Viral Architecture -- First at Iberian Lockdown 8

This deck was a home-brew for Iberian Lockdown 8. I knew I wanted to run a glacier because the strongest runner glacier cards were notably absent (Rezeki, Kati, PAD Tap, I'd argue Stimhack), and the only Haas card that was banned was MCA (which is better for fastish-advance decks anyways). I decided to build the deck around Cyberdex Sandbox because (a) it's a touch more interactive and unexpected than CFC or Corporate Sales Team and (b) so many good runner virus cards in all factions (Pelangi, Imp, Turtle) weren't banned, so I figured it'd be a reasonably good meta call. A few decisions I made based on that:

Antivirus Software: I splashed 3 influence reverse infections because (a) it has nice synergy with cyberdex sandbox and (b) I didn't run any Red Level Clearance, so I needed a consistent low economy card to click. I did not run any Cyberdex Virus Suite because, while guarding the archives is nice, in order for it to be useful it needed to be drawn early, I rarely drew more than 2/3 the deck in these games, and I really didn't feel like splashing more than one.

Clearances: I only ran Violet Level Clearance -- for a while I had blue level clearance in the deck but in play testing I found it was just too slow and didn't synergize well with my attempts to get an early Cyberdex.

NEXT, Ash, Preemptive: These were the three cards I fiddled with the most. I wanted Preemptive because I wanted HQ to be as safe as possible so I wouldn't need to Jinja it. This resulted in me often shuffling a Vitruvius or GFI for later. I think Ash is super situational, but it was often a free Rez and could scare someone away from an ICE tower, so I splashed one in -- I made a day-of-tournament decision to replace one Ash with another preemptive action, which I don't regret. NEXT was there to ideally help get an early Cyberdex out -- I found it was the card I most frequently reshuffled with Virtuvius/Preemptive this tournament, so if I did it again I'd probably add a second.

ICE: I have 19 ICE because I really wanted to ensure every violet level clearance hits an ICE -- all but one did (at least when Jinja was out), I think that was about the right number. I put two surveyors because Bioroid Sentries are pretty meh in my opinion, and I wanted something to put pressure on anyone running the Bin Breakers. I put in macrophage because it's cheap and situationally nice (it actually won me a game, so I cannot complain!). The weakest ICE in the set was Heimdall -- it was just a bit too expensive to Rez on its own, and if someone knew it was coming they could plan ahead. I think if I were to do it again I'd replace it with Viktor 1.0 or something a touch cheaper -- I'd much rather see him Turn 1.

How I played this deck: I told myself I'd mulligan for 2 or more ICE that I can Rez Turn 1 -- I ended up breaking that rule twice if the 1 ICE I had was sufficiently good (Fairchild 2.0 and Eli 1.0 are the optimal turn 1 ICE imo) and had a small number of agendas. I tried to always play ICE in twos on two different servers --that way passing one could charge the other. If I had to put one ice down I tried to put it on a server I didn't think my opponent would want to run that turn. If I have a choice of which ICE to Rez from my ID ability I usually pick the outermost ice on the biggest server -- that way it can Rez other ICE. I never really worried about the fact that Ravana and Eli were only 3 credit rezzes -- while they seem less efficient I think both of them are as valuable than the 4-6 credit ICEs in the deck. I tried to keep my HQ as empty as possible -- that way I could play violet as soon as I drew it -- Jinja and Preemptive helped with this a LOT.

On the whole, I actually enjoyed playing this deck more than my Ken deck -- while with Ken I made a lot of concessions and suboptimal moves for the lockdown format, I think this deck was really at its home in this specific meta -- I don't think there are any cards I would want to add that were banned.

The deck went 5-0 in the tournament, beating a Reina Rioja (a nice matchup because Reina wants to make you rez one ice per turn), Lat, 2 Smokes, and an Edward Kim (another fun matchup -- you want to trash my operation? Well look, it's already got a trash cost, so go ahead!). In two different games I hid an agenda in my archives for more than one turn just to think my HQ -- I'm shocked I never got called out for that.

Thanks to all my opponents, VESPER for organizing, and Madhatter152 for turning me on to the game just as COVID was starting. I haven't learned a language or a musical instrument while working at home, but I've made some fun decks!