Corp Nor-deck 2018: I Don't Know The Local Met-a-a-a-a-a(l)!

Paired with this deck. Placed 25th. Went big and then went home ;)

Sports. METAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL. The best ID to be metal to, since 2018.

The mission was to make a fun deck that I would enjoy playing, whatever the result. Mission accomplished and quite a few lessons learned. And yes, the deck name is totally spot-on. Even with the deck lists from the recent tourney in Gothenburg and the general state of the meta clearly visible, one always gets a bit worried about playing in an unknown meta, right?

But, before the boring talk about cards...

Event impressions and thanks

This being my first (and last) official Nordics, I wanted to add a bit more meta-commentary to the description so that you can get a taste of the warm fuzziness that enjoying the game offline with nice people brings to my wretched corporate heart.

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world... Ah, where was I...

The most important and biggest thanks go to Joss, my absolutely amazing host for the weekend, who went miles above and beyond to make sure all the exotic guests felt welcome and taken care of. I even got a souvenir playmat from the local Stockholm meta, so I was kinda speechless because of the hospitality I got showered with. Joss helped me build decks for day two (since I was missing some key cards), expanded my musical knowledge, pointed me to some really interesting parts of Stockholm (best vegetarian ice cream and buffet ever), pumped me full of good coffee, made sure I did not get lost or that I did not starve, and was OK talking about things other than Netrunner as well (as a mental detox). She's a true community champ :)

If you ever have a chance to hang out with Joss (or play Netrunner against her), you should give her a consensual hug. I hear that's what Swedish people do - and she deserves all the happy hugs in the world for being such a great member of the community. You will always be a welcome guest wherever I am, if possible. TACK!

Huge thanks to Jaime and Pablo for making me less exotic and being 66.6% of the Iberian contingent for Nordics 2018. I had a great time talking cards and sharing fun game moments (but not only) with both of them over the weekend. Who else to enjoy the trappings of Sportsmetal and the joys of playing a Gnat deck? If they ever organize a Mallorca Netrunner event, I hope to be able to make it. Moltes gracies!

Big thanks to Peder and Henrik for being splendid organizers and judges during the main and the side event. The prize support for the side event was absolutely mental (so much choice and everyone got to take something nice back home) and all the stages went really smoothly. Inspiring, to say the least. Tack!

More thanks to David (my "King of Stockholm" last-minute partner), even though his deck choices made me wring my head around some crazy ideas in the middle of the night on Saturday, in order to satisfy the side event deck-building requirements (no repeated cards across two decks). He carried us to a strong 6th place and it was good fun to have a solid team mate like him next to me. The Majestik Møøse 4 Lyfe!

Additional thanks to everyone who signed the playmat, all my opponents in both events, everyone I got to hang out with during the weekend in Stockholm (Sam & Cecilia for TeamRunner!), and everyone else who made it a great time with or without cards and tokens :)

Extra special thanks to Team Norway for the 3 copies of Archived Memories and to Artturi for offering to save my forgetful corporate behind with his own copies right before kicking off his first top cut game.

Finally, congratulations to the winners across both events - well deserved! And congratulations to the Nordic meta for being such a great bunch of people. You rock!

Not too many thanks to the pizza place that took its sweet time getting food to our table on day 1 (at least the pizzas were delicious), which resulted in 3 people eating 3 pizzas in 3 minutes each, more or less ;D (and we still got a fair warning from the TO about stalling the round a bit).

Also, not too many thanks for Asmodee for not being too serious about supporting the last big official event with their presence or timely delivered prizes. Oh well, we're hopefully looking into a brighter, community-organized future ahead here, anyway ;)

I hope to be there for Nordics 2019!

Onwards to the deck, which is not really a combo deck, more of a "play long enough for them to get enough agendas for you to finish the game off in one go". Also, I am sure you can make it much better by putting your own twist into the mix.

Some card choices:

Agendas:

Between using Global Food Initiative (as my restricted card) and Ikawah Project (enabling the use of Surveyor), I'm still favouring GFI, because the Runner needs to steal 4 (or more) agendas, which enables Game Changer, Giordano Memorial Field, and Stock Buy-Back.

An alternative option could be slotting three 4/2s and adding more 3/1 to offset the lack of GFI, but that makes the deck head towards 54 cards... which could not be a bad idea... hmmmm ;)

Chronos Project and Hyperloop Extension are value and more value. Domestic Sleepers can actually close games out in your favour when chained from Game Changer or clicked for that one last point (they do put the Runner on a timer most of the time) - and they enable the singleton Archer, if need be.

