Don't Look Back Into the Sun - 5th/6th Place US Nats @ ETX

This is the corp deck I piloted to 5/6^th place at US Nationals over the weekend. I was planning to take moons but was scared off by the amount of hate I saw at the Icebreaker tournament. @Bluebird503 proved that moons could thrive in this field, but he is a much better player than I am, so I am confident I made the right call.

This deck is obviously based on @tstack ‘s Regionals winning list. I took something similar to Seattle regionals and performed well with it, only missing the cut due to shaky runner play in some of my games. However, @tstack ‘s version was more refined, so I decided to start with that and make a couple of changes.

I dropped one MCA informant and one IP block for 2 wraparound. I was very worried about Siphon/Eater Anarch, and turns out I was right to be.

I also decided that although ark lockdown is a good card, people will know this list and will play around it, so I decided to substitute in some old school secret tech instead with 1x Snare! and some extra gas with 1x BLC. Some may think it’s cheap to play the 1x Snare! slot machine, and they would be right, but it outright won me one game in swiss, and swung a game in the cut heavily in my favor.

My runner deck can be found here: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/43257/hate-trumps-love-5-6th-place-us-nationals-etx

I do all my thank you’s and shout outs in that write up, but it bears repeating congratulations to Joseki and the whole SF meta for taking down the event. Big love to the Seattle boys for representing. You know who you are.

Round 1 vs Russel on PPvP Kate

It was great to see Russel bringing back some old school PrePaid Kate, and it took care of business against my deck. Repeated Maker’s eye runs on R & D got the job done. Although Archangel is a great piece of ice, it is less great against shaper, and Russel got the Mimic/Datasucker combo up early to deal with my News Hounds.

Overall record 1 – 1

Round 2 vs Perry on Hayley (?)

I think I am right in saying my opponent was on Hayley, but if I have messed this up I apologize. I scored an early BN as agendas were piling up in hand. My opponent was clearly terrified I was going to boom them, as they installed NACH and plascrete late and basically didn’t run until they hit the table. I stashed a BN in a double-iced San-San remote for a few turns, which he didn’t run, so I decided to double-advance a naked GFI on the table. I had the exchange in hand at NACH hadn’t hit the table at this point so it seemed like win-win. My opponent doesn’t run the GFI, so I score it. They install NACH. Next turn I score the breaking news offering them the opportunity to avoid tags with NACH. They do so, leaving themselves very poor. I use the last click to install a Beale form hand and easily score it next turn.

Overall record 3 – 1

Round 3 vs Justin G on DLR Andy

Justin unfortunately misplays early on leaving himself tagged on my turn, when I have a good amount of bank. I trashed DLR, supplier and Citadel and it was basically GG at that point. Also, Scarcity is a hell of a card.

Overall record 4 – 2

Round 4 vs Noah McKee on SF Ayla Apoc

SNARE!

Overall record 5 – 3

Round 5 vs Jared on Siphon Whiz

As I said in my runner write-up, Jared is a very strong player from Seattle, who I lose to a consistent basis. Saturday was just not his day. This game was made closer by some exceptional play by Jared, but was essentially decided early on when he played queen’s gambit on what he thought was a San San, but was actually a BN. He realized his mistake immediately when I only put two agenda counters on it. This allowed me to trash his board, and he never recovered economically. I scored two foods the hard way to win, which never happens with this deck. Weird game.

Round 6 ID vs Raj

IDs are for jerks and the OPtimism crew (not mutually exclusive)

Sunday First Round of the Cut vs Clint on TheBigBoy Maxx

This deck really doesn’t have a lot of great answers to ice destruction or people just clicking opus a bunch and vamping you. I didn’t find my Crisium and treaded water for a while as the agendas piled up in hand. Clint drove himself mad keyholing me and hitting nothing. But I was going nowhere, and he soon figured out where all the points were.

First Round of Loser’s bracket vs Philip

My combo runner beats his combo corp in the battle of the Brits.

Second Round of Loser’s bracket vs Timmy Wong

The impossible happens every day. You just have to believe. That day some scrub on Dyper beat Timmy Wong’s Blue Sun.

Third Round of Loser’s bracket vs Cory

This was the last time I would play the corp deck in the cut, as I would lose next round to Clint again with Dyper. This was a fun game. I baited Cory into running a Snare, which knocked an Apoc out of his hand. I found my Crisium and my scarcity pretty early and from there it was an uphill battle for him. I was super relieved I didn’t have to play against his Making News deck, as I hear it was a monster.