Shooting off to Pittsburgh | 5th at US East Coast Nats

I've been putting off this writeup for far too long. I started my Netrunner journey in August of 2022, diving deep into the game with my roommate. I joined the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville meta a few months later, and they have been such a wonderful community. This East Coast Nats was my last tournament as local before moving to Pittsburgh, and I wanted to make it special. Great timing for my first top cut performance ever.

Reg PD just hasn't been putting up results for me. After waffling on deck choices and trying out Not Again's Manegarm Ag, I just didn't feel confident in anything. Thankfully, ManintheMoon put up an excellent decklist. I switched to Shoot the Moon PD two days before the tournament, which absolutely paid off. I loved the last Midnight-3 YDL Riot list, but this version feels much less fragile and carried me into the Top Cut.

On the day:

Round 2 win against Christopher on Reg Ari: Chris is a regular at our locals and introduced the game to his son, who has beaten me too many times for someone half my age. This game, Ari couldn't keep up the speed and cataloguer whiffs made life easier for me.

Round 4 loss to Paillu on Freedom: Paillu's Freedom build is as interesting as it is effective. Freedom stole my early pressure with a turn 1 Botulus, and I struggled to recover from there with my operations getting trashed. After scoring a Midnight-3, I drew a Luminal and returned Greasing the Palm to hand, ready to FA for the win next turn. Paillu ran HQ and managed to snipe both Greasing the Palm and Luminal in a 9 card hand. After that, I couldn't keep up with the pressure. Great game, congrats Paillu on Top 2.

Round 5 win against Holly on Hoshiko: I remember very few details about this game, other than I stole the win just in time. Holly is a very strong local player who wins a majority of our COs. Hoshiko was setting up quick, and turbine came down sooner than I expected, but I think I big dealed for the win. Not seeing Maw early made a huge difference.

Round 7 win against Choux on World Tree Ari: Knowing both of these lists well, I felt confident on the PD side of the matchup. Choux was still formidable with World Tree, but I was grateful to be playing the less complicated list in Round 7.

Top cut game 1 win against Vergescu on PD: Here's my revenge match for the loss Gordie gave me in swiss. I didn't really want to play Ari into PD again, and was glad he chose to play Lat instead. I saw very few agendas early, and was forced to push the only ones I had: two ikawah projects. With two seamless in hand and a manegarm, I got to 6 points fairly quickly. I eventually closed out with Sudden Commandment into Big Deal.

I wish I drew Corp more than once for the cut, though I'm sure Sokka would dismantle me either way. This list absolutely carried me, and thank you once again ManintheMoon for your decklist.

Thank You

Boston has been my home for 8 years, but it's time for a new adventure. Netrunner is coming with me, and I'll be leaving a mark on the Steel City Grid I swear. Thank you to Jaime, Jeff, Ian, Erika and Holly for great games and vibes at Aeronaught. Thank you to Not Again, Kevinth, and Gordie for all your advice, practice, friendship and deckbuilding. Thank you to Eric and Nick of Neon Static for building the New Hampshire Meta, and thank you to DanB for all your New England Organizing Expertise. Shoutout to Jaris and the Worcester Crew, to Izzy and Trillian, to Bard in Upstate, and to anyone who travelled for a New England tournament. This scene wouldn't be the same without you.

Can't wait to see many of you at Worlds this year, at Mansionrunner, at next year's East Coast Nats, and of course, when Worlds comes to Pittsburgh.