Best Meta of all Time - 1st and Undefeated @Intercontinental

maninthemoon 2213

Intercontinental Championship! What an epic tournament! I only snuck in by the skin of my teeth πŸ˜… I took 6th at Cascadia, but @enkoder couldn't make it this year and my brother @Santa who took 5th place had already qualified by winning APAC. I was very motivated going in to make @enkoder proud of who got the hand-me-down invite.


reg deck vs patchwork innovation (Exit 15 meme)


I expected the decks at interconts to be a combination of the lists that did best at EMEA and the lists people used to get their high placements at continentals.

Corp side I was expecting Unband style HB - QtM AgInfusion - And any lists that had top four-ed a continentals.

Though a lot of the decks had slight innovations I was pretty much right. The only list that would have caught me off guard was @Santa's Treeline Pharos Outfit innovation, but since I got to help him build the list I knew what I was getting in for.

With all that in mind I set out to build a deck that could deal with BrΓ’n - Skunk + Void - Gearchecks - Assets, just hoping all my experience playing vs @Santa's Outfit/s would be enough to beat his monster of a deck.


What Bran?? (chisel charm meme)

Ever since Cascadia I have been convinced that Arissana's Conduit + Aeneas Informant Combo was the strongest win con currently available in standard. But after playing with different variations of the deck for a week or so I started asking myself "what was Arissana really bringing to the list?" and "Wouldn't this be better in Hoshiko?" I was also really impressed with the setup speed and power level of @Bridgeman Strike Fund + Price Hoshiko list. I tried my list with Moshing and The Price, but since I had so many important pieces I wasn't reliably able to play those cards safely. Patchwork ended up being the perfect solution to everything the deck was trying to do and once I stumbled onto that everything else fell into place. The finishing touch was unintentionally added by @whiteblade111 when he handily beat be with BathOb while staying at my place Friday night. After that crushing defeat I changed up the breakers and headed to bed.

Hoshiko vs Ari (girlfriend Meme)

Want Clot for Cascadia, answer play Hoshiko.

Want Conduit + Aeneas wincon for interconts. . . play Hoshiko.

Stop importing other decks wincons into Hoshiko or draw 25 Uno Meme

You can win tournaments these days with any type of runner deck you want as long as it's Hoshiko πŸ˜‰

Literally every runner archetype (Bob Ross meme)


- - - So the decks nuts and boltsπŸ”§βš™οΈ - - -

If you haven't yet gathered all the information you need to play this list from everything above I'll try and elaborate some on the nuance (not so much of that) here.

Install the good cards > Trash anything noncritical to patchwork > pressure the wherever the corp is weakest > Focus on drawing aggressively > once you are fully set up transition to the conduit > πŸ†

Labor Rights: Use it however you need. Trash it for Patchwork money (just not the 3rd one). Use it late game for extra gas. Play it mid game to shuffle back Steelskin Scarring to increase deck speed.

Chisel + Devil Charm: Chisel can come back with Labor Rights, but Devil Charm doesn't. Try to be more carful/cautious about using the charms over the chisels, but obviously they are strongest together.

The Breakers are the most efficient reasonable options in the game as long as they can actually break the ice πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ (looking at you Buzzsaw), but just trash anything that's difficult to break (looking at you BrΓ’n). Ice Carver is also surprisingly helpful for certain matchups.

Bahia Bands and Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra what fun Cards!


You can find the intercontinentals stream here! There is an interview at the end of the stream where I answer some questions like "why En Passant??!?". NSG did a fantastic Job with this event, do check it out!


- - - Meta Love Letter ❀️ - - -

As the title suggests I'm extremely pleased with this meta. I think the dev/design team pulled off the ice thaw and Icebreaker power shift extremely well with the rotation of flashpoint. I have never felt like there was this much possibility in the card pool. So many decks are viable on both sides and there are so many things I have yet to even start testing. I know I put a lot of Jokes about Hoshiko above but please take them as jest. The only thing I could possibly criticize about this wonderful meta is Hoshiko's current and unfortunate ability to be seemingly the best at everything. That being said She is not broken, wildly overpowered, or even much stronger then the other IDs or factions, she is just extremely flexible and consistent. Those qualities are very helpful when creating good decks especially in a new and turbulent meta. It makes a lot of sense that with so much change in the card pool people are sticking to the familiar and consistent Hoshiko, but I hope her recent dominance won't discourage people from continuing to experiment with the other IDs and factions. She is definitely not the only viable runner. And, though I would love to increase runner diversity, this meta is already so much better than the one we had after Continentals season 2022. I would hate for any "philosophical based Hoshiko ban trying to improve runner diversity" to disrupt this very quickly evolving, currently corp favored meta.


