have only completed one game
before time, I honestly do not know. What I do know is that it was a nerve-
wracking mirror match and I was not excited to play the deck with Paul behind
the reigns.
Round #4 = Paul showed me how to properly play Agency Hastur. Ultimately my deck was a bit slower than his and I was too light on characters. He had about the same amount of board control as I, but without Steps and Torch The Joint he had more room for characters-- so I got out-rushed. 0-2 loss and quite rapidly at that.
So, I sneaked into the Final 4 on tiebreakers. Paul was undefeated (Tom's only loss) and I was 4th. Mirror match again!
Again, I was worked by Paul's board control and superior characters for a rapid 0-2 loss. My only hope for top 3 was that Paul could repeat his win on Tom. That did not happen. The top 4 decks were mine, Tom's and 2x Paul's. Tom had to face Paul's deck twice for the win and it was epic to watch.
About my tech:
Torch the Joint was added as meta for Cavern of Flames and Steps. I could have taken this out. It was useful a few times to remove a turn 2 resource from my opponent and maybe a few times to kill some locations, but I never really used it to it's full effectiveness. It got resourced a lot.
Repo Man was added for the same reason as Torch. Also, he's a cheap 2 skill 1 combat dude. I liked him over Rats because I was running Interrogation Center. Again, his effectiveness was lackluster.
Unorthodox Psychologist was a last minute add for Investigation icons. I was running Femme Fatal before that and decided that Fast wasn't as useful to extra success tokens. This was a neutral decision. The extra Investigation was very useful, but against so many Bird decks I sure could have used more Fast.
Interrogation Center was the champ of the tournament. I used it more effectively than steps in almost all my matchups.
Other than those, the deck is pretty standard. Played like a normal Steps deck if you draw it, played as cautious control if you don't. I made a few key errors that could have cost me a few places in the ranking, but I don't think I could have beaten Tom regardless.
Fun times in Indy. Hope to see everyone next year!
Chevee
In fact, I'm not positive that Repo Man was in the deck at all. I might have had 3 UP and 3 US.