Hotel Cambridge '22 - 1st @ Torino Circuit Opener 2022

2022 version of Hotel Cambridge.

Classic good-stuff Criminal deck with some run economy sprinkled on top, thanks to Midnight Sun's latest brew, Cezve.

Notable changes

• Rezeki out, Cezve in: they provide double the credits and charge The Twinning.
• Pennyshaver out, Māui in: since HQ is usually iced more heavily against Steve I though I could as well get some value from it (and charge The Twinning in the process). Since I've not installed it in any game I don't have any data to say whether the card is good or not...
• Pinhole Threading is a must in this meta. If we run any central server we can also use Cezve credits to trash cards in the targeted remote.
• Embezzle is a meta call for multi-accessing and trashing powerful operations like Mutually Assured Destruction, Hard-Hitting News, BOOM! or even some ice to ease our runs.
• Diesel out, Stoneship Chart Room in: influence is tight but I wanted to have some additional way of drawing. It also works as a panic button against BOOM! combo. Its second ability can eventually target The Twinning when desperately looking for the winning agenda.
• Miss Bones out: my bold meta call was that no asset spam deck would be present and I nailed it, playing against a sole Ob Superheavy Logistics: Extract. Export. Excel. with 5-6 remotes at most. Of course it would have been great to trash assets and also charge The Twinning!
• Inside Job out: I definitely missed it in at least a couple of games, but I couldn't find room for even a single copy of it...

The tournament

Game 1 - won vs Saraswati Mnemonics: Endless Exploration

I managed to keep the Corp low on credits, ate a couple of Snare!s, a non-advanced Urtica Cipher, and a single-advanced Cerebral Overwriter, but in the end I snitched a couple of agendas from R&D and the winning Obokata Protocol from HQ.

Game 2 - lost vs Ob Superheavy Logistics: Extract. Export. Excel.

The game was extremely fast, with koga dodging a turn 1 Diversion of Funds by rezzing a Marilyn Campaign and then recovering immediately with a Rashida Jaheem.

He managed to score a Project Atlas with 1 counter on it and then a Hostile Takeover in the same turn thanks to Arella Salvatore and Malapert Data Vault finding him an Audacity. He was the definition of rush, kudos to him!

Game 3 - won vs Jinteki: Personal Evolution

Darta is a very experienced Netrunner and poker player, he showed no sign of tension or emotion during the whole game, even when he was flooded with agendas in HQ. He made some interesting decisions like not activating a Snare! when he was on 4.

I was definitely lucky on dodging most of his traps and I even felt safe passing the turn with 5 cards in my grip and Stoneship Chart Room and Citadel Sanctuary installed, but later he told me that had I accessed another card in HQ instead of an agenda the turn before, he would have killed me! 😮

Game 4 - won vs Ob Superheavy Logistics: Extract. Export. Excel.

I knew I'd find many "big boat" kill decks, but I didn't have enough time to playtest against it. Anyway the tech cards I included were the MVP of the game!

I got Hard-Hitting News-ed pretty early in the game and managed not to panic, instead I installed Citadel Sanctuary and passed. Plusci threw BOOM! on the table in excitement, but he was pretty disappointed to see me trashing Citadel Sanctuary with confidence. He then took back his play and realised he didn't have enough credits to both trash the resource and kill me, so I managed to see another day.

The next turn I played Stoneship Chart Room and trashed it before his fist click, surviving yet another turn. The turn after I finally removed all tags and got back into the game.

When time was called we were at 4 points each: Plusci woud have scored another 2 points had time been called a moment earlier, but he had already spent his first click so he couldn't take it back. I did a desperate run on R&D and found the last 3 points waiting for me. Luck was definitely on my side!

Game 5 - lost vs Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home

Very tight game where I showed my little experience in playing Aumakua: when time was called I decided to run HQ and do a double access while I could have loaded Aumakua up to 4 counters and then run the scoring remote, breaking Ansel 1.0 (which I correctly assumed would be there) and a rezzed IP Block with ease. I erroneously thought an Anoetic Void was installed unrezzed, but had I counted the influence spent by Maya I would have found out that Arella Salvatore was taking its place.