Lay your heart into my perfect machine. (2-2 & 2nd @ Notts)

We'll see if I end up bringing it to Nottingham though, not as a surrender but because girls is in a really good place right now and I want to give Akiko the best chance possible to shine on what is very nearly home turf. - Me, at the end of the last Thunderbolt writeup.

And damn if I didn't still manage to do that. Genuinely, though, the choice to play Thunderbolt rather than EAzmari was a very close one which I spent a fair bit of the two weeks between Bristol and Nottingham flip-flopping on, getting Azmari reps in, losing to very good players, winning to people who didn't respect the combo, and two days before going "Ok you know what I don't want to sort printing and I think I've tweaked Thunderbolt a bit, and I'll definitely enjoy it more, so let's bring it."

We then spent a fair bit of the night before workshopping changes. I was very fortunate that night to be surrounded by people who love me and were willing to provide insight, suggestions, advice, and ideas. Thank you so much to my collaborator in the makeout final, to Harper, to Ams, and especially to harmonbee who then stayed up an extra hour, talking through stress and helping make the most last-minute of changes.

What are those changes? Well...

• 3 Project Vitruvius -> 1 Architect Deployment Test, 1 Ikawah Project, and 1 Stegodon MK IV. Ikawah is a bit of a liability in the remote but it lets us play two more very good agendas so shrug.
• Cloud Eater -> Anansi. Anansi beats a lot of the tricks we don't like (Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga, Physarum Entangler, Inside Job), and with Ganked! it can just straight up kill people (as well as its sub stacking the deck to store big ice for ADT or putting a Ganked! on top). Also with Thunderbolt's strength it sucks a lot for most breakers on the rez turn.
• Biotic Labor -> Seamless Launch. We have only one 3/2 now, so third seamless is better for scoring plans.
• Brasília Government Grid -> Vovô Ozetti. A bit of a meta call, but I was expecting less K2CP Turbine and wanted to go a little faster in the midgame. Region is also a bit more of a liability now with 3 Tranquility Home Grid.
• 1x Hagen -> Ablative Barrier. With the third Stegodon, Ablative is now a much more solid value proposition. Reinstalling a Ganked in the remote off a centrals run and getting Tranquility money is a hell of a drug.
• Lycian Multi-Munition -> Gatekeeper. Lycian makes much less sense with Brasilia gone, it is a solid Ganked target but 2 strength is not 5.
• 1x Bloop to Ansel 1.0, 1x Tithe to Drafter. Harmonbee made the point that this deck is, fundamentally, a Ganked! delivery system. Because of this, we want good Ganked ice ASAP, and these are cheap and don't need Wave. Infini-Ganked isn't real but both of these are still deeply unpleasant - they can rearm the server or get you other value.

Also, the fact this deck went 2-2 (including winning a game in the cut!) is incredibly cool to me not just from seeing it improve but from the fact that all of those games were matchups I've had trouble with in the past, and they all felt close. It was, in order:

[Long Ramble ahead, be warned!]

• Loss vs Hello on girls - the girls matchup has the worst case combination for this deck that a few other (mostly Crim) decks have - early pressure and burst multiaccess before we can get enough money that rezzing doesn't hurt us. Tim played it well, and we still had some game, but this was a clear loss.
• Timed Loss vs Cobalt on WT Ari. WT Ari is a bit of a weird matchup in that I've heard about it a lot, and QEH people expected it'd be a rough matchup for the deck, but I've played it maybe once ever. This was one hell of a game, she constantly had options and pressure but never really a chance to let off the gas and snowball or build up money. The game ended 4 points to 6 after a big R&D dig with Conduit hit a Ganked on the last turn of the game, throwing her into a rig-destroying Bloop I didn't have time to capitalise on. If I'd had one more turn I'd have been able to tie it up by never advancing an ADT, but in the "if things were a little different universe" Cobalt wins off R&D before this happens anyway, so I'm not at all fussed. Mostly, I'm very pleased that it wasn't just Thunderbolt getting stomped, given this matchup is one I was nervous about.
• Win vs Palmtree on Lobi Spark Kit. Lobi Kit is a very see-sawy matchup, in that you're very favoured (by having good sentries) until both the Lobi and the Orca are down, then they're very favoured unless you can make them slip up and hit a Ganked they can't afford, at which point you blow up their rig and the pendulum swings back to you. This game, the Ganked came through on a Deep Dive turn, which was huge.
• [Top Cut] Win vs Sauc3 on Control Lat. This is a matchup I've played a bunch before, courtesy of Tiff. It's a very interesting one, because Revolver and Pelangi mean your sentry breaking is very efficient, but very ephemeral. Given you can feasibly have to break 9 to 12 sentry subroutines per run. (2 Sentries with Thunderbolt plus a Ganked!), getting dragged through the remote can really suck, especially if it's unexpected and a chip gets trashed. This game is slow, and we're both a little nervous and adrenaline-filled and spend a bit in the tank. Towards the end of the game, it's 4-4, and I'm the lower seed so if time is called and we draw, I will lose. I score an Architect, and reveal and install a Stegodon in the remote with the trigger. Time is called on his turn, and Sauc3 goes for it, gets in at the cost of everything third click, and does something small last click. He then offers the good game handshake - I'm on no FA so the scores are as they are. I look a bit confused at that, because I'm 6-5 up, and he realises he thought he had one more point than he did. I don't think it changed the outcome - he still had to run the remote or I win on my turn unless he could sneak 3 points off centrals - but it definitely felt rough even on my end, and I imagine it was worse on his.

All told, thank you so much to everyone who was a part of this weekend. To my opponents, for consistently incredible Netrunner. To QEH for being a constant font of love and support, helping me test this and girls, and believing in me. To a certain international rogue for making this weekend so beautiful and filled with love and teaching me more about this game and myself. Finally, to harmonbee, for doing so much not just to help me and to help tweak this deck but also for running an absolutely amazing event, for upping the judge fashion game to new heights! Your passion for this game shows in everything you do, from deckbuilding to helping refine others' lists to playing to judging to teaching and sharing this game with as many people as possible.