Sir Batty of the Round (5-0 at King of Servers)

In 5 rounds of Swiss I went 3-2 with Prepaid Kate and 8-2 overall, bringing my team -- the Vaderdome Grid Imperators -- to 8th of 32 teams at King of Servers. The tournament format required each team member to play a different Corp faction (same for Runners, with one faction repeat allowed). My team took quite a while experimenting with different Jinteki decks, including standard RP, before I eventually decided to try Grails with Batty. It felt quite good in testing -- I was still losing to Noise, but not as convincingly as normal, and I was beating other Runners.

Round 1 vs Prepaid Kate: This was a SoCal team. I go down 0-4 early, but land a Batty to tax a critical Clone Chip pre-Levy and score a Future Perfect behind Lancelot / Caprice. On a later R&D run as Kate is approaching critical Levy time, I Batty a Crick to trash all 3 of my R&D ice and install a Galahad that Kate doesn't have a barrier breaker for (and she's out of Clone Chips!), hitting with 2 Merlins (and ending the run). I use the ensuing lull to score a second 5/3. A while later, my Lancelot / Caprice remote still intact, I score Philotic Entanglement to win. Psi games lost: 0.

Round 2 vs Stealth Hayley: The rig is threatening, but recursion is limited, so I manage to score behind a Caprice and one Grail (I think it was a 5/3). Later I get a Batty on the remote and tax Hayley's credits and recursion by Battying Lancelot to trash Dagger, then winning the Caprice psi game after the Dagger reinstall. That nets me a Nisei that I use to score a Global Food Initiative for the win. Psi games lost: 0.

Round 3 vs Reg Val with Siphons: This was Team Germany. I go down 0-6, losing two Niseis and the Philotic. I guess we're doing this one the hard way! My Grails get Knifed, Spooned, and Forked, and a Caprice gets trashed, but not before I score one TFP in a one Grail remote with the Caprice. No Siphons yet. A Vamp gets discarded because I'm well ahead on credits. I rebuild the remote with Jackson recursion / Interns and get another 5/3 score before it all gets blown up again. Still no Siphons. I Gift up to scoring range and get the third 5/3 for the win. Psi games lost: 0.

Round 4 vs Prepaid Kate: This was team Chinese Nationals, and since I have the best record on my team, I'm paired against US Nationals winner Lucas Li. Yikes. I have limited ice initially, so I try a naked Sundew, but of course he trashes it. I get a Caprice and a Grail and Interns the Sundew into the remote, then immediately draw another Sundew. Wish I'd saved the Interns! Oh well. I ice this one as well, then play out a Mental Health Clinic, which he leaves since he can't get to the Sundews without a full rig. He steals a Nisei. I trash the first Sundew and go for an agenda my own, which I get thanks to Caprice. I go for another one and tax a Clone Chip by winning a Batty psi game for the Lancelot sub, then win the Caprice psi game and score. I get DBS online, and since I have 40+ credits at this point, he leaves it. It feeds me the agendas I need to score out (Nisei into TFP) behind Caprice psi games and a timely Batty on R&D. Psi games lost: 0. (I also won the Runner game on the last turn after time was called with a lucky single access on R&D for a Beale when we were at 5-5. So, yeah, that was the highlight of my ANR career to date. And I'll absolutely be cheering for Lucas in the top 16 at worlds tomorrow, he's both incredibly skilled and incredibly classy. Great to play against.)

Round 5 vs Geist: Geist works hard to keep me poor, trashing all 3 Sundews and at least 1 MHC, and steals my GFI along the way. I get hit with two Siphons as well. However, he has to keep spending his Spikes/Shivs/Crowbars to get in to any of my servers, and as his deck dwindles I realize he isn't packing Levy. I get Batty and Caprice in a remote behind a single Grail, score a Nisei behind Caprice, use the token to stuff a Siphon, then score Nisei into TFP for the win. Psi games lost: 0.

Total psi games lost at the tournament: 0.

Lesson: Winning psi games wins Netrunner games. Fortunately, I didn't have to face any Noise players at King of Servers, but I decided not to run this deck at Worlds because I was sure Noise would be very popular. I was also concerned about the DLR matchup, since my recursion is quite limited and it's not too easy to rush. (I did, however, win all of my Runner-side psi games at Worlds. I didn't play any Psi games from the Runner side at KoS, so I'm now on a pretty lengthy streak of psi victories.)

I think this deck is for real, though, and it could be quite strong in the right meta (which King of Servers just so happened to be). I never felt threatened by the Kates I faced, even when down on points, which was a surprise -- I had thought Kate would be a bad matchup due to the power of her breakers and economy. But judicious use of Batty can make the Clone Chips dwindle in a hurry, whether you're trashing Sharpshooter, Mimic, or Lady. And any deck that matches up well against Kate is worth taking a look at.

I enjoyed piloting this deck quite a bit. I found it a little more decision-intensive than standard RP (which I also enjoy), since Batty enables a lot of tricks depending on when you use him and which subroutine you fire. It isn't always obvious which subroutine will set the Runner back furthest.

In closing, owning a framed Caprice Nisei print pays off in psi game mojo. #notrandom