Casa Sparrow Brawler (7-1, 20th at Worlds2023)

Cpt_nice 1948

birds of netrunner

Fun fact, the Spanish Sparrow is genetically very close to the House Sparrow, one of the most common European birds.

This is the deck that carried me to 20th at this year's Worlds in Barcelona. It is heavily based on the Sparrow Brawler deck fellow QTM-players played a couple months ago. They have since moved on to new projects, but I have jammed a good amount of games with R+ and I love NBN, so I decided I would be most comfortable taking this to Worlds.

The deck only dropped one game against an expertly piloted Tao by Rotage, where I couldn't go fast enough. It beat another Tao, 2 Arissana, 1 Lat, 1 Hoshiko, 1 Loup and 1 Sable. I ID'ed against a fellow Dutch meta mate.

Notes

  • The agenda suite is the same as my deck for Euros. I was never a fan of Oracle Thinktank but it is an agenda the runner has to respect, and a sneaky drop into archives did win me a game.

  • Behold!: Tried one copy as a deterent (and for bee points). It is essentially a Snare! that doesn't deal net damage but does give an extra tag and it takes up no influence. If you're on kill you could consider Snare instead, but here this is better and probably not even needed.

  • Retribution: Later lists seem to have dropped this card, but I think this is a mistake. Program trashing is a serious economic hit to most runners at worst and just a free win at other times. The bin breakers are gone, so even anarchs are weak to suddenly losing breakers. Crims are not on 3 Boomerang anymore and use one of every breaker (and I guess Aumakua) so sometimes you just straight up win because they have no answer for Wraparound. Arissana is more tricky but I did win my final game with a lockout against her, so it is definitely doable if you are comfortable with trashing your own ice. This operation also was crucial in my most lobsided game, where it trashed an Imp and Knobkerie.

  • Shipment from Vladisibirsk: I often wished I had 2 of this for when the runner decided to go tag-me. I think that might be overkill though.

  • Jaguarundi: This ice is cute and annoying to deal with once the threat is live, but it is not good enough for 2 influence. This can be swapped out.

  • Starlit Knight: This is a good ice, but personally I like 2 copies over 3. It is a punishing face check, but it is a bit too cheap to get past for most breakers until the runner goes tag me. And even then the threat needs to be high enough. I almost played just one copy, but I am happy I didn't because it did save my ass more than once.

Thanks to all my opponents, especially sebastiank for one of the most exciting games of netrunner I have ever played.

Thanks to everyone in QTM (as well as our nr 1 groupie/dad) for the company and being truly exceptional human beings and netrunner players.

Thanks to the streaming team for taking a less experienced commentator under their wings.

And an extra special thanks to PSK, Ed, and every volunteer and NSG member who made this event happen. See you next year!

2 comments
23 Oct 2023 sealgo

What would you swap the Jaguarundi for, though? :)

23 Oct 2023 Cpt_nice

@sealgoProbably another Funhouse or maybe an Authenticator, and then drop something for a Pivot