So, here we are. I've been playing Self-Defence and variations of it for 2 years, ever since a random SDS Drone Deployment trashed my Bukhgalter in a game I was otherwise certain to win. That was the moment I decided that if I was gonna lose to dumb bullshit, I wanted to win with dumb bullshit too.

From those humble beginnings we've gone on quite a journey, this deck and I. From swapping Engolo for Joy Ride, getting a single win at UK nats 2023, being one of the first big projects that QEH as a testing group worked on (shoutout to girls, the other big project). Once RWR came out I briefly abandoned the deck until the Tributary ban, at which point I brought it back with a vengeance. It took me all the way to the top cut at UK nationals, and with it I made 5 top cuts in a row across Oct '24-Mar '25. I've made friends with this deck, I've had rivalries because of this deck (love you EA Sports), I've gotten a whole lot better at netrunner with this deck. Now, with Elevation around the corner and me not going to any other events before the release date, I think it's finally time to put this deck on the shelf and retire it.

There are so many places you can go to learn about Self-Defence, so I'm not going to tell you how to play this deck per se. Instead, I have a few self-indulgent tangents to go on:

The RWR 2024-25 season

Across the 8-ish months since Rebellion Without Rehearsal's release, I've taken this deck to 9 major tournaments. Let's have a look at how it did, shall we?

Midlands 2024 regional: 2-1-0, finished 28th
Aldershot 2024 regional: 2-2-0, final placement lost to the sands of time (isn't on ABR)
East Anglia 2024 regional: 2-1-0, finished 18th
Sheffield 2024 regional: 3-1-1 in swiss, 0-1-0 in cut, finished 5th
UK nationals 2024: 3-2-0 in swiss, 1-1-0 in cut, finished 11th
London regionals 2025: 3-1-0 in swiss (thanks errant gameloss), 0-1-0 in cut, finished 5th.
Scotland regionals 2025: 3-0-1 in swiss, 0-1-0 in cut, finished 7th.
Midlands regionals 2025: 3-1-0 in swiss, unplayed in cut, finished 6th.
Sheffield regionals 2025: 2-2-0 in swiss, finished 13th.

Final results: 41 games played, 24 wins, 15 losses, 2 draws (one intentional, one not). Inside the cut my record was 1-4, whilst outside it was 23-11-2.

Does any of this mean anything? Well, it's a pretty remarkable level of consistency for a deck that doesn't look very consistent on the surface. You'd think that after people started getting wise and double-icing HQ that my results would drop off, but honestly they just kept getting better right up until the end. I would chalk up the large number of cut losses to the high skill level of my opponents, not necessarily that there's a massive weakness to playing this deck in an open decklist environment.

Also I made 5 top cuts in a row which is pretty cool I think.

43 cards

The last 3 cuts are trivial, and are left as an exercise to the reader.

...Okay, but seriously, what's going on there? Self-Defence did keep a nice and neat 40 cards at first, but I initially went up to 41 and then 42 to add more copies of Swift. The 43rd card started with trying to add WAKE into the deck, thanks to a downtick in NBN players and Self-Growth Program. Wake kept knocking breakers out of hand, so I felt required to cut a manuel and a steelskin to add Katorga Breakout back in to fish them out again. That left me on 14 inf, and I decided to add another leech rather than fret about what to cut.

Honestly, there's lots of places to look for cuts. Try some for yourself! Go ahead, cut the DooFs, see what happens (probably bad things lol). Cut all the breakers for two more Aumakua. Who knows! Each card you cut away is only about a %0.5 higher chance of finding any one other card, and I think a huge part of this deck's success is that you don't need any specific 1-of to win games. If you don't find a Boomerang, slap down breakers and challenge some ICE. If you can't find Bravado money, then Rogue Trading might work in a pinch. If the Jailbreaks aren't coming, make your own with Cupellation. Play what you draw rather than chasing the 'perfect hand', that's my opinion.

The state of Criminal

I've been a criminal player ever since I came back to netrunner in 2022, but I think it's safe to say that our beloved faction is a long way from the glory days of Andromeda and account siphon. The meta seems to be entirely comprised of Anarchs and Shapers taking it in turns to bully Corps by completely invalidating ICE, whilst Crims struggle to get through with early-game aggression that often peters out before we can close out the game.
I've seen that myself, in that not a lot of people who pick up Self-Defence manage to do well with it. There's lots of things that can go wrong, from your Boomerangs getting stranded on remote ice, running out of money and having to slow down at a key moment, breakers getting trashed, and floating tags leading to a good ol'-fashioned flatline.
I haven't lost my love of Crim early-game aggression and Bravado though. There's nothing I like more than challenging ICE early, getting the Corp on the back foot with some well-timed econ denial, and getting the call right about where the agendas are. I fully believe playing Self-Defence will make you better at netrunner. I actually saw a tempered version of my gameplan at Sheffield, with several Ken players doing incredibly well by combining early aggression with a solid multiaccess plan and good breakers.

So where does that leave Crim going forward? Honestly, I really hope Elevation can bring some of the magic back in terms of a fast money replacement for Hot Pursuit, an econ denial replacement for Diversion of Funds, and a pressure replacement for Aumakua. But I think that NSG needs to make sure us Crims can actually use the tools they keep giving us. Even this Swift-reliant deck only has 17 run events, and those slots are tight. There are several fantastic run events that aren't here because they're competing with the backbone of the deck (Carpe Diem, Dirty Laundry, Bahia Bands, Window of Opportunity...), so any new run event they give us is likely to end up as the 46th card in many Crim decks. And whenever Crim gets a non-run-event pressure card, it's either wildly overcosted/hard to land or just better in other factions. Here's hoping that soon Crim can keep place with the other runner factions once again.

Special thanks

Self-Defence isn't all my work, and I wouldn't want it to be. QEH is a fairly small testing group, but its members have had so much impact on how I play and what I love about this game. A very special shout-out needs to go to Harmonbee, who has been there every step of the way to question my card choices, ask key questions about what the deck is trying to do, and encourage me through any slumps I may have. I can honestly say that this deck would not have got that far without her.
Of course, Self-Defence's players in QEH also deserve a shoutout, so thank you so much l0velace, Hello and magpie for repping my deck to tournaments! It's been so lovely to get to share aggro crim with others.
To the rest of QEH, we're just getting started! Bring on Elevation and the new brews!

I love the UK meta with all my heart, everyone's just so great. There's too many people to name, but special shout-out to Lif3line, who is honestly such a wonderful person and made for a fantastic friend these past few years. I can't wait to see you all again at UK nats and beyond.

To anyone who tried this deck out! Thank you so much for giving my weird ideas a go. I loved watching the Metropole Grid play this deck and have a blast, and of course well done to Tak for doing what I couldn't and winning a tournament! I still think Joy Ride is the right call though...

...phew, that's a lot isn't it! See you all for now, but I'm sure I'll be back with a blue deck before long.
~KingSolomon