Boat Scammer - 5th at UK Nats 2022

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This is the 419 deck I took to UK Nats. I wasn't really expecting to arrive at 419, but he gradually emerged as a strong contender with Freedom seeming less good against the R+ that is everywhere and me being less comfortable piloting Reavershop Wu. 419 offers a favourable R+ matchup and a decent one against both Bridgeman and Mitosis PE, and has the flexibility to tech for whatever you're expecting, whether it's Aginfusion, asset based decks or even glacier. The traditionally poor Sports matchup is playable due to having Stargate, Mad Dash and Docklands Pass.

I was the only player in the testing group to play Endurance as the console, though I saw some different builds out there using it. I originally started with SamRS's third placing Worlds list, but found the Rogue Trading / Credit Kiting / Citadel econ package a bit inconsistent and a bit too kind to R+, a matchup where you need to keep their econ down. I settled on a more standard package of Casts/Earthrise/Career Fairs, which I was happy with in testing and at the tournament.

The deck plays 3 No Free Lunch and 2 pinhole threading, which is an increasingly common package to help deal with R+. I played around with quite a lot of the slots, starting with the Blueberry Diesels in the original. I like the bankrolls as a source of long term econ that provides a reward for running since our console doesn't give us money directly, but I experimented with Tapwrms which I think have merit as well. I had Femme as a tech slot for the Aginfusion deck, but took it out as I was discarding it in pretty much every game. Inside Job was excellent and probably warrants having a second. Tranquiliser is slightly broader tech for Aginfusion that is good placed on bigger ice like Ansel, F3, Data Ward and Anansi, while forcing Aginfusion to purge every other turn if they want to keep Loki rezzed; nevertheless this is probably the cut for the second Inside Job. Citadel is useful against R+, but is maybe a luxury that could be cut if the matchup is already good. Depending on meta, you could include cards like Miss Bones or Caldera. I tried the deck with all of 2, 1 and zero Aumakua, and found I wasn't installing it in many games, so it was cut for slots.

I think the deck is about equal in power to the Paragon versions, but I played this due to having tested far more games and feeling more comfortable with the Boat version. The main benefit is simply that Boat is a ridiculously strong card, but the extra MU for fitting Stargate and Cezve is nice. The deck didn't lose a game in the main event, and dropped one game in PoS.

Thanks to everyone who made this event as great as it was - it felt like a huge return to in-person netrunner after several years of playing tournaments mostly online. Congrats to Extrac on winning the whole thing!

2 comments
29 Nov 2022 JackMade

Was a pleasure getting swept by you :)

1 Dec 2022 NtscapeNavigator

Not called boatshop 1/10