2019 Polish Nats Argus (3-2)

Polish Nats Argus or: Who or What is Armed Intimidation? (The Card I Have 3 Copies of That Is Super Important in My Deck and I Can’t Seem To Find It When I Need It)

After playing the good old 3xGFI, 3xRaven, 3xHHN, I wanted to try a hybrid of a few decks this time. The agenda suite was taken from Slowriffs’ deck, with the slight modification by RvdH. For some time I played a variant with 2 or 3 Surveyors and didn’t like including it at all. After considering doing ‘why not both’ Tithonium & Archer I just stuck to a reliable pair of William Tell's Special. Go home, Tithonium, I already have two yellow Turtle Haters. On that note, one of the IP Blocks was a Reversed Accounts in testing but I wanted to have more ICE and play 3x EW anyway.

The final list is RvdH’s Harley Quinn Argus -1 Consulting Visit, +1 High-Profile Target, as I preferred overadvancing Atlas as my tutor to playing CV.

The deck went 3-2 on the big day, absolutely below my expectations. Tournament report:

Round 1 Win vs quercia on Liza Talking Thunder

I was lucky he didn’t find Stargate early (or the Apoc I hadn’t expected!), as that would hurt. Quercia played around Weyland tag’n’bag bullshit for some time - quite not what Liza wants to do, but it worked. Eventually the outcome was the usual Weyland kill in the unfavourable matchup, but what made the game was two brave Border Controls on HQ resisting two audacious Embezzle runs in early/mid game and protecting the precious HPT.

Round 2 Loss vs Mamut on 419

A very well-controlled game by my opponent. Let’s say this 419 was better prepared for initiating traces than Argus - and that’s always Bad News (the Hard-Hitting segment went straight to the bin).

Round 3 Loss vs Baltar on Adam

I was running first and we had around 15 minutes for the second game. I had my chance and I blew it (if I remember correctly the game ended 3:4 and time was called). Find The Truth is a good card. Misdirection is good in Adam.

Round 4 Win vs rattkin on Hayley

It was always hard to play with rattkin’s Shaper decks. The guy is just too committed to not making mistakes! Annoying. In each and every game we played in these green vs green matchups rattkin made it to the late game and usually found 7 pts somewhere. This time I somehow managed to rush and set up the usual Argus fork, making him go tag-me with R&D runs through Data Raven and I was able to land the HPT then, ending the round as a friendly split. Rattkin, if you’re reading this, I refuse to believe you won’t attend Netrunner competitive events anymore. Not crying, you are.

Round 5 Win vs Aspen on Hayley

I rushed some points out and kept my opponent low on cash, threatening HPT kill. We reached the mid/late game and Hayley crushed R&D with Stargate runs, trashing nasty events and agendas. We knew 4 pts were already in Archives and the score was 6:2 in my favour. For two turns I IA’d in the remote, but Aspen still pressured R&D, protected by a single Raven that he could break with bad pub. The first card was NGO, the second was game-winning Armed Intimidation. Before I scored out, in the most unfortunate turn of events my opponent did the Stargate run last click and couldn’t go back for the agenda he saw. This felt a bit undeserved win but we both won’t repeat its’ mistakes.

A big thank you to all my opponents, played all games in a positive, friendly manner.