In anticipation of my first store championship I was pondering what deck to bring. Two trashed Corroders in Andromeda were a signal that I shouldn't play anything but Shaper. My Nasir build was an obvious choice, because I'm very proud of it and I wanted to win something with this underdog. But on next two weekly game nights I won nothing. I told everyone I'm saving the wins for the tourney, but I have to admit I was slightly frustrated. I realized I want to win myself more than I want Nasir to win, so we've parted.
I thought winning the Kit playmat with Kit deck would be cool, but since I never decided if I wanted to build around Yog.0, Refractor or even Torch, I never even tested one. I was having fun with Chaos Theory Faerie deck on OCTGN, but whenever I joined a ranked game I switched to Kate. And then it made all the sense - the first game of Netrunner I've ever played was with her - the first tournament shall be with her as well.
The deck I used converged to Calimsha's deck every day and eventually the only notable difference was a Datasucker instead of Stimhack. But even with it's brilliant economy I was frequently outpaced by Astrobiotics, now that you need to trash Daily Bussiness Shows in addition to the SanSan City Grid. And that's when an idea that struck me many times before struck me again. . . I need an Imp!
I brought this deck the next day to a weekly game night and with a huge deal of luck I beat the guy to beat of my meta PeekaySK. That was ego-boost that I really needed. I was soaring high that night and coming to my first tournament I felt pretty confident.
I had the time of my life on that weekend. On both days I was second after Swiss pairings and in Bratislava, this deck was unbeaten in the Top 8. Weirdly, I ended up in third place even though I lost only one game in double elimination. The game in loser's bracket finals was a tie and they told me that Markus from Vienna is higher seed and advancing, even though I beat him twice in the last round of Swiss. I felt great nonetheless. I'm just sorry that I didn't keep my promise to meet you in finals, Martin. Next time!
Last but not least, huge thanks to @Twada of our crew. I'd walk my way home by foot if there wasn't for him.