Club Aqua (1-2, 3rd in Swiss, 4th place at Seattle CO).

There's been a tragedy in the club community...

This is a way-too-large version of an exceptionally strong deck we've been iterating on out of Seattle. This deck archetype is the sole reason I came back to competitive netrunner and it's the most fun I've had in ages with the game.

This deck draws insanely fast due to busted red cards. You have tons of draw, and your goal is to rip through your deck and pressure centrals via disruption (sabotage) until you can land huge sabotage turns. You recur your money or your sabotage cards while doing so!

The core of the engine is Ghosttongue and Marrow, and the fantastic dual-edged pressure is provided by the combo of Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga and Raindrops Cut Stone. You'll want to mulligan for either or both of these cards. Ghosttongue is really strong and when paired with value cards, it feels incredible. When you can't find breakers, Bankhar pressures weak servers.

The goal is to sabotage as much as possible via my new favorite runner card, Chastushka. You can play it theoretically 12 times, if you labor rights well!

I took this to another CO here a few weeks ago and it did well but had some techs against it that really seemed to hurt it a lot. With this, I decided to swap out the old version's Legwork for Pinhole Threading (this won me a game) and change out Dirty Laundry for Fermenter. The original version was so fast and bursty but had a finite amount of gas. Awkward draw can also mean you just cannot play anything, so thus we decided to play the incredibly broken red orb (#banfermenter) you can cook while you continue set up.

The problem with these additions and changes is that it turns out 3 extra cards really slows the deck down and makes it inconsistent.

Performance at the CO (Single Sided Swiss):

• Round 2: Loss vs Azmari - Awkward draw but otherwise played a strong game and the opponent was able to close it out and managed to always have Econ Warfare + HHN whenever I'd run lol
• Round 3: Win vs Ag Prison - a 54-card deck with I think I counted 11 million ice and is going for the Keeling Kill. It's a clever, cute deck! It has Cold Site to protect it. Despite the rough start, I managed to get an early lead of 6 points by stealing a Bacterial and Obokata. The kill was close incoming with my hand size rapidly shrinking and I won due to labor rights-ing my Pinholes 3 times to deal with the Ag boops. Close!
• Round 5: Loss vs Rushy Ag - Stonar has a super fun rushy Ag that hinges off of Regenesis + Obo that very cutely uses Big Deal (which technically triggers off itself. 17 credits is a lot of money but 4 points in one turn feels real good. He was able to rush against me fast and do the trick and I ran out of gas before I could gain any advantage. Despite this, I think probably the most fun game of the day.

The Cut:

• Loss vs Rushy Ag - Stonar and I faced off again and while I had the advantage and kept bleeding his deck while he couldn't get a good foothold. I wasn't able to get breakers and despite being set up otherwise, I decided to just face plant HQ with Bankhar and Raindrops to see the literal worst possible ice to hit with Bankhar: Anansi. I died in a silly way, taking 6 net lol.

Afterthoughts and thanks

I would keep the fermenters and try to trim the fat a little. Maybe go back down to 2x Bankhar and get rid of Light the Fire! since Pinhole theoretically serves the same function. 46 cards would be acceptable to me.

Once again we have a tournament where I wasn't even sure if I wanted to play - but I appreciate the good-natured peer pressure from my metamates and testing group to encourage me to come and show up the Canadians that came down!

Special thanks to the Muntal Bost testing group for helping me to hone a few card choices, Radiant for running the tournament, and for all my opponents. This genuinely was the most fun tournament I have ever played in. All my games (except for the 419 in the cut lol) were incredibly fun to play, even the ones where I lost.

Good luck and always remember to ask your opponent:

"Cards in hand?"

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