Do it for Serve (3-1 APAC Online Megacity)

“So wait, are you throwing?”

I hadn't found a corp yet for the APAC Megacity when I realized that the Neutral faction pin was available again. I knew what I had to do. First, look up other Ampère decks and learn there aren't that many. One step closer to that pin. This is mostly Drayven’s Ampère with a few changes I thought might help when dealing with viruses. Thank you Draven for the decklist, I am a terrible deck builder and needed something to start with.

“You can’t take the spicy chicken off the bun”

I will admit I am not a jank enjoyer and have always preferred focusing on honing how I pilot NetDecks. At the APAC online District I made the mistake of not playing SHTR and went with my comfort pick Standard PD. In tournaments, I need a kill option. The threat can slow runners down and getting a kill can mean more time to rest between rounds. Being able to take the best tagging and damage options in the game can be a benefit to the ID and is not something to be overlooked.

“Are you winning, hun?”

The gameplan was to get centrals protected and to start building two remotes. One to serve as a potential scoring/trap server, and a second to house long term econ assets to help maintain the pressure of a kill combo and traps. With the amount of asset hate around, having extra ice to even single ice a remote felt necessary.

Putting out a naked Wage Workers is what crushed my economy in the only loss this deck suffered on the day. Keeping things iced helps mitigate the threat of a cheap Pinhole and allows cards like Charlotte or Wall to Wall to do a ton of heavy lifting. Refuge Campaign came through in a big way during the tournament and was a card that is innocuous enough to be left on the table especially when iced.

“Takin’ a ride downtown, Takin’ a trip through the rubble”

In my mind, getting the kill usually forks into two directions. If the runner is poor, Measured Response and Public Trail with End of the Line are strong options. Multiple tags are usually required to kill a rich runner with Mindscaping and End of the Line. Having them hit a trap that makes them unable to clear the amount of tags, or draw up, is the ideal situation.

To get the runner down to a killable handsize, Hypoxia, Byte!, Angelique, and even the humble Mavirus can all play a role.

Another option I noticed during a game was another use for Hostile Architecture other than asset and upgrade protection: to punish ice destruction.

“I hate making burgers. They have too many toppings”

I cut Gaslight early on and probably should have added it back in. A change I was very happy with was the Mavirus. The potential to be stuck with Angeligue to deal an extra damage or a mid run purge to make the runner eat subs is extremely valuable.

Despite being cut in testing and added back to the deck the night before the tournament, Trust Operation turned out to be the game winner in the last match. The ability to hit multiaccess resources or hamper the runner’s ability to protect against kill is a great option to have, even if it requires a tag.

Checklist Scion could be another good double advance trap, especially when paired with tag punishment in HQ.

Pulse could be swapped in for one of the code gates to have another ice like Anemone to hurt Deep Dive decks.

Ultimately this deck should be seasoned with some weirdness to keep the aura of the unknown.

“This game takes my whole brain to play”

Netrunner became my favorite game the moment I played it because of how easily it was to completely focus on a game. The number of decisions and play patterns that ultimately just amount to different levels of risk is still fascinating.

I've been obsessed ever since playing my first game in 2015, during which I SEA Scorched my friend who was teaching me. I played casually and a ton of JNET, but didn't take the plunge to play competitively until 2023. I'd fallen into the trap of not feeling ready for a tournament and wish I had taken the plunge years ago. To anyone reading this far, thank you and take this as your sign to try a tournament if you haven't.

The people in this community are for the most part the best and it is a really special thing. I really do believe you come for the game and stay for the people.

I didn’t think I would get any attention for this goofy deck but people were super supportive and made it an amazing tournament experience. I want to thank Kror for putting together a wonderful event and the stream team for the excellent commentary. Thank you to my opponents who were all amazing and all fantastic players. Congratulations to Jai for the win and the tour de force tournament run that I am so glad was streamed.

“It's like they made this game just for me”

I want to especially thank my partner Cricket for hanging out with me all day and being an unending source of support and my number one fan(they also provided all the quotes during the tournament and much needed editing thank you my love!). They played Cook Serve Delicious 3 for the entire tournament and it has a banger soundtrack to flatline runners too. I couldn’t do any of this without Cricket and all their support for the near decade I’ve been Netrunning.

Always be running and Happy Pride!