[Startup] Shoot to the Island in the Sky – 9# Worlds 2023

This one, is for my one and only true love…

This deck is built around the idea of pushing agendas really fast with Build to Last ability and conditioning the opponent with the Public Trail + End of the Line combo to open scoring windows (and sometimes, get cheeky wins :D) . Mvp to Mestnichestvo for making accesses too expensive and Slash & Burn Agriculture for allowing me to not pay 4 Inf for a Biotic Labor to close out games. Credits and huge thanks to The Metropole grid and his Startupmodernism video (which you can find on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfM5WzA_RJo) for inspiring this deck and always helping me to improve as a player. You rock, mate.

Games

Game 1 vs Padma: I drew my Public +Eotl combo really soon, so I played around it because I saw that the runner was not respecting it. The runner builded the rig really fast, but got too greedy and, after ending the turn with 3 cards in hand and a succesful run, something suddenly came into my thoughts.

Mario, Luigi and a Donkey Kong, too

Game 2 vs Zahya: Zahya pressured HQ and R&D a lot early game, stealing a Project Atlas. After icing and having enough econ, I started to push my agenda behind an advanced Mestnichestvo (<3). Zahya run 3rd click my remote with low creds and 2 cards in hand. I could have stopped her rezzing it., however, I had again my combo pieces, so I thought that was my last resort. Despite the fear of using Diesel or some draw engine as last click, I let Zahya access in order to be able to land the Bread n’ Butter Combo. She stole my Above the Law, but suddenly, I heared in my head:

A thousand troops of Koopas couldn’t keep me from you

Game 3 vs Padma Played a really close game against Padma. I always put and advanced Mestnichestvo on R&D in order to make Padma pay for his free counters. My opponent played around the combo, so I got some time to put my engine working. Builded a remote with a Maskirovka and Stavka, while he had Endurance and 2 Propellers down. Everything was iced and nothing was a barrier, so I managed to keep those Endurance power counters down. Next turn, I pushed an agenda on my remote and my opponent facechecked a Stavka, which allowed me to trash both Propellers. This gave me a lot of fresh air, because I supposed that there were no more fracters in the deck, so my barriers would be just vulnerable to a Tank Shock ship edition. I managed to score one early Slash & Burn Agriculture, and after that my remote was pretty solid. I scored 2 3/2 more, while I had in my hand Project Atlas and the last copy of Slash & Burn Agricuture, so I just needed one more turn to close the game. He accessed R&D and HQ that turn, but didn’t catch neither Atlas nor S&B, so I fast advanced Atlas next turn, winning the game.

Game 4 vs Zahya I iced everything early and tried to bait inside job and some expensive runs in my remote, succesfully. Zahya was low on creds but with the rig on and 5 cards in hand 24/7. Managed to get to 4 points to 2, but last turn because of timeout Zahya made an 6 cards R&D access (Wake + The Twinning), catching a 2 pointer and a Hostile Takeover, winning on the spot.

Game 5 vs Esa I didn’t push my agendas early enough, so Esa sabotaged a lot without fearing any scores. Got Chastushked twice with Bankhar, losing 3 points from archives. Esa saw my End of the line on an early access, so no highway robberys allowed XD. Finally, Esa victory. Congratulations to my opponent Countzer0, I felt he played extremely solid, while I played too passive. Deserved loss.

Conclussions

Deck went 3-2, with 2 flatline wins. I feel that got some piloting issues, specially regarding the aggro play, being too conservative some times. Probably I would cut Retribution for a 2nd Stavka and a Maskirovka for a Pharos to be stronger on late game, but the deck felt strong.

Thank you to all NSG and the whole Netrunner community for making possible this amazing event. Being there with all of you has been an experience that I won’t forget. Thank you all my opponents, and specially Kaitlyn and Ghost Meat for our superspecialized and entertaining conversations, I really enjoyed speaking with you after our games and now I’m, more concerned about US temperatures and music xD. What more can I ask for! Would love to see you again and play some Netrunner and continue our talk <3.

Always be running

Princess Peach, at the end of the line… I’ll make you mine