Always Be Smokin' (2nd Place Helsinki GNK)

1-2 at GNK, could have been 2-1 had I not made a piloting error. Still, it was my first Top 3 placing at any Netrunner event. Feels good man.

Weirdrunner is here - and Smoke is still strong. But you know what? She's not mechanical enough. But we can fix that. We have the technology to make the world's first bionic Smoke.

Adam is my favourite runner. Hands down. Every turn with Adam is a series of interesting choices. But I haven't sat down to work out how an Adam deck post-rotation and with MWL2.0 will work. So next best thing - give Smoke Adam's console.

The core of this deck is the Despy Smoke list that won the Chicago regionals. I was playing it before rotation, and decided to augment it for the new world order rather than try out a new idea. Extra memory and extra hand size means you can install more programs like Cloak and Tapwrm as you please after a first turn Indexing, which needs to be said is brutal against CI since they never ice R&D first turn. Speaking of CI, Tapwrm basically reads "Gain one free turn against CI whenever you install it". Glorious.

With all that hand space though, you'll need cards to fill it with. Three Laguna Velasco Districts are in there to get the card draw you need. Finding it proved a bit difficult at times. Definitely needs to find room for Earthrise Hotel again, if not Deuces Wild. I'd rather the drip card economy than the on-demand one, since that's what Laguna Velasco is for.

Sacrificial Construct went unneeded, which was weird, but the meta says to expect Hank Scorpio so you'd be foolish to drop it. Otherwise, switching away from Employee Strike and Mad Dash... If CI is going to be sticking around - and still be brutally effective - then dropping the Levys and the Freedoms to bring back irate employees is going to be the right call. Also, there's still a current war that you need to win, so don't drop Freedom without bringing something else back in.

One each of the breakers is also a mistake without Levy. Don't drop Levy unless you plan on duplicating everything but Dai V.

On to the games, shall we?

Game 1 - vs CI

This one didn't go to well. But then again, that's to be expected since my opponent was the Helsinki Regionals champ. Always a pleasure to play against him and watch him play.

First turn Indexing and steal and some great early pressure didn't translate to continued pressure. I didn't draw Laguna quick enough, nor did I get my Brain Chip out. I recall also forgetting I had a tag and losing a Beth, which really set me back. Then he scored 7 points in one turn. Classic CI. Looks like you absolutely still need to tech against CI.

Game 2 - vs Scorpios

This one hit the time limit. Game plan was going to plan, it was just a matter of getting the agendas. Last turn before time, Indexing. Bam. Two agendas up on top. Run through again to snag the first one. And then I do the math. And realise I can't break through all the R&D ice to grab the second one. Shake hands. And then it's pointed out to me I could have YOLO'd and let all the "destroy a program" and "take meat damage" subroutines fire and steal that agenda for the game. Ah well. I already conceded, but let it never be said that millennials know nothing. YOLO 4 lyf.

Game 3 - vs CI

This game was weeeeiiiirrrrd man. I know exactly how a Meeseeks feels after that 55 minute slog. Turn one Indexing stole his Hades Fragment which on retrospect almost seemed like part of his game plan instead of a cool contingency. I faceplanted a Cerebral Overwriter that I knew he had, but thanks to my Brain Chip I brushed it right off. I'm expecting Brain Chip and recursion to be anti-Jinteki tech but it worked wonderfully here.

Freedoms kept on nerfing his clones and he kept burning Archived Memories on bringing them back. Eventually he ran out of combo pieces and had a hand full of agendas that I knew were there... But he wasn't scoring them? He had an Elective Upgrade scored and everything. But then I realised. He had a hand full of 5/3s and no way to fast advance them. So I kept clicking for credits, waiting for him to deck himself. Eventually he played a 5/3 with a Mushin No Shin unprotected, so I stole it. Next turn, he goes for the Punative. Twice. Both times I beat his trace, second time with the help of Net Mercur. Which wouldn't have been needed at that point since I had the cards in hand to deal with it. His turn ends, and I point out that his 0 credits means he has a hand size of 0. My turn begins, run archives, GG.

55 minutes.

55.

Conclusions

I reaaaaallllyy want to test this against a PE deck. There are changes that can be made to this deck that are really a meta call. CI being a thing means I need to drop the Levy and call the unions in for a meeting, but having that recursion against a Jinteki papercut decks will be required for a long game. Otherwise, Earthrise will fix some of my speed problems and I'll need to find room for it.