Heraldic Lat (3rd Swiss, 7th overall US East Nats)

Many moons ago I won an ANRPC tournament with the username abstract. After returning from a roughly five-year break from Netrunner and basically re-learning the game again, it seemed suitable to choose a new username. The vergescu (ver-JESS-cue) was a heraldic device carried by knights with no accomplishments, a plain white shield, so I chose that as my starting-over username.

This tournament was my first showing of any note since returning to the game, a little mark of new color on that blank white shield. It’s been a great experience re-learning the game, discovering how things had changed, and meeting more of the people who make up a truly stellar community.

After seeing all of the great Shaper cards to come out of RWR it seemed like a clear time to get back to my Shaper roots after so long away. This deck went 2-2-1 on the day, the draw being an ID. The game plan is really similar to a lot of other reg Lat/Shaper decks, but I’ll mention a few choices.

Deck choices:

Only one Revolver? Only one Revolver. The list started with one Echelon and one Revolver, but in testing I never felt like I needed more than the Revolver, even in practicing against a number of Jinteki decks. In a heavy Jinteki glacier meta, I would rethink this, especially if your opponent knows you've only got one. As Sokka pointed out, recurring the Revolver can be awkward if you’re using your second Simulchip on a turn.

Cataloguer/Mad Dash? I tested a Deep Dive version of this deck as well, with -1 Miss Bones, -2 Cataloguer, -1 Mad Dash, and +2 Deep Dive, +1 Hannah, and +1 Paricia instead. The Cataloguer version felt better in a lot of practice games, and I expected to see more corps on all 3-pointers than I actually did. I only drew Mad Dash once, on a board state where it was irrelevant, but there were several games where I wish I had drawn it. In practicing Mad Dash really helped close out a number of games. Cataloguer itself felt good. A lot of corps aren’t heavily defending centrals, and I appreciated having the extra central pressure.

Why 46 cards? Because I lack strength of conviction and didn’t quite cut the last one. I think you could go down to 2 Daily Casts/Telework and assign those slots between the two options to taste, but there were games where I was glad I had all three.

On the day:

Round 2 win vs NotAgain on Barf-esque Thule: took it slow and just kept the board under control, weathered a few riot suppressions until Cataloguer revealed the winning agenda.

Round 4 loss vs kevinth on Tower of Flowers A Teia: this A Teia deck is a very cool build that I know Kevin has practiced a lot. If you’re not familiar with what it’s doing, it can really take you by surprise. I knew the basics, but there are still a lot of triggers you need to be aware of that can turn into scoring windows. I didn’t draw much econ in the early parts of the game, and couldn’t quite contest a few early agenda pushes. After two whiffed Cataloguers, the game ended at time.

Round 6 win vs Sokka234 on AginFusion: I was lucky to draw a lot of early econ that let me set up enough to contest a bacterial push. A later Cataloguer run showed three agendas, two of which Sokka was able to draw with a La Costa advanced Spin Doctor, then Sprint them back into the deck. Picked up the third agenda shown, and found the last one off a Trick Shot a few turns later.

Round 8: ID

Game 1 of the cut, loss vs Funkyman232 on Shoot the Moon PD: Opponent pushed two never-advanced Ikawahs early, and I didn’t quite have the money to contest them through a Manegarm. Once he was on six points I tried to lock R&D with Cataloguer/Trick Shot, but he drew through it with a Sudden Commandment and scored the final agenda with a Big Deal. This one felt winnable with better econ management from me, or more aggressive trashing of the win conditions. I saw the Big Deal on a Cataloguer, and could have trashed it by going nearly broke, but maybe it was the right call to trash.

Shoutouts, etc.

Special thanks to Hectorest, Choux, and the MoM crew for the practice games

Funkyman232, NotAgain, Kevinth and the rest of the local Boston meta for more practice games

Whiteblade111 for helping me re-learn a lot of things about Netrunner I’d forgotten in my years away

NotAgain (again) and Ysengrin, and everyone who organized and ran the tournament

All of my gracious opponents for some great games

All of the people who give their time to keep this game and the community around it flourishing. It’s a truly tremendous effort.