...and then I mandatory draw (11th and 24th at UK Nats 25)

Absolutely all the credit for this deck once again goes to Dan (cableCarnage), he made all the changes from the original Red Prince, I'm just lucky enough to be friends with him and get to steal lists like this occasionally. I just wish we could have both made the cut together!

Going into the weekend I'd changed my mind about five times on which corp to play, including briefly flirting with some dark thoughts about glacier BtL, but Dan eventually swung me back onto egg with the simple point that "it will just win games." I probably didn't get enough reps in beforehand as a result, and I think that told in a few of the games I lost (both cut games involved me getting my opponent into prime position to be killed and then not being able to stick the landing), but overall the statement held true - the primary kill threats of the deck, combined with the punishment of Oppo for interfering with them, present a horrible fork for runners to deal with. Sometimes they will simply make the wrong choice, and you'll get a win out of it.

One of the reasons I'd originally shied away from AU Co was that I was worried about how much of a mental tax it would be to play across five or more rounds in one day, what with all the card abilities and triggers you need to keep track of, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised in how well I managed to keep on top of things (pro tip: I always keep a click tracker next to R&D to track my mandatory draw; not so pro tip: I often forget to flip it). Your average start-of-turn process can often consist of:

1. Decide whether or not to rez anything to put Bladderwort in net damage range, decide whether or not to use Reaper Function that turn, probably end up doing neither
2. Trigger Bladderwort, maybe do a net damage and add a counter onto your ID
3. Take counters off your ID to use it
4. Trigger Cohort, trash a card and add another counter onto your ID (and draw a new card!)
5. Mandatory draw

This is definitely A Lot, but crucially it doesn't vary too much throughout different scenarios, so you can practice memorising the order and it will begin to feel routine, allowing you to get to the important part of the turns more quickly (staring at the 8 cards in your hand and trying to figure out how on earth you're going to spend just three clicks on all of them). Lining up the kill is the bit that takes hard work, there are a lot of options to consider, and I felt like I barely scratched the surface of it.

I know that the venn diagram of "tag'n'bag kill", "jinteki net damage" and "assets behind mean facechecks" that make up this deck means it ends up with plenty of hate, and it can be horribly punishing to face unprepared, but I really enjoy playing it from both sides of the table. It's just a classic asset deck that forces the runner to contest threats on the board instead of setting up their win con, and despite seeming inevitable, the win is often extremely flimsy, so I hope it doesn't see its wings clipped too much in any upcoming ban lists (I could give or take Phat though). Shout out to the four other eggs I ran against this weekend, all those games were great fun too.

Most of my gushing about the weekend is going to go into my runner write-up, but I just want to thank everyone involved in the whole thing for yet another wonderful event. The UK netrunner scene is genuinely amazing, and I'm so happy to be a part of it. See you all at worlds!