Restoring Scoring (7th at EMEA Online Megacity)

I'm a relatively new player trying to get into Netrunner and over the weekend I participated in the Online EMEA Megacity tournament. It ended rather abrutly and unceremoniously as I was disqualified on a technicality for missing a game start which left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth but then I reminded myself that this is the best tournament standing I've ever achieved and that's something to be proud of.

Furthermore this is a rather strange deck in the context of the modern metagame, I was the only Restoring Humanity player in a tournament with over 30 players and I was the only player in the cut not on AU Co. or Ob. In fact, I was the only player in the top 12 of swiss not on AU Co. or Ob.

I thought it might be worth posting a write up sharing my thoughts about this deck and how I arrived at it.

Thesis

Scoring is hard. Not just in this meta game, but rather, the very act of scoring is difficult for a Corporation to do.

1. It’s expensive: Scoring a 4/2 for example, naturally requires an investment of 9 units of value; 1 click to install it, 4 clicks to advance it and 4 credits to advance it. Even Offworld Office is still slightly tempo negative to score, with a net value loss of -2. Meanwhile, scoring agendas that don’t immediately pay you back are even more incredibly tempo negative.
2. It’s slow: Even scoring a 3/2 will generally take up the better part of 2 turns. Since it has to sit in the remote server for a turn and you’ll have to spend a large number of clicks attending to it. This is time you’re not making money from an economic asset like Charlotte Caçador because the remote is occupied and time you're not spending defending yourself against the runner’s central aggression.
3. It’s risky: Not only does telegraphing an agenda in the remote server by pre-advancing it open it up to the Runner’s attention. It also detracts from your centrals defenses, since the resources spent on the remote server leave the centrals comparatively weaker. Not only that, but if they’re playing Hermes, scoring an agenda in a remote server can further weaken your centrals by opening them up due to a bounce.

As such, it’s important to make our job of scoring out as easy as we possibly can. Enter Seamless Launch, an absolutely cracked card that not only turns every unadvanced card into a potential bluff but also acts as a soft-economy card that saves you 2 units of value on the score, smoothing the process out. It’s so powerful in fact, that if scoring wasn’t currently as weak as it is, people might be calling for it to be banned.

Originally I thought combining La Costa Grid with Seamless Launch might be overkill, but after trying it out, it is exactly what this deck needs. Together you can never advance a 5/3 agenda or score a 4/2 with a click to spare, allowing you to repair Hermes damage or push the next agenda on the same turn.

The Agenda Suite

The agenda suite is… mediocre. Offworld Office is solid as always for offsetting the cost of scoring, but it hardly does anything special. I’d still probably prefer Nisei MK II, particularly for the Deep Dive match-ups and because of Pinhole Threading but Proprionegation is mostly fine. However, I still wish Jinteki had a better 3/2 than Longevity Serum, pretty much every other System Gateway 3/2 is absolutely cracked. And it’s only reluctantly that I play Send a Message, since the only alternative is Fujii Asset Retrieval, which is even worse for this deck.

The archetypal scoring pattern is Offworld to stabilize, Propionegation for insurance and win with a Send a Message. But sometimes this isn’t possible and you’ll have to change up the order or maybe even score four 2 point agendas instead.

The Ice Suite

I don’t particularly like the modern Jinteki ice suite, I’d much rather have Anansi than either Empiricist or Saisentan and there's no easy, tempo positive way to punish Runners for taking the tags off Cloud Eater. The code-gate slot is kind of just filler ice that are annoying for most Runners rather than doing anything particularly exceptional either, a Vampyronassa on the remote can help with Anoetic but it absolutely folds to Buzzsaw + Leech. Tatu-Bola is great for smoothing out your early game but you’re gonna want to get rid of them quickly if Curupira hits the table. Bran is still over statted and easily the best ice in this deck, I generally want at least 1 and ideally 2 on the remote server.

Money

Hansei Review + Petty Cash is a click for 8 credits, which is exactly the kind of explosive start you need to outpace Runners, but even just using your Operation economy normally is quite good. Ideally, most of your economy can be provided by the Operations and the ID ability but if you need more money to stabilize then slowing down and cooking a Charlotte Caçador in the remote for a few turns should take care of all your money needs for the rest of the game.

Stare into the Void

Anoetic Void is our “cheat code”, without it, we’re just money and ice. Void turns taxing remotes into impenetrable ones and gives you game against Deep Dive. I was originally on 2 Manegarm Skunkworks + 2 Anoetic Void for the classic lock out, but after some testing I found that Void works just fine without Skunkworks and cutting them was what freed up the influence for the Seamless Launches.

You are still meaningfully vulnerable to Pinhole Threading and Light the Fire! which is why I said that scoring at least one Proprionegation is ideal to give you some insurance.

How to Beat this Deck?

The way you beat this deck is more or less the same way you beat every other reg-scoring Corp. Make money, find your breakers, contest the remote while it’s vulnerable and then pivot to centrals to try and close it out. If you can get the Corp in a headlock by pressuring their economy, forcing rezzes, keeping them broke and trashing their key pieces (La Costa, Anoetic Void, Charlotte) then even better.

This deck only had 2 loses over the course of the entire tournament, one of which was in swiss against the eventual winner Augustus Caesar's Hoshiko where he face tanked an Empiricist on Archives to Pinhole the Anoetic and steal the winning agenda from the remote server. The second was against was against Zom Zraft's Seb in the cut where I mismanaged the Spin Doctor's and ended up flooded by the midgame allowing him to win with only 6 unique accesses, all of them on HQ.

Final Thoughts

I don't plan on posting the Runner for this tournament since it was just reg Sable so there isn't much to say. But the deck played smoothly and enjoyably for most of the tournament with only a single loss where I drew breakers, Mutual Favor and Cezve against an assets Ob rather than my Pennyshaver or burst economy. My congrats to Coldlava who piloted it well and found the unexpected kill line with Azef Protocol into Measured Response, I'll have to keep an eye out for that one in the future ;D.

Shout out to Haver of Fun for being the other APAC player at the tournament, sorry for the unofficial teamkill. The game against your Magdalene was some of the most fun I've had in a while, so thank you!

Ultimately I have mixed feelings coming off this tournament, it wasn't exactly how envisioned my first ever top cut. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I competed and I'm certainly not done with Netrunner, hopefully I'll see some of you again at the online Continentals!

Replays

These are replays from the tournament, that were automatically recorded, if you want your game taken down, feel free to contact me and I'll take them down, no questions asked.

Round 2 vs Sable Close game that came down to luck. In immediate hindsight I should've put another ice on R&D or trashed The Twinning rather than place the spurious advancement on the SaM.

Round 3 vs Magdalene

Round 6 vs Hoshiko Congrats to Augustus Ceasar for winning the tournament!

Round 7 vs Sable

Cut Game 1 vs Seb That early game looked brutal, wp for turning it around and stabilizing!