X-Men Legends (Worlds 2016 Best Tennin)

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Sanjay 3561

Was this deck:

...the top placing Tennin deck at Worlds this year? Absolutely.

...undefeated after the cut to day 2? You better believe it.

...the top placing Mutate deck at Worlds this year? I can't say for certain but let's be real: YES.

Through a combination of extremely good piloting, the raw power of this unstoppable juggernaut, and an equally well-constructed Omar Keung: Conspiracy Theorist list, I managed to end the first day with 12 prestige. That's 4 entire wins with only two decks. Thanks to good tie breakers, that was enough to secure my place in the top 213.

Tennin is a tricky ability to build around because it says different things against different players. In some games, the ability says:

  • "When your turn begins, you may place 1 advancement token on a card if the Runner did not make a successful run during his or her last turn."

but in other games, it says:

  • "The runner loses their mind and will stop at nothing to get a successful run each turn. Doesn't matter what you installed, what they installed, what's going on. They will always run."

Usually, the more experienced the player is, the more Tennin says the second thing.

But how to take advantage of a runner who Always Be Running? The answer is obvious... get them to run into Pop-up Windows, rez the Pop-up Windows, then turn the Pop-up Windows into ridiculous inconvenient ICE using Heritage Committee-Mutate combos.

Here are some amazing things that happened:

  • I turned a sickened, diseased, parasited Wall of Static into a healthy Wall of Thorns, locking the runner out giving me a GAME WIN.

  • I won another game WITH THIS SAME DECK.

  • I scored out a Nisei MK II a few times.

  • I think I won more than one Psi game but I might be misremembering that.

I know I am undertaking a big risk here revealing the secrets within my amazing Tennin deck. I hate playing Celebrity Gift and prefer to have terrible economy rather than revealing precious secrets. But I know how glum you are all feeling in this post-Worlds CtM/Sync/Whizzard meta and I thought you could use some help with this fresh list.

Further, it is my earnest hope that the Netrunner community would start to regard me as one of the premier Mutate deckbuilders of our time.

Thank you.

18 comments
28 Nov 2016 Grievy

Thumbs up purely for making me giggle

28 Nov 2016 CodeMarvelous

I give it a solid 5/7 would secret again!

28 Nov 2016 scd

This write-up is top-notch.

29 Nov 2016 zengoshugoju

Oh, I needed this. Thanks for the belly laugh!

29 Nov 2016 moistloaf

10/10 would lol again. Great Job

29 Nov 2016 Sanjay

Thank you all.

My only regret is I may have ruined my credibility in case I ever actually post a good Tennin list.

1 Dec 2016 swearyprincess

Thanks for taking Tennin to worlds. Nothing more fun than making people run when they don't want to.

Much Love

from The only Tennin player in the 2016 UK Nationals

1 Dec 2016 Sanjay

@realitycheque You are very welcome!

I like your Tennin list (assuming it is the one you published). I worry that some of your ICE isn't taxing enough (like the quandaries seem like you'd want something more expensive to get through there). There's an awkward tension in Tennin deckbuilding where you want gear check ICE for early tokens, but you also want taxing ICE to punish runs late (One of the reasons Ice Wall is such a solid Tennin card... it can be both!)

Very much like the Biotic Labor include. It's important to have a Plan B if Trick of Light isn't working.

1 Dec 2016 swearyprincess

@Sanjayyeah if I run that again, I'll probably switch one or two of them out - there's enough interest low-cost ICE out there to pick from. The later version of the deck ended up with 2 "Clones Are Not People" (switching out the Celebrity Gift, and something I forget) after I lost two games at Nats while on 6 points so I wasn't surprised you went that route too. If nothing else, it provides wonderful pressure for the runner to make risky plays!

I'm guessing you didn't see much Rumor Mill to screw over your Caprice plays?

1 Dec 2016 Sanjay

@realitycheque Clones Are Not People didn't do great for me, but I mainly played it because I was scared of Rumor Mill and wanted a way to get rid of it (plus, as you know, it has some synergy with Tennin, because sometimes you get to score out an agenda with a click leftover.)

Lately, I've been a lot more excited about An Offer You Can't Refuse even though I would be hard-pressed to say that card is actually good... just fun.

Rumor Mill ended up not being that big of a factor... Of course it could have been devastating, but it just didn't come up that often. At least I think it is justified to keep playing Caprice Nisei.

I'm not really still on Tennin Mutate anymore, but I'm still on Tennin. It's hard to say exactly why the ID makes me so happy but it really really does.

1 Dec 2016 swearyprincess

An Offer You Can't Refuse works beautifully when you have a couple of shocks, a space camp and a Shi-Kyu in your archives - won me a couple of games, one through the bonus agenda point and one from the run that flatlined them on a shock. In fact the 2nd game, I was on 6 points and they couldn't survive the run so I won either way :)

1 Dec 2016 Sanjay

@realitycheque I forgot to ask: did you do as well at UK Nationals as I did at Worlds?

2 Dec 2016 swearyprincess

@Sanjay 111th out of 157 - 3 wins, 4 losses

2 Dec 2016 Sanjay

@realitychequeTop 111!

5 Dec 2016 Sanjay

The moral of this decklist submission is that people don't take your decklist seriously unless you back it up with tournament results, but they don't necessarily have to be good tournament results.

9 Dec 2016 sneakyshiv

I got to play against this deck in the last round at Worlds. It was a lot of fun to play against and this guy is as nice as they come! I might have to try out a Tennin deck just to see if I can spread the secret evil love :D

9 Dec 2016 Sanjay

@sneakyshiv YOU ARE AS NICE AS THEY COME.

It was really enjoyable playing against you and I couldn't think of a better way for me to end my Worlds experience.

14 Jun 2018 Severijn

Even years later, this deck is glorious and the idea it operates on is still pretty good. Lovely deck.