Von dutch (8th @ NANPC Philly, 3-1)

The Deck

I love playing Arissana, and in the lead up to NANPC Philly I really wanted to work on my skills as a runner and dive into the many lines and tactics available to the World Tree variant of the ID. However, when I made my original 66 card list, I found that it was:

1. A pain in the ass to constantly shuffle such a large deck
2. A bit too variant and inconsistent for my taste

So I decided that consistency was good and cut down to 55 cards. Part of the enjoyment from this past weekend was seeing the look on a corp's face when I told them I was on 55 cards and they didn't quite know what to think of it.

After doing quite well in the swiss with Ari, here are some thoughts I came away with:

• Instead of slotting unnecessary tech just because you can pull it out with World Tree, just play less, and more impactful cards.
• If you cut a ton of programs (especially Muse) and some hardware, then you can also ignore slower econ engines like Environmental Testing.
• There's a good case for a second Burner given how many corps really want to hang on to pieces like Punitive Counterstrike and Seamless Launch, but Imp and Simulchip can put in very good work as well. Imp also helps churn through fresh cards during Conduit digs.
• Since we don't have as many programs, the third DZMZ Optimizer isn't necessary. I felt very comfortable sticking to 7 MU with this list.
• Don't tunnel vision on World Tree. It's good value, but I won games both in testing and in Philly by either trashing World Tree (either as a Simulchip cost or because of MU constraints) early on, or never installing it in the first place. Remember: you're a Shaper, you have plenty of tricks outside of World Tree.
• After I dropped my first game in the cut against The King, we talked about this list and he brought up the idea of replacing Buzzsaw with Inversificator. It's a bit expensive for my taste, but it does make it a nice World Tree target, and the swap ability can certainly come in handy. Perhaps some more testing is in order for this one.

Piloting this list forced me to hone my instincts as a runner, and by using those instincts in Philly I found where the agendas were and I got into the servers I needed to get into. The core of this deck is not World Tree - it's runner fundamentals.

Remember kids, Sick Ripz is All You Need.

The Tournament

I played 4 games with Ari this weekend (No top cut games with it since I corped twice and dropped both games). This Ari was 3-1, which makes it the top Ari out of swiss.

Round 1 - Win against Ob (AnOddRadish). Corp started building a wide board state, but it turns out Sandstone folds to Slap Vandal. Some lucky Conduit digs closed out the game fairly quick.

Round 4 - Win against Ob (sebastiank). Seb was on the Venti list where you build a clown car server of upgrades and eventually Mutually Assured Destruction the runner. I tanked an early Urban Renewal, losing my Buzzsaw in the process. However, Physarum Entangler is even better against Afshar than Buzzsaw. After a well-timed run on the clown car server I tutored out Miss Bones and cleared it out, then hammered R&D until I pulled a third agenda. Very fun game.

Round 5 - Loss against Restoring Humanity (Ben Mason). Early Burner missed the Punitive in HQ, then Ben top decked the second one on his mandatory. Unfortunate loss, but I was also far too reckless for my own good given my relatively low credit pool. You live and you learn.

Round 7 - Win against Precision Design (Acatalepsy). This was a very close game, but due to my opponent drawing an Ikawah Project instead of any 4/2 agenda, they just didn't have quite enough time/tempo to outpace my R&D lock with Conduit and Trick Shot. Stole enough points and then proceeded to ID into the cut during round 8, landing me a 4th seed spot.

My corp deck was just the Spirit Crusher PD list, but I swapped the third Tranquility Home Grid for a second Magnet because I expected to run into a lot of Shaper. It went 2-1-1 in swiss and dropped both games in the cut against Esâ (The King) and Knife Sable (dongyroge).

The Other Stuff

I started playing Netrunner back in 2016, and took a few years off shortly after to pursue my degree and start my career. I came back to the game just before System Gateway dropped, and have been loving it again ever since. My local meta in Binghamton, NY is very small. We ran a CO last fall with 6 players, and our weekly game nights are typically just myself and 1 or 2 others. All the events I participated in either didn't have a top cut, or I didn't make it into the cut. NANPC Philly was my first major tournament, first top cut, first time being streamed/recorded at a top table, etc. It was a great experience, and I met a ton of incredible players who are also incredible people. It was so nice to play games at such a high level against people who are passionate about Netrunner, and I'd love to repeat all of that again at Worlds this year.

Huge shoutouts to Sanjay and Pouchsurfer for organizing and running the event, to my opponents for giving me some great games and great conversations, and to my meta partner that traveled with me to Philly and gave me the confidence I needed to believe that I was a good enough player to be there.

I look forward to playing more games with all of you in the future :)