Pawn Star Lat - 10th at Worlds 2024

Well, here we are -- better late than never, right?

This is the runner I brought to Worlds. I've been playing some variation of the LilyPAD/ Aesop's engine Lat for the entire competitive season this year, so it felt like the best choice to stick with it going into worlds.

On Corp I played Logic Bomb's Jukebox Asa, with a few tech swaps for my own preference.

The Story

Coming out of Cascadia, I was feeling good about my LilyPAD Lat build, but thought I should experiment a bit more with other styles. I played around with both Aniccam and Swift Lat, and they both seemed incredibly strong. To be honest, I was a bit shaken in my faith in LilyPAD Lat and thought I should consider switching in time for worlds. Up to a few days before Worlds I was still uncertain what to play, so I decided to bring back LilyPAD for CoS and make my decision after that. I made a few changes to my previous version (discussed below), and they performed beautifully at CoS. Afterwards, I was once again convinced that LilyPAD Lat is at least as good as the Aniccam and Swift Lat builds*.

*To be fair, I don't think there is an "optimal" console choice for Lat -- LilyPAD, Aniccam, and Swift are all incredible, and any one of them can take you far in the meta right now. (Maybe the real lesson here is that any deck that can slot 3x Trick Shot and a few Deep Dives is at the top of the meta.)

The Deck

For me, shaper is all about flexibility -- understanding the board state and being able to produce the right tool at the right time for any situation. Knowing when the corp is trying to get away with something, knowing when you need to sit back and set up, or knowing that the game is over next turn if you don't find your solutions right now.

This deck is incredibly flexible. Temporary breakers for when you just need to get in, more permanent breakers to shift into if necessary, and tech in case the game goes long (looking at you, AgInfusion). Not to mention that every single program in this deck is, at a minimum, a click for 3 credits button.

This deck improves upon my previous LilyPAD Lat, incorporating the lessons I learned from Cascadia.

Breaker Suite:

Learning my lessons from Cascadia*, I knew I needed breakers that were functional if they were the only program installed. Propeller, Revolver, and Physarum Entangler are my early game solutions, and when needed I transition into Euler, Cleaver, and Echelon. Propeller and Revolver even with no counters can help boost Echelon strength, and Euler is amazing with Aesop’s and all the recursion packed into this build.

*What lessons, you ask? I had a pretty bad misplay at Cascadia, one turn opting to install Physarum rather than a more permanent breaker solution, which was immediately purged with Mavirus causing a pre-rezzed Gatekeeper to fire. I tried to claw my way back, but ended up losing the game. The rest of the day I was kicking myself because I knew better than that.

A few days later, I reviewed all my games from Cascadia, and I found the broader pattern that I was relying on Physarum a lot in all my games, honestly too much, but I just wasn't punished for it until the cut. So the question became, why was I so hooked on physarum? Why didn't I just get my rig set up like a normal shaper? The best answer I found was that although Turbine Doom Rig™️ is undeniably strong, it's also undeniably expensive and slow to set up. Buzzsaw and Turbine feel especially expensive, not to mention that Echelon is garbage early game. Early to mid game when you're mid run and need to install a program, no single program feels right. Often it feels like you need your rig now but can't spare the expense. Even when you draw into your programs and don't have to pay the SMC-tax, Turbine and Buzzsaw still feel expensive to install.

K2CP Turbine -> Takobi:

Turbine is great. You know what else is great? Breaking Bran for 2 credits. Takobi is much less expensive and doesn't feel as bad to install at any point in the game, and there's almost always enough cheap ice that keeping Takobi charged up isn't a problem. Takobi was needed in about a quarter of my games (mostly Ag, in which it destroyed their ice), and in the rest, I didn't mind having it even if it was just Aesop's fodder (yeah, only 1c, don't @ me) but more importantly kept the simulchip dream alive.

Overclock -> Environmental Testing:

I originally played Overclock because it was guaranteed, easy value. I worried that Env Testing only nets you 2 more credits but is harder to pop off, leaving you in a vulnerable position to things like Above the Law and Amani Senai. I swapped over to Env Testing because a common play pattern in this deck is to Muse for Coalescence, which with Aesop's is a 6 credit play. When you add in Env testing, this feels wayyy better, effectively acting as a click for 9 credits. Since swapping over to Env Testing, I've found it's not hard to pop, and doesn't usually sit on the table for more than a turn.

Removing Clot:

I was torn on this, but hadn't faced a lot of fast advance decks recently and made the call that this wouldn't be an issue. Ultimately I wanted the influence back, and in retrospect this was the right call. I only had one game at worlds where Clot would have changed anything.

The Gratitude

Worlds was AMAZING! This was my first time attending worlds and I was blown away by it. Everyone was incredible and the community felt so strong. It was amazing to be in a room full of people playing this amazing game, and I loved nerding out with everyone for the weekend.

Huge shout out to NSG and especially the volunteers who made the event possible.

Aaand, thank you to everyone on Logic Bomb (the team formerly known as the Unnamed West Coast Netrunner Group)! We had an amazing run at worlds, and I couldn't have landed where I did without all the testing time we put in together in the months leading up to worlds. Special shout out to @Nykride, @Winston, and @pengguin for all the testing in meatspace.