[NEO] Gracias Reina (8th @ Adelaide GNK)

Just a brief warning, this writeup is going to focus less on the competitive/mechanical side of things and be more of a wishy washy retrospective on my time with netrunner. So very qucikly, here's the notes on the deck itself:

It was okay, not great though.

Anyways, so I know Reina is not going to rotate until halfway next year, but it is very safe to say that she hasn't been relevant in a Long Time. The meta is just vastly different compared to when she was first printed: corp economy has gotten way stronger and faster so for runners, raw tempo and value is better than econ denial. Despite this, I have always liked Reina Roja, and ever since I started playing I've been desperately trying to make her work in the current meta (both startup and standard) like a kid forcing a square peg into a Hoshiko shaped hole. But why do I like her so much?

I first tried playing netrunner somewhere around 2015, after hearing Quinns from Shut Up and Sit Down endlessly gush about it and watching their actual play video on it. I watched the FFG how to play, read up on the factions, decided I liked Anarch the most, and googled "netrunner best starting decks". IIrc, it led me to this very site and to a Reina Roja deck. I don't remember the specifics, but as a dumb teen and an absolute beginner, I knew two things: she looked cool and her ability seemed cool. So I took the deck to jnet and got trashed. Sadly, due to the lack of a local scene in El Salvador where I used to live, and frustrated with jnet, I dropped the game for the time being.

Fast forward 3 years to 2018, and I'm hearing big talk about netrunner getting a revised core set and its first rotation and how it's a great way for new players to jump in. So sure enough, I found myself looking up an anarch starter deck again, and just like before, Reina pops up, with a brand new design and looking cool as always. Then I went to jnet, someone played Death and Taxes on me, and I got absolutely ruined. I tried sticking to netrunner for longer this time as it was, and still is, the only card game to truly grab me. But as it always happens, life got in the way, and I dropped it for the time being.

And then the year is 2022 and a lot has changed, but most importantly for this, Netrunner died and was brought back by NSG, and I dropped everything and came to Australia. And because time is a flat circle, I was reintroduced to netrunner thanks to the excellent SUSD Tom's video on the game. Unlike the first time though, there was a local scene I could join! So I got the NSG cards as soon as possible and, in system update 2021, was Reina again. Naturally, the first deck I ever built for startup was a Reina deck.

It's nearly 2024, and I take Reina to a Neo GNK because I didn't have time to build/playtest something more competitive, and she helps me split most games I played. She'll be rotating soon, but she's been part of my netrunner journey since day one, and thus, helped me not just discover one of my biggest passions, but also in introducing me to some of the best friends I've made and the best community I've been a part of. And for that, she will always be my #1 runner.

To end this.....thing, I guess I want to thank the Adelaide scene for teaching me how to play and overall being top tier human beings, GLC for helping me deckbuild and just being an awesome community overall, and to NSG for keeping the game going. And of course:

Gracias Reina. La revolucion nunca morira, porque siempre la tendre conmigo.