Klevetnik Goes to Continentals (6-4, 25th @ APAC)

You heard that right --- not one, but TWO fresh hot Klevetnik's in a continental's list that went 4-1 corp-side (2nd NBN).

Before you all start slandering Klevetnik's good name (eh, anyone?), let me talk about why I love this deck.

This is an updated iteration of the Neurospike Azmari list that I played at American Continentals, with pretty good results (and similarly bad results with my Reg Hosh runners). This list carried me in both continentals, winning some really wild, nail-biting games.

Although the deck has a reputation of being a bit of a cheesy coinflip, I found the process of refining it quite rewarding. While you do sometimes just draw the nuts or not, there are a lot of really dynamic and interesting lines condensed into the 8 or less turns where you more or less draw your entire deck.

Enter, Klevetnik.

My main priority was to streamline the deck by cutting down to 40 cards and revamping the ice suite

The Klevetnik include was based on a few ideas -- some were path dependent and others were less so.

• First, one priority I had was wanting a mid-range sentry that had a hard end the run, making a couple Rototurrets somewhat ideal. I cut one Seamless because in testing I felt like, at 40 cards, finding the click compressing tool(s) you need is the easier part. Finding a Reeducation when you needed it and finding the appropriate number of Neurospikes was typically the issue.

• Second, this decision subsequently made me slightly uncomfortable with Wraparound because having so much 0 str ICE feels too brittle into a meta with Arruaceiras Crew. The Pings are good, annoying tempo hits, but also die to Crew. Klevetnik, before even considering the funky ability, does not die to Crew without additional support cards. This ice spread made me feel more comfortable into an early Crew matchup knowing that I had 5 ICE that don't fold to turn 1 or 2 Crew. Silver lining, Klevetnik is also more annoying to break with Curupira and Pressure Spike.

• Third, more broadly, resource threats like Arruaceiras Crew are everywhere. Other than breakers, major board threats to this deck include early Bankhars, Arruaceiras Crews, Stoneship Chart Rooms, and Twinnings. Given how click-condensed we try to make the game, turning off one of these resources on the right turn is potentially game-winning -- or game-preserving. Not only are we already in a "just gimme one more turn" mentality from the outset already, our most common board states play to Klevetnik's strengths.

  In most games, we build a remote very quickly and worry about centrals later, making our most common board state one where we have a double-iced remote and one iced central. Whether Klevetnik is on the outermost of the remote or on a central, in many of these board states we have put our first Reeducation in the remote, often either advanced, with a Holo Man, and/or with Seamless in hand.

  Basically, there are lots of games where the remote is locked, the Reeducation is loaded, and the runner has incentive to be running on centrals while they setup to contest. If they're poking for singles, its easy enough to not rez and let them in a few times until the timing is right. We are kinda ok with them finding and stealing one of the Degree Mills so our Sudden Commandments turn god-tier while they lose tempo.

  On the remote vs Anarch, we can counter an early Bankhar to get Holo/Reeducation set-up behind a single Klevetnik, blocking for enough time to cash in the score, or fortify with a second piece of ice, advance, NAPD Cordon.

  On centrals, my main thought was to blank Stoneship Chart Room when the Shaper thinks they are safe and making value central runs while setting up. Denying a triple access in HQ from Twinning can preserve both agendas and, importantly, cards in hand we need to make our kill shot work.

  Aside from these major threats, there are other mid-tier tempo resources that we can get a lot of mileage from blanking if the runner is not disciplined, like The Class Act, Dr. Nuka, and Environmental Testing.

Once we completed our spiritual journey of coming to terms with the idea of slotting two Klevetnik's with a straight face, we topped it off by adding a card I've seen in other lists but hadn't appreciated until recently, NAPD Cordon AKA portable Bellona.

Sudden Commandment does so much work for this list in so many different ways it is wild. Early, commandment into Predictive Planogram or Your Digital Life feels amazing. Later, it can ensure we have enough cards in hand to properly score Reeducation or dig for the final combo piece, ideally clicklessly. Regardless of Klevetnik shenanigans, it is good counterplay into Stoneship Chart Room and can help counter other defensive resources like The Class Act. Don't ever touch these.

In general testing post-American continentals, this version of the list was lighting up the jnet scoreboard:

As far as the APAC games themselves, they included some wild and fun games:

Round 2 vs. 419

• Kinda scrappy play by both of us but I kept the early Aumakua low enough and get enough cash to keep the scoring window open. On the last turn we had everything but the Neurospike and had seen most of the deck. Reeducation score draws into the Neurospike for the win.

Round 3 vs. Ari

• Turn 4 kill after a good opening hand and a Degree Mill steal that shuffled the Stoneship back into the deck.

Round 6 vs. Ari

• Crazy crazy game. Klevetnik was rezzed to blank a Stoneship, World Tree fetches another Stoneship. We score Reeducation anyway and pivot to a score out plan with Holo and Seamless. Last turn we have an unadvanced Degree Mill in the remote and one Seamless in hand, but we also have the Sudden Commandment, which gets us a click and draws us the second seamless for the win.

Round 7 vs. Sable

• MotionBlur plays a fantastic game, delaying my gameplan with an Embezzle that snipes my Neurospike and finishes it off with a Boomerang/Inside Job run on the triple iced remote with the Reeducation and kill ready for next turn. I have to keep up my streak of always losing on stream.

Round 9 v. Kit

• Stoneship live, so we have to double Neurospike for the win. They somehow miss one with a sick Burner, and miss an opportunity to Compile the remote. Last turn click one draws us into the second neurospike, so we advance advance so we can holoman double-spike for the win.