Premise

Running is hard 😣

Running is hard 😣 😣

Running is hard 😣 😣 😣

Not that we're not in a “runner meta”, but speaking from the perspective of a newer player learning, while observing my materially poorer personal runner record during events or on jnet …

I start to appreciate more and more that runners are required to do more constant and dynamic threat assessments, to dissect the usually more linear corp game plan … which to me just translated to a higher floor for learning, but probably a higher ceiling that eventually rewards experiences & skills.

In a moment of loss and perplexity in pursing said “experience & skill” … I found, no, I was found by, the Church of Swift Lat.

It was advertised to “play itself” … It’s filled with good & easy to use cards, it can assert strong openings and close with strong inevitability.

More importantly, I love some good lore story of the fearless prophet @Alpi who’s been preaching this for years and years, and apparently developed a national cult following.

Let’s give it a try. ✈️

Turns out, I was entirely carried by the runner deck on the day.😏

Game Plan

See here, here and here for some of @Alpi’s original write-up … most of the below notes are quotes / rephrases of his wisdom so all credits goes to the prophet.

General Game Plan:

1) You try to camp remote / keep board in check until you’re set up to deep dive

2) Be intentional on DJ choices (you still DJ Steve most of the time, but you do prefer DJ Sable against HB or drew early, and DJ Loup being a last ditch effort before the asset board snowball’d get out of control) … although if you go anything other than DJ Steve, you have to be very aware of how many run events you have left, to be faithful to deck’s Deep Dive plan

3) if you find your Deep Dives too early, don't be scared to discard one of them. If you're planning on going DJ Steve you can even discard 2. Don't let them brick your hand

4) You truly can set up very fast if you keep the Lat trigger in mind, although remember to be polite and ask for permission from your opponent before setting Lat draw to auto-resolve.

Some Match-up Notes:

Against Ag:

You’d rather have Buzzsaw than Unity. You only want to let them rez ice on the scoring remote and don't contest HQ or R&D aggressively if it's iced to minimize the dmg from their ID. If the remote gets too expensive, you contest HQ to capitalize on the supposed flood in there by that point. Don't focus on Deep Dive against Ag, it's very hard to land. DJ is not too important in this match-up, we only use it when we’re out of gas and could use a Steve.

Against PD/Asa:

You’d rather have Unity than Buzzsaw. Try to force some ICE rez early to hopefully slow ‘em down. Drafter is the only ice early that you be concerned about breaking (M.I.C is probably more played around than breaking, during early turns). If they rez a Bran or Gatekeeper and you can't break it, let it fire, it’s fine. Try to contest the remote until the Corp has invested too much and finish with Deep Dive. DJ is very important here, you go DJ Sable almost every time if you can.

Against asset decks:

You have some “fake money” from overclock / trickshot / DJ Loup, but they often have weaker centrals so be patient with your breaker installs, and try to just win with Deep Dive(s).

Against glacier decks:

You sit back and set up indeed. Propellor + Simulchip is our tech, when your rig is fully setup what can stop a Deep Dive? Try running the Border Control or upgrade protected central first if you know where it is. By the time you're setup you should have 2 Deep Dives in your hand. If you only find 1 agenda in your first DD, it is very strong to be able to play a second Deep Dive right after.

Some Card Choices

3x Trick Shot: Wildly good card, 3 accesses for free, with extra trashing or SMC money? Play as many as you can, while supply lasts.

1x Propeller: Breaking Bran for mere 3 credits, or push Echelon to 6 Str for Archer/Trebuchet? Yes please.

3x Simulchip: I developed an unhealthy habit when I learnt to play Lat with Environmental Testing, which is to draw aggressively, throw breakers into the bin, then chip them back during the SMC/overclock turn to pursue set up speed … arguably without this fringe use cases, 2x chip should be more than enough to handle most of the match ups and free up slot for the 3rd deep dive for even stronger early DD aggression.

There are 6 “floating” influences we tried to theory-craft with a variety combination of below options:

1x Cupellation: makes HQ run slightly juicier and kind of an asset tech if you squint hard enough (better paired with 3xchip)

1x Miss Bones: your OG asset control, yet since we can’t tutor this, we felt 2x generally weakens the deck, and only 1x felt very swingy depending on when it’s drawn

1x Hannah: your “back-up” console if both your swift are glued to bottom 5 cards, although we didn’t actually need it in most cases so felt like a greedy / win-more include, does help with asset match-up’s too

2x Bahia Bands: your “default” fancy run event that helps speed up set up or asset control, better with a stronger resource-based econ package which would expose the deck to the evil bouncy cards

1x Privileged Access: makes archive run slightly juicier and incidental recursion of key resources or programs (better paired with Hannah and def. killed the need for the 3rd chip)

Where we ended up on, is the realization that Swift & DJ Sable are more than enough clicks we need, and Being Rich is actually surprisingly good Punitive or Asset tech.

So we ended up debating 2x Bravado vs. 2x Raindrop

It’s not a strong preference, but in anticipation of more ICE-less install corp decks during the ICC event, we went for raindrop, which happens to enables us to do some earlier face-checks with more comfort.

Side note: I never rolled the dice well enough in ICC to complete the dream of raindropping into Vampy that we’d really struggle to break consistently, maybe … some … other … day …

Roll Credits

I’ve grown fonder and fonder of the saying, from someone’s write-up (citation just found, of course it's from Tuno & friends), that “as much as this (ANR) looks like a solo sport, it’s a team one.”.

Huge thanks to @Alpi for sharing his passion and wisdom with me, and help spreading the church of Swift Lat across the pond.

Huge thanks to @Choux @Rene for offering invaluable practices for the event, advice on replay analysis, deck inspirations, and fancy Ob/Ari charts which turned out to be soooo extremely relevant and helpful.

Huge thanks to @vergescu for sticking with me for completing the practice charts and forcing me into such focused practice patterns, long marches ahead and I’m glad we get to share the journey!

Huge thanks to @Gorphax / @N00dleSoup / @erika as always for all the venting, chatting, and practicing … event won’t be as fun without a buzzy discord session.

Last but not least, huge thanks to all my opponents for bearing with me, while I’m standing among giants … huge thanks to Kror / Aksu / others TO's, commentator, and NSG staff for running amazing events that're both exhilarating to attend and watch.

Netunner is this amazing game, play whatever makes you happy!

Toronto is a great city with even greater netrunners, come play Canadian Nationals and get some cool swag.