I Suck At Netrunner But Lobsters Don't (5-1, NYC Reg.)

Look. Netrunner is a hard game. We've all played games of Netrunner where we looked at our cards, and said huh, I wonder what this does? Maybe it is a coaster for me to put a water bottle on. I'll try that.

That's why I find it's best to entrust at least half your games to our trusty crustacean friends, the lobsters. Even when you suck at Netrunner, they don't. They understand that you can win games purely by rushing out. They acknowledge that sometimes murder is the only real solution. They'll be the first to tell you that sometimes taxation must be without representation. And they also get that at the end of the day, you might get into a situation where your only out is a perfectly timed ruse. And above all else, they understand that unparalleled flexibility is what ties it all together.

To explain some of their card choices:

• Project Junebug was originally Reversed Accounts but I couldn't find two of them because my cards are in Jack Weyland knows what places after I moved. It's basically the same card either way, and I drew these precisely once on the day and didn't need them when I did, but Reversed is almost certainly better.

• Afshar is an amazing HQ ice but you really don't want it anywhere else and I don't really even want 2 on HQ, so 1 is the right number.

• 2 Archer vs. 3 Mausolus: I love Archer, truly I do, but there's an awful lot of d4 running around these days. Mausolus can also set up some weird lines if you use it as a discount Raven and drag them through it a few times with Border Control then have the win with HPT.

• Preemptive Action: I didn't use it on the day, and usually you want to win before you have 3 good targets, but I think it's an important out to have against Embezzle, Freedom, Wanton, Stargate, and the like. The great strength of Lobster-style Argus is that you're basically never truly out of the game and have live draws to win if your deck manages to hold out for the turn. Preemptive makes that true even if you have to use all your HHNs or they kill your Audacity.

• Prisec is still super good. It's the best card to jam in the remote late-game and force a run. If you've gotten to place your ice well through the game, the one extra tag is often the straw that breaks the camel's back.

• Oaktown lets you play hyper-aggressive if you open with it or draw it when you're in a tempo lull. Armed Intimidation offers a one-card fork, which is great, and I like it too. But Oaktown lets you play your whole deck as a fork by just being on extra points while having given up no tempo. I think the choice is really close, and I would support either in this slot.

This deck went 5-1 at NYC regionals. Extremely brief sketch of games:

Round 1 vs Shishu on Kim: Chose to ice R&D and the remote after seeing an early Stargate off Inject, promising myself that I'd put the next ice on HQ. Didn't see one for another 6 turns or so, by which point most of my key operations had been hammer-smashed. Had a chance when I got up to 4 points with one HHN, one HPT, and CV left in the deck, but then Kim moneyed up and found the win on R&D.

Round 2 vs Gang Sign Leela: Leela ran centrals early to try to disrupt my GFI rush to follow up the turn 3 Oaktown. Leela got Econ Warfare HHN'd. Leela died.

Round 3 vs limnrix on Sunny: Sunny had a slow start and got up to enough link and power taps that it would have been annoying to HHN her, but it didn't matter. I drew Oaktown into Atlas with a counter into IA GFI into Audacity for the win before Sunny saw any kind of breaker.

Round 4 vs Adam: Had econ ops, plus ice for my centrals and remote early, and rushed out an Atlas without giving up points. Dropped a Prisec and Oaktown behind ice he'd have to charge Turtle twice to break. He ended up running click 3, taking 2 tags, and dying to double HPT when he could only clear 1.

Round 5(a) vs Hayley: This was a spycams Hayley. I thought I'd be able to just rush out, but Hayley opened with Gamble-Geist and popped a tech writer for 10c on turn 5 or so, when I only had 3 points. Tried to cheese the win with IA GFI, but he chose that time to Stimhack the remote. The deck kept coughing up good cards to jam or IA in the remote--NGO, Hostile, Hostile, Prisec--which left the game state with Hayley on 6 points but very poor and me fairly poor but on 5 points with an Atlas counter. Hayley didn't have the ability to Clot me, and the Atlas-Audacity win was still available to me, so Hayley had to face-tank a Mausolus twice when I dropped a Prisec and popped Border Control, ending the turn with 2 tags and 3 cards in hand.

Round 5(b) vs conphas on Smoke: NYC Regionals ran a split round in round 5, randomized sides each game, which is why I got to corp twice. This was a Comet Smoke, which is a sentence I did not expect to type at the start of the weekend. This game was incredibly close, and by all rights I should have lost. Thomas had me in R&D lock for about 16 cards with a string of Insights while I tried to distract him with my remote, and I was only able to draw exactly one card out of the lock after he Levy'd. That card, of course, was exactly the Atlas I needed to win with the Audacity in hand. This game was probably my most fun on the weekend--thanks for putting up with my extreme lucksackery, Thomas.

So yeah. Altogether, Lobster Argus is still quite good. It's a shame that I'm not--I went 1-3 as Val haha help me.