Results

15-6 across a team of 3, finishing 49th, 87th and 118th.

Tournament Afterthoughts

This list is super strong and fun to play, and we all finished the tournament happy to play this list again card-for-card.

Some individual match reports from are at the end of the write-up

Premise

NBN: Controlling the Message was a competitive choice in 21.06, and the worst matchup (419: Amoral Scammer) has now been banned.

PAD Tap and Mad Dash are both cards that need to be respected, but can be proactively played around.

It is difficult for a runner to tech for NBN: Controlling the Message and still remain competitive against Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design.

Matchups

All of the matchups are honestly fine - even the ones where the runner is teched out with Citadel Sanctuary, Misdirection, Deuces Wild or Apocalypse.

The thing to be most afraid of is R&D accesses. Respect Stargate, Conduit, The Turning Wheel, Find the Truth and Mad Dash.

Card Choices

We play Regolith Mining License instead of PAD Campaign, because compressing our economy actions into as few turns as possible gives us a way of playing around PAD Tap.

This also gives us room to play Daily Business Show, which is very important against Maw.

Prisec is incredibly annoying for the runner to deal with, and is our key protection against Apocalypse.

At some point the runner is likely to decide to float a single tag, and also Predictive Planogram is a great BOOM! enabler.

Turnpike is great until the runner decides to go tag-me. Use it to defend HQ or the remote (not R&D).

Notable Exclusions

While I understand the rationale of playing big ICE in a low ICE volume list, I'm more comfortable with a 25/75 split than a 50/50 split, and I am much more comfortable playing Tollbooth than I am playing Hydra.

Alternatives

Lady Liberty could be played instead of SanSan City Grid, but it requires careful hand crafting, and protecting of HQ, and probably needs a 3rd Daily Business Show to support this (potentially dropping Amani Senai).

Hedge Fund is a negotiable slot. They could be swapped out for more tag punishment and another Amani Senai, but sometimes you just need money immediately, and the threat of a surprise Hedge Fund into Hard-Hitting News is to be respected.

Piloting

A triple remote opening is a great way to start the game with an AR-Enhanced Security score, or a Rashida Jaheem fire. In the early game, these are our two most important cards.

It's worth taking a a risk to score Project Beale and Tomorrow's Headline where possible, just to get them out of the way. We are more comfortable being bold with Tomorrow's Headline, of course, because of the on-steal trigger. Bellona often looks after itself in the late game.

Mumbad Virtual Tour can be used to protect Commercial Bankers Group (ofc), but another good tip is to install MVT in whichever central server the Bellona are.

Sneaking out AR-Enhanced Security is how we force the runner to itneract with us in the early game. SanSan City Grid is how we force the runner to interact with us in the late game. Be prepared to recur these with Spin Doctor.

Match Report

R1: T15 WIN vs ChrisFerg on Sensible Steve

T1 ICE HQ install Rashida + DBS. The remotes survive, but boomerang + bravado steals an ARES from HQ. I stabilise with more ICE on HQ, and a CBG+Prisec. ChrisFerg plays a balanced line of protecting his own econ, and trashing bankers, which gives me time to set up a SanSan remote, and push one agenda after another (found with DBS).

ChrisFerg takes an econ denial line, trashing CBG + regolith, recurring pad taps and diversion of funds. With SanSan rezzed, I don't actually need that much econ - and I get to 6 points (including 2 x ARES) before ChrisFerg decides he has to go tag-me to trash SanSan. BOOM! swiftly follows.

R2: T15 WIN vs wowarlok on Steve Cambridge: Master Grifter

Same opening as last round where I ICE HQ, and install Rashida and DBS. I get more agenda flooded in this game, which forces me to push out an ARES behind only a prisec (T2, pretending to be CBG)

I go down to 0 credits (to dodge Diversion of Funds) but I am able to stabilise from there with CBG on a MVT, and then a 2nd CBG on the prisec from the ARES score. Money is no longer an issue from this point. SanSan goes in a remote, and I slowly push one agenda after another, until I win.

R3: T7 LOSS vs gegenzeit on Adam: Compulsive Hacker

I open by ICEing R&D and HQ, and installing a CBG - which gets trashed with a dirty laundry. This puts me behind on credits, and the agendas slowly start to pile up in HQ. I spin doctor 2 away, but 2 more show up, and when gegenzeit sneakdoors into HQ I have 5 agendas in hand (2 of which are of course then stolen).

Fortunately, Amani is on the table, which lets me bounce sneakdoor and brain chip, and I can SanSan out an ARES the next turn so things begin to stabilise. Economy is still poor. I SanSan out a Beale, which puts us on even points: 3-3 with another beale in HQ. gegenzeit takes a FTT + Mad Dash line (running archives to trigger FTT, and with logic bomb to get into R&D), and snipes a bellona off the top of R&D ftw.

R4: T20 WIN vs MrBuggles on Apoc MaxX

I have a hand with 2 x hedge fund and 2 x HHN in it, so I open with Hedge, ICE on R&D, install Regolith. An apocalypse gets maxx-milled early so I know what's up. The runner keeps their credits high, and is overly cautious about Hard Hitting News. I go broke to SanSan out the first ARES, and the runner responds by hard trashing my remotes (which is fine). I keep an active prisec on R&D to defend against Apoc, and later install ping on archives. MaxX aggressively trashes the 2nd (unrezzed SanSan) - so I shuffle them back into R&D. MaxX rebriths into Freedom Khumalo: Crypto-Anarchist and this pretty much all happens again. Botulus forces some tough decisions on Tollbooth rezzes, but in the end MaxX runs out of cards and Prisec makes the game unplayable for them. They go tag-me, trash the BOOM in HQ, but double DBS finds the 2nd one.

Really grindy.

R5: T16 LOSS vs Django on Big MaxX

I mulligan into garbage, and triple remote install Amani, SanSan and Prisec. Fortunately, Django has dirty laundry and overclock in hand, so checks all 3. T2 I sneak a beale out through the prisec remote. Would have loved for it to be ARES, but you play the hand you draw.

T4 I make a signficant misplay that sets me up to be on the back foot for the remainder of the game. Turning wheel is installed and so I need to protect both HQ and R&D. I install ICE in front of HQ, and MVT on R&D (because that's where the bellona are). Django installs stargate, and soft-locks R&D for most of the rest of the game. The MVT never fires. These two cards should have been installed the other way around, but I wasn't thinking about stargate (it's been a long day).

I build up enough econ to rez the SanSan, score another beale and then ARES. Django makes a misplay using Hippo click 3 (while already tagged), opening up a CtM trace line, but I'm too tired to think it through properly.

Botulus prevents me from protecting R&D from stargate, and Django finds Bellona for the win.

R6: T6 WIN vs testrunning on Freedom Khumalo: Crypto-Anarchist

Not an ideal matchup for CtM. I open with hedge, ICE HQ, install rashida - which sticks, and draws me into 2 x CBG. Both CBG also stick (I guess for fear of HHN), which allows me to never advance an ARES behind a Tollbooth. Next turn I push tomorrow's headline in the same remote, with an added ping and a MVT. This is BOOM bait. Click 2, the runner bites. I misplay by rezzing tollbooth (which immediately gets blown up by Chisel + Devil Charm), but it doesn't matter, because Ping + ARES + CtM + Tomorrow's Headline means the runner has 4 tags, with only 2 clicks left to clear them, and next turn I BOOM.

R7: Txx WIN/LOSS vs XXX on XXX