Burning Star - Worlds Best Omar, 52nd overall

When you rationalize yourself to change your entire deck plan night before World Championships. And then decide to go through with the plan based on track record of 1-0:

I know two decks well enough to play at Worlds, Hayley and Apoc Anarch. Wasn't feeling the Brahman Hayley enough on Friday so I decided to follow the path of Apocalypse. On Friday I discussed with Ola who said Apoc should be played out of Alice instead of Valencia, as you will then pressure all the centrals from round 1.

Cue few hours later and we are walking the stairs up to our apartment while Artturi points out, that Omar could be worth a try. Our reasoning went something like this:

1. As with Alice, you will pressure all the centrals from round 1.
2. On top of that, it makes the corp spread their ice thinner or gives you easier time to pull of Apoc, in best case both.
3. Compared to Valencia, you don't have to find your rebirth, you start with it.
4. There are five cards and three influence, that practically only help you draw through said five cards and rebirth into Omar.

And yes, the deck felt like super-brightly burning apoc-anarch. You can pressure all the centrals and have apoc ready few turns earlier. If corp spends time double-icing centrals, you can then pressure remotes instead. But as with all the brightest-burning stars, this deck will also burn out sooner than other Apocs, so you definitely have to start building the first apoc and pressure right away.

Many opponents were prepared for Apoc, so this might not have been the best meta-call, but I was still happy to play the deck. Went 3-5 overall, so my corp definitely carried me. There were only two Omars at the worlds, but I take all the claims I can get. :P

Card cuts:

• We took this Apoc Val as starting point and cut Earthrise + Deuces Wild (which help you draw through the five extra cards), Career Fair (which gives you money to play said Earthrise), Rebirth (you start where you want to end up) and Retrieval Run (people ice archives against Omar so that is likely to be of little value).

Card choices:

• Most of the Apoc shell is fixed: draw, money, breakers, apocs, ddos.
• What you can change is the pressure and finisher cards. I think Stargate is the correct choice for post-apocalyptic pressure.
• Turntable did not do anything for me. I could see it giving huge value, but that will be first one I will try to change.
• Stimhack, Wanton and Utopia Shard numbers could be toyed around. Probably would change turntable into wanton or stimhack.

On Apoc decks in general:

• This felt good, I think Omar is a good option if you want to go Apoc route, you just have to play really fast and pressure early (ie. lean into decks strengths). Would love to hear arguments for Valencia and Alice, as based on my un-success, I can't say conclusively that Omar is the right choice. Valencia does get some more money so she can play longer game than Omar but in most games, I missed out on something between 3-7 credits and usually you would love to pay that kind of money to get apoc round or two earlier from Valencia.

Tournament report:

• R1: Loss. Argus on three Armed Intimidation. Did not see that one coming and died. I guessed correctly there would probably be winning agenda in Archives, but as it could have been Hostile, decided I have time to check the bin later. So that one was piloting error + better play from my opponent.

• R2: Win. Regular Argus. When your opponent does not have lot of ice, gives you bad pub and you have anarch money plus tools to pressure all the board, you tend to pressure a lot.

• R3: Loss. Ig. Started playing Netrunner year ago, I faced it first time on Friday, did not have any idea how to do any better on Saturday.

• R4: Loss. 6-agenda Azamari. Opponent had loads of apoc hate (crisium and tons of ice).

• R5: Loss. Argus. Opponent got good draw and good double-ice on centrals. Couldn't find answers fast enough to contest the rush.

• R6: Win. 241 vs Argus. This one went more like typical Argus game.

• R7: Corp-win, 241.

• R8: Win. CtM 241. Apoc and Hacktivist put a good pressure on CtM. Still this was nail-biter to the end and felt like those intense Anarch-CtM -matches from last worlds stream. One of the best Netrunner games I've ever played.

• R9: Loss. Asa 241. Faceplanted into Pinsels Asa. Had great money and draw in starter hand, but after that got no Apocs, Paperclips or other important tools. Got one apoc in, but at least 3 rounds too late and you can guess what happened after that. And Combo Asa + Pinsel is so strong combination, I could have easily lost even with nuts draw.

So, all in all, the deck pulled 3-5. Had great time with it, some matches could have gone better with better pilot or draw (or not, my opponents played really well), but more likely should have played Khumalo or Pelangi-Hayley instead.

Thanks for all the Nisei people for arranging the tournament and all the great people I got chance to meet and play against! This is so great game with so great people, I'm so happy I got a chance to be part of the weekend.