Check Check Check [2nd at Pittsburgh CO]

I started working on an NEH deck early into TAI and settled on something pretty close to Jai's Telling Time around the same time they published from APAC.

Jai emphasizes the capability to control the top of R&D with DBS and FF, which is quite strong, but I feel that asset spam only drawing once per turn is quite a bit too slow. Furthermore, the R+ ID has a bit of variance, if you can't score your ARES or draw your oppos, you're largely playing a blank ID. This is a catch-22, as you often need a bit of early tempo to secure the first ARES, which protects your tempo-generating assets.

I preferred to go with NEH, which has guaranteed gas to escape the early game wrestle over board state if the runner is situated to fight your economy or FA pieces. This means it more consistently reaches that advantageous midgame with 1+ ARES scored and bladders firing, with little progress on the runner side. The cost for picking NEH is that you rarely get to control the top of R&D, making you vulnerable to singles. The decksize consistency hit is mostly offset by the extra draw and influence.

I think this is a worthy trade-off: the goal of the deck is to give the runner so many must-trash threats that they are perpetually too busy to spend much time getting accesses on centrals. In chess, if you can keep putting the opponent's king in check (while developing), they will be too busy backpedaling to match your development, allowing you to push ahead.

That is the goal of the deck, perpetually give the runner checks. "Here's a bladderwort, go trash it and take a tag please, check." "Now there's a liberty and sansan and take some oppo tags, check." Did you check both facedowns? No, well that's another ARES, and a Tomorrow's next turn if you don't run it back, check." "Oh wow you're keeping up, how about 2 more bladders and an MCA, oh and wage workers is giving me a click that I will spend on MCA, check." When this deck is firing on all cylinders it is truly oppressive. If you think R+ oppo forks are bad, try handling 4 tags, 2 Bladderworts, and a ticking MCA behind an unrezzed ping, protected by ARES, all on 3 clicks.

The deck has two main weaknesses, clot and conduit. There are some ways around clot, such as Lady Liberty, Mavirus, MCA used to hard purge on a FA turn, and just shell gaming agendas once they give up checking it all. The last piece of clot tech I included was Chekist Scion. Install advance on a sansan, ask for action, and what sane runner wouldn't clot you? Then they go grab their agenda and instead find 2 tags. You can also use it to bluff Bellona behind a ping or something, pretending that you think they can't get past 1 ICE with 5 credits.

For conduit, Mavirus is also a good answer, and perhaps this means 2x Mavirus is warranted. If you have multiple ARES scored and there's a Mavirus near the top of R&D, you can use the Federal Fundraising trick (or install it on R&D) to keep it perpetually on the top so the runner can't dig deep on conduit without trashing the Mavirus (and taking tags). You could try even rezzing it and treating it like a Hokusai Grid + purge, that would be funny to see. However, I think the only true answer to conduit digs, especially on Arissana, is a truly taxing ICE. Nothing in my list fills that role. I realized this issue before the tournament, but didn't think of the solution until just before it started. I suspect swapping Drafter to Bran or possibly even Pharos would help a ton. It's a hedge against the shaper matchup, and you probably never rez against other matchups, but I think shaper is the toughest matchup and warrants a dedicated tech slot.

Speaking of other slots. I'm not sure Amani Senai is right. It's decently taxing but maybe 9 ICE consistency is better. I think Chekist Scion is an interesting 1x, but if people expect it then maybe you go to 2 Mavirus (NGO feels week when often you don't want money because bladderwort). I suppose there's reversed accounts as an option, didn't try it. I think 2 FF is enough, the DBS already gives you plenty of filter and mandatory + NEH means you don't need that much extra draw. I think 2 Rashida is correct, early they are great, but later they are pretty useless (except for massive drawing to find a final agenda), you don't even want the money often because bladderwort. I have a single Wage Workers as well, mostly for efficiency with 3 install turns off the massive draws you get. It can also be used to NA a Bellona on a Sansan.

I have 1x Shipment, 1x FOI, and 2x Starlit Knight as tag punshment. This may be a tiny bit too light. The knight is finicky, threat4 can be tough to activate, it can get hushed, and Ika can get through the subs efficiently. Perhaps a 2nd shipment and FOI->Beale for more consistent FA. Perhaps a 3rd Knight. I do think 9 ICE is probably correct in hindsight, 8 can be a bit low sometimes (although the amount of cards you draw/filter helps here). The 9th ICE could also be another VSA or a wraparound.

The flexible influence is MCA, drafter (I recommend trying Bran), and wage workers. I think these are all reasonable uses. The MCA is another FA tool which is important, and it also enables some disgusting bladderwort prison plays. Early on it's kinda dead, just throw it out and bait a run or something.

At the event I went 3-2, beating two Arissana and a Hoshiko, and losing to a Lat and Bendurance's Arissana (who I previously beat) in the finals. Many of the games were quite close.

In the Lat game I achieved a pretty nasty bladder prison, and was about to purge conduit+clot and then score out, but time was called on the runner turn as they scored a beale on their final conduit dig taking them from behind 3-4 to ahead 5-4, and I needed 2 turns to purge+score. Because of the conduit dig R&D would be safe quite a while after the purge, and with the bladderworts going I think Lat would be too busy for one turn to prevent my win if we played it out. I think I was slightly/moderately favored if not for time, but I also misplayed a few turns earlier spending my Mavirus on R&D to burn clot and score 3rd ARES, so I have only myself to blame.

In the finals vs Bendurance we had a very close game, and they aptly remarked that despite 10 hrs of netrunner it was a game full of good decisions and exciting plays, I wish it were recorded. I never saw a bladderwort the whole game which is pretty rough for a bladder prison deck. On the final turn they deep dove, which I rezzed and popped spin doctor to pad against. The dive took them to 6 points (I was on 5) as they went tagme, and I had shipment in hand and just drew FOI off the spin draw. With 1 click left from pichacao they ran HQ and found the 1/5 FOI to win, as I would have scored it next turn otherwise.

In both these matchups, and an earlier one vs Arissana, I think a Bran on R&D would have helped immensely. Given this lack of inclusion, and the over-representation of shaper in my matchups, which is by far the deck's worst matchup (I think it's quite favored vs Hermes Hoshiko decks), I think the shell of the deck is quite interesting and deserves some iteration.