Results

20 / 74 at 2022 Circuit Breaker Invitational

3-2

Wins against Benhamill on World Tree Adam, and Tzeethcling and Tradon on 419

Losses to Jai on Loup, and MotionBlur on 419

Tournament Afterthoughts

R+ is well positioned against World Tree (Wu or Adam), and has a reasonable game against Anarch (but it is a battle). Against criminal it very much depends on their specific build.

The most important factor, though, is whether our opponent knows how to play against R+ or not. The lines are not at all obvious, and it is incredibly easy to make a mistake (by either running when you shouldn't or not running when we should), and one runner mistake is all R+ needs to snowball. I encourage everyone to practice playing as R+, if only to learn how to beat it.

Premise

I was originally planning to play a rushy version of Keeling Aginfusion at the tournament, even though (imho) it is unfavoured against both Wu and Hoshiko (the two runner lists I expected to be most popular at CBI). However, at the last minute, we realised that Tracker (in Wu) and Labor Rights (in Hoshiko) turns that matchup from favoured (for the runner) to strongly favoured.

Given that I didn't expect much criminal at CBI, and a reasonable amount of Wu (I was very wrong on both counts), R+ seemed like a reasonable pick. I asked @Sokka234 which R+ list I should play, and he said "Mausolus and Kakurenbo", so here we are.

This is not a BOOM! list, we are not trying to kill the runner, we are trying to stall the runner by giving them a tag every turn with Drago Ivanov until we have complete control of the game. At which point we can force a run (by over advancing and leaving counters on Drago to "cook"), and then punish the runner with Hard-Hitting News, Market Forces and Self-Growth Program. From there we can safely score out our 5/3 Agendas.

Matchups

Favoured against World Tree Wu / Adam (especially if we can ICE all centrals early)

Unfavoured against 419 (depending on their tech)

A real (but winnable) battle against Hoshiko

Card Choices

Mausolus is a great card for R+ because it has an extremely punishing facecheck for the runner in the early game, and can be tripled advanced in the late game to secure servers (once the runner has gone tag me).

Data Ward does a similar job, in the sense that it secures a server in the late game (once the runner has gone tag me). It has the advantage that it doesn't need to be advanced, but the significant disadvantage that, in the early and mid game, it does nothing unless it is behind another piece of (tagging) ICE.

I went for 1 x Rashida Jaheem and 1 x NGO Front because they are both good in different situations. Rashida is good for finding lots of ICE early, so that we can put Data Ward in the correct position.

Kakurenbo is 1 credit cheaper than Restore for recurring Drago Ivanov, but is much less flexible.

Public Trail was a last minute include, to give us an edge in the Hoshiko battle. The dream is to play Public Trail click one, and follow it up with either Self-Growth Program or Hard-Hitting News, depending on whether the runner chooses to take the tag or pay 8 credits.

Alternatives

Endless EULA is simply more sensible than Data Ward.

Restore is much more flexible than Kakurenbo

La Costa Grid is like Subliminal Messaging on steroids.

Piloting

Our ICE is mostly credit neutral to rez (presuming the tag lands), so we can play on low credits and still put an ICE on all centrals.

Build a remote for putting Drago in, but with a mind to using it in the late game to push agendas when the runner goes tag me. This means IP Block, Data Ward or Mausolus (which we can later advance).

Get a Drago in the remote and give the runner a tag every turn. Market Forces off a single tag is good the first time, but we should aim the 2nd and 3rd Market Forces to hit at 2 x tags. We create these kinds of forks by over-advancing and "cooking" Drago.

Once the runner has gone tag me, or, potentially after a punishing Drago trash, we can push an agenda. Keep cycling agendas with Spin Doctor and Attitude Adjustment while we get to this point.

A good runner who has their eye on the long game will (potentially) be able to beat us at our own game, by leveraging drip economy and waiting for the opportune time to pinhole.