The Antarctic meta turned out to be overwhelmingly purple, with 13 out of 18 players bringing an HB list, and not even a single Jinteki. And for good reason – at the moment biotic labor proves much more efficient than any clone-based solution.
Recent Sportsmetal decks embody this insane efficiency – the list I took to first place in the unofficial Antarctic Continentals does not even run Hedge Funds, as I find the card too slow! The shell of this list is of course the infamous Blamechanger deck, adjusted a little bit to my liking:
https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/66431/blamechanger-1st-2nd-nyc-1st-3rd-yvr-sc-
The changes are pretty cosmetic, with the same general core and agenda suite. While preparing for the tournament, though, I discovered I do not have the cojones to enter it with a 5-ice list, knowing Stargate exists and is likely to rain on my biotic parade either before, or after the inevitable Apocalypse - a card that has become a staple in numerous top runner lists… along with the Clot – a valid meta call that was to be expected.
As a result, I followed the directive of Safety First and slotted Ark Lockdown just for the Clot threat, along with some additional ice. Not being a fan of Drafter, I went for a playset of Gatekeepers in addition to the usual Vanilla to ensure the high concentration of ETR. I would probably even drop that last Drafter for something like an Ansel 1.0, if not for its synergy with Tranquility Home Grid – a card that I think works better than the Nico Campaigns of the original list.
Having said that, all of these modifications are just preferential and result from my own playstyle. The Blame is still strong in this one, though.
I would like to thank @ValeNetrunner for organizing an amazing tournament and all the players I faced during the event. Rock on!