Hangry Hangry Hoshiko -- Berlin SC #1

This is the latest version of my ICE destruction Hoshiko deck that I took to 6th place (out of 75!) at German Nationals, what feels like a decade ago. I changed a few cards around, and have been playing it off and on since then, but not as much, since the Asa matchup is shaky at best. However, I dusted it off for the Berlin Store Champ, because I figured these Jinteki decks were becoming more popular, and I honestly just really like the playstyle of the deck. I dodged the only other Asa player there (I was also on Asa; the Punitive variant), so it went well for me. I made a couple mistakes and lost a couple games, but those are on me. Still, I won with it more than I lost, and the deck still feels super solid.

Round one I played vs Watzlav, a great player playing great decks. He was on AgInfusion and Appoc Hayley. The game opened with me hitting an Obokata like the first turn out of R&D, which I took, which unfortunately knocked 2 Devil's Charms out of my hand. This impacted the rest of the game somewhat =P. I picked up another agenda from his hand while he was flooded a bit, but he scored one SSL and a Nisei. I was threatening R&D pretty hard with Stargate, but then made a couple bad runs, and ended up with not enough clicks or cash to contest his final agenda. Honestly, I lost this game because I didn't want to walk through an Anansi to keep him off the Nisei I suspected he was trying to score. I should have just done it and won the game instead. Sad times.

Round 2 I played 5N00P1, a long time player here in Germany who does a lot to keep the scene alive. He was playing MCA Mirrormorph and Valencia. He got set up early with a remote with MCA ticking in it, keeping me on 3 clicks for what felt like a year. Fortunately, he just wasn't seeing agendas, which gave me time to set up. I got a Stargate running and killed his R&D ICE of an IP Block and an Enigma. He then recurred the Enigma with a Restore. I killed it again, and he Restored it again. I killed it. He brought it back again with Archived Memories. It died again. Eventually he found some real ICE and we played some Netrunner. Still, I had found a couple agendas, so as he was trying to score out, I Stargated in and found the final agenda I needed.

Round 3 was vs Blanket, who makes interesting decks and then wrecks you with them. This time he was playing an ICE destruction Khumalo (very similar to this deck, but with Freedom things as well) and Chronos Protocol. Yeah, Chronos. You read that correctly. It was a Complete Image deck with Salem's Hospitality and the like. He was drawing a lot of cards and wasn't doing much yet, so I decided blow open HQ, rebirth into Edward Kim, and started trashing his hand. I got some really lucky hits, like hitting Archived Memories (no trash cost, but Kim trashes it anyhow) before the Complete Image (has a trash cost, trashed for money) a couple turns in a row, making life a lot safer for me. I grabbed an SSL at some point, and was able to snatch some other agenda when I started Stargating R&D. He made it hard to steal Obakatas, so he was able to score 2 of them. We both needed the final agenda, but luckily Stargate got a House of Knives before he found it. Stargate is a good card!

The final round was against 114141, aka Albert, who was a new player quite a while ago, and has advanced to "player" now! In all seriousness, he's actually pretty darn good now, and my second loss of the day was this match! He was playing basically almost exactly this Hoshiko list, except I think he was on 2 Hippos, and traded in a Street Ped for an Ice Carver. More relevant to this conversation, he was playing GameNet as his Corp. UUUUGH. Except he was playing a more interactive version than the super grindy decks out there. YAAAY! The game was going well, and I scored a very early Bellona and a Degree Mill, so things were looking up! He scored some stuff too, but the game was well in my favor. He then bluffed an NGO that he sold the SHIT out of by agonizing over rezzing ICE on R&D for my Stargate run. The Stargate turned up nothing, so I went into the remote only to get baited hard. He then does basically the exact same thing again, and I look pretty poor, so it's looking like an agenda. I force my way in again somehow, and again I look like a fool. Finally I just have no frickin money and he gets his second agenda. He follows it up with an Echo Chamber, and I just can't do anything about it. GG!

In the cut I faced Watzlav, and despite losing to his AgInfusion on round 1, I chose to face it again. My reasoning was that Asa vs Appoc Hayley is kinda scary (even though I won the game in the first round), and I had decided to play Hoshiko to murder exactly this kinda deck in the first place, so if I didn't chose Hoshiko for the reason I brought Hoshiko, why did I bring it at all? He lightly defends his centrals and starts making a remote. I find a ton of money and draw, but not much more. Finally I get down 2 street peds -- one with a Chisel, a Devil's Charm and a Daily Casts, and another with both SMCs and a Career Fair. My hand is something like 2 Simulchips, an IHW, and some resource or something. Oh, and Stargate. I do... something? click one, slam Stargate click 2, and Stargate him click 3. He rezes Engram Flush, which I'm sad about because I wanted him to commit more money than 2. My plan is to use SMC to Chisel it and then get Devil's Charm from the other peddler, so I slam an SMC, and then think What it I just let it fire, then kill it next turn when he thinks R&D is safe? This way I have the charm and Chisel available for another server if I need it! After all, what are the chances of him calling "Hardware?" Turns out, 100%, which is actually 100% the correct call, seeing as all the hardware in this deck is pure gold. So I lose my Simulchips, and am really sad about it. I pitch an Obakata in the bin, but now I only have 3 cards on click 3 (drew one with DreamNet for the run). So I let it sit. The following turn I stargate click 1, figuring my run will draw me a card with DreamNet, giving me 4 cards for Obakata, one of which is an IHW, which will draw me back up. I'm a genius. I use the Ped this time to get the Charm, killing his ICE, and revealing...!!! A Food, a Slot Machine, and a Cyberdex Sandbox. I trash the Machine, run R&D twice for the agendas, then go get the 'Kata click 4. Boom-Shakalaka.

Last round was Blanket playing his Khumalo vs the Asa that I shamelessly stole from syd7, which I won.

Anyhow, ICE murder is still a fun time. It's almost certainly not the deck to play vs the world-wide meta (too much Asa!), but it was great for today.