Artemis' Blessing [Startup]

published by AlwaysBeRunning.net
This is my runner, which took me to second with a 3-1 record in Leisure Games' Midnight Sun Startup Tournament along with my corp.

The four games:

Lost a close game vs TamiJo's Pradivost to calling that the remote didn't have an agenda because I needed a turn off from contesting. I was, technically, right! (It had a Vladisbrik grid and I lost anyway). The 8 advanced Ubiquitous Vig that was around from almost the get go and got many ID counters meant it had money for years - over 44 credits through a PAN Weave)

Won vs Scarlett's GameNET through marking archives a lot and Cezve making centrals nearly free.

Won vs Tim's Architects of Tomorrow through centrals pressure, even through 3 DBS and turn 1 being an Eli on each central (getting enough value that it's worth spending the first part of the game clicking through Elis because you get a click back, 2c from security testing, and a HQ access from Virtuoso, plus any run event or Red Team money, is something I recommend everyone experience at least once) - the game was a long slog of poking centrals for slight R&D accesses and waiting for everything that got DBS-d down to float back up because it had nowhere else to go, and a Tyr on archives making it the most taxing server in the game.

Won the last game vs Finnbar's Ob on points, after a high pressure early game where I had my breakers and 2 Cezve early for remote pressure, debating hard over what to trash to an SDS and making the (definitely wrong because I knew they were on rigshooter) choice to trash Unity rather than Cezve, lured by the value and the Cat's Cradle in hand. The game ended on time just as I was ganked into an Archer I couldn't afford to break and lost my decoder and second killer (the revolver was empty), and I scored a cheap win on points. (I do genuinely feel a little bad about this)

Takeaways from this tournament:

• Cezve is a really really good card and makes it almost impossible to meaningfully ice centrals - a lot of people tried and just couldn't have a remote, while I was only paying maybe two real credits to get a bunch of value and 3 HQ accesses every turn.

• I deserved to go 2-2 but won my last game on time while 5 points up just as my breaker suite exploded

• Sable feels like Mirrormorph in that I like saying weird numbers for how many clicks I have, and because she needs a bit of turn planning

• The correct way to beat Cezve is probably put an ice with a facecheck on each central, then ignore them in favour of building a remote. It is almost impossible to meaningfully tax a deck on even two Cezve without stretching your ice far too thin, and in that time you'd be better served spending your resources building a remote - my income will likely be the same, and I'll be more taxed running it than I would if it was on centrals, especially since HQ isn't safe.

• (the exception is pop-up window, or something that directly hits credit pools rather than just needing credits (i.e. most NBN ice, the key word is "the runner loses Xc"))

• Red Team is really nice when it's clickless, especially with Security Testing or any other added value - I know people weren't that big on it but in Startup Sable it feels like it does a lot of work.

• Security Testing on a non-HQ mark doesn't stop your Virtuoso accesses (last I checked Jnet implements this incorrectly)

• I wish I had Jailbreaks a little bit (but only a little) - this deck probably wants slightly more multiaccess.

• PAN-weave felt... nice, but not amazing - running my mark was often the better use of my Cezve money so I couldn't really pressure the corp drastically economically, though the 1 credit was nice enough.