Technikko Variations (3rd Swiss/7th Cut @ NANPC Toronto)

Big Rig Hoshiko for the Win

-- Final board state after a game winning steal on the last click at time

Control Anarch at warp speed

As I mentioned in my corp writeup, The Need for Speed, I've been looking for faster decks to play. The Holo Man is a huge weapon for corps right now, so durdling to setup as runner is deadly. Jai's Technikko 💻, derived from Cobrabubble's brilliant Ashnikko, looked to fit the bill.

The deck goes all-in on the self-trashing package to rip through the stack as fast as possible to set up, then recur the heap with Ashen Epilogue. At least, that's the theory. More on that later in Reflections. In practice, at least in the matchups I had, it actually played like a control deck, where the corp would get ahead a bit and then I'd close things out, often right around time.

Matchup report (3-1)

• Round 2: win vs Glacier Ag. I had a clunky opening hand, but got Echelon and Turbine down early and was able to Hippo an early Anansi. After a couple of early corp scores, I had to play Ashen mid-deck as I had breakers out and a charged Maemi, but no econ or draw and I needed a kickstart. After that, I was able to keep the remote mostly locked, despite a very taxing Anansi + Bran combo. Fortunately, they had only Tributary on HQ and I kept it pinned there with 1 singles and I knew they were flooding. I stole a 3-pointer right before time was called for a 5-4 victory.

• Round 3: win vs Combo Asa. This combo deck wanted to Fully Op into a YDL + Big Deal + Midnight-3 Arcology combo. I moshed hard early to set up, discarding anything I couldn't use immediately (e.g. Ashen, Maw, etc). I was able to keep the assets down, trashed a Big Deal, and slowly got the rig set up when I could find the credits. They were drawing hard and I knew they were flooding. They did pull off one combo, spun back the combo pieces, but whiffed drawing into it again. I had a charged Twinning to sweep HQ, but ran archives click 2 and stole 2 Ikawahs for the win instead as time was called.

• Round 6: win vs Ladykiller Outfit. Both runner and corp were cursed in this matchup. Outfit was digging like mad and couldn't find a City Works to push for the longest time. And my two Echelons turned out to be in the bottom 3 cards of the deck. Without those, I couldn't risk a Trebuchet blowing me out, so kept milling my deck -- setting up an enormous rig -- and poked HQ for the agendas I suspected were piling up. When I finally Diesel'd the last 3 cards and installed my killer, time was almost up. I was down 4-5 or 4-6 when time was called and on the last click of the game, I made a Twinning run on R&D and found a City Works for the win on the 3rd and final access. 🍀 You just can't cut it closer than that!

• Cut Round 1: loss vs Holo Man Asa. I got paid back for my lucky win in Round 6. The corp opened with Rashidas on turns 2 and 3 and drew all the Wage Workers and Fully Ops they needed to rush me out. I held on for a while, trashing the Workers to stop the easy scores, until I just couldn't anymore and he scored out for the win.

Reflections on the deck

Overall -- this is my 6th Technikko variation. Each experimented with a different mix of Ashen, Bahia, Echelon, Mimic, Pinhole, Hannah, Ice Carver, Flip Switch, Diesel, or Raindrops. This one is built with redundant, pumpable killers and double Pinhole to contest must-trash assets. For spice, it techs a single Hippo against glacier, which did manage to kill an Anansi in round 2.

Ashen -- I played Ashen in a single game vs Ag and I actually played it early, still in the middle of my deck when I was running out of econ but had a very charged Maemi and wanted five fresh cards to keep up tempo. In testing games, I played it maybe a third of the time or less. For timed events, particularly in person, I'm very tempted to swap Ashen for a 2nd Labor Rights and let that be enough recursion along with DJ. The extra influence could go in any number of tech directions.

Ice Carver -- this was clutch against Outfit, but I don't think I played it in the other games. At a local meetup it helped crush Asa. It's a good tech card, but frequently moshed if the corp isn't running 6 strength ice.

Bankhar -- this did relatively little work for me. It made a difference in the Asa game vs Tributary, but otherwise I didn't install it or -- in one case -- it got thrown Under the Bus. That said, I wouldn't cut it. It's one of the few early pressure tools to slow the corp down when drawn early or else it's moshing fodder drawn late. Sadly, it was once my only hit from The Price. 😭

Appreciation

❤️👔🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Huge thanks, again, as always, to my TAI Breakers fam for words of wisdom, deckbuilding advice, so many testing games, and all around encouragement. I couldn't have come this far this fast without you. The wins are sweeter and the losses less bitter with you to share them with.

Thank you also to my coaches, Eric and Andrej, for helping me to this point. Slowing things down with you helped me up the learning curve faster and I'm very grateful for the time I've been able to spend with you.

Finally, thank you to the NANPC Toronto organizers, who put on a great event in a gorgeous (if occasionally tightly packed) space, and all my opponents and new Toronto Netrunner friends who welcomed me into their meta.