Excalibur AgInfusion 3.2

4-3 at Euros 2019 (finishing 18/83)

Thanks to all runners from the Cambridge meta who joined me in shouting at cards the night before the tournament! Pizza and beer and netrunner and friends are the best of things.

Wins Vs reg Leela, Adam, Jesminder, Nexus 419

Losses Vs 2 x reg Leela and apoc val

This list should not be too weak against Leela, but it took me a few rounds to get my head in the game. I think it is pretty weak to all flavours of Anarch (hippo is a nightmare).

Won one game I should have lost by taking super risky (naked SSL risky) lines. Lost one game because of flood. Lost one game because of flood and misplay. Lost one game through sheer misplay!

Cards

Breached Dome was good at dissuading archvies runs, and occasionally knocking high value cards out of hand.

Cyberdex Virus Suite was good at dissuading archives runs - no Tithonium + CVS blowouts on the day, but, if Freedom becomes popular after this tournament, that is a very strong line against Yusuf.

Fast Track is your 5th Nisei, and let's you break R&D lock against shaper (where you want to rush out as fast as possible).

Timely Public Release is your 4th Nisei MK II.

Cobra was okay. Runner's don't usually run centrals without either a killer installed, or trash in hand - so the net damage is not really relevant. The one strength is only slightly more relevant, so if you can find 1 inf it is probably worth upgrading to Rototurret. If you can find 2 inf, this would definitely be better as another Tithonium or an Ichi 1.0.

Reduced Service was good. You can use it to rush out an agenda in the early game (if you have an econ lead and have iced centrals). Or, more often, you use it to secure a weak central in the late game. On the day I:

• used it in the remote to rush an early Timely Public Release, and then used that Timely Public Release counter to secure HQ so that Reduced Service kept it's counters
• used it on HQ to prevent Aumakua counter farming (with CVS in archives)

Divert Power did nothing, but don't cut it: every piece of text on that card helps AgInfusion: New Miracles for a New World's game plan - particularly in the event that a savvy runner decides to always run the remote, but never run centrals.

Crisium Grid did nothing on the day. In testing it helped against Emergency Shutdown, but I think this should be cut.

Roughneck Repair Squad is okay if you don't get flooded, and can secure both R&D and the remote, and you are just waiting to top deck an agenda to push. It would have done something against Val but it got trashed (out of nowhere) - this deck needs a lot more testing against Anarch.

Celebrity Gift probably lost me games from giving away information, and is dead draw when the deck gets flooded. Medical Research Fundraiser might be better, but I don't know (both seem bad). Rashida Jaheem into Celebrity Gift is, at least, very satisfying.

The Future Perfect access from R&D is awkward because it encourages HQ runs (where there are almost certainly other agendas). Otherwise, it is fine (you are usually rich enough to bid 2).

Afterthoughts

The deck can get flooded quite easily (2 games out of 7 on the day). Crisium grid could be Disposable HQ (just don't discard fast track!). Not sure if it's synergistic or anti-synergistic with Celebrity Gift...

Apart from that my main afterthought is: don't make misplays!