Le Professionnel (1st place, 4-2 @ Colorado Regional)

In a nutshell, this is a Gabe: Consummate Professional deck that runs 3x En Passant (which is a French word, hence the deck name). This deck won the 2019 Colorado Regionals, going 4-2 (including 2-0 in the top cut). This deck runs early and often. I don’t actually think it’s all that powerful of a deck, but wow is it fun to play! It feels like old school run-based crim.

I originally wanted to create a Perfume Shop style deck that could hammer HQ repeatedly and make money while doing do. Unfortunately, I don't think Pheremones is good enough in the current meta game. But you know what is good? Ice destruction. So the idea behind this deck was to build an ice destruction criminal that could trash HQ ice and then run HQ all day.

However, the best ice destruction cards in the game cost too much influence. Hippo is super powerful, but it’s 5 influence. Cutlery is great, but you either need to run multiples of each, or a Pelangi to give the ice the right subtype, and all that influence really starts to add up. But then I noticed that En Passant is only 2 influence, plus it combos well with Leave No Trace, Emergency Shutdown, and Inside Job. DONE.

And here’s another surprisingly good ice destruction card: Kyuban! It’s amazing how often the corp trashes a piece of ice with a Kyuban on it. Especially if it’s on HQ and you’re already making money back from Gabe’s ability. And ESPECIALLY if it’s Weyland and they’ve already given you some bad pub. The best part about Kyuban as an ice destruction card is that the corp spends the click to trash their own ice! YES PLEASE.

The core economy of this deck is Paragon and Security Testing. It’s a surprisingly solid econ engine. Mulligan for these cards. Paragon + Security Testing + Kyuban + Dirty Laundry + Gabe’s ability will give you enough money. If the corp locks you out of all servers early to prevent your Sec Testing runs, you either need to slap down a Kyuban on some ice or En Passant/Emergency Shutdown the ice. AND KEEP. ON. RUNNING.

I recommend face-planting into ice early and often with this deck. Keep the corp poor by forcing them to rez ice, and/or DOF-ing them. Emergency Shutdown the ice if they rez it. En Passant the ice if they don’t. However, I didn’t face much Jinteki in this tournament, so I’ll admit that I would have been much less confident about face-planting into ice if it might have been a Cortex Lock, Aiki, Anansi, etc. But who cares-JUST DO IT! Turn 1 run HQ….ALWAYS! Ok, maybe not always….

Some people might say that this deck doesn’t have enough multi-access (just the 2 Turning Wheels). Some people might even say that I won my games in the top cut by luck-sacking my single accesses. But those people don’t realize how much I practice my single accesses when I’m at home. They don’t realize how good I am at single-accessing. Just kidding! To those that say this deck doesn’t have enough multi-access, I would argue that you trade off a ton of multi-access for a LOT more single accesses, because you’re running all the time and getting paid to do so (or drawing cards with John Masanori). You can often hit HQ and R&D each once a turn for single accesses, and I think those are pretty good odds of finding agendas! And besides, if you do get a Turning Wheel up and running, that's really all you need in this deck.

Other important includes in this deck:

2x of each breaker – I’m tired of seeing Aumakua and Engolo everywhere! I miss that powerful feeling that you get when you have your Fracter, Decoder, and Killer all on the table in front of you. So I’m bringing it back! But that means you need 2x of each, plus 2x Special Order to ensure that you get them all out in a reasonable amount of time.

3x Embezzle – WOW what a card! I originally had this as a 2x, but it does soooo much work that I went to 3x. It’s especially good in this deck because of how cheap it is to run HQ with Gabe’s ability and the Kyubans. I would play this card even if it didn’t give you the money for the trashes.

1x Film Critic and 1x Hostage – Because Film Critic wins games. Hostage for it if you need it, and if not, use the hostage to get out Johnny Mass.

Other considerations:

-I think Fisk Investment Seminar would be good in this deck. Card draw is a little light, so Fisk would help with that. Plus, Fisk would help in those situations where HQ is wide open, but the corp has an impenetrable Surveyor remote and they’re just waiting for an agenda to jam in there. Maybe swap The Class Act for Fisks?

-I would also consider going up to 3x Kyuban. Maybe cut 1 Turning Wheel to get the influence, and swap out 1 or 2 of the run events for some Legworks to make up for the lack of the second Turning Wheel.

-I'd also consider finding room for 1x Kati, for those times where you can't get your run-based econ engine up and running. Plus, you could Hostage for Kati.

Bonne course tout le monde! (French for “Happy running everyone!”, at least according to Google Translate. But I should really know this, as I took 8 years of French in high school and college…..Apologies to my French speakers if I butchered that. Also, shout out to Theyla, who streams Netrunner in French and in English. I'm a big fan of that stream and you all should check it out!)