MCAMoons - [SOCR2 - 1st Place] [Cache Refresh]

Here is the deck I corped to 1st place for the Stimhack Online Cache Refresh 2 Tournament. There was 53 players in the tournament and this deck was a big part of why I did so well. 5 Rounds of swiss and a cut to top 8. The cut is single elimination rounds where you play best out of three. See the results here.

This deck went 4-1 in swiss and 3-3 in the cut. The combonation of this and my runner deck is why I made is so far. All of the opponents I faced were incredible players and the matches were a blast. This tournament allows for altering your deck in between matches. This quasi sideboarding creates some intersting decision to be made in between matches. Check out the sideboarding section below to see which cards I would switch out and why.

Major shout out to @fightingwalloon for putting this torunament together. It is some of the most fun I've had playing netrunner in a awhile. If you are intersted in the next torunament check out the sign up form here.

Game plan

Overall strategy

Asset spam like crazy, dump agendas to the bottom of R&D with Whampoa Reclamation, and score out using MCA Austerity Policy, Biotic Labor, and SanSan City Grid. I sometimes scored in a remote if I could keep them out and if I could trick them with a unprotected agenda on the board. Since you are primarily spamming econ assets Sandburg is a real MVP and will tax the runner out.

Early game

Depending on the match up you generally want to ice HQ first and leave R&D open. Getting an early Estelle Moon with a single piece of ice is also very important. Your next priority is to spam out econ assets and get the money going. Keep bringing them back and getting Moons counters with Friends in High Places. I don't always rez ice early and let them have accesses to save myself some money. Once you get your econ going you can start to move into the mid game.

Mid game

You should have your econ online. The next thing to focus on is getting MCA Austerity Policy ticking down. I usually have two iced remotes. One with a single ice for Moons and/or Sandburg and another with double ice and a MCA Austerity Policy ticking down. Now, usually the MCA has 2 ice and the moons and Sandburg have one but that is very dependent on the match up. Once you have MCA Austerity Policy at 3 you can start to fire off some game winning combos. My favorite is to pop Estelle Moon with several counter, rez another Estelle, install and advance a Successful Field Test and score it to install a bunch of your cards in HQ. This is the glory combo and sometimes just scoring a Global Food Initiative is good enough.

Late game

You really want to close this game out by turn 10-14 if you can because long game runners can really hose you. Ideally, I like to get to 5 points on the board and then Biotic Labor or SanSan City Grid out an Accelerated Beta Test. Sometimes this isn't possible and you need to score a 5/3 or 4/2. Get creative and figure out what will be the easiest path to victory. You have 3 Biotic Labor, 1 SanSan City Grid and 3 MCA Austerity Policy so you have lots of outs. However, if you get a Global Food Initiative scored as your first or second agenda the game feels much easier.

Problem cards you need to play around

• Maw - This is your archenemies. It will making winning very hard as it kills the cards you want to keep in your hand.
• Showing Off - I never got hit by this but make sure if they run whampoa and they are anarch put something besides an agenda at the bottom.
• Aumakua and #aenas informant - This card can become a real pain. Don't put warriod tracker on anything as this gives them a server to run with two cards. I had one opponent get 9 credits for running my san san and 2x warriod with 3 aenas. Turle just makes this strategy even better.
• Rumor Mill - I don't think I saw anyone running this but if I did I would have been very very sad as it kills my most powerful cards.
• Paricia - Nothing you can do about this but if they keep trashing your stuff and you don't get them out fast enough you will not be rich enough to win.

Side-boarding

Cards I changed out based on the match up

Truthfully I teched less with my corp deck than I did with my runner but when I did it for my corp it really helped me win.

• Hellion Beta Test - I needed an answer for Maw and often runners we run poor so I thought this was a great card to kill annoying consoles and resources.
• Zed 2.0 - Another way to get rid of that nasty Maw.
• Shipment from Tennin - Having another way to score an agenda from hand is helpful. I ended up taking this out because I felt having Whampoa Reclamation was better.
• Macrophage - This can help with Aumakua and deep #medium digs.
• MCA Austerity Policy - I only added this half way throught he torunmanet because the card was not released. It was a huge help
• Enforcing Loyalty - I only slotted this once and it was in the finals. I knew @internet_potato was on Magnum Opus out of MaxX so I knew I needed to kill that.
• Brain Rewiring - Don't run this agenda. It's just better to have another Successful Field Test

Videos of my Matches

Round 4 against @internet_potato - Video Here

Round 5 against @thebigunit3000 - Video Here

The Cut round 1 against @mbzrl - Video Here

The Cut Semi-Finals against @tyrellCorp - Video Here

The Cut Finals against @internet_potato - Video Here