Super Standard PD [2-1, 7th @ East Canadian Nats]

I made the top 8 in East Canadian Nationals last weekend, but was conflicted about whether I had earned it or not. My tentative headline, “Startup Player Does Well in Standard”, was crushed I read others expressing dismay at the outcome, exacerbating my internal struggle with the situation.

My province of Nova Scotia is remote by global standards; it’s a 17 hour drive west to get to East Canadian Nationals in Toronto. I found out about the event two weeks prior, bought a plane ticket, and signed up. Not to perform well, but to meet people in the community, have fun playing Netrunner, and start the process of getting back into competitive play.

I played FFG Netrunner during the SanSan and Mumbad cycles, and returned to play NSG Netrunner startup for the last two years. Not knowing the format, I asked Andrej for deck recommendations. He generously offered PD and Hoshiko lists, along with his reasoning for them. I sleeved and played each deck once; my only games of standard since 2017.

Day 1 - Double Sided Swiss

Round 1 - Mati, Loup & PD (Table 17)

I bluffed an unrezzed Tranquility Grid as a defensive upgrade. It baited a Pinhole Threading, which protected the real defense in the server from certain doom and allowed me to score out.

In game 2, Mati was razor close to getting an early score, which would’ve kickstarted the powerful momentum that PD builds. Bankhar did work - allowing me to harass servers while I set up my board. I kept the pressure on all game and closed it out.

(2-0)

Round 2 - Iris, Zahya & Outfit (Table 4)

Besides competing, Iris is also volunteering as a cook in the venue kitchen, which is an amazing way to support the event. She requests a 2-for-1 so she’ll have more time to cook, and I accept.

I have a low ice draw against crim. Turn 3 I try to score out an Ikawah behind 1 ice and a Manegarm. A bad line against criminal, but my T4 was looking worse if I didn’t. She Inside Job’s first click, pays the Manegarm tax, and still has 1 click left to steal with. I’m desperately on the back foot all game as I glacier-up the remote and R&D. Bran, MIC, and Drafter did heavy lifting to tax the crim breakers and I avoided installing/rezzing Border Controls to prevent Curupira from charging. As the game reached its climax, her stack was empty and I was down to 3 cards in R&D (2 were agendas). A fresh Gatekeeper rez on R&D makes the run too costly for her, and I score the last agenda on my turn.

There were only a few minutes left in the round. If we hadn’t 2-for-1’d, I don’t know how a handful of turns would go for Hoshiko vs Outfit. Lunch was a few minutes late - sorry everyone 😅.

(4-0)

Round 3 - Cocoro, Lat & Restoring Humanity (Table 1)

ID. (5-1)

Round 4 - Andrej, Az & PD (Table 1)

ID. (6-2)

Round 5 - Zeebag, Lat & PD (Table 1)

ID. (7-3)

I had a great time meeting, discussing old and new decks, and playing casual games with Cocoro, Andrej, and Zeebag. As Brandon put it in round 4 when lots of top tables were intentionally drawing, “we did our work early”.

The standings were posted and I saw that two other players at 21 points were pushed out to 9th & 10th. My heart sank. Did they “deserve” to be in the top 8 more than me? I struggled with the idea of conceding to let one of them have my spot, amidst rounds of cheers and clapping for the player names being read out and prizes being awarded.

But I hadn’t done anything wrong — I played by the same rules as everyone else. It’s a part of competitive tournaments; my first ID into the cut was over 20 years ago in Magic the Gathering. Ultimately, I stayed in and committed to the Day 2 main event, despite my guilt. (Andrej, I hope you’ll let me buy you a beer at Worlds.)

Day 2 - Single Sided Double Elimination

Round 1 - Chouxflower, Lat & PD

I’m more confident in my corp play and have had a multi-year struggle against PE. I obviously chose to play against her runner. Her deck had early game value from Lat, late game value from a turbine rig, and used Cataloguer as the game closer instead of Deep Dive.

Chouxflower stole an early Ikawah. I get out-played as she pressured me into over-rezzing my ice, and then in the remote she trashed my Tranquility Grid instead of the Manegarm. She stole the other Ikawah. At 6 points to 0, I need to score 4 times before she accesses any agenda. By the time I recovered from my economic setback, she Catalogued the winning agenda in a decisive blow out.

(0-1 on the day, 7-4 overall)

Round 2 - Mikhail, Kit & PE

This game was recorded, so I look forward to reviewing it once it’s posted to improve my play.

My PE dodging came to an end as I prepared to run a tough matchup. Reading Mikhail’s decklist, it looked like a strong deck that makes brutal forks. I was familiar with the traps and combos though, and the ice was just gear checks. It felt like more of a kill deck than a scoring deck.

I stole an early Fuji which put me in the lead for the game. Anytime I had 5 cards, 6-7 credits, and 2-3 clicks left, I ran to keep the pressure on. I narrowly dodged Mitosis traps and stole two Stings. He played well, constantly forking me with tough installs. It felt like he was desperately hanging on, but all it takes is one misstep in this matchup to lose it all. He seized a flatline opportunity, but I had redrawn a shuffled Steelskin and it saved me.

With a score lead of 5 to 2, I was worried that I’d been playing too slow (Mikhail and the head judge Josh later confirmed that this was not a concern). As the game clock winds down, I drew the last card in my stack. I was stressing about unchecked remotes from early in the game. If they’re agendas, I’m vulnerable to a Neurospike flatline. What I missed is that the Maw had been slowly picking apart some of these lines (the single Trick of Light and one of the Neurospikes were gone). There were 4 agendas that immediately won me the game, but my biggest risk was running and hitting traps. Second click, I run R&D anyways 😔.

Time was called. I really should’ve slowed down and reassessed everything. Instead, I continued my plan and used Twinning to dig 3 cards in. The third card is a Snare!. I took 3 damage, going down to 2 cards in my grip. I don’t take a tag, Mikhail doesn’t mention a tag, and the judge doesn’t mention a tag. Third click I run archives to see what the Maw trashed. Fourth click, with nothing else to do, I grab a credit. Mikhail flatlines me with End of the Line. I realize I was tagged from the Snare. Losing this way was the worst feeling ever.

(0-2 on the day, 7-5 overall)

Wrap up.

It was no secret that I was out of practice. My opponents that ID’d with me had a good chance to sweep me 2-0, a reasonable chance we would split 1-1, and it was unlikely that I could take both games off of them. While ID’ing was best for me, in retrospect my opponents should have declined it and played me instead.

The event was a wonderful experience. Growing up playing MTG (and later Netrunner) in Nova Scotia, these opportunities were not frequent or affordable, so they mean a lot to me regardless of the outcome.

I’m grateful to Josh, Iris, Nicky, Terence, Justin, and Zach for their volunteering to organize, run, judge, and cook for the event! Congratulations to Jon for winning. Huge shout out to all the new players who came out to their first ever Netrunner tournament! Lastly, thanks to everyone who welcomed me into their community and their city 🙏🏻.

Posted: July 29th, 2024