Wooley L4J EDit (1st place Singapore Nats 2015)

My version of Steven Wooley's Whizzard that won the ANRPC HAC. Changes were minor: only -1 Earthrise +1 Stimhack. This deck went 6-1 on the day (5 rounds of Swiss, followed by 2 out of 4 rounds of double elim), out of a 40-man field.

My Haarpsichord decklist and report can be found here; http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/29575/the-diabolical-haarp-shop-1st-place-singapore-nats-2015-

Round 1: Arnold (Scorch NEH) I knew the day wouldn't start off easy, facing off against the reigning Malaysian national champion, one of 5 Malaysians who crossed the border to play. After losing the first game to DLR Val, I prepared myself for an uphill battle. I was at first gearing up to run aggressively, as I usually do against traditional Fastro/Team Turtles to trash their econ pieces and SanSans, but the jig was up once I accessed the first Midseasons. He struck after I scored something, Midseasoning for 11 when I was on 8 creds, and I matched to take 3 tags. He was fairly light on ice, so my next 3 turns were 'run R&D, credit credit clear' until I was out of the danger zone (I had 1 IHW in hand). After that was more jockeying for position, after which I scored again, going up to 5, and he hit back with the second Midseasons for some high number that I didn't bother matching. Time to go all in, I thought, and started running everywhere, managing to steal the last 2-pointer the following turn. 1-0.

Round 2: Darren (Industrial Genomics) Me and Darren weren't surprised to see each other at all, having met in every tournament we've played for the past 18 months or so. I've heard mixed opinions of this matchup, but I knew my best shot was to hit centrals aggressively, prioritizing killing Jacksons, Shocks, and other things that could enter HQ and be used to dump stuff into Archives. I managed to hit 1 Jackson, 2 Shocks, and a Snare! before his repeated Melanging became untenable, and I was forced to crack his remote and take a couple turns off centrals. He used this time to dump a couple facedowns, and promptly Interns'ed the Melange with Caprice backup. Ughhhhh. I ignored it for as long as I could, going back to HQ and R&D and picking up a Vanity Project for my efforts.

When he hit 20+ credits I hit the remote again, managing to win the psi game but having to pay 3+9 credits for the pair (there were 5 facedowns at this point). Next turn I decided enough was enough, and cleared out Archives, eating 3 Shocks and a News Team, and he took this chance to IAA which another Caprice as backup. I started setting up for my next assault on R&D, and thank god the 5/3 wasn't Hades Fragment but TFP. I found my Medium and began my attack proper, taking a Fetal to go up to 5. Running dangerously low on creds at that point. He IAA'ed again and I sensed that I had to go YOLO at that point. I found nothing that turn, and he scored the Hades. The turn after, he installed Hokusai on R&D, and discarded a facedown, and I knew I had to win in the next two turns, which I did, winning a TFP psi game on the top of R&D. 2-0.

Round 3: DPS (Foodcoats) My opponent this round was the inestimable Dave, and he once again showed his prowess by destroying my corp with Regass Valencia in 10 minutes. Granted, I was flooding, but he returned the favor by gifting me 5 points off a naked ABT fire. (He later told me he already had 4 other agendas in hand.) He Corptown'ed me for 2 turns after that, hitting a peddler and an Earthrise, but I managed to trash it without too much damage. I hit his second Future is Now shortly after, going up to 6, and topdecked a Vitruvius for the win. 3-0.

Round 4: Nick Tan (NEH Fastro) This round ended brutally fast. He iced HQ and R&D turn 1, and my first turn was Datasucker, run R&D. He rezzed Archangel, and I went through to see Breaking News, and again for Jackson, which I trashed. Next turn I hit HQ to snipe an Astro, and Career Faired a Liberated Account. Next turn I hit another Astro in HQ, and Lib/Lib down to 4 for the last click Archangel bounce... to topdeck a Beale for the win. Pretty lucky on my part. 4-0.

