Among the Stars

This is a rush deck, pure and simple. You've got seven 3/2s, and six ways to fast advance them. All your ice ends the run. You've got Manegarm to tax the runner out from getting too many accesses, and Border Control to stop Deep Dive and Apocalypse. Your economy is good enough to do what it needs to, and feels a little shaky against 419.

That's a fairly bare-bones overview of a deck I've been playing and tweaking for quite some time. A lot of cards have been added in or cut, such as Wall to Wall which I found was often trashed far too quickly to be worth the slot. Tithonium didn't slow the deck down, and was great against everything that wasn't Paperclip, but needed extra slots for Standoff and eventually got cut for Border Control and Formicary tricks. If I didn't think I needed Manegarm's defences, I'd be back on three Red Levels in a heartbeat.

One thing I've never changed though is the ID. You can almost certainly build this deck in Built to Last or something similar with the Oberths being the only part getting weaker. There are other IDs that are simply better value or make the deck function smoother. But Jemison is something special, and not because of any word in its text box.

Three cards were released to go alongside Jemison that are so core to what the ID represents they make up the latter part of its name: Sacrifice, Audacity, and Success. This is an ID that has a goal, to terraform Mars, and it is impossible to say that is not a good thing to strive for. The only other corp ID that comes close to this is Gagarin, but the theming of that one never quite hit home for me.

Netrunner is a game where we often think of the runner as the hero and the corp as the villain. There have been a few runners that buck that trend (Kim and 419 come to mind) but we almost never see the reverse. Jemison was our first proper look at what a "good" corp might look like. They're still working in the relatively dystopian setting Netrunner presents, having to crush opposition wherever they find it or risk being ground down themselves. They can definitely still be the villain of someone's story. But they're aiming to do good.

I'm hopeful that NSG will explore these sorts of themes more as they continue to do their amazing work keeping the game alive. So far though, I think the most I could point to is the story of Built to Last. We certainly haven't had any runners who look like villains yet either. It would just be nice to have a window into how this world of the future isn't always black and white.

So how did the tournament go?

Round 1: Loss against 419 after I paid one too many credits to their ID and discovered Aumakua can get counters on an empty remote server.

Round 2: Win against Lat: Ethical Freelancer. I think I got Apocalypsed during this game, but being able to rush agendas out the turn you draw them is powerful.

Round 3: Loss against 419 after getting agenda flooded. I could have protected HQ better with the Formicary I had on Archives, but when you draw two agendas with four in hand already, there's not a lot that can be done.

Round 4: Win against Alice after taxing their economy out with Archer. It's always fun to see an anarch pay 14 to break an ice.

Rounds 5 and 6: I won one of these, and lost the other, but can't remember which was which. The games were against a Nyusha deck that I beat after they spent most of the game digging for their Paperclip, and a Kabonesa deck that I lost to due to them sniping agendas from HQ.

Round 7: Win against Kabonesa. Archer takes quite a lot of Endurance counters, and is still expensive for Ika, so I was able to use a few scoring windows to my advantage and fast advance out from there.

Overall, I'm happy with these results, both with how the deck performed, and for being only two wins behind the top 16 in my first big in-person tournament. The games were fast paced and often very close. There were a few places where I made mistakes, and I've definitely learnt from them. I also saw some interesting other takes for Jemison, such as Moon Pool as another fast-advance tool, which I'll enjoy trying out. I'm certainly looking forward to the next time I can bring this unique ID to another event like this.

Special Thanks

- The Warwick Crew. This has been my local group for the six years I've been playing, and though many good friends have come and gone, I'll call out a few in particular.
Finnbar (harmonbee), who helped introduce me to the game, has given me a lot of good advice, and first showed me the sort of tricks that only Jemison can perform.
sophie (Crowphie), for running our local CCGs group this year, and for committing to help keep the game healthy as part of the Standard Banlist Team.
Mandoline, for being a wonderful partner, and for keeping me on my toes with all of her card designs, be they overpowered as all hell, utter garbage, or off the wall insane in the best of ways.
- The Tournament Organisers. This was my first big event in person, and it was all I could hope it might be. It was a great pleasure to meet so many members of the community, and I'm forever thankful to those who put effort towards letting us play this incredible game.
- My Opponents. I got to face off against all manner of folks over the weekend, with a vast array of playstyles, wits, and strategies. All were friendly and welcoming, and I couldn't ask for a kinder community to be part of.
- The Designers of Red Sands. I have no idea who these people are, but they gave us something unique in the game of Netrunner. I'm glad they explored what motives a corp might have, and gave us the fascinating ID that is Jemison.