Perfection Replicated Fast - Warren, MI Regionals 1st Place

_へ__(‾◡◝ )> Let a Runner Try Me

I've played Replicating Perfection near-exclusively since I picked up the game a year ago, modifying the deck I started with back then countless times, adding ideas/tech based on what I see works and to accelerate setup against increasingly quick runners. So basically it looks like nearly all RP decks now, lol. I guess the key differences are the inclusion of Fast Track and the ICE loadout.

Credit to Pacer Stringfellow for pioneering the 8-agenda RP suite. It helps with one of the deck's key strategies -- leaving HQ open or lightly protected so I can set up a scoring/Sundew server quick while piling barriers on R&D. That's pretty much how you beat Kate! Fast Track is amazing for helping make sure you get a Nisei MK II as your first agenda, and for immediately grabbing one when a scoring window opens up. You can also bait legworks, setting up a scoring server but not actually having an agenda in hand.

You have to be good with Psi games to play this. With three Future Perfects, one is sure to get accessed multiple times, and I often leave HQ open/lightly protected even with one in hand. I'll typically drop a single ICE and Caprice early (double ICE if I fear Inside Job), then start trying to score with that -- winning an early Psi game for that early score is essential. Drop Excalibur in front of that server, and you're set for the rest of the game. I think I played around 30 Psi games for the day, and won about 80-90% of them.

This deck went into the Detroit/Warren Regionals cut (63 players) as the top seed, dropping a single game all day. I played a nearly identical version at Toledo/Frogtown's charity event the week previous, and it went undefeated. Thank God I'm able to play it on autopilot by now, otherwise I've no idea how I would've lasted this grueling 14-hour day.

ε=ε=┏(;￣▽￣)┛ Running. Through The Cricks. With My Woes.

I went with Asteroid Belt over a second Tollbooth for a number of reasons: it's an extra barrier to tax Lady, it's a little taxing if the runner feels obligated to get through it, you can advance it a couple of times (if you have spare clicks available) so it's not as painful to rez early, it's an ICE that people don't like to parasite (Anarchs LOVE to tear down Tollbooths), and you can still rez it if you get Vamped. It's probably not the optimal ICE to use that two influence on, but it worked for me. Thanks to DjHedgehog for the suggestion.

That second Enigma should probably be switched with something else now that Net-Ready Eyes is so popular, but it's so solid against all the runners who don't have it (Criminals, most Kates). Architect is great just as an extra tax on R&D for those runners tearing everything down to get tokens on their Medium. Excalibur is also fantastic as either R&D ICE if you suspect Medium or as your scoring server ICE. Himitsu Bako is MVP. I won my finals game by scoring Nisei MK II with a Bako and Caprice, adding an Excalibur and crediting up, then Fast-Tracking to continue the Nisei MK II train.

Crick did a surprising amount of work against people who insist on running Archives. Look at the flip of the Cricks, look at the flip of the Cricks.

Ⓗⓐⓟⓟⓨ❤ヾ(◍’౪`◍)ﾉﾞ

Big ups to Eternal Games in Warren, MI for hosting an outstanding event and sweetening the pot with an $850 prize pool for the top 16. The organizers and judges were on point, the space was awesome, and the players were super talented (and friendly -- the cash prizes didn't turn anyone into a jerk, as far as I could tell). I hope there are no hard feelings over Cincinnati taking the regional trophy from Michigan; I was raised in the D, so it was less of a raid and more a return of the prodigal son.

Much thanks also to my wife Alexis for her support (and cheering me up after I was sent to the loser's bracket), Peter and Ellen for being awesome, the entire SWORN / EABG unit for helping me get to this level, the folks from the secret Netrunner Slack chat, Tiny Cartridge fans, everyone who stayed until 2AM to watch the finals, that coffee I sipped throughout the entire day to keep my focus, Dang coconut chips, Hemingway the cat, and the Embassy Suites chef who made me that bomb-ass omelette the next morning.