Nahvirus – 2nd, 6-2, @ 2024 East Canadian Nationals

This is a fairly standard PD list that has felt consistently strong for a while. The week before Nats I decided to cut Mavirus for a second Hagen because I’d experienced issues in some games with not drawing enough ice early on, and the difference between 13 and 14 feels significant in a 44 card deck. (Two Hagen because I wanted more barriers vs Physarum and Lobisomem.) I was comfortable cutting Mav because Turtle is seeing less play with crim being unpopular and most viruses are being played by shapers, whose recursion renders Mavirus only a minor annoyance anyways. I put a lot of thought into what to do with the resulting extra influence but came to the conclusion that every slot in the deck was simply more important than spending the full 15. I’m a fan of two Void and one Border Control, but the one Void and two Border Control school of thought certainly has merit too. I prefer two Void because it makes you more resilient to Pinhole and gets you to the Skunk-Void late game faster, while relying less on rezzing taxing remote ice that often stretch PD’s econ to its limit.

I love playing PD because it consistently leads to very tight, intense, and interesting games of good ‘ol fashioned Netrunner. This deck impressed me multiple times during the tournament with its ability to pull off wins in very difficult board states (including almost being decked by Esa when I leaked five points early and spent the rest of the game desperately trying to keep agendas out of archives). The Kit matchup was especially interesting and tricky, with the games always coming down to the puzzle of how to squeeze out the final Ikawah.

Nationals itself was an absolute blast. All of my opponents were super friendly and a joy to play against. So many incredibly close, exciting games that underscored all of the reasons I love Netrunner. Massive thanks to the tournament organizers and volunteers who put an incredible amount of work and passion into pulling off an awesome event!