Youth Orchestra (23rd EMEA 2024)

Going into EMEA I was struggling in a lot of ways, but with Netrunner specifically it was which decks to play (and the motivation to play them, but that's a topic for another time). Oddly for me, I settled on playing Sable well before deciding on a corp. Having played Sable at APAC and feeling fairly confident about the playstyle, I went from there to fine tune the list. Which led to some....interesting or questionable decisions. Most of the list is fairly standard Reg Crim cards that need little explaining. However there are a few twists that need some explaining.

I've long been a proponent of Virtuoso as my console of choice in Sable. Yes, Hermes slows down the corp and Pennyshaver gives you a lot of value for your runs but there's something about the intense amount of central pressure that you get from Virtuoso that appeals to me. In it's own way it forces the corp to slow down and protect centrals, as the sheer amount of value you will achieve off of running your mark is wild: for instance, I can Bravado my marked R&D, get a Bankroll credit, get a Leech counter, get a single access, get Bravado money and then get an HQ access (perhaps more than one if you have Docklands Pass and Cupellation installed). While Criminal still has problems with making Value Runs even with Tributary gone, we need to maximise the value we get out of each and every run now.

For that reason at ACC I was also on Takobi, because Carmen sucks at repeatedly breaking Drafter and it gives you some answer to bigger Ice. However, I was finding that in almost all of my games I was never installing it. After discussing/moaning about this to my friend and fellow EA Sports member Kikai, he made a cool suggestion...Arruaceiras Crew.

Now, I was already playing Privileged Access - a great card in crim for recurring resources like Daily Casts, Dr. Nuka Vrolyck and The Class Act, but also for recurring breakers as I was worried about SDS. Adding Crew seemed like a great idea! Reducing strength on Ice is ideal, and with Priv Access I can recur it if I ever need to trash problematic Ice. To better support this, I went -1 Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra, -1 Bankroll, +2 Leech for even more strength reduction. All of a sudden the list felt a lot better, especially into Jinteki lists where being able to blow up Ice like Vampyronassa and Anansi makes your value runs so much more achievable. With a final addition the night before EMEA of 2 Bahia Bands I was ready for the tournament.

So the results....the list went 1-4, winning against an asset NEH, but losing to 2 FA Sportsmetals, an Asa and a Punitive RH.

On the surface, those results don't look great. However, their are a couple of things to consider:

1. I am not very good at playing Runner, and definitely made mistakes

2. With the exception of the RH, all of these games were extremely close - with some better luck on accesses all of those games could have been wins.

3. The games were great fun

So although the record wasn't the best, I'm still pretty high on the list. There's some room for furthur optimization for sure, though right now I don't know what that is. Probably it's to find room for No Free Lunch.

Shoutouts to:

All of my fellow EA Sports members for the support and the camaraderie during EMEA

The organisers and volunteers at EMEA who made it such a great experience and worked so hard

Everyone I played against and all of the people who showed up to Bergamo. You are all amazing.