Can't spell Wurlds without Wu (13th, Worlds 2022)

I've been a huge fan of Wu ever since the card was released. This deck is the culmination of my own tinkering over that span. Having not really been playing regularly in the last couple of years, I added a number of cards to test when they were useful with the thought of cutting them. I ended up doing very little testing and executing last-minute hot swaps as I furiously scribbled out the decklist the morning of Worlds. I knew that Ob asset/kill had done well in a few big tournaments and had seen the disgusting power of CTM with Bladderwort, so many of the cards I added were to tune the deck for possible asset spam matchups, of which I faced none. The games I lost were in large part due to piloting error and a lack of familiarity with the meta.

I think the archetype remains strong right now. I think I would have liked to get it to a tight 50 given more time, but if you want to choose the coward's path and tune the deck to a more reasonable number of cards I would suggest:

• -3 Dirty Laundry
• -3 Diesel
• -1 Stoneship Chart Room
• -1 Mayfly (which is useful only for very early runs due to memory constraints and less needed in the boat meta)
• -1 DZMZ Optimizer (this was a holdover from when I was also running MKUltra and the long-term econ plan was selling your breakers to Aesop)
• -1 Citadel Sanctuary (I hate the CTM matchup personally and this does a lot of work there, but Stoneship is typically sufficient to prevent the BOOM! kill)

I think there are definitely other directions you could take the build as well. In particular, I was impressed with The Twinning whenever it saw play across the table and I think it could potentially replace Stargate here with some changes to the program suite (for example, the addition of Multithreader or Mantle)

Huge shoutout to all the people that made the event awesome including the Null Signal Games crew, the local Winnipeg meta (of which 6 made the flight to Toronto to compete!), and huge congratulations to whiteblade111, Winnipeg ex-pat and someone I look up to as one of my most important mentors in this game, who made his first top 16 finish. A well-deserved placement that he has worked very hard to reach. Another huge shoutout to Dragoonkin, another of my Netrunner mentors. Despite being an objectively better player than I, his luck continues to evaporate whenever we travel abroad. More late nights of drinking and less preparation was the winning formula for me.*

*Individual results may vary. This course of action is not recommended by your doctor, friends, or most sane individuals.

Corp deck: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/37956aae-c3c5-4609-8fee-a05a798b2342/spiral-vorts-13th-worlds-2022-

Record on the day: 2 wins, 1 tie, 3 losses

Round 1: win vs Sportsmetal

The opponent was able to land 2 or 3 early Rashidas but found mostly ice rather than gas. I spotted Ark Lockdown early, allowing me to play around it and maintain an effective Clot lock for the eventual win.

Round 2: loss vs Azmari

The opponent leveraged an early Rashida to secure an economic advantage, double-ice a server, score a Bellona, then install Drago Ivanov and La Costa Grid . Trashing Aesop's was the beginning of the end. I had foolishly chosen to float a single early tag allowing the opponent to land a Backroom Machinations. The final Bellona was scored naked adjacent to the scoring remote that I had just broken the bank on to deal with Drago. Well played opponent.

Round 3: loss vs Sportsmetal

Aesop's arrived too late to accelerate my economy. My mulligan hand contained Clot as well, although an SMC sitting on the table was an effective bluff for a short period. The opponent installed a Mavirus on R&D which I misinterpreted as a Crisium Grid and should have checked earlier, securing a 5 to 7 win by clearing Clot.

Round 4: tie vs Pravdivost Consulting

Fearing HHN, I had taken two early News Teams landing on -2 points. The opponent was advancing what I suspected (and they kindly revealed after the game) to be an Urtica Cipher with the intention of using Red Planet Couriers to score a huge Project Beale. They couldn't find their tools and I was playing conservatively around a possible kill plan. As we approached time in the round, I had scored two QPMs for them and went full tag me. I scored two Beales in the process of a Deep Dive, tieing the game at 2 all on time. Very interesting game and fun opponent. The tie ended up being clutch in securing my position above the bubble to land in the cut.

Round 5: win vs The Outfit

I was able to secure an early Project Atlas and a Hostile Takeover. The Outfit scored two early Hostiles and ended up with 5 bad pub, having Blockchain rezzed on HQ and Archer then Trebuchet on R&D. I knew they had Audacity and possibly other fast advance tools and I was digging for Clot (having used my SMCs to build my rig) and camping the remote as they dug for their tools. Despite the incredibly punishing cost of central runs, I was eventually able to Deep Dive for the win.

By the beginning of Round 6, my record was 6 wins - 1 tie - 3 losses. To make the cut I needed consecutive two-for-ones, both of which turned out to be corp-side wins for a 5th seed finish in Swiss.

Top 16 Round 2: loss vs R+

I made an aggressive, and ultimately foolish, turn 1 run on the remote ( 1, Sure Gamble, 2, Dirty Laundry open HQ, 3 Wu out an SMC, 4, Overclock the remote, breaking Ping with Paperclip off SMC) then did not trash their La Costa Grid for fear of never bouncing back from potential HHN. They installed Drago and used Market Forces to drop me to zero credits and I conceded the match. I think this match was definitely winnable, but an uphill battle given how critical Aesop's is to the econ package. Nonetheless, piloting error definitely played a big role in knocking me out of the cut for a 13th-place finish.