Four One Nexus - 11th @ Worlds 2020

Ar00nDELL 242

Normally I just netdeck and practice a list that I like before a tournament but this time I was not feeling very confident with the options I had and I felt like I wanted to try something similar to the old Nexus 419 (from mid-2019) I was comfortable with. 

Against Jinteki glacier you just prioritize getting Buk out with Special Order, then normally you can apply enough pressure to have the time to set up as late game is normally good for a deck with Nexus, Rezeki and DreamNet.

Against ASA I normally want Aumakua as finding all the breakers can be really a pain and Boomerang can solve the issue only partially. DreamNet helps keep up with the tempo at least a little bit, If I get to install Nexus I can start adding value to that and avoid CVS + Hagen surprise play. 

I expected these 2 to be the most popular deck (well, everyone was saying that) and Miss Bones is the obvious tech here. I also wanted Rogue Trading as it's great to have some alternatives for economy if I don't want to run (possible spiky ICE from Jinteki on all servers or HHN before I can set up).

Initially I was desperately looking for some link cards but then I decided that the 3 credits cost for bypassing any ICE is an ok price for not including bad cards.

Last point that sold me on the deck: I thought that it could deal with "snowflake corp" more easily than the other standard builds. I have some workaround if a key breaker gets lost, I have 2 Citadels for Punitive, I have Nexus for surprise ICE I didn't take into consideration. In other words: it could probably hide some of my limits as a player.

Having no testing group I also had no one convincing me that it was definitely a bad idea and the wrong choice for the meta. I can say at least that it worked pretty good against Jinteki as I just played against this corp for the whole tournament, on both days.

Here are the games I played and the results. I don't remember many details as it was a single blurred "game against Jinteki" day 1 for me.

ROUND 1 @RobinHood w/ Palana WIN

ROUND 2 @wkz w/ RP WIN

ROUND 3 @ Daine w/ AgInf WIN

Game streamed by NISEI

ROUND 4 @Iref w/ Palana LOSS

(not sure that iref was really my opponent, I don't remember and I tried to identify the player based on the decks on cobr.ai... let me know if I'm wrong, sorry!)

ROUND 5  @Countzer0 w/ AgInf WIN

ROUND 6 @Matuszczak w/ AgInf WIN

ROUND 7 @ArminFirecracker NO GAME

(241, I played Corp)

CUT GAME 1 lostgeek w/ Palana LOSS

Game streamed by koga

This game is my main regret from Day 2. lostgeek was great in rushing out but his first 2 scores were a Cyberdex and an Obokata so I was pretty confident that I could get back into the game as I had Turtle+Buk+Nexus+DreamNet down and a pretty good economy going. The mistake I made was believing that the remote IA card was one of the 2 NGOs he showed me with Celeb Gift. I used my Nexus trigger to DoF and, when I realized with a Falsified Credential (drawn from DreamNet trigger) that there was the winning Nisei installed, it was too late as I had no way to get through the Data Loop he rezzed. Loading Aumakua and running the remote without taking the risk would have been the correct line of play. lostgeek played it greatly however burning me on speed and tricking me into the final misplay.

In the end I was pretty happy with the deck selection (not to say about the final placement, even if once you get to day 2 you obviously want to go as far as possible) and I would have played the same deck going back. I'm sure there are some sub optimal choices here as it didn't go through any good/structured refining process.

Here is my corp deck:

I Totally Trust Their Process - 11th @ Worlds 2020

I really want to thank the whole NISEI organization for being able to run (so smoothly btw!) such an amazing event and the italian meta (especially @darta, always ready to hear me complaining about some stupid play I did in the most recent loss, and @koga/@Mellone, for the streaming and cheering) for the support and for being great.

A final big thanks to all my opponents: they all have been very friendly and nice allowing me to have the nicest possible first Worlds experience.  

4 comments
15 Oct 2020 boreira

During my little testing I did before torunament 419 Nexus was the strongest runner but I was too afraid of titan MU and took Leela... and I regret now :) are there any cards that you could cut to squizze 2xcredit kitting? i def like to have it in this sort of deck. Congrats on a great score!

16 Oct 2020 Ar00nDELL

Hi Boreira, thanks a lot!

Titan doesn't feel like a great MU, you're right, as the only useful cards for the MU are Legwork and PolOp. I decided to accept it as I was more concerned about other decks. I also feel like it's a very high variance match-up and I don't see Leela changing drastically your % (I'm probably wrong on this).

I tested Credit Kiting for some games but in the end I felt like I wanted to increase consistency so I cut it. It felt great when it landed but I was starving for slots and sometimes it's just a cart clogging your hand in early game as you want it with Nexus in hand and Citadel in play (and these cards are both 2 of). If I had to try it again I'd probably cut a Laundry and the single PolOp (having Titan MU getting even worse though).

20 Oct 2020 lostgeek

To quote @HerbartKlopstock when I saw what 419 I'm playing against... Panik

I knew that I had to rush hard at that point, because your setup would have overwhelmed me shortly after. Congrats on the placement!

20 Oct 2020 Ar00nDELL

Thanks a lot @lostgeekand congrats on making TOP 8 by the way! I've been schooled pretty hard during our game, you played it perfectly :)