Turtle Tennin (1st Place Malaysian Nationals, 2nd in Swiss)

Based on Selverin's Tennin list: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/44400/same-old-tennin-1st-place-warsaw-regionals-

Swiss:

1) Win vs Stealth Andy 2) Win vs Prepaid Ken 3) Win vs Good Stuff Andy with Kati 4) ID (Win vs Faust Lock Hayley in for fun game)

Top Cut:

1) Win (Opponent had to leave and conceded) 2) Win vs Good Stuff Andy with Kati 3) Win vs Bloo Moose Andy (https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/45031/bloo-moose-in-a-blue-deck-2nd-place-malaysian-nationals-)

Highlight of the Day:

Threatened a Nisei score behind a Fire Wall and outer Komainu. Lock Hayley drew with Laguna 4 times and Mad Dashed the remote with Faust ready. He couldn't get past Komainu without losing his hand and didn't have enough credits to install and break with Na'Not'K and flatlined to Mad Dash!

The Deck:

As with Selverin's list, the core idea remains the same. Ice up centrals, go remote-less and turtle until you can FA safely without compromising your ability to rez important ice.

Against Shapers, I'd assume they have clot and try to rush out behind a single/double iced remote while only lightly defending RnD and HQ. Mid-game you can play the never advance game and use your FA tools to score Nisei's which should lock down the game for you.

Changes and New Includes:

Allele Repression - I found that some games I couldn't afford to wait and Jackson back my FA tools, hoping to draw them soon to score the final agenda. Allele lets me retrieve them on demand and it has been impactful in all the games it showed up. The flexibility also allows a more aggressive use of double ToL/Shipment to score Nisei's from hand which can be game changing. It is, however, very expensive (both credits and clicks wise) and telegraphs a strong likelihood of scoring the next turn which invites an onslaught on HQ. Make sure you can survive the siege before using it. Being able to fire it mid-run and fizzle Security Testing/Bank Job effects as you snigger at the Runner's look of despair is an added bonus :)

"Clones are not People" - This was included as a way to remove E-Strikes without being forced to score an agenda while also threatening a 3-point FA the turn after if they can't deal with it. It didn't play much of a role for most of the games as I was either forced to discard it early to hold onto more important cards or just didn't see it. BUT in the one game it did play a role, it won me a game that I had no right to win. In top cut game 2, I managed to score 2 agendas early to go up to 4 points before Kati's credits allowed Andy to run rampant on all my servers. Fortunately for me, 2 Medical Breakthroughs have been scored/stolen and my only out was playing Clones and then ToL the last Medical for a 3-point score. With considerable luck and brazen stashing of 2 Braintrusts in archives that was 'protected' by a Security Testing, I found my out and won the game. I'm not sure if this fringe case justifies it a slot in the deck though.

Tithonium - Sounds good in theory but without cheap 1-pointers to feed it, it is just a 9 cost barrier that Paperclip can break for 4. The resistance to Parasite is nice but I don't think it's worth a slot and 2 influence. An extra Colossus or Firewall or tech card like MCA Informant would be a better call I feel.

Going down to 1 Caprice didn't make a significant difference in a field against Criminals reliant on Temujins and Sec Test to stay afloat. Crisium Grid and some beefy ice was enough to stall them until you stabilize. If you expect more Shapers in the meta then 2 Caprice is probably better.

Subliminal vs 3rd Restructure - Subliminal helps to bridge the gap to the next money operation you can play and can be the difference between being stuck at 7 credits or going up to 13. It also requires a passive opponent which doesn't really help when you are already behind. I honestly can't say which I prefer but I'll stick to 1 Subliminal and 2 Restructure for now.

Weaknesses + Possible Solutions:

Kati Jones - Turtling takes time and while Temujin runners might be starved if you can ice up all centrals swiftly and accumulate enough money to rez them, runners with Kati Jones can keep pace with you financially and then later leverage Temujin to soften the cost of running. This card gave me the most issues all day and made the games much closer than I'd like. Trading Ark Lockdown for a MCA Informant might be worthwhile.

Sifr + Parasite - Fortunately didn't meet any of these during the day but they can pose problems by trashing your expensive ice or ice with advancements. Either play faster than them and ice up strategically to protect the bigger ice or Ark Lockdown their Parasites and hope for the best.

Rotation:

With Trick of Light, Braintrusts, and Celebrity Gifts amongst the more important cards being rotated, I'm not sure if this version of Tennin will be playable post-rotation. So enjoy it while it lasts!