NACH Qualifier Report

Yesterday the first qualifier for the Nordic ANRPC, NACH, was held in Stockholm (1st out of 8 qualifiers across the Nordic countries). 33 players, 6 round swiss no top cut.

This was my runner list, and my SYNC Butcher deck can be viewed here. Note that this was a pre-MWL tournament.

Background

Runner

Since I started playing (O&C), Arachs has been my favored faction with all their ways to apply continuous pressure on multiple servers. I tried different decks, but it was finally thanks to a Reina headlock build that I borrowed from kiv's Netrunner series that I found a deck fully suitable to my play style and that also seemed viable for tournament play.

I play tested it for a few weeks, made some minor tweaks and ended up with this list here. I was expecting a fair amount of kill decks so I swapped 1 Crescentus for Utopia Shard, and some ice destruction and a Keyhole for 2x Medium to make sure I was more able to switch focus to RND if the corp managed to secure HQ.

Corp

(Deck list can be viewed here.)

Weyland player since I started, and I usually go for Argus. But the most important element is 3x Scorched so was flipping back and forth between Argus and SYNC Butcher just days before the tournament. Finally went for SYNC since, ye, yellow is pretty good and at the moment I had more practice with it. And SYNC (Butcher) was still enough off-meta for me to be appealing, as I prefer to bring decks that other players have had less testing against. I made some last minute changing adding an additional piece of ice as I was suspecting lots of Parasites and other ice removal.

Match Reports

Game 1: Titan & Whizzard

Starting off against a good meta friend rocking a Titan kill deck and the Whizzard (L4J variant). Always fun to see the teal cards. I managed to apply some decent all-round pressure on the centrals to keep corp economy low. Hit an early Archer (forfeiting a Hostile) losing a Medium and a Mimic, after which corp tried scoring a Fracking that I managed to steal with Faust. After this the game slowly kept tipping in my favor economically until it was over.

My corp game was less dramatic. Got a lesser Midseasons off early, which had the Whizzard spend a few turns and all resources clearing tags. During that time I started scoring out and won just as the runner was coming back.

Game 2: Blue Sun & Maxx

Up against yet another meta buddy, but one that I haven't played that much. Yet again I apply centrals pressure from the very start, and killing an Oversighted Orion with D4V1D lets me keep it up. The corp is drawing aggressively with Jacksson and the archives are getting filled. I run and am allowed to steal a Vanity Project due to some miscalculations on the corp side due to my link. Turns out corp had 2 punitives in hand. My 1x IHW would probably have saved my anyway, but I'm always happy dodging the RNGs. After that I keep hammering RND until I find a Government Takeover.

The corp game was much faster. Maxx turned out being a DLR deck. She ran aggressively, siphoned me to 0 after ice rezz but also ended her turn with 0 cards due to a massive amount of installed resources (none of them being a Paparazzi) in hand and I had a Traffic Accident waiting around the corner.

Game 3: Haarp & Noise

Was getting hungry so this is probably the game i remember the least from. Up against a new player in the meta at the top table (well done!). After going hard on HQ defenses was set up there, after which I switched to RND. Haarp doesn't pack a lot of ice, so it remained pretty much open the rest of the game. Medium let me hit about 1 agenda per turn until I got enough to win.

The game against Noise was yet again a fast one. He got buried in tags quite early after stealing a Breaking News. Noise armored up with Plascrete, but got hit by Traffic-Scorch-Scorch I believe.

Break for a long lunch with this now new friend, everyone else was still playing.

Game 4: NEH & Noise

More yellow and Noise at the top table. This time against a friend from another meta in the country. I had a bad feeling, he's bit of a nemesis to me after beating me at Stockholm regionals semi the year before (no hard feelings of course). He's playing Fastro - only game against a non-kill deck (!). If I remember correctly, I get locked out of HQ and a scoring server both by early wraparounds. He starts scoring out agendas and now I'm feeling the pressure. Failing to find a D4V1D (and not playing Corroder), I switch focus to RND. I pick up an Astro on my first access (I think) which immediately lets me relax for a bit, since that means he's less likely to be able to score 7 points too fast with what's in HQ. I keep digging RND for a couple of turns and find the points I need.

The Corp game is an even more dramatic game. I land a Midseasons in turn 2 I believe, burring Noise in tags. I then start drawing (with clicks) like crazy to find both kill pieces and Jackssons (to draw even more and shuffle the agendas and kill pieces from archives back into RND). I finally find Traffic and Scorched, but Noise have had worse and soon thereafter he collects his bounty.

Game 5: Haarp & Maxx

Again matched up with a meta buddy. We had play tested our decks a few times on jinteki.net and were pretty aware of each others' decks.

Yellow and orange was still the colors of the top table. The Haarp game was fast and furious. I started pressuring HQ but got locked out by something. I then went double Medium and dove into RND. I found agendas and News Teams every turn, pretty much remaining at 0. Meanwhile Haarp got of a 24/7 to tag me followed by Traffic. Double I've head worse on hand, but was a thriller after the first damage hitting something else but thankfully the second card reminded Reina about her past. She's had worse. Kept digging RND for the win after finding about 8 agendas...

Game 6: Haarp & Noise

Yes. There seems to be a lot of Haarp and Nosie at the top tables.

This time again against a meta friend that bears a lot of the responsibility for me even playing this game. We hadn't met for a long time (last time being the Stockholm regionals where I was utterly outplayed). I was at the top score, but I sure wasn't secure at that place would I lose this game.

As runner, I recall getting tagged pretty early by Midseasons, after which I want full aggro on centrals. I poke HQ and dig RND for agendas and they come at a steady pace. However, I notice kill pieces coming up. I need to spend clicks each turn drawing for IHW - I want more than 1 in hand. After drawing on click 3 I find my Utopia Shard, which I run on HQ to install on click 4, triggering it immediately (since I'm tagged). I keep finding agendas the turns after in RND and win. Turns out I hit the kill pieces with my Utopia Shard.

Noise gets a somewhat slow start against SYNC, and I maintain decent control early. I single advance an open Explod-a-Palooza. In fear of Breaking News (as I was informed after the game), Noise runs it and the turn after is followed by Midseasons. I need only draw a few more cards to find the kill one or two turns later.

Final Words

I place 1st, Reina undefeated. It was an awesome tournament and huge props to every one attending the the organizers. It was a great day!

Also thanks to anyone who read through all this. Got longer than intended...

Reina is super fun to play, and I'm very happy I got to try her out before MWL hit. I will keep trying to find ways to make it work after, but losing either Desperado or Clone Chips will be tough.

SYNC Butcher seems strong, but having to choose between Traffic and Astro will be tough. Perhaps when Sales Team agenda is released.