Big Bro Palana (1st at DAVE GNK and Berlin & Friends)

Longi 1891

bros

This is the deck that I and my buddy @Mildesorte have been testing lately. The original idea is La Costa Palana build played by @Testrunning and finishing 2nd at Worlds 2019. Later on @RotomAppliance accommodated the beloved and hated Cyberdex Sandox into the build and once again proved its strength by finishing 2nd at InterContinentals 2020.

As a former rush player I struggled with my Argus and Outfit builds against fast and furiously rich runners such as Leela and Hoshiko. Observing @Mildesorte, who always excelled at playing Jinteki corps, I was impressed by his steady play with Palana that did not seem to have any apparent bad matchup. So I decided to dive into Jinteki glacier field with him.

We tested several variations. Until recently @Mildesorte avoided playing 9 agenda suite with Cyberdex Sandbox arguing understandably that 9 agendas is too much for a glacier his only weakness is agenda flood. Instead he opted for 8 agendas suite with Philotic Entanglement and The Future Perfect. The release of Salvaged Memories that brought another beloved and hated card (looking at you Parasite) forced him to adopt the purging strategy too.

Only difference in our decks was the inclusion of two Surveyors (-1 Border Control, -1 Seidr Adaptive Barrier) that provides enough taxation in current meta where barriers are mercilessly wrecked by Paperclip and Lady and code gates by Engolo and Amina. At the same time Surveyors provide much valued end-run subroutine that is necessary in late game when poor runners decide to ignore porous ices such as Slot Machine and Engram Flush in desperate attempts to steal last missing agenda points. I decided to remove Surveyors at last minute in fear of ice-wrecking parasitic meta but my fears proved ungrounded.

Finally, we would like to thank TOs, namely to @5N00P1 and @Swiftie for organizing the tournaments since in these times it provides valued distraction and also helps to keep the NR community at least in online touch. Another big thanks goes to Nisei for our Christmass present in the form of Salvaged Memories.

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