She/Hermes at Worlds (33rd and best Akiko)

The Start

I guess this all starts earlier this year when I found a 2012 Netrunner Core Set on the side of the road. I picked it up thinking it looked cool, thinking I might eventually get a friend to play this little cyberpunk card game I found. Fast forward to mid-July when @millenomi informs me that the game is alive and kicking, actually, and there are frequent Bay Area meetups. I have an upcoming surgery so I put off actually starting until the beginning of August, when I drag @ultrafilter over to learn how to play the game together while I'm going stir-crazy at the end of my first week of recovery.

Two days later, I go to my first meetup at Victory Point Cafe, oblivious to the fact that Cascadia has just happened and so not many people will be there. I'm in luck, and @grendelX (our Startup World Champion) is there, and we have a couple of games using some Core set decks, then he points me towards NRDB and suggests I find something that interests me.

I spend the following week trying to find a decklist that vibes with me, and on the Sunday what else gets posted but the now-famous girls decks? My lesbian ass is immediately hooked, and I decide this is it for me. I print off my proxies, and start showing up with girls.

The Middle

Over the next few weeks, I start thinking about adding Hermes, and a chance encounter with @jan tuno on jnet leads to cutting physarum in favour of pelangi. I go on to play in my first CO at the end of August, getting 4th with Akiko and Ob (the best beginner corp, obviously).

I continue playing with the amazing SF meta - I owe a lot to all of you for making it such a welcoming scene, for being amazing opponents who have really helped me develop my skills, and for being very tolerant of me asking "Is this hand good?" when it so clearly wasn't. There are so many people to thank here, and I'm sure to miss some of you: @Tak, @Nykride, @tzeentchling, @Wentagon, @Thomas Haas, Brianna, and of course everyone mentioned earlier.

The End (The Worlds Experience)

I was extremely fortunate to have started when I did, with Worlds right around the corner from where I live, so soon after I started. Thank you to everyone who made Worlds happen, and to everyone I met over the weekend who made the experience so amazing.

Thank you to @l0velace, @jan tuno, and the rest of the QTM crowd who were a pleasure to meet and interact with both during the weekend and in the week after. Thank you to all the volunteers for making everything run smoothly. And finally an extra-special thank you to @GermApple, for an incredible last game, as well as an amazing time in the days after worlds. I'm rooting for you for UK Nats!

Some comments on the deck

I cut 2 Nukas for 3 stoneships and an extra spec work, and dropped the environmental testings for sure gambles - so many times I was just doing shenanigans with simulchips and muse with the only aim being to quickly pop an environmental, and that's also not thinking about the times when Weyland just decides to get rid of my 3 counter environmentals. Gambling just makes me less sad. -1 pinhole +1 No Free Lunch was an anti-kill meta call that ended up not mattering that much on the day, but has definitely been nice in my playtesting, including for just an extra +3 credits in a pinch. Highlights include using it to duck Mestnichestvo by running into it with 0 credits to then pop the NFL and break for 2c with a recently installed Euler.

Possible future changes: -2 SMC +1 Nyashia +1 Rigging up (or perhaps some other cards). SMC has definitely felt perhaps rather like training wheels, and has probably stopped me building as much intuition about what ice is where as I could have done. It also leads you to consider "safe" lines which are potentially slower and more expensive, which can be enough to lose you the game. One game I even installed it with the intention of selling it Aesop's, and at that point you might as well just add another paricia for all the good it does for you...

--Harp