Round 5: Wakka (RP) I've had a long history of drawing with Wakka at GNK events, and this was no exception. I don't remember a lot about this game, only that it was brutal in a very different way than the previous one. I eventually scored a Nisei and a TFP, but at the price of giving him 2 Nisei tokens. Knowing he had a nigh-unbreakable remote and 3 3-pointers in hand, I geared up to Stimhack HQ... only to eat a Marcus Batty Assassin net damage trace for the flatline. Epic stuff, and my only Runner loss of the day. 4-1.

I made it into top 8 as 5th seed, and the second highest-seeded 14 prestige player. Of my opponents, DPS and Arnold made it, while Wakka sat at 9th on tiebreakers. Third time's the charm, bro!

Elims Round 1: Abbey (Foodcoats) Abbey, my personal nemesis, chose to Corp instead of running against Haarp, which I can't exactly blame anyone for. I trashed a few early campaigns, and scored an ABT and NAPD fairly early on. He scored a GFI behind Architect/Tollbooth/Caprice, but I got him to zero credits by dropping a Medium and forcing Eli rezzes, after which I walked into the remote and trashed Caprice. He scored a Vitruvius behind double Turing after that, making a new remote after I Parasuckered the Tollbooth, but I was already at 6 points as well. With 1 minute left on the clock, and about to take a timed loss on points scored, he decided to go for it, dropping a third ice and two cards into the new server. I Street Peddlered to find my Yog, which got me through his newly-rezzed Enigma, and D4v1d+Yog+sucker tokens took care of the server, getting me in twice because of the Ash trace. A very tight win, and it could have gone very differently if we weren't so short of time. 5-1.

Grand Final: Bernard (RP) This was it. Being in the winner's bracket, I only needed to win 1 game out of 2 to take the title. I mulliganed a rather below-average hand... only to draw into D4v1d/D4v1d/Corroder/Yog/IHW. Well, fuck. I first click run HQ, hitting Pup. I choose to take the damage, reasoning that I was going to have to spend clicks to draw anyway, and I might as well get free draws/discards out of his ice... only for it to hit Corroder and Yog.

Well, fuck.

I do draw into some more useful stuff after that, including a second IHW and a Visage, which I install ASAP. He gets some Sundew action going, but I take advantage of his momentarily low credit pool to put down a Medium and run 3 times, seeing only 3 ice. He ices up R&D, and I bounce off Ashigaru, so I run HQ again to get free draws, hitting IHW and Daily Casts, but get a Nisei for my trouble, so it's not all bad. I hit the Sundew remote, but bounce off Wraparound, so I set up Parasite on Ashigaru and Clone Chip and pass the turn. He ices Sundew again and gets more credits, so I respond by bounding ashigaru and running it, clicking through the fresh Eli and killing Sundew with Clone Chipped Corroder for Wrap. He purges, and I set up my economy with another Casts to ready my next assault.

He Sundews the double-ice remote again, and I prove I'm willing to play the waiting game by spending my whole turn to kill it again. Realizing the lengths I'm willing to go to to kill his econ, he puts down the third(!) Sundew and puts down an upgrade as well. That's okay, as this turn my Parasite hits 3 counters, so I install a sucker and run HQ (now double Pupped) for the token, and running R&D to kill Ashigaru and score a second Nisei.

He ices R&D again, and I facecheck a Komainu, which I was relatively okay with at this point, considering my hand had nothing particularly relevant at this point, and it meant that he dropped to 2 credits, not enough to stop me from breaking his Sundew/Caprice remote again. At this point, I should mention that he had a Jackson out on the table for a couple of turns already, with a few facedowns in Archives, but we both realized that Jackson shuffling with R&D defended so inadequately was a death sentence, and he let me trash it instead of using him.

At this point, he had one Jackson used and one trashed, but I couldn't take the risk of checking Archives for a) the potential CVS blowout and b) I wasn't yet prepared for Crick. Fortunately, two more turns of R&D dig turned up a Philotic and the third Jackson, as well as Liberated Account and Atman off the Visage. Taking a turn off to Lib/Lib/Lib, I then next turn proceeded to install 3tman, run R&D for an 8-card access (nothing), then ran Archives, blowing past Wraparound and Architect for the GFI hidden inside. GG. 6-1.

And that's the end of my tournament report from the Runner POV! Any queries about card choices/matchups are welcome!