9 is enough - 1st Euros 2019

Drago 401

Freedom Khumalo: Crypto-Anarchist is great fun” most of Bristol, ongoing 2019

“Play something fun” Andy Parsons, May 2019

“That is a lot of breakers” Chris Dyer, decklist review, Euro Finals 2019

All of the above were correct.

Freedom was fun.

That was a lot of breakers.

Would put a lot of breakers in Freedom again.

This all happened because I didn’t want play best girl Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist in a field with SDS Drone Deployment. I had enjoyed the Engolo versions over Aumakua (even as a strong Turtle believer) and didn’t want to go back, nor did I wish to sacrifice the few programs the deck was running to steals/scores. I probably overestimated the appearance of SDS but in my head it was a significant threat.

Time to try something new.

Why Freedom? Little bored of Valencia Estevez: The Angel of Cayambe to be honest and I didn’t get on with the Shaper options (kudos to those who do!).

Is there much to discuss here? It’s a bunch of good, regular anarch stuff with also known good card Crowdfunding - not setting the world on fire as a deck builder here am I.

A few tweaks happened after helping Algebraic test a Titan deck.

I lost by turn 7. So badly.

Oh did that remind me why full sets of bin breakers in Valencia was reasonable. Back up to three Black Orchestra, a Datasucker out for a Yusuf (covering the same ID enabling needs) and we’re at a probably unreasonable 9 breakers, 2 D4v1d with no AI (looking at you IP Block) and keeping the Clone Chip just in case.

I won’t go through all the games as in hindsight the pattern remained pretty consistent, although this fails to do justice to how fun, interesting and convoluted all the matchups were.

  • mulligan for money and draw, Datasucker or Yusuf is a bonus

  • get access to breakers asap, with MKUltra being optional and D4v1d often preferable

  • challenge remote with Stimhack or credits accumulated from unloading Liberated Account

  • take advantage of a stall caused by lack of money/ice/lac of remote confidence to Hippo free access to HQ or RND. Do not be afraid to Hippo weird targets click 1 - it was a Thimblerig and an Enigma at different points against Palana but it enabled at least a turn of free access each time

  • rack up counters, trash things, recur Crowdfunding more than is reasonable

  • try not the burn out!

If you want a more nail biting example I highly recommend Algebraic’s commentary on UK Stimhack Slack; rereading the final game against Chris’ Argus feels just as tight and perilous as it did to play!

By the numbers:

Swiss 4-2 Losses to combo Sportsmetal; left Team Sponsorship up - got punished, and Weyland BABW - slow start, lost the moneyfight badly, Counterstrike kill. Wins against; spikey Palana, Architects of Tomorrow, Outfit

Cut (and qualifier); 4-0, Personal Evolution, Palana, Argus

On a side note; hadn’t expected to see so much Chronos Project in decks. Redundancy paid off.

So was Freedom worth it? Certainly felt like it - routinely trashed relevant cards, keeping the corp down for longer. Plus the ability isn’t hard to feed. Maybe not an optimal choice, but it worked out.

I said it elsewhere, but worth repeating... that was two of the most fun days playing Netrunner I’ve had in a long time. The games were close, opponents fantastic, community amazing and organisers tireless.

Thank you everyone for keeping this alive!

3 comments
3 Jun 2019 BlackCherries

Congrats on the win!

You talked about Chronos Project in your write-up and how much you saw of it - did you see the same frequency of Ark Lockdown or even something like Jua? I get the feeling that the deck runs very poor if you lose those Crowdfundings.

3 Jun 2019 Drago

@BlackCherries thank you! Nothing other than Chronos Project that I seen at least but I think I lost part of my deck in three games - three more than I would have guessed on Friday morning!

Agree, losing Crowdfunding would hurt, but ideally once you’ve found them all you have also gone through enough deck to have the tools to create space to recur them on the turn they trash. So Ark Lockdown wouldn’t be too much of an issue either.

3 Jun 2019 NtscapeNavigator

Congrats again on the win, and with a left field set of Idents.