Assets:

Rashida all the way, because she doesn't make you waste time and clicks to get money and cards. She can nicely pretend to be a Chronos Project, Project Vitruvius or Hyperloop Extension, too. News Team - not present here, but the better version of this deck has at least 92 copies of that card ;).

Upgrades:

Giordano Memorial Field is golden when it works - and it's Rumour Mill-proof, too! It's like a better Ash for Sportsmetal. It's a bit sad (if balanced) that it's unique, but I've heard stories about a little card called Divert Power (which is not that bad with Gatekeeper and GMF, indeed).

Operations:

Game Changer is a must and a fun card. For you, not for the Runner, of course ;D Chaining Game Changers is even more fun. Should be a three-of, probably.

Genotyping - what was I thinking... Well, suffice to say that card has been replaced in the next iteration of this deck by something else that fits better with the overall game plan. It does help you put the Domestic Sleepers in the bin and protect the 2 pointers so that the Runner can't score out too fast, but... It costs precious influence and Preemptive Action should be enough in here, instead.

Preemptive Action - the better version of this deck has 3 of it. Archived Memories - not present in this deck, but its better version has at least 2 of it.

Scarcity of Resources - useful as the current of choice against so many Runner setups out there, but... I kept looking at Kill Switch as an alternative, and it would have probably been a bit more fun.

Stock Buy-Back - an absolute all star, this little Weyland card is what makes you money when you're down. A ton of money, if you got the Runner pumped up with Meridians and Domestic Sleepers, first.

ICE:

I wish I could fit in a Surveyor or two, but GFI being the 5/3 agenda of choice, Archer's the only imported ICE and keeps being a very situation rez, depending on how far into the game you got. Heimdall 2.0 is not a bad thing to rez if you've got money (and you should) and the Runner doesn't have clicks to spare. In general, other than Meridian being a key piece in stopping the Runner from winning on points before you're ready to score, and Fairchild 3.0 being a pain

Fairchild 3.0 - yes please, even if everyone is playing Amina nowadays. Still a taxing ICE and a nasty facecheck if you don't expect it (but everyone does, right?).

Loki - so much fun when fired with a Meridian and if the Runner doesn't have a fracter on the table. Not bad with Fairchild 3.0 or Heimdall 2.0, either.

Meridian - has not fired as often as I would have wanted, but is necessary for the "stuff them with agendas" bit of your plan, so make sure you rez it. Still a semi-decent tax on Paperclip.

Score and match ups - 2-3 versus:

Round 1 - Leela (Mikael) - loss

14 other MaxX players, 5 Valencia players, and I get to face ...not an Anarch? My cards get bounced when agendas happen? Gang Sign? What? What is this meta? Aaaaargh. I tried as much as I could, but you can't beat a savvy Criminal. Mikael got a nice engagement present from me, winning his first game in the Swiss with solid style and flourish. Once more, congrats on the happy news! Well done and I'm glad we had a split! :)

Round 2 - Geist (Benjamin) - loss

OK, time to face some MaxX. Wait ...still not an Anarch? I knew Geist well enough from our local meta (thanks, Mar!), and Benjamin played the deck like a professional DJ (that's what I call players who display exceptional deck and game mechanics mastery with multiple triggers taking place on both sides of the table) and was not stopped by my Chronos Protocol eating through some of his more useful cards. Things were not looking up for Sportsmetal after this game... Luckily, we had a lunch break coming ;)

Round 3 - Hailey (Peter) - timed loss

I gave up on hoping to face any Anarchs at this point, so was happy to see a familiar Shaper face. Oh, wait, this means I had to be worried about Shadow Net burning my 0 and -1 pointers, most likely... I knew the decklist, at least (more or less) but Peter was having none of it and managed to get enough points to secure an advantage before our time ran out.

Round 4 - Silhouette (Marie) - win

(Not an Anarch, surprise!) This game was pure epic fun, with the heap of Aumakua tokens threatening to blot out the sun and the final dig making it quite a nail-biter. I was struggling against an all-out Criminal onslaught from the very beginning and the only thing that kept me afloat were the Domestic Sleepers and Game Changers. It didn't help that Silhouette rebirthed mid-game into Leela. So much adrenaline! Winning by that one crucial point in the end was so much good fun.

Round 5 - Hailey (Markus) - win

Another round, another Shaper. This time, having learned my match-up lesson from the game with Peter (and being a bit luckier with the draw), I managed to lock Markus out, Chronos Protocol some juicy cards out of the game and score out what was necessary to secure my spot as the best Polish player in Nordics 2018.

... wait, just because I was the only one, doesn't mean I was not the best one, right? Right! ;-)