This deck is a blast!! Please play it! Tell me what you think!! Hit me up with any questions in the comments or on Discord.


- - - The Games - - -

Round Two Vs @Watzlav - Dicey close game that almost ended as a timed tie.

Round four Vs @ Bridgeman - Difficult but well executed game by Bridgman with tough decisions on both sides. It's hard to score behind ice that gets destroyed.

Round six Vs @Sokka234 - I got very strong draw and Sokka played the hell out of a bad situation, but it's rough when you start turn 3 with:

I guess I lose - Sokka

Round Seven: Vs @Santa (Broski) - As entertaining as the game was for the audience and stream it was a truly sad game. Charlie's draw was worse then I've ever seen it. . . and we have played a lot of outfit games, the two of us πŸ˜‰ His deck is extremely strong and was a very innovative adaptation on the BDO archetype he has been working on for so long. I was honestly sad to see it put up no fight. I certainly don't feel anywhere as favored as that match made me look. Sometimes one player draws all the nuts and doesn't share. Feels bad to knock out a teammate that way. Check out the streamed game here!

En Passant


- - - Thanks Everyone - - -

It was an honor playing with such a talented group of players! Thanks to all of you who showed up, brought your all and put on such a wonderful show!
Huge thanks to NSG for running and streaming such a great event, and creating such an amazing set of new cards! Wow, so well done, thank you!
Big shoutout to my team! You all make this game so much more rewarding, valuable, and inspiring to play. Thank you all for your constant support and dedication to our goals!
Special shoutout to @whiteblade111 for somehow managing to improve both my decks without even trying. I guess I've just learned to listen when good players start spouting facts πŸ™ƒ It was so great to have you stay.
Thanks @BinkBonkle and @Wentagon for helping with the memes.



Lunch after interconts:
Me - "So how would you beat the deck Eric?"
Eric - "Probably Ice all 3 centrals ASAP"
Me - "Oh yeah that could work. . ."

LMAO πŸ˜‚πŸ˜­

24 comments
5 Sep 2023 Porkobolo

I strongly agree on the quality of the meta, but i'd still go for an Hoshiko Ban. No philosophical reason, just the plain "it's too strong" line that seems to be backed by the ABSOLUTE DOMINANCE hoshiko showed at every continental and intercontinental. She has a fricking high chance to win the world championship too. It's getting heavy, and it's the ONLY complain i have.

Thank you NSG for the amazing set and meta.

5 Sep 2023 crowphie

you're so fucking sick, mate, and this list is too. Love this deck, love this meta, much love to everyone in the muntal crew <3

5 Sep 2023 AtomicPasta

YES! Happy to see Patchwork getting the love it deserves.

5 Sep 2023 rongydoge

ggwp! please don't pick urban renewal again for a champ card

5 Sep 2023 FireRL (aka xFWx FIREBIRD)

^ @rongydoge πŸ˜…

5 Sep 2023 BinkBonkle

<3

5 Sep 2023 maninthemoon

@Porkobolo I don't really disagree, but I also don't think that everything needs to be or even can be perfect. I think the meta is fairly balanced, fun, interactive, and it feels like most games are won or lost by the decisions the players made. I just want the SBL team to be cautious. Things could get a lot worse and honestly not that much better.

And you know, there's so many different Hoshiko decks you can play 😜 Lot's of diversity πŸ™ƒ Last year we had one Lat deck. . .

If Hoshiko can leave without much disruption sign me up. I'm just not sure that would happen.

5 Sep 2023 Bilby

beautiful deck! huge congrats! would love to see Charlie's tree line outfit pop off sometime. triple advanced pharos is such a brute in this meta.

5 Sep 2023 maninthemoon

@crowphie Thank you so much <3

@AtomicPasta Right! It's finally got some really solid synergy.

@rongydoge Thanks man, I wish πŸ˜…

@BinkBonkle <3

@Bilby Thanks, Netrunner list's in a way are personal art projects. I'm glad you appreciate it! Charlie's deck pops off with style! Keep an eye out for it in the future.

