Bloom Nobly, Ink Black Cherry Blossoms ~ Border of Life

They Bloom Nobly, Those Ink Black Cherry Blossoms, That border on life.

Hello, all of you plucky followers of Wuwei. I figured it was about time to post the updated version of my (n)ever popular Bloom Nobly, Ink Black Cherry Blossoms deck. It's been quite exciting seeing the reactions to it - both positive and negative - and even more so in fine tuning it with extended play. The deck has been through quite a few iterations now and has finally stood the test of a store championship. Over the course of my little fling with JU I've taken on board a lot of different ideas from people who have piloted the deck and made alterations of their own so particular thanks to IceIceHedgeFund and CodeMarvelous who both played the deck on their respective channels and gave their own opinions and recommendations for how the deck might better run.

Particular mention goes to IceIceHedgeFund for his inventive inclusion of Breaker Bay Grid, a card I ran in the deck for a quite some time myself. Ultimately I pulled the card to make room for newer additions but it was a clever include that helped mitigate the sometimes stark economy of the deck. If anyone is unfamiliar with him he posts videos of his games with interesting commentary on both his own Youtube channel as well as BadPublicity. Likewise with CodeMarvelous though his prolific work here on DB should go without saying.

Tourney-wise my current Cherry Blossom iteration did very well for itself winning all three of its games on the day. Had only my runner games been so lucky. : ( I still love you, Adam.

The first game was a harsh grind against Blackmail Val. Despite the troublesome efforts of Trope I managed to get the flatline a couple minutes before time was called. Camera Haley I had pegged to be a problem but I managed to hit all three copies of Levy and sealed them away with my two Ark Lockdowns and quickly finished up from there. Lastly I scored out against a Nexus Kate variation. My disruption made it difficult to set up, even with limited recursion, and after my opponent tried to wait me out I was able to lock off a server and score two Fetal AIs for the win. Happy times.

Of course, had I been playing my first iteration of this deck things could have been very different. Without Voter Intimidation I would not have been able to deal with the pesky Film Critics that could have spoiled my latter two games and Hokusai Grid did wonders against both Val and Kate. Econ is tighter than ever though this deck can operate on surprisingly few credits once set up. It was painful to say goodbye to Sweeps Week, Despite welcome criticism that it doesn't usually fit Jinteki it was a star card both for recovering from Siphon Spam and punishing Tag Me Obelus. Still, I feel the inclusion of mid-game program destruction was worth the exchange.

• Daily Business Show helps to hide away unwelcome agendas if you're focusing on damage or holding off for the kill. Alternatively it can help capitalise on an opening caused by some timely disruption to get a chunky The Future Perfect out the door. Or even just a House of Knives. Again, its cost and the help of Hostile Infrastructure means losing it isn't much worse than keeping it and the more control you have over your cards the better you can capitalise on the chaos you wreak on your opponent.

• Aggressive Secretary (kudos to CodeMarvelous for this include) does a wonderful job of bringing back your advantage against an opponent who manages to successfully set up. It also helps against those saucy Magnum Opus players who think they can hide behind a wall of credits and net damage defense. A delightful little piece of kit indeed.

• Chronos Project I'm somewhat on the fence with. Often times I wonder if a third House of Knives would just be better. But then again there are plenty of angry Anarchs who might disagree with that and nobody should know better than them so for now we'll take their word for it.

The core strategy of the deck remains the same. I provided a write up on my original decklist (see below) for those curious. Have fun!

Original list: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/38388/bloom-nobly-ink-black-cherry-blossoms

I also would like to take the time to say Rage Angrily, Lemon Sour Salty Blossoms got quite a chuckle out of me. I'm sorry if anyone found this list particularly frustrating to play against and I can assure you it is not quite an auto-win as some people seem to think. Just keep at it! Every wall has its faults and mine is far from perfect. I do appreciate the humour though and I certainly hope no ill feelings are kept. Thanks a 'mill'-ion for making me smile all the same. I bow before your decklist naming abilities. And of course, kudos to all the wonderful folks who spotted the reference to a certain series from the land of Gensokyo. Much love. : )