With thanks and love to Baa Ram Wu, sixtyten and Nicky3.0 for an amazing 50 person (SOLD OUT!) tournament!

Results

9th (3-1) at Bristol Regionals. With wins against Bankhar Steve, Crew Hoshiko, and a semi-win (by game-loss) against Esâ. One loss to Lobisomem Kit.

Premise

I recently wrote that I thought that NBN is underexplored in this 24.05 meta. What I didn't write is that I'm worried that if we don't crack NBN soon then the meta might stagnate.

It's been months, and NBN still hasn't recovered from the Bellona ban (Reeducation Azmari doesn't count), but I think there are some good meta reasons to be playing yellow atm. Reality+ is naturally suited to punish runner aggression (Arissana, Hoshiko, Esâ). In particular, Self-Growth Program hits World Tree hard.

The tempo hit of SGP pushes us towards a rush strategy, which is good because I think we need that sort of strategy against more passive runners (such as Lat).

Constraints

There are a few difficulties with NBN that need to be addressed.

• It's necessary to play at least 2 x 5/3 agendas
• Degree Mill sucks.
• Small NBN ICE good. Large NBN ICE bad.

Another meta consideration is that it's very risky to play expensive code gates or sentries with Physarum Entangler in the meta. The popularity of Rielle “Kit” Peddler: Transhuman also pushes us towards playing more barriers than we otherwise would.

Cards

Pharos gives a tag, is a great Send a Message target, and can be advanced with Holo Man.

Border Control is a cheaper way of forcing the runner to have to break multiple Pharos in a turn, which is often important against Pressure Spike or Kit.

Fly on the Wall and Tomorrowʼs Headline give us a proactive way of landing a SGP, which is critical against more passive runners (Lat)

Project Beale is our closer. It can either be never advanced (with Holo Man) for 3 points, or fast advanced (with Holo Man) for 2 points.

Alternatives

• Tucana works both offensively and defensively (with Ping)
• Post-Truth Dividend is a nice way to close the game (or get a Tucana fire).
• Archer can be rezzed with either Send a Message or Post-Truth Dividend
• Bran is pretty good. It's very difficult for the runner to click through it against R+, and you can recycle Ping if the first sub fires.
• Arella Salvatore gives us forward tempo, and can be used with NGO Front to bait the runner into running an expensive remote
• Janaína “JK” Dumont Kindelán gives us something to put in the remote when we aren't ready to push an agenda
• Subliminal Messaging plays well with YDL, and encourages the runner to run when they otherwise wouldn't (which enables Public Trail)

Tournament Afterthoughts

I don't think I'll be taking this deck to another tournament, or developing it any further. It did well enough on the day, but it never gave me the feeling of being in control of the game that I think that tag punishment decks require. Instead it felt like I was forever relying on R&D to be kind to me. Hammer is a heck of an ICE, but it doesn't end the run.