Emergency Empanadas

“That deck scares the shit out of me”

My opponent said that to me at the last round of NANPC Boston. In that tournament I came 3rd to last, and the next two events I played in had similar results (US East Coast Nats and APAC Continentals). To be honest I was thinking about throwing in the towel with Netrunner (insert sadcat meme).

But that’s nonsense and we all know that. I love this community too much, and the game is too good, even if I’m not good at it. So I went online, booked a flight to san francisco, got a ticket to worlds, and managed to find someone to split a hotel with (Shoutout to funkeyman for letting me take his hotel spot, wish you could have made it). I’m all ready to scrub out at worlds baby!

The week before worlds. Right, I need decks. Oh shit.

I kept on thinking back to what my opponent said to me at NANPC. “That deck scares the shit out of me”. Make the runner go slower, make them spend time drawing cards over gaining money, making runs. Netrunner has always been best when the corps force the runner into impossible puzzles.

What’s a better puzzle than telling the Lat player across from you you have 1 card in hand for the third turn in a row?

I tell new players wanting to go to tournaments all the time that it is better to play the deck you are good with and have reps with vs the “better performing” meta deck. Besides, everyone knows how to play against those meta decks. So I take my own advice for once. I’ve been brewing versions of A-Teia for a little over a year now.

Work has been so hectic I haven’t had time to get meetups going again, and I’ve always had an aversion to practicing online. This means I’m going into the biggest event of the year needing to knock some HEAVY rust off.That means having to play differently.

Stick to the game plan. This deck does one thing very well. Do that thing STOP GOING FOR THE RISKY MOVES TO CLOSE OUT THE GAME.

2 is why I always lose. I get impatient, lose focus, and like to gamble on the “I want to win now” scenario vs sitting back and playing the deck.

So with the self reflection in mind, and the Friday team tournament reminding me that I should never play decks I don’t have practice with, I go into the main event well rested and ready for whatever the day brings me. My goal? Make top half. 100th place.

Game 3 is when I really hit my stride. I’m up 2-1. I go up to my friends Kyle, Lucas, and Patrick and let them know I have a positive record. Everyone is happy and determined for the day. Winners are winning and losers have hopes of submarining up to day 2.

Then I win again, and again. I’m up 4-1. Table 10! I’ve never sat at table 10 at worlds except for in the first round. I havent been paying much attention to NANPC or the competitive scene much this year, so when I sit down against Aruzan in round 6 I don’t think much of it. I’m excited to play against Arissana. Then I see Neuropantser come up to the table and ask if we want to be on stream.

My heart could not have been beating faster. Of course I said yes, I get to be on stream at worlds! The VOD is up on youtube if you want to see it, but it has some great moments, and I only facepalmed once when watching it back.

I go up to “The Boys” afterwards. I think Kyle was expecting my loss. Being on stream is stressful. When I tell them I won I got the biggest smile from them. Having people in your corner celebrating your success is the true tech for winning Netrunner.

….Or at least one secret tech. But you all are nice, I’ll tell you another. After round 5 we had a lunch break. I got some great tacos and was looking forward to the rest of they day. Six more rounds of Netrunner. No dinner break, this is going to be rough. But walking back to the venue I saw my savior. The true secret weapon that brought me success.

The Empanada stand. I grabbed 2 empanadas to go, stuck them in my bag, and had a secret “second lunch” ready for when I felt my energy dropping. At the end of the day I was still going strong when I could tell some others in the room were exhausted.

They should have thought about second lunch.

The emergency empanadas came in clutch, and secured enough wins going into day 2. In fact I was up 8-3. My poor tournament math calculated that I only needed 2 wins on Sunday to make it to the top cut.

Day 2 was unfortunate. I lost my first 2 games, and going into game 3 I knew I was out of contention. But I was still playing the best games of Netrunner I have ever played. I won game 3, and secured enough points to get me top 32, and that sweet playmat.

I ended up 21st at Worlds. More than I ever expected. It showed me if I actually try, I am decent at this game. I came back from Worlds trying to find if any nearby metas were running tournaments, and even scheduled a couple myself. I can’t believe I was thinking of throwing in the towel, I’m just getting started!

The Game Plan

Ok, so what does this deck do? A-Teia is like if MTI Palana had a baby. The deck is centered around getting as much value out of your free install as possible. Who needs Jinja city grid when it’s built into your ID?!

Install something in a remote, put a piece of ICE on another remote.

Advance something if possible

Click for credits. You will be clicking for credits a lot.

You are going to be low on cards in HQ a lot of the time. This is why there are Snares in the deck! HQ really only needs ICE against early Crim and Shaper pressure (looking at you Burner). Very frequently you will be sitting on 2-3 cards in hand.

Keep those Snares in hand/R&D unless the runner is checking the remotes every turn.

The dream scenario in your remotes is a combination of Data Loop, an unrezzed anansi, and a Daniella. Throw in a LaCosta and the runner has to check the server often.

They are going to go low on cards, or slow down enough for you to push an agenda through. Treat the BITW as a 4/2 and they won’t disappoint.

The tollbooth goes on HQ to prevent central accesses too frequently. You should have time to purge a physarum if it shows up.

What remote is the scoring remote I hear you ask? The answer is both of them. Use them interchangeably, you are getting the installs for them.

What would I change about this deck: Anansis didn’t do much all day, I want to try and find room for to Sand Storm to get a border control like effect. No one is playing AIs anyways. An earlier version of this deck was on BC, but I just can’t find the influence for it. I was also clicking for credits a lot, and a single regolith would do wonders.

The Shoutouts: My wife and son for allowing me to spend 5 days away from them.

My friends I have made over the years cheering me on. Plural, Aurates, Shiiuga, Coldlava, NotAgain, Meanlady, Andrej, Eric, Nick, Dereck (Shoutout to Neon Static), , OrbitalTangent, ctz, tzeentchling, 0thmxma, Izzy, Trillian and all the others my mind is blanking on at the moment.

The new friends I made. Myriad, AnOddRaddish, Tak, and many others I played against that weekend.

The people I traded with at the alt art trading table.

Jon and Gearjock for taking up my mantle as Marketing Lead/convention organizer. They took the seed I planted and have grown it into something huge.

The Snarebears (Kysra, AnalyzeChris, Dee, Rongydoge for allowing me to stay at their airbnb Sunday night)

Suzanne and the rest of tournament HQ. Every time I got a win and brought my slip up she smiled and kept on cheering me on the further into day 1 we got.

EVERYONE at NSG. Both for putting on a great event and keeping this wonderful game going.

And you reading this. I never do decklist writeups, so for you to read all my ramblings, I appreciate it immensely.