5 Sep 2023 crowphie

(Addendum: I think there's a lot of people who would get frustrated at seeing no changes made to Anarch after so many years of orange consistently being the best colour (with a brief intermission where we played Lat) but I 100% agree that from a competitive perspective there's a lot of things that could easily go wrong with an anarch ban, and not much to gain because this meta is still super fun to play)

5 Sep 2023 Porkobolo

@maninthemoonYou're right, banning Hoshiko will shake the meta VERY hard, and there's a lot to lose. Still we've seen Hoshiko being a monster through all the metas in which was present, and now we've reached a point in which everything you can do with a runner (every runner, not only anarch) you can do with Hoshiko better. To a point in which even Khumalo, that has a vertical playstyle, have been replaced (see Sokka, he really was into Khumalo and at some point just translated that deck into...Hoshiko). Ok, you can play Hoshiko in a looooooooooooot of different ways but...i cannot forget the feeling of taking your favorite runner and play, with satisfaction, with it. I know, i'm a romantic and i were the kind of player that played with Adam in every fricking tournament despite the meta, because i loved him (his mechanic and his lore, his very being), but i feel like we're losing the possibility to just "choose" our fav runner, "walking in his shoes", because if you dislike the concept of Hoshiko (that is well made, to be fair) you just lose the joy to cheer to other runners, the just are subpar IF confronted to her.

I honestly don't think we can see a ban now, being this near to the Worlds, but i just hope NSG can consider it, whenever they want.

Can we trade a Maxx for an Hoshiko? Right now she can be fair, there's no bin breakers!

5 Sep 2023 Paillu

incredible deck! Your runners in particular have been an inspiration since I started playing last year. Big congrats on the win!

6 Sep 2023 Radiant

Congrats buddy :) We're all extremely proud, there's no one more deserving of this W than you!

Nats, Conts, and Interconts down - team Muntal Bost worlds next???

6 Sep 2023 Jai

Congrats once again on your well deserved win ❀️

My unhinged balance take: we should just replace all runners with the front side of Hoshiko, and the back side is β€˜draw a card for [doing the thing], if you don’t [do the thing] flip back’

Boom, runner diversity issue solved, hire me NSG

6 Sep 2023 Porkobolo

Considering Hoshiko is playing a different game (also known as 5 click Netrunner), i like your proposal: let every runner play the same game! Frick you corps :D

6 Sep 2023 FireRL (aka xFWx FIREBIRD)

@Jai 🀣 that's spicy. I like it

6 Sep 2023 sebastiank

Print hoshiko as a 5 inf crim resource and as a 5 inf shaper resource and then ban hoshiko

7 Sep 2023 Chris_Yang

Hoshiko is the anarch Andromeda.

7 Sep 2023 maninthemoon

@crowphie I agree! From a game health perspective I have been frustrated by the overturned nature of anarch for a while now. If you look at all the sets in standard there are just way more played/viable cards avaliable in that faction. It would be nice to get some anarch thaw along with the ice πŸ˜„ Like Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra did not need to be that good. It would be totally fine as a tech card and not another value staple plus tech card πŸ™ƒ Could have been blue too. . .

7 Sep 2023 maninthemoon

@PorkoboloI totally get having a favorite runner! I only played Wu until she got banned πŸ˜₯ After that I had no excuse to not just play our good friend Hoshiko πŸ™ƒ It's been working alright for me πŸ˜† but it would be really good for the long term health of the game to have more runner diversity.

Sadly with Steelskin Scarring and Strike Fund MaxX would be more broken then ever πŸ˜„

12 Sep 2023 maninthemoon

@Paillu Thanks so much! I'm so glad you found them valuable!

@Radiant Thanks so much <3 You know it worlds 2023 πŸ₯³

@Jai What a good ideaπŸ’‘That would fix all the problems, who needs Hoshiko anyways βœ…

@sebastiank Fantastic πŸ˜‚

@Chris_Yang Sooo true!

13 Sep 2023 meitrix87

My great respect and congratulations on your championship! However, did you consider slotting Leech, considering that Bran, Envelopment and other ice are not so far off in str and Hoshiko Shiro: Untold Protagonist wants to run centrals often anyway? In a pinch, it could be combined with a Devil Charm to take down an adved Pharos too.

13 Sep 2023 maninthemoon

@meitrix87I think Leech is well positioned right now, but I didn't include it for a few reasons. Most importantly it doesn't combo with Chisel with the encounter timing. And secondly the full rig for this deck uses 4 MU and my 5th MU is reserved for chisels late game. So I sadly don't have the MU for a value leech and adding MU cards didn't feel woth it. The deck can deal with most high strength ice pretty effectively with the chisel charm combo.

14 Sep 2023 meitrix87

@maninthemoon Ok thx. Good point for the RAM, otherwise lacking a breaker, using twinning instead of conduit (so going back to companions...) or using e.g. Maw (so needing again the otter for installs...) would be needed. Reg. the timing, makes sense ("on encounter", then "are encountering"), but is there an official confirmation?