3 Snares in 1 turn you say? 3-1 @ London CO

I realise this isn't breaking news for anyone, but cycling your deck is incredible value and with the release of Ashen Epilogue, it's now a very viable approach.

A tiny bit of background: I haven't played since UK Nats back in November and crucially, I didn't really play at the time that MaxX with Levy was around, which was an archetype that piqued my interest. So I thought I'd take that concept and ramp it up to the next level.

It's very simple. Burn through your deck on first pass (using the Price, Moshing, Aniccam + Lago for extra hilarity and gas), installing all your necessary pieces (breakers, Turbine, a form of recurring credit with Twinning) before cycling your deck with Labor Rights and Ashen to go through all your economy again. Starting your turn on 8 cards (Hoshiko draw + Lago/Aniccam trigger) and kicking off with a Moshing is fantastic.

Tech pieces Scrubber and Hannah are great for dealing with assets/remotes. I should have carved out a space for another Bankhar tbh, because he's very strong pressure. Flip Switch is there as both tag removal compression on the turn it's needed and in case you hit Stavka/Hafrun. That said, it is a double layer of pressure when paired with Bankhar and messes up ice rezzes for the Corp.

Round 1 vs Jo on Asa - The engine got up and working, but I was so focused on its pieces that I failed to notice Jo was on 4 points with a fresh install. Wage Workers and Seamless scored out Ikawah right before I was fully set. LOSS

Round 2 vs Theo on Ob - Bit of a scrappy game. It started to slip away from me as Theo got to 5 points. The remote looked impenetrable for my economic situation at the time with Border Control and an unknown ice. I then hail Mary-ed R&D with the Twinning and scored 5 points in 3 cards. WIN

Round 3 vs Rotage on Outfit - This was a long game. About 6-7 turns in, I ran HQ with Twinning counters on click 1 and hit 2 Snares. Thankfully, Steelskin and Aniccam meant that I survived without issue. Using Flip Switch and Hannah, I was tagless again and back at 4 clicks. I then drew twice back up to 3 cards just in case there was another Snare and ran R&D, using my other Twinning counter. Of course, the third Snare was waiting for me! Last click cleared the tag and we were OK.

Rotage scored an early Cityworks, so I knew roughly what I was up against. He then scored a Regulatory Capture as I was fully set with my rig, meaning that I just had to pressure; I saw an Audacity earlier on, so I knew I had to play into that. I ran HQ and stole 5 points our of 4 cards (that's one way to turn Audacity off). From there, it was a bit of a grind. Ashen reset my deck, but I was basically all the way through it again by the last turn. Once more, I had to just send it into R&D with the economy I had left and my last Twinning counter. Luckily, that second card was the agenda I was looking for. WIN

Round 4 vs Steffmonkey on Asa - Asa is a rough match and I only brought 1 Bankhar, which didn't help. Thankfully, Hoshiko was able to apply lots of pressure economically (Scrubber helped a lot, though I ditched Hannah early on with Moshing and later regretted it given how many servers Steff put out) which meant that Steff couldn't comfortably score out without making himself vulnerable. That said, he got to 5 points to my 3 and it was looking pretty dire.

He had what I was pretty sure was an Ikawah Project sat in his scoring remote for a couple of turns ( I had run HQ earlier on my last click to check the only card in there and that was it). I was also aware that I had milled/discarded 2 Labor Rights and my Ashen, so I stopped using Lago. But seeing the situation, I realised I needed to get going. With about 10 cards left in my deck, I thought, what are the odds? I triggered Lago and of course, it was my third Labor Rights. Cool... I guess I have to send it now then! I then hail Mary-ed R&D with the Twinning and scored 5 points in 3 cards. WIN

You might notice a bit of a theme there... anyhow, it was a really great day of Netrunner - everything from seeing familiar faces to experiencing the adrenaline rush of running again. I had also invited a few friends who I'd just introduced to the game and the community went above and beyond to welcome them, so shout out to everyone there!

See you next time.