Built to Last – 4th, 8th, 21st @ CBI

See this deck in action at CBI on Sokka's YouTube channel

A year ago, I did not know that netrunner existed. I played my first game about 10.5 months ago on March 4th 2023. To be at this point now was beyond my wildest dreams.

How this deck came to be

This deck is the result of a collaboration between Unband and The Future Perfect for CBI. The list is a Sokka creation that I helped refine leading up to the tournament. Sokka, rip netrunner, and I brought this list to CBI with Sokka and I placing 8th and 4th in the cut respectively. Chromatically also played a variation with -1 Nonequivalent +1 NGO to 21st.

The primary problem most of us were trying to solve heading into CBI was: How do you beat the virus runners (Loup/Mulch)? This was our attempt at an answer while maintaining reasonable matchups across the board

How to play it

This is more of a tempo deck than it is a glacier deck. The meta is unique right now in that being able to shut down centrals with annoying ice like F2P is a large positive tempo swing for the corp because so many runner decks rely on successful central runs for their own tempo. Despite the name, this list does not have a particularly strong end-game like Sokka's worlds BTL. With enough time, most runners can accrue enough credits to remote-lock you as the scoring pattern is very obvious and late-game improvements to the remote are expensive in the form of ice install costs. The lack of real defensive upgrades means in most games we actually don’t want the game to go into the late-game phase. Instead, we want our robust economy combined with the punishing facechecks on our ICE to generate a commanding lead in the mid-game where we can either score out or get to game-point in hopes that the remote can hold for just one more crucial turn.

Matchups

Loup

A lot of cards in Loup give value for attacking centrals. Step 1 in the Loup matchup is to shut down this value. F2P, Magnet, and Mavirus are the three key cards to make this happen. If HQ and R&D can be meaningfully iced and a Mavirus finds its way to archives, Loup will be forced into a clunky mid-game where they will draw dead cards and often find themselves clicking for credits. It is important to take advantage of this time. Getting money and improving weak servers is good but it’s crucial to at least get to game point before the Loup manages to get to the bottom of their deck and start recurring tools with Labor Rights.

From here, a combination of Border Controls, Tollbooths, and Hydras on the remote should secure the final score as long as you didn’t rez too many big ICE during the early/mid-game that got derezzed to Tranquilizer. Tranquilizer is a neat trick but it only works if the ICE is already rezzed at the end of the corp’s turn. If the ICE is rezzed during a run, Tranquilizer will help the runner in future turns but will do nothing to get them past the ICE in the moment: the key to playing around Tranquilizer is to keep the frequency of these moments down to a minimum.

Mulch

Mulch has a lot of similar qualities to Loup. We did not practice this matchup as much as we should have but generally the best approach to this matchup should be similar to the best approach to playing this deck that was discussed earlier.

Twinning Sable

Sable should win in the late game as they can get into agenda-dense centrals to bounce your scores. Hence, the deck should be played a little bit rushy against Sable. An early Echo Chamber score is useful for avoiding Pinhole Threading when closing out the game. In our testing, this matchup started at 5-0 for Sable and ended up at 6-6.

Mawrie

Azmari is pretty unfavoured here. You want to rush out hard because a full rig can break Hydras for 3 and Tollbooths for 4. You want to take advantage of the time they need to set up + get their economy going in order to score out. This is likely true for other big rig runner too though we did not test those.

Esa

Esa is a very favourable matchup for this deck. Border Controls are your only barriers so the Laamb-Begemot combo only goes so far. Stacking ice on centrals severely limits what the Esa player can do and Magnets can pick up Botulus. The 3 Spin Doctor and 1 Attitude Adjustment also offer a lot of flexibility to shuffle agendas or key pieces back into the deck. Just watch out for Mad Dash.

Thank yous

Thank you to Steven, Chris, and Bryce. You guys took me in when I barely knew the rules of the game and shaped me into someone who could win a nationals and place 4th at a 100+ person CBI.

Thank you to Unband. I really enjoyed the collab and it was a pleasure getting to know everyone.

Thank you to William. I spend every day astounded by the sequence of events that have brought you into my life. I have no words for how much I appreciate you.

Useful Links

Runner Decklist

Tournament Standings