Very Normal PD - 1st at UK Nats 2023

This is the PD deck I took to UK Nats, finishing first. It's the same list I took to Worlds.

I've published a bunch of PD lists already, and generally love the archetype, but after the loss of key cards such as Cyberdex Sandbox, Advanced Assembly Lines and later Global Food Initiative, I was very down on PD, finding it hard to go back to accepting the variance on centrals that comes with playing real 3 point agendas. Ultimately, credit goes to kysra for persuading me to try it again, and realising that Ikawah is not just a liability, but actually a very tricky agenda to steal out of the remote, combined with other tools in the deck. Going over a few slots that seem to vary between PD lists:

Architect Deployment Test: I did play this deck with Vitruvius at first, borrowing from Bridgeman's list, but I think ADT does so much here. While there is some variance you have to accept, even finding and putting a 3 cost ice on a two ice remote gives you savings of 2 clicks and 5 credits - equivalent value to Offworld, while also giving you important info about your R&D. With 4 large ice in the deck, you also fairly regularly hit gold and install one of those, and even a "bad" install such as Skunkworks, Regolith or Rashida onto a Tranquility Grid is not a bad reward. I fired several of these to great effect over the weekend, and even the weaker ones were pretty instrumental to me winning games, by allowing me to navigate large numbers of agendas coming into hand.

Your Digital Life: In general, I think this card is overrated outside of very specific builds designed to abuse it. I did test the Yodel list a bit, with decent results, but ultimately decided on the solid deck I knew. I think Yodel provides some absolutely blistering wins, but also bricks harder on the mediocre draws.

Regolith/Greasing the Palm: The more common split is 2 Greasing and 1 Regolith. I like Regolith more for recovering from economic pressure against Crims, and finding one early is pretty good against any runner that isn't Esa, plus it's an extra remote bluff. I think playing only 1 is perfectly reasonable too. I was going to try 1 Vovo Ozetti, but never got round to it.

Borders/Voids: Playing 2 Void and only 1 Border is reasonable, but I preferred the extra slot for a second Mavirus, to play against Turtle and Mulch out of Hoshiko/Loup. I also think trying a 3 Border Control build could be viable, but maybe unecessary as runners aren't teching that hard against SkunkVoid at the moment.

MIC: This ice is better than it looks, and I tested 2 Bran 2 MIC instead of the suite I used. MIC is excellent at helping push through an Ikawah score, but can leave you a little vulnerable to a supported Buzzsaw, between MIC, Magnet and Gatekeeper. In the end I preferred to rep my card and keep a bit more diversity in Sentry threats, but I think the second MIC is just as good. I also think playing the third Bran is a decent shout, as almost every rig has to put a huge amount of effort into beating it.

Second Magnet: In the right meta, getting the second Magnet back in could be correct. It helps against Arissana, but I like that matchup already, so mostly this would be teching for Mulch, a matchup I was quite scared of going in. I'd reluctantly cut the third Gatekeeper if I was adding a Magnet.

The deck went 7-2 in the main event, beating Zayha, Hoshiko, Esa, Hoshiko, Ken, Hoshiko and Lat, and losing to Sable and Esa. In Swiss I ended up corping second every round, which often led to very little time to play the game. I think in a meta with a lot of complexity on both sides, especially in person, PD is one of the more straightforward options mechanically, with ADT fires providing some of the toughest decisions.

Thanks to everyone for a great tournament, and especially those of you who organised and made the thing possible. As ever, I had an amazing time.