"The Mind without Mind" 7th Madison Regionals (72 players)

Played pancake Noise and Jinteki: PE at the Madison Regionals on May 30.

Sometimes the best deck isn't always a good deck. Even though I think many corps are stronger, PE performed admirably and gave some of the most fun games of netrunner I've had in a long time!

Ended 5-1 after Swiss.

I built this deck the night before the tournament using Mtgred's worlds list as a starting point. I am by no means an expert PE player, but I felt like the meta wasn't really ready to deal with a lot of these threats. I think the call was correct as I only saw one Deus X on the day. No vamp, no keyhole, no account siphon, no Feedback Filter.

Well then what the hell did I see?

Swiss

1. [W] vs. Brennan (The Professor): First game of the day and already I'm thrown for a loop. I really don't know what to expect from the prof, but we play the remote game for a while until he eventually hits a snare! but doesn't clear the tag. I eventually find scorch/neural for the flatline.

2. [W] vs. David (Kate): This game was going quite badly for me as David was happily running anything I throw into a server and drawing back up. Eventually I install-adv-adv a fetal (the hard way) and he runs it click 4 with 2 cards in grip, dying in a strange catch-22 way. He had an SMC on table but I assume didn't have the Deus X in deck.

3. [L] vs. Jens (Cache Kate): I had Jens help me build my runner deck, but I never showed him my corp list. He spent most of the game trying to figure out if I was playing scorch or not. It ended up not mattering as he was the only one to install Deus X. I tried to make unexpected plays but he made the right moves and never overextended himself.

4. [W] vs. Daniel(Quetzal): Hands down the best game of the day. This game was absolutely grueling. He managed to score 3 one-pointers from HQ after which I managed to get him with a mushin'd overwriter. Soon after I fired chronos project for half his deck, although I don't think it mattered much since I doubt he was playing levy. I thought I had him dead with double EMP, stupidly playing both before he gave me a smug look and revealed I've Had Worse. He scores a 4th one-pointer making the score 4-1. Fetal AI's and The Future Perfect get shuffled back into RnD as I'm running out of tricks. I Mushin a Philotic Entanglement praying to god he doesn't run it. He does. 6-1 now. I eventually find two neural EMP once more and count the copies of I've had Worse in his heap and RFG zone: 3. Both players running out of deck, he goes down to 1 card in hand after hitting a snare and removing the tag on click 4 allowing me to EMP him for the win. I really can't do this game justice explaining it here.

5. [W] vs. Avi (Noise): Avi hit a turn 1 Cortex Lock knocking him back but not down. We exchange damage and agendas for a while, until eventually he finds a The Future Perfect in archives putting him on 6 points. I manage to dodge mills and single accesses long enough to eventually get him with some combination of snare, ronin, and neural EMP.

6. [W] vs. Joe (Kate): Joe plays an aggressive RnD interface and dies after accessing Snare and Fetal AI followed by EMP.

Much to my chagrin I am eliminated from top 8 on my runner alone.

Some notes about the deck's performance in general. There were a number of turns I spent just clicking for 3 credits. While that may be death for a number of decks, I really was quite comfortable doing so as long as it ensured I had snare creds. As far as the ICE goes, I only ended up rezzing about 6 pieces in as many games. I often could not afford to rez ICE and pay for traps. I'm sure any criminal would have had a hayday with my HQ. Really looking forward to testing Lockdown in a future version.

Just to reiterate: I really don't think PE is a good deck, but it sure as hell is a fun deck!

Thanks to all of my opponents for some great games, and thanks to I'm Board Games for hosting the event! (And thank you for taking the time to read this far!)