Smoked that Potato - [SOCR2 1st Place] [Cache Refresh]

Here is the deck I ran 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 3-0 in the cut. The combonation of this and my corp 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

Get money, pressure HQ, finish with R&D. Money comes through Temüjin Contract and Bloo Moose while setting up and before servers can be locked down. The Gauntlet is one of the best consoles in Cache Refresh because agendas pile up in HQ since the corp doesn't have access to Jackson. Camp remotes and once you are set up go for R&D with Medium, Equivocation, and The Maker's Eye.

Early game

Keep Temüjin Contract and or Bloo Moose for in your starring hand. However, honestly any type of econ card it really good. You need to use Diesel and draw up fast to get your stuff going. You are weakest in the early game so try and get set up fast and don't let the corp out pace you. I lost to @thebigunit3000 because he jammed some agendas and I wasn't able to keep up. If you are facing an asset spam deck you need to get Paricia and Bloo Moose online and keep trashing their stuff. You can build your rig a little slower in asset spam match ups because you can't afford letting their board state get out of control.

Mid game

You should have your econ and your rig mostly set up. Gauntlet is a bit pricy but a key card in the mid game. By this point in the game agendas are probably piling up in HQ and you can capitalize on this. Make runs on HQ seeing 2-3 cards. The more they commit ice to HQ the better it is for you.

Late game

By this point you should have good econ going and Net Mercur to help you get into any server. Camp key remotes and be aggressive don't let them score out of a remote. R&D should be weak because they most likely over invested in HQ. Plop down a Medium and/or Equivocation and start hitting R&D. You can usually win the game this way.

Things to consider

I feel like your game plan isn't as straight forward with runner. Sometimes you just need to be dealing with assets and your rig came come later. Sometimes you need to be staying rich so they don't kill you. Sometimes you have to play aggressively and draw a lot and face-check stuff and deal with the damage. This is very versatile deck and I found I could do all of these things I needed to pretty well.

Problem cards/strategies you need to play around

• Data Loop, Ben Musashi, and Obokata Protocol in AgInfusion is very hard to deal with. Use Femme Fatalemme on Data Loop if you can use Net Mercur to draw. You need to have 8 cards in hand to steal this combo. Don't let them get a Nisei either, it makes that server even harder. Read below to see my tech against it
• Kakugo is nasty. I slotted a net shield to deal with it.
• Lack of free servers to run for money - you are very dependent on making runs and getting money. If a corp stays iced up your game can get harder. Try to get a Temüjin Contract off before they can lock you out.
• Asset Spam - If you don't find econ or Paricia you are dead in the water. Don't let the board get out of control. if you can't control the board, Agendas pile up in HQ start hitting that up.
• Fast Advance - Don't be to slow about setting up your rig. You need to pressure HQ right away as agendas pile up fast.

Side-boarding

Cards I changed out based on the match up

• Maw is one of the best consoles in CR. If I was playing a combo deck like @tyrell_corp's RPC Goverment Takeover deck than I would use it to attack his combo pieces.
• Daredevil - I had to play @internet_potato's AgInfusion deck twice and I discovered that having Daredevil draw you cards is a great way to deal with Data Loop and Obakota.
• Aaron Marrón - if I knew they were going to try and tag me then I moved to Corroder and dropped the Femme Fatale for an Aaron Marrón.
• Citadel Sanctuary - Great for data raven and kill decks.
• Paricia was in here most of the time but I would drop is when I knew my opponent wouldn't be on asset spam.
• Levy AR Lab Access - Most of the time I didn't need it. If I knew I was playing against a damage deck it was an auto include.
• Peace in Our Time - I added this card in the finals to deal with the lack of servers I could run. I knew Temüjin Contract and Dirty Laundry could get shut off so I needed a quick boost economy card to get my expensive console and breakers up.
• Interdiction - Smart players played around this threat but sometimes I would catch people off guard and they would be unable to rez a key upgrade. I didn't slot it every game but people just knowing about the threat made is good enough.
• Net Shield - Great card to deal with Kakuko. I slotted this against every Jinteki match up I had.
• Feedback Filter - Sometimes you just needed it but I usually prefer net shield

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