Grug Goes To Seattle (2-2, 9th @ Cascadia)

Hi there, I'm just another Crim lifer adopting the Kit lifestyle. This deck lets me get rich whether the Corp likes it or not, and then go be a menace in their servers. Simple is good. I paired Kit with EA Sports Murder Azmari, because I wanted to maximize my odds of winning and minimize how much thinking I had to do per game. I love Netrunner, but 9 games in a row is a lot, and I think my choices bore out pretty well for me on the day.

Cards

I synthesized this particular list from a couple of lists, taking what I liked best from each and then seasoning to taste after a few test games late in the prep process for Cascadia. In particular, Fox Ex Machina's Build Scripts and Bravado, and Chicken Slayer's Inversificator.

Tournament

I've been playing for a long time (9 years), but usually approach tournaments fairly casually. If I end the day with an even or slightly positive record, I'm happy! During the run up to any tournament I go to, I might play my tournament decks a few times, but I don't test any particular matchup or think too critically about my lines. Just wanna have fun, ya know? As a result, I used to think of myself as a mediocre player (or on bad days, an inept one), and ruminating on this over the past few years had begun eroding my satisfaction with the game.

I had a bit of a breakthrough run at Worlds '23, in which I put up enough of a record to go toe-to-toe with Limes in the Swiss, and had I stayed on track, could have had a serious chance at top 16. As it happened, I committed a huge blunder in our game that I would have never attempted if I had played more than a handful of games with my Corp deck, but my takeaway was ... "hey, wait, maybe I've been learning something all these years after all!" What might I accomplish with a bit more focused practice?

Well, Cascadia turned out to be the perfect opportunity to give "being good at the game" a shot. In the lead up, I linked up with like-minded players in my meta, tried to learn about what the meta looked like, played with and against many of the decks we expected might show up, and settled on my deck choices. On the day, I woke up well-rested, had a big homemade brekkie (shout out to my cousin and his wonderful partner for giving me a dope crash pad), and made a conscious effort to approach each game with a clear head. I noted the wins as they occurred with a sort of bemused acceptance, and to my surprise, I was 3-0 going into round 4, and my table was selected to play on stream (against the inimitable Rielle on a QTM Sports list).

I've never played on stream before, and I figured I might as well give the people a show, but fully expected to lose focus and crash out. Rewatching the VOD after the event, I'm not convinced I didn't lose focus, but somehow my zany (and occasionally contradictory) plays added up to a win in the final moments. I still think I should have not put the Nightmare Archives in my score area, but maybe it was right? 4-0. Wow. How far can I take this?

I hit the wall in rounds 5-7. I'll chalk these losses up to inexperience with the matchups and strong play from my opponents (many/all of whom wound up in the cut) (Esa vs Azmari, Kit vs PD, Kit vs NEH). However, not all hope was lost. According to the cut math, someone on 6-3 would make the cut, so depending on SoS, it could be me, so long as I took the last two rounds. I did take them (not without a fight - my Ken opponent in round 7 played extremely well into my Azmari, but ultimately there was no getting around the Djupstad/Punitive fork). I held my breath while results came in... and then bubbled out, but how could I be disappointed when I've never even been in contention?

So, I guess my imposter syndrome era is over. No more talking down on myself, no more whining about being bad at Netrunner. I'm excited about the game all over again, and can't wait to see the Austin meta flourish. See y'all at Worlds!