Thinking with Portals

I stole most of the design here from http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/22797/encrypted-evolution I mostly wanted to talk how about it performed in a tournament setting.

So, I went 2-2. I feel like I let my deck down at a couple points.

First game was against Prepaid Kate. Early on, for lack of better options, I Celebrity Gift, showing Fetal AI and Utopia Fragment. I can't protect them, I get hit by Legwork next turn, I lose five points and my opponent takes a total of 4 net. They draw up to 4 afterwards. I sigh, take my mandatory, draw, draw, and then see Punitive Counterstrike for the win.

Second game I'm playing against a buddy who knows what I'm doing. I sneak out an early Utopia Fragment, they snag another agenda early, I can't remember whether it was a Fragment or a Fetal. I make a huge misplay early on by baiting him into running on Will-o'-the-Wisp, only to realize immediately after installing it that I'm one credit short of being able to rez the ice protecting Will and Will itself.

I have a strong scoring server with Caprice Nisei and Utopia, but I never see another Agenda until it's too late. At one point my opponent snags either 4 or 5 points. I'm psyched, I mathed it out and even with him installing Plascrete like the jerk that he is, I have 26 credits, enough to beat his link no matter what and do enough meat to put him down.

Oh wait, he has fourteen credits and base one link. I am boned because I am bad and math is hard. I draw for lack of better options. The first card is a Punitive. Eventually he works through my Chum/Hudson/Enigma on R&D enough to get the win.

Third round is against a standard Noise build. While Noise is trashing my Ice, I'm scoring. I get to 5, I think on an Eden and 2 Portals. He sees me install then and recognizes it's an agenda, but thinks it's another 3/1. It's Philotic! Game.

Last round, I play like a dirty trashcan idiot against the best player in our local meta. I manage to briefly disrupt his programming when I score Encrypted, he's has a little trouble adjusting to the idea he's playing against a jank deck. Then I try to score out a Utopia behind a Lotus when Gordian is out and he has a large credit advantage. Why? I don't know. I barely remember the rest of the game, but I lost.

I played a bonus round at the end with someone running Leela and saw nothing but money and Punitives for days. He was running Au Revoir/Snitch and I think I ended up just outscoring him.

So, you can definitely say this deck is competitive, I think. It may not be incredibly consistent, as a lot of your Ice is positional. The issue is that your window for beating Kate is pretty thin. Normally Punitive is your failsafe, but usually you can't out-money her in late game. I met some other Leelas in playtesting and one of them took me apart after I rushed out a greedy Utopia, so be careful about scoring early against her as always.

Kudos to redhand for the inspiration and work they put into their deck, it was a lot of fun to drive.